Cremeing the opposition

So, what have I been up to recently? Last weekend I played in the Betfair forum game at the Gutshot (jokingly referred to as BFWCOP).

103 of us took part and we all got a lot of good play early - no one at all was knocked out in the first hour and a bit. 10,000 starting chips and blinds of 25/50 gave everyone a chance to get settled in. I grabbed a few blinds to move up a bit and then moved up to 13,000 when I check-called, check-raised Dubai Millenium (great player and a great bloke) with bottom set and managed to completely flummox him as to what hand I had. "I have no idea what you've got", he said before folding. After the hand he even wondered aloud if he'd been bluffed out of a pot.

Rather annoyingly, I missed a chance to double up when I limped pre-flop with TT, and called a raise from a tight player who had an obvious big pair. The flop was something like Q-x-x and I check-folded to his bet, only to see a ten fall on the turn. Obviously I was in no way getting correct odds to chase my set but it was a pain all the same.

On the fourth level, the blinds jumped from 100/200 to 200/400 with antes of 25. This meant the cost per round nearly tripled from 300 to 850. This represented nearly 10% of the average stack - therefore the blind-stealing stage of the tournament had started. I did my bit for a while, but then got reckless. At 300/600 I raised up to about 2000 with A6s (not a good hand to steal with). I got called by the button and the flop was AQ4. I'd got myself into a hole here, and had about the size of the pot left. I went all-in, thinking that he either had a pair, or a bigger Ace than me. By going all-in I would hope he'd fold hands like AT or AJ. He thought for ages before calling with AK! I asked him why he thought for so long and he said he was worried I had AQ. Super-tight play there from him - in his situation I'd have called like a shot, thinking that any hand which beats me would have been checked to me.

Out in about 85th and I went to the internet room for an hour or so whilst waiting for the SNGs to start up. Played my first ever Omaha High/Low tournament and won it, immediately recouping £40 of the £105 it cost to enter the big event. Played in two £20 SNGs downstairs, winning them both, so that was more profit of £140 (did a deal on one and tipped each dealer a fiver). All in all, I came out on top from the day and got chatting to a few of the other players - had a lot of fun.

On Monday night I took part in a satellite freeroll on Pokerstars to win entry to a final on Saturday where there's an EPT Dublin package for the winner. 159 took part, but about 60 of those were sitting out (registration for the event had been open for a couple of days and a lot of players simply forgot about it). I doubled up on the first hand with JJ when someone got it all-in with AT on a ten-high flop. This set the tone for the next hour as I hit the hottest rush of cards in my life. AA (twice), KK, AK (3 times), AQ, AJ and 99 all came my way. Even more amazingly, I hit every flop and quickly became chip leader.

After an hour or so, the blinds had picked up to a point where there were plenty of free chips from the sitting out players up for grabs. Unfortunately for me, I got moved to a table where I had horrible position - three sitting-out players were to my right, and two more were three and four to the left of me, meaning I was in the worst position to grab blinds. I was UTG when the three to my right were in the blinds, and the pot was always already raised once it was my turn to act when the other two were in the blinds. I bluff-raised a couple of times but was content to drift back to just above average chips.

Once we got down to 11 players, I had got myself back up to chip leader, and was on a table of 5 players, who were all quite passive. This meant I could bully to my heart's content, and did so, quietly adding to my stack at virtually no risk. I eased back a bit once we got to the full final table, but could stretch my legs again once were were at six. Top two got the seats for Saturday and I took the fourth and third place players out in consecutive hands to grab my place in the final.

It's at the odd time of midday on Saturday, so I must make sure to not sleep in all day at the weekend. This tournament was the first time I've played on Pokerstars and I was very impressed with the software - quick, clean and easy to use. Much smoother than Crypto, better looking than Prima - think I'll play more there in the future.

BTW, the title of this entry refers to the fact that I had to choose a username when I joined Pokerstars on Monday, and chose CremeEgg, which goes with the Creme handle that I have on the Betfair poker forum.