The £500 double chance freezeout was going well. Again I was familiar with most on my table. Iwan Jones is a nice guy but seemed to be out of form. Kevin O’Connell I had never played against but he seemed to be taking it all a little less seriously than some. Of the rest I had battled with most before and knew that my mental player notes were in order.
Kevin O’Connell is an experience to play with. First of all I am bombarded by texts from Colchester Kev telling me to ask if Kevin wants another drink? What a stupid question, he always seems to want another drink! Secondly he is playing very fast and loose and scoops a monster pot by calling a huge series of bets in a Multi Way pot with two cards to come for ALL his chips needing a Gutshot Jack and a Gutshot Jack only to hit a nut straight. It comes sending multiple players who have hit a variety of sets and top pair hands completely dizzy.
However the chips are clearly still on offer, yet they disappeared elsewhere in very curious circumstances. How about this for shooting an angle?
Kevin is in the big blind holding T-8 and it is limped round to him and he checks.
Flop T-T-6
Everyone checks
Turn 6
Mid position player bets, Kevin min raises, flat called behind
River a blank
Kevin leads out and mateyboy silently raises by merely throwing in a few more purple chips. Kevin doesn’t realise, thinks he has merely been called, and flips his cards over and goes to scoop the pot. The dealer says, “No, he raised” and an almighty kerfuffle starts with the dealer trying to declare Kevin’s hand dead and mateyboy declares, sweet as pie
“No, it is only fair to let him call if he wants, it was an innocent mistake.”
After a ruling declaring that Kevin is allowed to call the raise but not re-raise for his handful of extra chips, Kevin understandably calls
Matey boy turns over 66 for quad sixes.
Ouch!
Unfortunately Mateyboy is looking very smug. I keep out of it but I am wondering about the ethics of it all as Kevin departs two hands later in a blaze of Jack Daniels, cussing and tiltiness.
My tournament is uneventful… I pick up a pot post flop with A-A versus one caller, my raises are being repsected and I have added 30% to my stack when in the last hand before the break I pick up K-K on the button and make a standard raise. The small blind does what he has done twice previously and re-raises. On those two previous occasions I have let A-J suited and A-Q off go and he has flashed K-K and Q-Q at me and this is one of those 'he thinks I haven’t got a hand and will lay it down' situations. I push all in, he instantly calls with Q-Q and yes out it comes. Out they come. Queens. Two of them. I'll take the double chance now please!
So I go from the prospect of 10,000 chips after the break to the reality of 4000 and 20xbb. Marvellous. Quite a trip this is turning into!
After the break comes a swift table break. The new table is a completely different kettle of fish. elblondie has just called a raise and a reraise with 74 off and hit a straight to knock out mateyboy with Q-Q. Des 'Bling Bling' Jonas is chattering away nine to the dozen and every single pot is raised and the aggression level is high.
What a time to hit the coldest run of cards I have ever experienced in a big competition. At the end of two levels where I have somehow managed to keep my stack within touching distance of 10xbb the whole table is commenting that I haven’t played a hand. Well actually I’ve played three, stealing the blinds twice with 87 off and 54 (Suited) and betting small blind versus big blind with nothing and mercifully seeing I KNOW IT charitably fold.
My image couldn’t be tighter and I really need to find something, and quick. I try another steal from the cut off with K6 suited to trade off this image and this time get snapped off by the big blind who raises me all in, having firstly astutely calculated that I had left enough to pass and have one move left! Thanks for telling me that! Maybe just shove it in with the King next time and take my chances... but at the time I remember thinking, “just one open spot with a hand and I can get back in this,” so I passed.
Frustratingly, a break begins with me at 3,500 chips and the blinds moving up to 600-1200, and I am firmly in the Dead Zone and thinking in reverse order: beer/food/lapdancing.
Two hands before I hit the big blind and two hands after the break and I need what little first in vigorish I have left to push with something. Here it comes. A monster. A pair of twos.
In it goes, really looking to be called by a reasonable Ace and take my chances. I KNOW IT immediately re-raises all in next to me with two rather reasonable Aces and that’s that.
Time to slope off again.
Making the long drive back home the next morning I thought and thought. Nothing one can do about outdraws or bad beats, they are a fact of life, especially so for someone who plays as much as me but I tried very hard to think if I had had missed any spots to pick up chips and not leave me so short-stacked and having to push in such a disadvantageous situation. With hindsight I would have left the final steal alone, but apart from that it was a nasty combination of short stack, card dead and aggressive table.
I am noticing a very different style in these festival events though. One which emphasises getting chips early and gambling if necessary, the JP Kelly mantra if you will. As such these players can withstand the inevitable beats and go on to recover. My approach, the accumulate steadily with solid hand values approach, is looking a bit outdated in these. I am feeling like dead money. Of course if I hit form again I won't be feeling like dead money! Time to re-assess again.
More of which another time.