Growing up watching poker, I thought one day when I make it I'll be able to play GUKPTs. I would play the free roll entry and £5 rebuy on a Wednesday in Grosvenor when I was 18, I loved it and got such a buzz. The very first time I played in the free roll I got knocked out and they asked if I would rebuy and I remember very clearly saying "no, no you guys are WAY too good for me" these guys are in hindsight absolute fish but at the time I saw them and was like wow. When GUKPT came into town I would go down and sweat it the whole time, every second of the weekend I would be on the rail, watching and trying to learn.
I've only ever managed to play one GUKPT before and it was a small one, I've also never played in London since I've moved so when the GUKPT Grand Finale with double the normal buy-in came I wasn't going to miss it.
Day 1 was very smooth, played probably 80% vpip, most people told me what they had most hands, won one cool pot where it went open, call, I squeeze. AA2 I check and face a 4x pot overbet jam and his K7o was drawing dead vs my Aces lol.
Day 2 went well too and then I decided to play one of most ****ed up hands that I've ever played. I think reading like high rollers etc is pretty hard, peoples emotions etc, even like your average EPT reg its relatively tough, but for a somewhat experienced live player, playing these local tournaments a lot of people will often just tell you what they've got, I speak to almost all the guys, find out how they got in the event, have banter, find out their job, ask if they went away in the summer etc, finding out all about their life story is 1) Interesting 2) Gives gigantic advantage. For the guys out there wearing headphones, seriously, take them off!!!
Anyway, I open TT, Bena flats, button flats, sb flats, bb flats. 987r, I check, pretty close, but I don't want to get raised and will be basically checking here always. Everybody checks round.
Turn 987T, checks to button who bets like 40-50% pot, like 30k into 65ish. BB gives away his hand and flats, they both have around 250k and I have around 350k. We are at the end of Day 2, 36 left, 30 get paid, average like 170 or something. I think button often doesn't have a jack. Maybe just stabbing or potentially a six or maybe some kind of random hand. BB I am close to certain has Jx, otf he wasn't interested at all, he was on his phone (I played lots vs this guy and when he's interested he's looking at everybody when he's not he's on the phone) and on the turn he put his phone away and started paying attention and called quickly. Because I have TT he likely didn't turn 2 pair so he either has 6x or Jx.
I think both players never have Jx and the way the hand was played my shove is really really really huge, if I for example win all in here I have like 5x average or something absurd. I think button will fold almost always with the guy behind him, but the question is will the big blind fold.
Likely bena never has 7/8/9/T in his hand as all those combos will bet flop when he peels mp vs ep. SB I am almost sure has jack with no pair and button I think will have 2 pair virtually never. So theres:
52 cards
4x board
2x bena
2x button
2x sb
2x bb
So theres 8 cards that I think aren't connected to the board in terms of pairs that means I add a bunch of equity compared to what I would normally have in this kind of spot.
So theres 38 cards left and I have
3 7's
3 8's
3 9's
2 T's
To win
3 Jacks to chop.
So over 36% of the time I am not going to get stacked, theres a bunch of dead money and I seriously think that BB will NEVER consider me to jam with less than Jx and to be really QJ heavy. He's basically calling for his tournament life and heaps of BB's just for a chop, I don't think this kind of amateur makes that call on the bubble, and yeah if I'm wrong, I still get in the money OR win absolute monster stack.
Button tanked and folded, bb took longer, I eventually called clock on him and he folded AJ.
Throughout the hand I was like omg WTF am I doing, just call, hit a full house, no problem, to ok maybe it isn't too bad to WTFFFFFFFFFFFFF am I doing. It was a big big sweat but eventually got through.
Anyway, got into the money, was chip leader for bits and bobs for the rest of the time and I got to the FT pretty short losing a few inevitable flips. I busted jamming 10bbs in cut off in close ICM spot, the amateur on the button (guy who folded aj) was 1/8 with absolute heaps and everybody else ICM pressure, I waited for him and he went to his phone instead of looking at me so jammed a little wider than ICM would suggest (87hh9, he folded but bb had 99 and it was gg.
Anyway, £14,000 is just fine, winning would have been amazing and meant something little special from bottom to top of my poker career, but had an amazing few days and went away with smile on face so np.
Rushed home at around 8pm after 3 long days, logged on to reg the HR Series, managed to get this sweat for tomorrow.
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