Busy week!

The trip to the Isle on Tuesday was great fun. Before the tournament there were 9 of us (Brad, Jags, Rupert, Tommo, Jambon, Flash, JD, Myself and Lauren) and we went for a meal at Farraday's steak house above the main casino floor. Quoting Jambon "Possibly the best steak I've had in the UK". Now that's saying something! I will be going there more often in the future. As for the tournament, I'm on a table with Jambon and Brad and manage to chip up early by getting awesome cards but after the break, I slowly grind down to 10xbbs and eventually shove with 7-7 on the button, only for the small-blind to tank for ages and then say: "Well I guess I got to gamble sometime" and calls (big blind folds) and reluctantly flips over J-J?!?! He also told someone off for not checking down with him whilst there was an all-in. Zzz what a joke.

I went to the dealer's choice cash game (1-2 Pot-Limit blinds) and sat down with Flash for 300 a piece. Since most of the games chosen were Pot-Limit omaha, I felt the game would be well suited for me. However, 7-card stud is a popular choice and this hand came up:

Me: (Q-T)-Q
Villain: (x-x)-K

The player with a King showing pots to 7quid. Myself and Flash (showing a Four) call. Fourth street brings:

Me: (Q-T)-Q-2.
Villian: (x-x)-K-8

This time he bets 15quid, Flash folds and I decide to peel one more card. It is pretty clear he has a King in the hole, but he seems spewey enough to pay me off if I hit.

Me: (Q-T)-Q-2-Q (yes!)
Villain: (x-x)-K-8-8

I'm thinking about what to do when Villain puts in some chips out of turn! I go ahead and check, he duly bets 50quid. I raise full-pot which (actually set him in for around 175 on top). The pot is over 500 quid and we flip our cards:

Me: (Q-T)-Q-2-Q
Villain: (K-x)-K-8-8

I'm in fantastic shape, especially when I fill up on sixth street with a Ten. Someone says they have mucked a King so there is just one King in the deck that will lose me the pot. He hits, I cry. Villain eventually runs his stack to over 900quid before losing it in two pots. He lost 550 of it with the 2nd nut flush against the nut flush (in IRISH...sheesh). Then tilted the remaining 300-odd to me when I 4-bet pre with A-A-Q-Qds in a straddled pot (thanks Jags!) and he saw a flop with A-K-4-2ds (it wasn't even high-low!!). Flop of Q-x-x and he shoved flop. I quad up on turn to get a bit of justice for the earlier pot. Hello Mr 600quid pot.

After dropping off JD at the airport the next morning, I went back home to find Tommo, Flash and Jambon all tucked up under the same duvet in my living room (I actually had photographic evidence of this but my phone crashed grrrrrr). Went for a late lunch with Jambon's friend Lindsay on campus then set off on our trip to London. Having had 4 hours sleep the journey would have been disaster had it not been for the "I'm going to a desert island..." game...(Avacado, banana boat, chimpanzee...). As we drove through the streets of Newham (highest crime-rate borough in London), I could see Tommo in the back seat looking slightly worried and trying not to make eye contact with the kids in hoodies on the streets.

We dropped off my sister at the flat and we were on our way to Flash's when I mentioned that we have just driven past Gutshot. Merely a passing comment, Flash notices it's 7:50pm and says that the evening tournys start at 8pm. We make a quick U-turn and park right outside Gutshot just in time for the first hand of a 75quid freezeout. With no players of any note on my table (except for Ade who was very tight), I quickly mixed things up by opening a lot of pots. This kid who had good chip-shuffling skills clearly fancied himself as a player and I'm pretty sure he suffered from FPS (fancy-play syndrome) and was just waiting for him to explode.

With blinds at 75-150, I opened up with A-J in mid position to 400, Button flat calls (tendency to call pre very weak) and FPS kid can-t resist and shoves for 2.5k total. I insta-call (button folds) and he flips over 6-4. Thank-you. I hit a couple of coolers (T-T vs Q-Q, etc) and have to play short-stack for sometime. I've made sure that I constantly know how many bb's I have and won a few showdowns to go to final above average. Tommo makes final too so we trade 10%. Early on Tommo finds A-Q and loses a big race vs T-T and drops to 3xbb. Next hand Tommo is all-in and wakes up with A-A (vs K-K) and he's back in the game!

Then come 3 pots in which myself and Tommo get involved in.

#1: Blinds 800-1600. I open with 6-6 in mid-position to 4k. Folds round to Tommo in small blind who shoves for 11k total. I had 35k before the hand so it's an easy call. He shows 9-9 and doubles up.

#2: Blinds 800-1600. I open with 7-7 in mid-position to 4k. Folds round to Tommo in small blind who shoves for 12k total. However, dealer tells me it's 22k to call and I insta-muck, only to be told shortly after that the dealer made a miscalculation. Yikes! Should be an insta-call :( Nevermind, I should have double-checked myself.

#3: Blinds 1k-2k. Tommo opens with J-J in mid-position to 5k. I wake up in small blind with A-K and we are off to the races. Tommo loses yet another race and is soon knocked out.

I open up a few pots to keep afloat and end up 3-handed with the chiplead. Now I negotiate 700 to myself and 600 to the other two whislt we play for the rest. I'm pretty confident since I have good reads on the other players. We end up heads-up and the other guy has the chip lead after knocked out 3rd place and I'm staying afloat for a while, having to push my button quite a lot. I build back up to 80k (to his 100k with blinds 4k/8k) and shove button with Q-8. Now I've been shoving the button a LOT for the past 25mins of heads up and he finally calls with J-T?!?!?!?!?! Ten on the flop and I'm second place. Nevermind, I'm pretty happy that I played heads-up for the prize since 700quid is still a really nice pay day. I plan to go back for the Saturday night 100 freezeout with the others. I love the 7k starting stack so hopefully I can get another deep run.