DTD £300 - highly recommended

Been bursting to say something since the event but first oppo at a computer. I'm excited so I'm writing about myself of course.

The £300 was a great tourney and I'll be back every other month or so I reckon. Great venue, best structure and comp I've played in so far - maybe 15 live tourneys or so isn't a massive sample but was fantastic. I love that poker can bring you into contact with people from all walks as well as 'names'. At my one and only table I sat down with among others, Ironside & Snoopy (a pleasure sirs!) and Luck Rokache immediately to my right - which was nice.

Later we were joined by Micky Wernick who sat immediately to my left with 12k or so chips. I went quite deep in the tourney (43rd place at 3.30am left me elated somehow). Though my earnings in cash were precisely zero £, it was worth the entrance for the wealth of lessons, fun & and a rather humbling but educational experience watching Micky Wernick build his stack.

I didn't make many mistakes - Micky Wernick re-raised me off one pot early on when I was ahead and showed his bluff - probably got him up to 17k or so and believe me from that point on he was pretty much unstoppable. I like to think I gave the kid the start he needed !!

My last few hands went this way:

With blinds at 400-800-100 guy in the cut off raises to 3000 or so - I put him all in for his remaining 7000 or so with 77 and he calls with AQ - first card out is a 7, weyhey and up to 25k or so - a couple of uncontested pots later I'm at around 30K with the average stack around 40K, blinds are 600-1200-100. I drop a few thousand over the next couple of rounds but I'm still feeling very comfortable. I think Micky's stack was outta sight by then - 100k maybe.

Made my first mistake in trying to be creative - limped UTG with suited connectors, Micky W called, reraise to just 5K around the table from a shortish stack with perhaps 8K or so back. Action to me - I was sure if I called Micky would call behind me for value, I'd been showing solid hands and I didn't think he would re-raise at that point. Flop does nothing for me, check, all in from the original raiser, I fold, Micky W calls and busts the raisers AQ with KJ. In hindsight I think I should have pushed or folded here but it makes no difference to my exit a couple of hands later.

On the button, mid position all in for around 12K ( I have around 22k), I look down to find QQ, I say call but pushed all my chips over the line, Micky immediately whispers all-in from the SB - oh dear ! Someone mentioned I had a chance to fold because I mis-spoke in saying call rather than all in when - it took me about a second to decide Micky had AK (he'd played it like this with his stack on a few occasions) and I called - original raiser had 88, me QQ, and Micky flipped over his aces - 8's take it down when he hit his set, no help for me, side pot to Micky Wernick and I'm toast. Was happy going out, I'd played pretty well, think I got unlucky to find the SB with aces behind me but no horror beats, only a few mistakes over 8 hours or so, was only in one race but never all in with a chance of going out before my exit.

Felt like loads to learn still but that on one's day you can compete with some very much better players.