A nice quiet table...

The draw for the heats of the William Hill Grand Prix was made on Poker 425 last Wednesday. I can't watch this channel, as it's only on Sky, and I have cable, but I got my Mum to watch it and give me a ring to tell me who I'd got.

"OK, the first one is Tony G" - fantastic I thought, nice easy start there. "Then there's Donny, er, Donna, um, the Irish guy" - Donnacha O'Dea, another fish... :-) "There's a Pascal something and a Roland something" - that would be Pascal 'Triple P' Perrault and Roland de Wolfe. The heat was rounded out by Roy Brindley, Simon Nowab and the guy I'd pegged as one of the trickier of the other internet qualifiers, Voitto Rintala. Quite a lively bunch, with some very aggressive players. If I get a decent run of good cards, I could cause real damage as these guys are likely to pay me off. However, if the cards go cold on me, it'll be very difficult to pick up pots. In what is essentially a winner-takes-all heat (2nd place goes into the repechage for another chance to qualify for the final) I'd imagine there will be a lot of aggression early on as players try to build stacks with which to bully, especially with the likes of Tony G and Roland playing - it could be carnage.

William Hill make me 9/1 to win my heat and 80/1 overall. In these televised tournaments, there is usually plenty of value to be had in backing the outsiders, as things can get a bit crapshooty towards the end (like in the Ladbrokes Poker Million, where the final two were Helen Chamberlain and a guy who qualified via a freeroll - don't think either really had to make any moves to get there). However, William Hill have come up with a great structure for this event to ensure there's more 'proper' poker being played - this increases the chances that the greater experience of the pros will come to the fore. It's going to be a tough ask for me to get through this heat. From the order of the betting on the Will Hill site, it looks like Tony G will be immediately on my left - limping with marginal hands probably won't be a good idea...

Decided to try moving up a level on the cash tables to £1/£2 NL, and almost immediately doubled my buy-in with another classic 'rape an over pair with a set' play. I had 66 in the blinds and Isomerkii (tight, aggressive player) raised pre-flop. I hit my set on the flop and bet out, with him and another player calling. Turn was a rag, and I bet out again, with both players calling. The river game me quad sixes, and I thought about checking, but decided this might look too suspicious and so just went all-in for about 3/4 of the pot. The first player folded, but Isomerkii called. He showed Kings. In retrospect, I should maybe have bet more on the turn. By the time the river came, Isomerkii had about £54 left - not enough to get away from the hand, but the other guy had over £100. By getting him to call a larger bet on the turn, I maybe could have got him pot-committed as well so that he couldn't get away. Ah well, £250 is still a nice pot.