blonde poker forum

I have been an avid reader of blonde for a long time but I very rarely post (my mutterings could never live up to those of Reddog or TJ) but I want to thank all involved on the site for the enjoyment it frequently gives me.
 I’m only a smallish stakes player who wins a few quid here and there which more often than not ends up over the bar of the local hostelry but a couple of weeks ago I luckboxed my may into the Newcastle leg of the GUKPT through a freeroll on Blue Square.
 I saw a thread on the forum for a room share and though the posters name was The Headcase I thought I might as well start gambling early. Although Mick McCloskey didn’t know me from Adam he said no problem and was superb over the 4 days introducing to me a lot of great characters.
I didn’t really know how to approach the tournament my only forays into live poker have been tournaments for less than 50 quid with much quicker structures and obviously a far lower quality of players. I sat at my first table and became a little concerned that most of the players were wearing sponsored apparel. I recognized most of the players from previous blonde live updates but the most concerning was the seat to my left which was occupied by Julian Thew.
I played like a total donk on day 1, the wrong moves at the wrong time often from out of position. I learnt more about the power of position in this comp than 4 years of playing and reading countless books. I considered myself to be an aggressive player but until now I’d never played again Pete Linton. It took me about ½ hour to work out his range, any 2 cards from any position and always for a raise. He really is fearless and it was very enjoyable watching him try to run over the table. I’ve no doubt he will win a big event soon but it may be a very short final table.
Table Linton broke with about an hour of day 1 left and I was down to a paltry 7500 chips and decided to pick a spot to gamble and try and double up. The Camel was now the new table bully (I think he was on tilt after doing his proverbials on Carlisle in the playoffs). Twice I moved allin over his raises with very marginal hands but both times he laid down though the second time he muttered something about this becoming a dangerous habit. At the end of day 1 I had just over 13000 but with blinds at 400/800 I knew I’d have to get lucky early on day 2.

If this is who I think it is very well done and look forward to reading the rest of your report.

Well done Eyebrows, looking forward to the second installment.

well done that man

you were really laid back after day 2 when u had made the final..talking to me and mick in the bar you looked nervous but got the job done

not bad for a £20 rebuy tournie player ;D

come on..part2 is taking a very long time..just because TJ and Mr Red make us wait ages for a sequel doesn't mean you have to as well :)

I tried to put part 2 together but even I fell asleep reading it. I will try to improve it tomorrow but I do have problems during opening hours.

is tomorrow today or tomorrow?

All right room mate. I now know you got home OK. When I left you at around 5.45 on Monday morning you were more than a little , shall we say, merry. A bit like Chili was on Friday night!!
Well done again. I, like others, look forward to future instalments of your report.

feedthegoat mia?

ffs the tax on my car runs out at the end of august..... be nice if you could do part 2 by then ;)

I had played Day 1A so I wasted most of Friday commuting from a pub to a bookies and donating some cash to the local economy. I had a long think about the previous day, I’d played way too snug with the only consolation I was still in. I was low in chips but decided the strategy for Saturday was too be much more aggressive if I could get hold of any chips.
Average chips was over 30k so I needed to push pretty early with my 13k if I was to make any sort of a recovery. This is the first of 2 spots in the tourney where I got very lucky. The blinds were 400/800 and the button had made it 2.5k, the small blind called and I looked down at 66 in the big blind. I did think of passing but somehow the chips went into the middle rather than the cards. The button snap called (good job there’s no penalty for inside swearing) and the small blind reluctantly folded pocket 8s. The button turned over AK but never hit and I’d got the desperately needed double through.
I now had a few chips but in my mind I was thinking one more double up and I’m in great shape. The next hour the deck seemed to just hit me in the face. I played all draws or made hands very aggressively and by the time the first break came I had over 60K in chips nicely above average for the first time in the tournament.
I did make one bad error when I had aces and gave the strength of my hand away by making a stupid comment and the guy quickly folded AQ because of what I’d said. In what seemed like minutes we were playing hand for hand on the bubble. On our table Pete Linton decided this was a nice time to pick up some easy chips raising most hands and picking up several uncontested pots. I did play one hand on the bubble, Pete raised as per usual and I thought my KJ suited was good enough to see a flop. The flop came a king and 2 low cards and I check called a bet of just over half the pot. I had decided to check raise the turn if there was no ace but after the queen on the turn Pete made a bigger bet than I expected. Now there was 2 choices fold and dribble into the money or push and hope he’s at it. I pushed and the relief not to hear an instacall from Pete was huge. He said he knew I had KQ all the while I was trying to look as relaxed as possible but let out a huge sigh of relief when he mucked. The bubble burst on another table not long after this and it felt great to have made the money and we were down to 2 tables.
Next came a huge stroke of luck, Rob Sherwood was now sat to my right and limped into my big blind. I was holding 79 and was happy to see a flop as most pots were being raised. The flop came dome 10 8 2 rainbow and Rob bet out. I continued my policy of betting draws heavily and moved in. Rob quickly called with top two pair but I spiked a jack on the turn for a huge pot that crippled Rob. He went out not long after but we had a brief chat at the bar on the Sunday and he’s a class act both on and off the table.
I was now one of the chip leaders and in what seemed like no time we were down to 9 players and the final table with me sat in 3rd place. I was shellshocked.

more please