Waterford

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.