Victory at last

Finally, after over two months of toddling down to Baker Street to play in live tournaments, I've managed to be last man standing, and what a rollercoaster ride it was.

£10 Rebuy, and I rebought on the very first hand when I went all-in on the flop with an open-ended straight draw, only to be called by a flush draw, who hit. Next rebuy was calling an all-in on the BB with AQ - the raiser was someone who I knew always tried to take chances getting a big stack early. He flipped over J2, so of course that hand ended with me pulling another picture of Charles Darwin out of my pocket. I had still not won a hand, and called a frequent raiser on the blind with A3, looking to bet out all-in on just about any flop, even if I missed. I did so, but he had a genuine raising hand of QQ. On the last hand before the break, I raised pre-flop with 55 and picked up the blinds - my only pot in the first hour.

Luckily there was a double top-up so, despite my being £50 down, I had enough chips to play with. I got better cards and picked up some pots, lost a couple when I made slightly optimistic calls I had to let go on the flop, but then came the most important hand so far.

I'm in middle position with 44. I decide to raise (it was quite a tough table and limpers were being, quite rightly, raised out of pots). Guy immediately to my left re-raises me the minimum, so I call.

Flop comes A82, or something. Can't quite remember, but the important fact to note is that there was an Ace. I felt he had a big pocket pair, so I went all-in for 1,250 into a pot of about 1,600, representing the Ace. He goes into the tank for a a long time (and I mean a long time, at least two minutes, which is an eternity for this type of tournament). Usually when people have a long think, they eventually fold, so I thought that was what he was going to do. However, he made a fantastic call with QQ. Thinking about the hand afterwards, I wonder if he picked up something on me that indicated I was bluffing. I did feel the pulse in my neck throb, so at one point I shifted position in my chair so I was leaning my head on my hand, covering my neck. However, he wasn't really looking at me for a tell, more working things out in his head.

Turn was a blank, before the fortuitous 4 fell on the river. It was cruel luck for him, as it was such a great call, but I've been due luck like that for weeks.

The blinds had now picked up, so I was into my usual tactic of going all-in with any Ace, and I found a few. Stack took a hit when one BB found AK to call my AT with, but rose again when I managed to knock out two short stacks by isolating them with good, but not great hands when I felt they would call anything.

Made it to the final table, and was annoyed to find myself immediately to the left of a huge stack. He had come from the other table and had about 17,000 of the 44,000 chips in the tournament. I only had 5,000. Can't remember much about getting down to 4 players - I picked up a couple of rounds of blinds, and certainly knocked out one player when I called on the BB with any two cards as his all-in raise barely covered the blind.

We were four-handed for quite a while, chips flowed around with the shorter stack winning every showdown. A big hand occured when the large stack completed the SB on my BB. We saw a flop of AKx and he bet out 4,000 into a pot of 4,500. I had K8 and 9,500 chips left. I had a think. If he had an Ace, I felt sure he would have raised pre-flop (unless he had AA, when he may have limped) so I discounted that. However, the main line of my thinking was that he was preying on my perceived weakness when I just checked my blind. His thinking would have been 'If he had an Ace, he would have raised pre-flop, so he doesn't have one. After a think, I re-raised all-in, and after his own ponder, he folded. He said he had a King and that he knew I didn't have an Ace. I showed my K8 and he said his kicker was worse than mine, but I'm sure he would have raised pre-flop with a King and that he was just trying to take the pot.

That pot made me chip leader, and the last big hand was when the original big stack went all-in from first position. I was on the button and had JJ (the first pair I was dealt at the final table), so I called. The SB then had a think, but discretion got the better part of valour and he folded. I was up against Ace-something, but the first card I dealt on the flop was a Jack, so I won the massive pot.

I was a huge chip leader over the other two, and we actually all got it in pre-flop on the first hand when I took a chance at ending it early on my BB with JT. They had QQ and AQ, and the Queens held up to put us heads-up. He then went a bit too timid, folding the first two hands. The blinds were 3,000/6,000 by then so on his next BB he only had 2,000 chips after putting in his blind. I found my second pair of the final table with 88 and put him all-in. He had to call, but only had 73. I again hit my set on the flop and that was that - £270 first prize and a profit of £220 on the evening.

Instead of running to try (and probably fail) to catch the last tube I treated myself to a taxi home and had a nice long chat with the cab driver about poker.