A few years ago, when my local non-league football club fell on even harder times than usual, I was one of a small band of local people who contributed some funds towards its prosperity, and last Monday saw this club, Bedford Town, away at Bath City in the Southern League Semi-final Playoffs. I, safely installed in the Vice Presidents’ hospitality portakabin, quickly abandoned this for losing my voice on the terraces as we stormed to a 1-0 win and a trip to Chippenham in the final on Saturday. The reward for the winners being a place in Conference South next season.
Look closely and you’ll see me in the bottom picture
http://www.fansfocus.com/forum/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/839259/an/0/page/0#839259
Many thanks to the cameraman for not catching me in mid kit-kat and coke!
I arrived in Blackpool at 9pm and headed straight for my hotel and an early night. At 4am that was, having made a quick pitstop at the Sandcastle to see a few familiar faces playing the first event of festival week en route. Of course I wasn’t actually sad enough to play poker after seven hours on the road was I? Read on….
So here I was in a one table satellite, £55 each, 2000 points and a ten minute clock looking around at my fellow combatants including Royal Flush, Thewy, and Barry Neville. Beginning an unwelcome theme to which I will return as we go through the week, I draw Seat Three, with the understated Mr Neville on my left. These one table sats are the crapshoot to end all crapshoots. A ten minute live clock equated to about three hands per level by the time Flushie and Barry had showboated their way through each hand (passing for either not being an option) and at 20x bb starting stacks it was lump it in, double up or get out time. Needless to say I found, for only the 83rd time in my poker career, that the merits of 7-4 off to a raise and a reraise are somewhat overdone and I departed to find a cash game list or six.
Sometimes though I really must learn when to shut up. Barry never stopped calling Flushie a 'big poof', and words to that effect, throughout the whole satellite. I am still wondering now what possessed me to say the following:
“You know Barry, psychologists reckon that those that accuse others of something constantly are actually trying to divert attention from the same thing concerning themselves.”
I notice Julian nodding sagely from across the table in Seat 10, brave man, whilst Barry gives me a look that would unfreeze Antartica. This might be because I used big words or just he was working out where his nearest baseball bat was. Relations remained frosty for the remainder of my stay.
Tuesday dawned, or rather Tuesday afternoon did, and it was time to explore. A walk along the promenade, a quick ride on a tram and a trip around the Pleasurebeach covered most of the obvious things. In one sense Blackpool was as I expected: a large traditional seaside destination, but, in others, it didn’t. It was extremely quiet and my newfound hotelier friend told me that Blackpool has stayed much the same for 25 years yet the size of the tourist market interested in the types of holidays it offers has shrunk dramatically. Hence these days the length of high season has shrunk and those who rely on tourists for a living really only survive on the weekend hen and stag market and the short holiday summer season.
Tuesday night sees the £300 Pot Limit Hold 'Em Freezeout. Now this I am really looking forward to. Lots of play with 5000 chips and 45 minute clock and I have a good track record in the bigger PLHE events… I have long reckoned that the more technical aspects of PL versus NL suit my style. Poor form is a worry but we all know that can turn in an instant
I liked my table line up. RED-DOG… well I know a bit about how he plays, Burnley John ditto, Joe Grech ditto, Pete Singleton well ok and a few unknown lads who look and sound like they are a Happy Mondays cover band. This satisfaction with the line up begins to unravel when RED proceeds to raise the pot UTG on the first hand with T-7 off and wins after a showdown!
Things progress unremarkably until I look down at K-3 off in the big blind in a three way pot, Burnley John having limped on the button, and Grech making up the small blind. The flop comes K-K-4. Well well well. Everyone checks, I was expecting John to have a pop at it as is his wont in position. The turn brings a second heart and I lead out just in case anyone has hearts and John flat calls. The river brings the third heart and instinct tells me I am struggling. John is already looking down at his chips and I decide I will check call. Simply don’t fancy betting and feeling compelled to call a raise. I check, John bets three-quarters of the pot and I feel I have to pay him off. He turns over K-5 two hearts for the King flush and bigger trips on the flop!
With under 1000 chips gone in the hand where I could have lost a lot more before the flush came, I am actually pleased with myself for limiting the damage.
I am surviving with the odd raise to take the blinds, seeing no action with A-K twice and limping with suited connectors/baby pairs but not hitting any flops when I pick up A-A UTG mid way through the second level. I would describe the table at this point as 'middling'… not overly passive but very few hands are unraised by the time we see a flop. I’m looking to get back to even and above on the hand and limp looking for a raise. Of course RED and Burnley John limp in late position and the blinds complete and we are five way to the flop! At this point I remembered something I saw on the Hand Analysis board a while ago which said effectively, 'Yes play Aces that way but don’t get wedded to them if you end up in a multiway pot."
The flop comes 2-4-9 rainbow and it’s checked to me, time to win the pot now or at least thin the field and I bet the pot. It is passed round to Joe in the big blind who has previously lost a sizeable pot versus RED and is down to less than half his starting stack. He pushes all-in. I have a quick think about two pair in the big blind but I’m calling here every time even before one allows for the knowledge that Joe is an impatient shortstack player… with him its chip up or move on. On their backs he has T-9 and I am well ahead until with instant service for Joe the turn delivers another 9 and I am down to 2200 chips. RED looks at me. I look at him and smile. Inside I am churning.
Almost immediately the table is broke and I move with 11xbb to a table of complete strangers resolving to stay patient and play my way back into it. This table is much more aggressive, especially to my immediate right. I am not seeing too much and have blinded away to 1800 chips when aggressive hoody boy in first position raises the pot for the fourth hand in a row and I am in second position with J-J. Immediately I move in and actually feel supremely confident that I have found a good spot to double up. Passed back round to UTG, who I later discover is 'Sarah Jane', a high stakes Ladbrokes player, and he thinks and thinks and I know I must be winning or at the very least racing an iffy Ace. To call is half his remaining stack and with the phrase “oh sod it” he calls and turns over Pocket Nines and hits a 9 on the flop
I am out before the end of the third level to two outdraws and feel deflated. Not in the right frame of mind for cash or satellites I leave the casino and trundle though Blackpool’s deserted streets back to the Hotel
I am playing the £500 NLHE on Wednesday night before I have to leave for home and my weekend with the children. I must say, that night sleep came fitfully.