After a hectic, but ultimately thoroughly enjoyable weekend at Walsall, I deemed it about time I wrote a 'Hands of The Week' article, this week detailing the three key hands from the Midland Masters Main Event.
Hand 1
With 137 players fighting it out for that 50k+ first prize, those virtual coinflips are going to hurt just that little bit more when the coin lands on the wrong side, and that was the case for Steve 'Womble' Walmsley who lost out on the following hand:
With a flop of 
, Womble must have thought it was Christmas when he looked down to see that he held an open-ended straight flush draw with 
.
But, with Tom 'RED-DOG' McCready (left) sitting on a set of Sevens, it was by no means going to be straight forward, in fact he had to not only hit one of his 15 outs, but also avoid the full house which, unless he hit the 8 or 3 diamonds would see his chips, 36,000 in all, sail the other way.
For those maths' nuts out there, although he seemingly had every out under the sun, Steve was a 58-42% underdog to win the hand. Not the favourite, but at the same time, not too far away from a coinflip either.
Either way, it was to be a cold deck for Womble or RED, but with the Turn and River bringing the 6 of spades and 2 of spades (good card!), it was the former who would ultimately feel the wrath of that cold deck.
And so, whilst RED-DOG went on to make Day 2, the unfortunate Womble never quite recovered, eventually seeing his tournament come to an end before Day 1 drew to a close.
Hand 2
Sometimes you can play the best poker of your life, but if those Aces get busted, there's not a damn thing you can do about it but brush it aside and simply put it down to experience. Unfortunately for the Midlands' own Ash 'The Cash' Pervais (right), that's the beat that befell him as he helplessly watched those Bullets fail to fire.
One of the first hands of Day 2, Ash found himself all-in against John 'Hamsterboy' Huckle's Pocket Cowboys. A massive 140k pot that looked certain to find it's way into the hands of Ash, that is until the Flop brought a third King.
An understandably dismayed Ash Pervais stormed off, leaving John to make the Final table and take home a 4 figure prize.
Boy, I bet that was a long car journey home...
Hand 3
As with the others, I witnessed this one first hand, and what a hand it was too. With 6 players remaining, the two most familiar faces were those of final table regular, Ian Woodley (below), and fearsome veteran, Lucy Rokach.
Holding the chip lead of 464,000, Lucy was in a controlling position, but she wasn't scared to take risks, and that's exactly what she did when she crossed swords with Ian Woodley.
As Lucy had been raising a lot of hands and Ian was relatively low with just under 200,000, Britain's first ever televised million pound winner decided to hit back at Lucy's aggressive play, re-raising her button raise from the Big Blind with Pocket Sixes (35k to 110k).
With 75k left, Woodley's move looked strong, but as we all know, Lucy is scared of no one and nothing, and so decided to take a punt with her Pocket Eights.
An A-J-T-4-T Board and Ian was gone in 6th, taking home £5,750 but still disappointed by his exit.
"She just can't lay down hands," commented Woodley in the aftermath.
Good read or lucky call, I'm not too sure, but Lucy went on to take the most out of anyone with a 37k pay day, so who am I to argue?
Either way, it was crucial hand and one that shaped the rest of that final table.