Day 1cWent for a swim and a sit in the sauna prior to playing on the Saturday, which is something I will probably do with 100% frequency before playing a tournament from now on. If you're going to sit and fold on a 10-handed table for a few hours, you might as well feel amazing! So I arrived at Dusk, just on time due to roadworks, wedged myself uncomfortably amongst nine people that quite liked to spread out at the table, forgot my Twitter password and settled down for an afternoon of pitching my cards into the muck.
The first hand I played was an awesome cooler, where I would definitely have got the lot at any later blind level. Unfortunately though, we were 100/200; pretty difficult to get 50k stacks in. I opened to 500 with
, was called from the small blind and the big blind folded. The flop was the inevitable
. Check/check. Turn
. Check/check. River was the
. Not only "BINK!" but "DOUBLE BINK," when he leads for 800 into me. I thought it was quite likely he had a ten here and was only going to get a small chunk so I made it 2k and to my surprise he makes it 6,600. Guess I was way off with my initial assessment and he definitely had the full house of some kind. Wasn't sure whether to make it tiny here to get him to jam or make it big 'cause he can never fold. Went with the latter and made it 17,500. He called pretty quickly with the
. What a delicious cooler. Nom nom.
The hand before the first break I opened the Beltons,
, called by the station on the button. Was pretty happy when I flopped
. Just bet/bet/bet on the
turn and
river. Unsure what he had, but I got three streets and was up to 80k at this point, ready to spew it off to some lucky punter in the right place at the right time. It was almost the same guy that happened to be this lucky punter. I opened
, was called by the three players behind me, then the same guy just 3bet his change leaving exactly 25k behind. I decided I hated his 3bet size and his spot was too perfect, so a 4bet had to look massive. I got three snapfolds and he called pretty quickly. Reckon there was not many flops I was cbetting this hand with, but
happened to be one of them. I bet tiny and he snap jammed. He looked sick at my hand as I called, and revealed the Beltons. I faded the justice queenball, and was up to 110k. What a life.
This is where things to a turn for the bizarre. In this guy's place we got some old man, who would only fasten up one of the buttons on his shirt, and fail to correctly put in any chips if it was a call or a blind. We would wait for a minute and a half while he fiddled about with every colour chip, his hairy moobs flapping around shamelessly and eventually put in three times too much, before knocking over a chunk of chips in a sweaty frustration and getting the dealer to do it for him. This guy, over the next two blind levels, whacked everyone. He open limped mid position, the button raised, I 3bet the big blind, he just called again. I bet/folded KK on A T 7 and he congratulated me as he tabled the A4. Unsure if this guy was a genius or a genuine tard. That is until he open to 8k at the 400/800 level and called off a 40k shove with
. Then I was quite happy to put a line through the "genius" read. Naturally he went broke with one pair and the nit to my right got ALL the chips, then the table was split and I could say goodbye to the soft blinds before being moved to the immediate right of who I assume had to be the chipleader at the time.
I was so incredibly card dead on this table, and the action was mental. There was no way I was getting a bluff through anyone, I just had to be patient and pick up a decent enough hand to shovel it all in with and cross my fingers I held. So I'm rotting away with the 10bb stack and the button opens, I peel back the
and jam. He snaps and turns over the
. How are you supposed to find that hand in that spot?! So I'm out of my seat, the jacket's on, I'm ready to go and post the bad news on my diary, and the dealer puts an ace in the window. As he spreads the flop, a beautiful red ten is revealed. The dream is still alive and we're rocking 23 bigs! An orbit or so later we get the same spot. He opens, I 3bet the
, he 4bet jams and I call super quick. He goes, "it's never good news when you turn your hand over before the chips go over the line," before revealing the
. Standard cooler, I guess... I internally bokked myself on the
board. "Yes! Flopped him dead!" I thought to myself.
on the turn,
on the river. "You're a gross human," came a voice from his rail. Sigh. Dream re-almost over.
Pretty much the last hand of the day I jammed
from the button into the big blind who was going to be getting it in super light. I just wanted some chips to come back to and so did he. When he calls, I just have to hold in a 65/35 probably. He calls.
. Boringhell. The flop comes 8 high all clubs, so it's still a flip, but I bink and fade like a boss and make day 2 with the average stack of 187k, just 47k more than I peaked at prior to the second break. Incredibly stoked to have finally made a day 2, as the scenario was starting to feel very much like the turn of events in the last £500 deepstack where I was absolutely massive on both day 1's, only to lose retarded pots and fail to come back for the sunday. So for the first time since I was a dealer there I was bagging up chips for the second day, and for the first time since I left the womb I was feeling pretty confident.