When working last week I saw the hype about the event they had in Stoke. A one-day, £150 tournament with £4K added. Seeing that a few people I knew were going and the quick structure suiting my experience (not to self: learn deep stack MTT) I was eager to take a shot.
I headed to the local Maxims casino to Buy-In as it's a longish journey to miss out! The have moved the poker tables in there which is a real same. The poker room was definitely my favourite, I guess because it was the first one I ever stepped foot in. I remember getting there and thinking, yeah, this is me. Th
at was about 5 years ago now. Wow.
I then had the worst nights sleep ever. I have trouble sleeping it must be said. Not actually getting to sleep, but feeling the benefits from it. My dreams are always so intense that I wake up mentally exhausted. Anyone any idea what this means?
Anyway, tired but still raring to go I hopped in the motor and headed up. Easy journey and got the casino after about 2.5 hours. The casino was nice, real big in fact. I was then pointed towards the free breakfast buffet and took full advantage going up for thirds. If you know me you know I need to grow!
I then sat at my table and first and tried to scope my opponents as they sat. After a few hands it was obvious I'd gotten lucky, with the players all being regular 'casino' players. I'm sure you'll know the type. Not too tough and mostly fun to be around. Even the players who got moved to the table were all nice (apart from one lady, more on that later). It was definitely the most fun I've had playing poker for a while. Here is a crappy picture of me in full grind mode (in the shirt with the headphones on):
The poker itself was quite eventful. I'll go through the interesting tweets as I was posting relentlessly during the event. Thanks to everyone who commented and supported me.
The first note is the dealers were really hit and miss. As they were dealing with much bigger numbers than usual, they had to hire extra ones in or recruit other casino works who used to deal. A couple would stack the chips, including the blinds and antes and bets as soon as they happened into one pile. Very annoying when trying to look at players and keep up with the action. One made a huge mistake however.
In the later stages the blinds and antes were so big any pot was worth winning, especially with a couple of limpers. In one such pot, all players turned their hands over, one revealing A6 and the other revealing A10. The dealer declared A10 the winner and started to shuffle the hand and the flop. The A6 player still had his cards. We then all realised that as the board was JJKQ, it was a chop. The haggard old woman who was being pushed the chips straight away said oh well, I've won now.
The floor explained that because the dealer had 'killed' the flop (turning over the cards and shuffling them) that the hand could not officially be split. However she said the other player could give half as a 'gentleman's agreement'. The other player said no and mayhem erupted. Now, I'm all for taking edges over someone and capitalising on them. Heck, I've written many a unpublished article on pushing the boundaries of gamesmanship. However, in this instance, I do believe in both being sportsman like and in karma. As the player who lost out argued, she said 'well I remember you calling me with A7'. How can you steal someones chips as spite of a bad call? Mental.
They also had a rule that if you called a players river bet, you HAD to show your hand. Not if they asked, but it was forced. This is ridiculous.
Anyway onto some actual hands. Three of the looser players limped in and I had 22 on the button, so decided just to set mine as none would fold to a raise and no one had enough chips to get fancy. Four to the flop, it came 338 with two diamonds. It was checked to me and, figuring my hand was good but vulnerable, I bet. Each player too a long time to fold, looking at me confused and I soon realised it must of been a bad bet. I know I don't rep much, so do I just check back? I think one of my problems was betting too quick and making it look too strong.
The last player to act called and quickly bet the Jx turn. I simply couldn't give him a hand seeing as they all thought I was bluffing and I've seen a few people recently pull a OOP float when they quickly donk the turn, so I called, planning to call lots of river cards too. The 4c came, a perfect card and he quickly bet. I insta called and he showed AQ. That hand gave me a scary image I think as no one played back at me afterwards.
Think started getting short but I shoved a couple of big hands and got my stack back up. Then another hand came up where more loose players limped and I again did with Jh10h in the HJ. The flop came 910J with 2 clubs. The first player, who was real tight, bet and the next player who was super loose but not aggressive at all made a big raise. I was obviously torn between shoving or folding. I decided that I need not take the risk as I had such little invested. The first player folded J10o face up and the loose player showed 9T for the win. Sigh. I was quite tilted at the time, but don't really hate the play. I guess bottom two is the worst of his range there.
Went card dead again and with antes now in play I really started to dwindle. Then came the hand of the year. Forgetting the preflop action correctly, there were three of us all in with one other player folding half his stack. I was the shorty and because of that and the way things played out I thought my AsKc would be good for two over cards. No.
The first player had KK, the second AA and the one who passed showed JJ out of the muck. 4th best hand! In real dire straights, the dealer pulled out the clubs on the flop. Being the only person with black cards I was able to maintain my 5% chance of winning. The 8c on the turn continued giving me 5% (I thought these numbers were going to slightly increase, would of made it more interesting, but I've been working it out as typing). I don't normally get visually excited, but wow I was shouting for a club. The 2c on the turn was so sweet. YES!! I screamed, as the huge rail that had formed gasped in excitement. One of the best hands I've ever been involved in but it also reminded me I struggle with the emotional aspect of the game. I was propelled into the chip lead and felt chip drunk for the first time in ages, having to fold the first 2 hands half dark. Imagine if that was half way through the WSOP and not a £150 event? I think I'd have a heart attack. Here is the table shot as quick as I could take it. You can just make out the cards.
Earlier on I spoke about my sleeping. I haven't felt the excitement I felt at this event for ages. Needless to say I slept great that night and after just 5 hours I woke completely refreshed, feeling better than I have done in about a year. Today was the same, feeling great when getting up early. Maybe my mind just can't cope with always working? Maybe I'm more competative than I think? I'm going to try and play more live comps and more league sports and see how much this actually helps.
Had two SOLID days of work so far this week. Have got on top of everything I'd let drag behind and can now continue to push PokerIdol. OnGame numbers have risen excellently since the new skin is fully migrated. As always email me (chris@pokeridol.com) for a private deal.
Thanks for reading and I look forward to having more poker content soon!
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