Luton 750 Thursday Overnight Chip Counts

Not sure how it finished up - the final table went on for quite a while and then seemed to finish pretty abruptly so I think there may have been some sort of deal done, although this is just speculation on my part (I was at the other end of the room playing the Shootout event at the time).

Tikay - thanks for the kind words regarding my result. It was certainly an eventful return for me yesterday.

I started with 21,000 chips and 35 players still, so average stack at this point was 39,000ish. Fortunately they decided to start at 1000/2000 (which we'd completed the night before) which bought me a little more time. I managed to take down a couple of pots without showing hands early doors and had built up to just over 30k but then took a hit when I open raised 7000 from the button holding A5 and got a call from the Big Blind. Flop came Queen high rainbow and I pushed the remainder of my stack trying to get rid of him (and thinking that the Ace high might possibly be good). Turns out the BB had Q7o and I was crippled. Down to 4,000 chips and things are looking bleak.

Time for me to get busy. Any time its folded around to me I'm moving with any two and hoping to get lucky now. I don't have any fold equity anymore but its too late to worry about that now. My first chance comes on the very next hand. The chips go in, BB calls for another 2000, and I'm thinking that at least my 83o will give me two live cards until he flips over K3! Oh dear. First card turned over is an 8. Two 3's also come on the board and I suck out royally with my full house. Back in business!

On the same orbit I push again after a raise from the chip leader at the table, Ash Hussain, who's on my immediate right. This time I have AJ. I don't have enough chips to make him fold but I figure I've got a reasonable chance of having the best hand here. Sure enough he calls and shows A9 and I get a much needed double through. I count down my chips and am back to 21,000 again - time to start over!!!

The big hand for me occurs after the blinds go up to 1500/3000. UTG (who has a similar stack to me) limps and its folded around to me holding TT on the button. I'm incredibly suspicious of the limp and fear that I may be facing a limp/raise attempt from a monster so I decide to see a flop before committing myself and just call. It also means that if either SB or BB raise then UTG's action will define his hand before I have to act again. As it turns out, SB calls and BB checks his option. The flop is a dream, T-4-4, and we all check. Turn brings the Ace (the only card which I'm slightly nervous of with regard to UTG) and UTG duly pushes. I go all-in, the blinds fold, and he flips over A9o. He doesn't hit another Ace on the river and when we count down the stacks it turns out we had identical chips so he's out and I'm now much more comfortable on just over 40,000.

After that I'm fairly comfortable with regard to making the money. When they break the 3rd table I have around 50,000 in chips. Having achieved target 1 (make the money) its now time to try and build a stack to get to the final table (and make an actual profit!). This turns out to be a much more difficult proposition as my redraw for seats puts me 3rd in the line of 4 short stacks who are sat on the immediate left of the chip leader (who looks to have about 170,000 in chips). The remainder of the table have healthy stacks so opportunities are few and far between - when the action gets round to me there's either been a raise from a big stack or a push from a short-one!

Ultimately, the hand that eliminates me is when blinds are 3000/6000. I have 57,000 in chips by this time and its folded around to me in the cut-off seat. I have AJo. I consider my options and decide just to open-push, figuring that there's a good chance I have the best hand anyway. With the blinds as they are I don't really have enough headroom to make a standard raise and then subsequently lay down my hand to a re-raise so I'm happy enough to take the pot uncontested here. As it turns out I've timed my moved to perfection. Stuart Nash pushes for just over 60,000 chips in the SB and the BB then dwells for a while and calls. I sense I am very much in the shit and this is confirmed when they flip over AKs and QQ respectively. The board brings an Ace and a King and Stuart Nash gets a very nice triple up while I head to the cashiers desk to pick up 750 for 16th place.

I'm interested in what others would have done here. The risk with this play is obviously that you will only be called by hands that are beating you but in a situation where 16th place pays the same as 10th then a 'double up or bust' strategy seems to have little downside with so many big stacks still to overcome.

I also played in the 300 shootout later in the evening and had a similar roller-coaster experience. Starting with 5,000 chips I reached the first break with only 1625 of them left. When we returned, blinds had gone up to 200/400 so I again had to get busy. I managed to get lucky a couple of times (in particular with 77 vs 88) putting me back in the game and then managed to accumulate a stack of over 30,000 out of the 50k in play. Unfortunately, once we were 3 handed I went card dead at the wrong time (worse still, when I did have a playable hand I often found myself up against a better one) and got knocked out in 3rd place. At least I got 200 back from a 'saver' we'd agreed earlier on.

The niggling feeling is that I should be gutted at losing from such a strong position but, looking back, there aren't many hands which I would have played differently in the 3 and 4 handed phase and on reflection it was just one of those situations where the other players were holding over me at a stage where blinds were big enough to diminish stacks very quickly. Ironically, it was AJo that knocked me out again - this time running into 66 and failing to improve.

Anyhow, at least I had a fun couple of days and the decison to use my Sheriff star card cap in addition to wearing a 'Sheriff' cap certainly got my nickname established down there! Once again I shook hands with a number of Blondites and it was great to meet you all. Hopefully, one of you will take down the main event (which I'm not playing due to a planned trip back to sunny Yorkshire!)

Sheriff

PS: Forgot to add that Tikay deserves credit for reaching the money from a similar stack position to me in the 750 event. His progress was much less erratic than my own on the day but he chose his moments well and stayed out of trouble for the most part.