blonde poker

 

In setting up a tour to rival the Grosvenor's monthly extravaganzas, Gala and the Great British Poker Tour set themselves a tough task. They have set about it admirably though, with player-friendly organisation, a great blinds structure, and a more manageable number of entrants making for a great weekend. In a sell-out field of 110, players were not left feeling they needed a minor miracle to reach the final table.

With talk of a few celebrities in the field, I was disappointed to be starting the event next to familiar tough names like Stuart Fox and Pete Linton. Surrounded by players both aggressive and reluctant to back down, I had to retreat from some of the usual moves.

Instead, I was lucky enough to twice see a pair of sevens hit a third on the flop, and raced off to a good start. Raising Pete Linton's (right) big blind, a flop of Qs 9h 4s was a good one for my A-3 of spades. With more chips than him, I decided to play the hand strongly to the death, and continued with a bet of 800. His check raise to 1,800 represented to me a wide range of hands, and I decided to put him to the test with a further raise to 5,500. It was a test he passed, as he announced "all in," and I had to call for the last few chips. He had indeed caught a big flop, but my hand was bad news for Pete's J 10 of spades. Though his spade outs were gone, of course a single Jack or ten could be enough to win this massive pot that I was now almost comically leading with ace high. Indeed, the Jack on the turn gave him the lead with a pair, but I breathed a huge sigh of relief as a spade hit the river. Rather flukily, I found myself sitting with 40,000 in chips after just a couple of hours play.

Itching to use the big stack to good effect, I then found myself frozen out of play for a long time, as Stuart Fox on my immediate right played pot after pot very strongly. Then, suddenly, some more good fortune, and this time the victim was Mr ‘Taffy’ Ford. After seeing a number of strong all-in moves from him, I felt unable to pass my Queens as he once again moved in. I had made a bad decision against his pocket Kings, but a third Queen on the flop and amazingly a fourth on the river proved the old adage that it is better to be lucky than good.

At 2am I was happy to go into the last two hours play with 58,000 in chips. A steady disaster then struck, as my great run of cards early on in the day was averaged out by my two incredibly card-dead blind levels. With running antes increasing the cost of cardless rounds, my stack slid back towards mediocrity. The field approached its final twelve players, as Barny Boatman and then Joe Beevers walked through the exit door shortly before the end of play.

I was forced to push with some hopeless hands as I sensed the field tightening towards the 4am finish. On the final hand of the day, I looked down at 6-2o under the gun. About to muck my cards, the big blind surprisingly mucked his, and I took the dubious opportunity to push my stack in. I endured a horrible five minutes of two players thinking of making the call, but when they didn't, I was elated to be coming back with eleven others the next day.

The second day would bring a real pressure atmosphere as twelve players were reduced down to the ten in the money. An even greater pressure would follow as a ‘final’ table of nine would claim one victim, unlucky enough to not make the TV final table. Going into the last nine with an average stack of 120,000, I tried to ignore the burning desire to fold my way to the TV table, and took advantage of the much-tightened game. After a nerve-racking hour of little action, Mazhar Nawab (left) was our unlucky one, and his eliminator, Stephen Holden, would go into the final table enjoying the runaway chip lead.

A group of eight of us sat down two hours later on a wonderful set to contest the TV table. With plush seats, glassed hole-cams and a massive table, the lack of spectators was made up for by a boisterous atmosphere in the bar where they watched through a live feed. I hoped to take advantage of a little edginess early on by opening a lot of pots, and giving the shorter stacks some tough decisions. However, with Steve Holden on my right, I felt like the spectator who had sneaked in for the first half hour, as he played well and was dealt every big hand going. I felt on one hand edgy about my stack dwindling compared to the average, but on the other happy to see him rampage through the field. The management had made a great decision to roll the blinds back all the way from 4-8k to 2-4k, but we suddenly had as many seats empty as occupied, and I was clear last of the remaining four.

Just when I needed it, a pair of Queens, and an all-in re-raise from Nottingham wizard Ash Abdullah. I was happy to see his pair of eights, and mighty relieved when a blank board put me back into the game. Ash would soon after lose a race to finish in fourth, and we had a last three of Steve Holden with 590,000, Dave Maudlin with 335,000, and Easy Pickings bringing up the rear with 175,000.

I still needed to sneak some luck, and it soon came. With Dave limping from the small blind, I made a small raise with a big hand. Amazingly, my J-3 of diamonds missed the Q-6-2 rainbow flop, and Dave quickly called my 16,000 bet. It felt like I was up against a 6, something I further suspected when he declared before the turn "I check blind." Almost inevitably, the six of diamonds rolled off, now giving me a flush draw. I checked, and a magic eight of diamonds hit the river. Dave bet out 66,000, and my decision was now whether he held the crucial full house card with it. The balance of probabilities said not, and, feeling that it would be almost impossible for him to pass three sixes, declared "all in." His long dwell was comforting, and he eventually called with 7-6 of hearts to realise his misfortune.

Dave moved in for his last 23,000 on the next hand, and completed the amazing final table sequence of the shorter stack barely winning an all-in, as Steve's 8-4 flopped two pair.

We were down to heads-up, the two players having had very different final table stories. Steve had dominated the chip counts from the start, and would go in slightly ahead in chips; I had sat back and watched for the first hour, but had sneaked in through the back door. I hoped to play my usual strategy and chip away at small pots; with the stacks now huge compared to the 8k big blind, it looked like we would be in for a long one.

The first flop brought a J-J-3 rainbow, no help for my 9-2 of hearts, and we both checked. A four hit the turn, and I bet out 18,000. Unfortunately for me, Steve had seen me play before, and he pumped it up 50,000 more. It felt like he may well be trying to set the tone for the heads up, and I felt I could give him a tough decision if he didn't hold of one of the two remaining Jacks. I made it 90,000 more, and prepared myself to sit through a long stare down. Steve mercifully mucked, and we were now almost exactly even in chips.

A pair of tens is one of the tricky hands to play heads-up, so I wasn't too overjoyed to find it on my next big blind after Steve had limped. I perhaps made a mistake to make the betting 25,000 more, and wasn't best pleased to see Steve back raise a further 100,000. I had given myself one of the classic problems of being an aggressive player. On reasonable hands like pocket tens, you have to raise, but do not want to be disbelieved and be back-raised. I had to believe my hand was probably good, and declared myself all in. Steve eventually made a good call with his Ace Queen, and my prediction of a long heads up didn't look so clever.
         
A quick count confirmed that Steve had me covered, but by such a small amount that we were effectively racing for the victory. I wondered out loud, "What's the Italian for que sera sera?" as Steve and I waited for the board to seal my fate. A queen on the flop was enough to end my run of good luck, and we had a massively deserving champion. On Saturday night, Steve Holden had been unable to find a hotel, and struggled to get a couple of hours kip in his car. By Sunday night, he had been crowned Nottingham winner of the Great British Poker Tour.