blonde poker

Friday 15th July

At last I managed to go deep in a tourney. Well at least last out the whole of the first day anyway. I got off to a fast start in the $2,000 NLH. There were over 1,500 runners again but by the end of the third level I was probably one of, if not, the early chip leaders with almost 30,000 chips.

I had managed to knock out a succession of players including multiple bracelet holders Daniel Negreneau and Layne Flack (with the best hand I might add).

I also managed to get lucky in a pot with Juha Helppi. We tangled in the blinds button scenario where I had K-Q suited. The flop was K-K-J and all his chips ended up in the middle. To my dismay, he proudly turned over A-K. However, to his dismay, I turned a Queen!

Unfortunately I couldn’t maintain my lead and slipped back when I lost a coin flip with a pair of 8s v A-Q. Much later I also ran Queens on the button against Aces in the SB and I was left short stacked.

Fortunately though I eased into the money around the 150 mark and was still left at the end of the day with 100 other survivors. My paltry 10,500 chips left me in the bottom 10%, so I will have to be moving my chips early.

Saturday 16th July

Well, as stated, I needed to move my chips early. It was going to cost almost 4000 per round of the table, so I couldn’t really afford the blinds to go through me else I could expect an automatic call whenever I raised. So the third hand in, I looked down at A-8 suited and everyone had passed to me. I moved my 9900 in the middle hoping I wouldn’t get called. Unfortunately, the button was sitting on Kings and an Ace failed to materialise on the flop.

I was out in 92nd spot and collected $4,211 (my second cash of the series). Meanwhile, just behind me, Julian Gardner took down a huge pot A-K v Q-Q v J-J where Julian hit both his Ace and King. Skalie (John Kalmar) was the unfortunate victim with the pair of Queens.

Well having played only 3 hands in NLH I felt obliged to go back to work in the $3,000 Omaha Hi-Lo. Again I got off to a flyer and was one of the early leaders amongst the 450 entrants. I peaked at 16,000 in the top 3 with only 150 players left. However I lost 3 huge hands in quick succession and crashed out around the 110 mark.

The biggest loss was on an 8-7-5 board where I held an A-2 and had the nut flush draw in a 4 way pot. A black deuce on the turn counterfeited my low and I got stuck between someone with the nut straight and 2 players with A-3.

This was swiftly followed by A-2-3-4 collecting nothing off a 7-7-5 board where I also had a nut flush draw… I hate Hi-Lo Omaha!

Sunday 17th July

Everyone in the house was woken up early this morning for a one table satellite to decide who would move into which room. To our surprise we were joined by a new housemate, and perhaps it is someone who may not quite fit in. He is slightly more abrasive than the rest of us, so maybe he is here to cause some fireworks.

Unfortunately he also slow played his Aces and trapped me with top pair knocking me out in fourth spot. Thus, I had to move out of my third best room and into the smaller Vegas room (evicting The Muppet (Chessa) in the process)

Meanwhile, back at the Rio it is NLH shootout day. I picked a super table where I didn’t recognise a face. Unfortunately, I fell victim to the short starting stack problem, lost my first two hands and struggled to recover.