Day Two:
After getting back to the hotel in Saturday night there was a letter in my piegeon hole saying there was a party on the 9th floor until 4am... being on the 8th floor i endured another 4 hrs of the heaviest Drum+bass/Jungle music... im pretty sure it was just a party for subwoofers all turned face down above my room as the place shook..
.. great way to prepare for day 2.
Anyway got to the broadway at 1 and the APAT team bought lunch for everyone at the chinese buffet across from the casino i was extremely cultured polishing off a plate of chips and curry sauce. Anyway onto the poker and Deck+Hit+face.. Jacks 3 times in the first level AK etc etc and I was chip leader. AA UTG and 2nd in chips pushes his KK into me a horrible way to go out but was glad to be on the right end of it this time. I really enjoyed my table when it was down to the last 20 most of it due to the banter put on by Ironside. He really was the life of that tournament and in our banter exchanges I really think I had the upper hand..
Before I really could take everything in It was the final table. There must of been about 40+ people railing and they were actually giving quite a bit of noise. I'd never really been at a live Final table that meant as much as this did and people were really excited about the outcome. All the players got introduced chip counts etc just like on TV. Again as an aside I want to congratulate the scots in the tournament.. I believe there were not more than 5 scottish players out of the 120 strong field and 3 of them had made the final table myself, Ironside and scottM.
The final table started off well found Queens UTG+1 and made it 30k with blinds of 5/10 and a stack of about 300. MP1 pushes for 60k total obvious call with any two cards and he has Aces. 10 seater final table 9 places pay and this was the bubble QQ v AA I call a Queen from the dealer and catch it on the river. Ouch!
A few more players go out and I have a short stack on my right.. this was a maybe 10-15 hands more into the FT. The Button with about 200k raises to 50k (still 10/20k) SB shoves ott for about 90k and i reraise with AKo allin to isolate from the BB. Button passes and the SB's 109> my AK when he hits two pair on the flop.
SB gives his chips away and is short stacked again and pushes into my BB again I call with AT he has QJ. Flop an Ace but he flops and turns trip jacks... tbh I felt it was slipping away from me there and then.. I tried a blind steal against another short stack with J8 and was forced to call allin against his QKs. I flop a J and he rivers a straight flush. Sigh... I was getting visibly frustrated and really needed to compose myself.
The chip leader raised from the sb once more and i shoved my 120k ish stack OTT with AKhh in the BB he called with A9 and got no help and i doubled through to 200ish. Two orbits later he shoved my BB and i insta called with 88 he had 97 and I doubled again into chip leader positon.
Again it goes blurry and we are 3 handed.
Myself 450k
Dan 440k
Mark 270 ish
Ive got a great aggressive image for defending my BB Button passes. SB makes it 100k i reraise allin to 450k total with TT and he still calls the extra 300+k with KQ.. my cries of one time drowned out by ironside and a K on the flop in what I can remember as the only time I was racing for all my chips in the whole tournie.
That was pretty much that. I got some great support from the crowd and everyone I spoke to complimented me on my game and tbh i brought my A-game to that final table. There is not a single call or move I regret from that FT I thought I played perfect poker and got unlucky in what turned out to be an $18,000 value coinflip.
Sigh.
Looking forward to the next APAT events and want to wish a huge thankyou to Tony,Richard,Mel, Raj and all the dealers for making that a great event.
wp all
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