The next stop on my poker tour was Waterford for their Winter Festival. I'd qualified for their €500 main event which had a fantastic structure - 15,000 starting chips and a one hour clock.
I flew into Waterford airport from Luton and it's a brilliant place. Essentially a shed in field, it's a world away from the hustle and bustle of the larger airports I'm used to. If you've only got hand luggage, it takes you less than one minute to go from being on the plane to standing outside the terminal building. Even collecting check-in bags only takes five minutes.
Anyway, the poker. I made the end of the first day in 5th place with 60,000 chips. I don't quite remember how - things were quiet early on, but I must have outplayed people or got lucky (deciding which is left as an exercise for the reader). I increased slightly in the first level, but then took a dent without playing a hand. Snoopy was moved to beside me and asked me how many chips I had. '70,000' I replied. He stared at my stack - 'Looks like 60,000 to me'. I counted again and realised I'd been counting a stack of twenty 500 chips as 20,000...
My stack proceeded to dwindle as I'd had no good cards and stealing was impossible as Mike Lacey was two to my right. He was short-stacked and pushing all-in any time it was folded to him, so I couldn't steal anything. Eventually I judged KJ to be good enough to call and knocked him out.
With about 60 left I got moved to another table and quickly played a big hand. I'm in the big blind with 56K and Jen Mason raises to 6K from the button. Jen is near the chip lead and will be raising here with a lot of hands. I have T9 spades so call to see a flop of J92 with two spades. I bet out 8K and Jen quickly calls. The turn is a red 3 and I have 42K left, with the pot size at 29K. I know if I check Jen will bet, but I don't think she has a Jack as she would have raised the double-suited flop. Therefore she should fold a lot of hands to my check-raise. I do check and she bets 14K. I pretend to have a little think and push all-in, which elicts a look of anguish on Jen's face. She is quite clearly facing a tough decision, but eventually (and seemingly reluctantly) calls the extra 28K. It's a good call with A9 and I miss my 12 outs.
There is an argument for a) check-raising the flop or b) open-shoving the turn, as both have more fold equity than my line. The problem with a) is that it looks exactly like what it is (a flush draw), plus there's the chance she checks behind and the turn is a non-spade overcard. Betting out gives me a chance to win the hand on the flop and increase my stack.
The reason why I didn't go with b) was twofold. I didn't figure Jen for a strong hand at all (she's very aggressive when she has chips and she would surely have raised a good pair on the flop). Plus I just knew she would bet if I checked (showing weakness) which meant I could then drop the hammer, having got her to commit quite a few chips. I admit I didn't give enough thought to the size of my own stack, and what that would mean for fold equity. If I'd had a few more chips, Jen would have folded her A9. As it was, she felt my bet was too small to pass to, especially as she had lots of chips to spare if she lost the pot.
So, knocked out of the main event in 60th meant I could play the €150 tournament on the Sunday. I doubled up very early on when I cracked AA with A4 on an 844 flop. I then managed to dribble chips away, but managed to steal enough to keep myself afloat and made the final table. I finished 4th for €1250 after making a loose call with A9 when 5 handed against AK and getting lucky, before going out when I pushed with AJ and a Scandinavian made a big call with 66. That was a bit annoying as I was third in chips when we got to 4 with the Scandie short-stacked. If he'd have gone I could have done a deal to guarantee myself €2500 (after rejecting a ludicrous deal when we got to four).
Still, €1250 meant the trip paid for itself with plenty to spare. Plus it was my second Hendon Mob entry in two weeks.
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Walsall the fuss about
Right, there's a lot to catch up on. Expect three posts in quick succession.
Went to Walsall for the APAT English Championship at the start of November. 200 players and I bumbled along for most of the first day. Up a bit, down a bit, but I made the money and the 2nd day with a mid-low stack. Began day 2 by knocking someone out when they pushed 88 into my AK then got a huge boost with a raise and a call coming into my Aces on the BB. Following my push the inital raiser got out of the way and Rich Offless called with Jacks to double me up to over 200,000 chips. I then gave most of it back to him when I pushed on a flop with a flush draw and missed.
When we get down to 11 players I suffer another dent, again to Rich, when he makes up the SB against my BB and we see a flop of 753. He bets out 15,000 into the pot of 20,000 but I've flopped top pair and so raise to 40,000. He thinks for a while before calling. The turn is a Queen and we both check. This was a mistake by me (and not only from a results-based perspective). More than half the deck are bad cards for me on the river and I have to take advantage of the weak check. However, I don't and the river is a 2. This looks a safe card for me but Rich bets 50,000. I really don't think he has a Queen and he is more than capable of bluffing here following my turn check. I call and he shows A4 for the rivered straight.
We're hand-for-hand as we have two tables of five and need to lose one more player for the final table. I have 130,000 and raise to 30K with QQ. The BB pushes and I call - he shows AA. The first four cards dealt on the board are insignificant but the fifth is a mightly female dagger in his heart and my rivered set doubles me up and I make the final table in joint second place with Rich (though miles behind the chip leader Darren Shallis who has nearly a million).
We get down to six and I am in 2nd place with over 300k. It's my BB and the action is folded to Darren (still big chip leader) on the button. He raises to 40K (2nd or 3rd time in a row he's done that). Before I look at my cards I'm considering raising no matter what I see, but when I find AK I want to make sure Darren puts more chips in the pot, so I start giving it a bit of chat. 'If I was in your position I'd be raising with any two cards here' etc. I reraise to 120K and Darren pushes. I instacall and Darren picks up his cards and confidently slaps down AQ. His demeanour was of someone who knew he was ahead (and he later admitted such to me). However, the Queen on the flop meant luck evened itself out pretty quickly after my set of Queens earlier and I left in 6th place with £600.
I was mostly happy with how I played in the tournament and if I'd won that final hand I'd have swapped places with Darren, been chip daddy and would have really fancied my chances to close things out as there was still a lot of play left in the final. As it was, it was a good result and my first ever cash on the Hendon Mob database (my only previous entry was my TV appearance on Sky).
Rich went on to win and there's a great interview with him at Blondepoker which includes a bit about me. It's APAT Manchester this weekend so I hope to go well again as I loved the structure and atmosphere, but first there will be a very boozy night of poker in Chester on the Friday night, where I will duel with Rich again.
Went to Walsall for the APAT English Championship at the start of November. 200 players and I bumbled along for most of the first day. Up a bit, down a bit, but I made the money and the 2nd day with a mid-low stack. Began day 2 by knocking someone out when they pushed 88 into my AK then got a huge boost with a raise and a call coming into my Aces on the BB. Following my push the inital raiser got out of the way and Rich Offless called with Jacks to double me up to over 200,000 chips. I then gave most of it back to him when I pushed on a flop with a flush draw and missed.
When we get down to 11 players I suffer another dent, again to Rich, when he makes up the SB against my BB and we see a flop of 753. He bets out 15,000 into the pot of 20,000 but I've flopped top pair and so raise to 40,000. He thinks for a while before calling. The turn is a Queen and we both check. This was a mistake by me (and not only from a results-based perspective). More than half the deck are bad cards for me on the river and I have to take advantage of the weak check. However, I don't and the river is a 2. This looks a safe card for me but Rich bets 50,000. I really don't think he has a Queen and he is more than capable of bluffing here following my turn check. I call and he shows A4 for the rivered straight.
We're hand-for-hand as we have two tables of five and need to lose one more player for the final table. I have 130,000 and raise to 30K with QQ. The BB pushes and I call - he shows AA. The first four cards dealt on the board are insignificant but the fifth is a mightly female dagger in his heart and my rivered set doubles me up and I make the final table in joint second place with Rich (though miles behind the chip leader Darren Shallis who has nearly a million).
We get down to six and I am in 2nd place with over 300k. It's my BB and the action is folded to Darren (still big chip leader) on the button. He raises to 40K (2nd or 3rd time in a row he's done that). Before I look at my cards I'm considering raising no matter what I see, but when I find AK I want to make sure Darren puts more chips in the pot, so I start giving it a bit of chat. 'If I was in your position I'd be raising with any two cards here' etc. I reraise to 120K and Darren pushes. I instacall and Darren picks up his cards and confidently slaps down AQ. His demeanour was of someone who knew he was ahead (and he later admitted such to me). However, the Queen on the flop meant luck evened itself out pretty quickly after my set of Queens earlier and I left in 6th place with £600.
I was mostly happy with how I played in the tournament and if I'd won that final hand I'd have swapped places with Darren, been chip daddy and would have really fancied my chances to close things out as there was still a lot of play left in the final. As it was, it was a good result and my first ever cash on the Hendon Mob database (my only previous entry was my TV appearance on Sky).
Rich went on to win and there's a great interview with him at Blondepoker which includes a bit about me. It's APAT Manchester this weekend so I hope to go well again as I loved the structure and atmosphere, but first there will be a very boozy night of poker in Chester on the Friday night, where I will duel with Rich again.
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