The following post is a record of my time in Cardiff. I must apologise because I am not very good at remembering hand histories!!! Hopefully some of this post will explain a few of my calls/actions!
23 Feb1950 hrs: I stand outside the barracks shouting down the phoen at the taxi company that have failed to pick me up for the casino. I'm gutted as I've just missed out on the Friday night shootout which was to be my warm up.
2100 hrs: I bang a tenner on the roulette. A game I never play. I pik days/months of my own, my wifes and my 2 sons birthdays. Amazingly most of them come in. I'm 110 quid up in no time. Soon I'm down to 70 in no time!
2130 hrs: I sit down to a SNG. It pretty confusing as we only have 2 chip denominations! We soon get it sorted and 8 players each chuck in 20 quid. At this game I had the pleasure of meeting Mick (sorry forgotten your screenname!) and his mate (Alan??) and EyeofSauron amongst others. We quickly knock out the local players and pretty soon there are only 3 of us. It soon becomes apparent why EyeofSauron pstars name is MrMad >:?he is the loosest layer I have ever seen!!! I need to tap his brains for advice for playing the Scandies in Dortmund. After 4 hours the SNG only comes to a close when Mick and I agree a 50/50 deal!!! 4 hours. I get to bed at 0330 hrs.
24 Feb0600 hrs: I'm sleeping in a 200 man room. 50 odd TA blokes tramp past my bed shouting their heads off.
0700 hrs: 50 odd blokes walk back past making more noise.
0800 hrs: 50 odd blokes walk past again, making more noise. Corporal Mulligan gets out of bed and threatens to beast them around the camp if they come back in the room making any more noise.
0930 hrs: RLC Band of Pipes and Drums starts up outside the window. Admit defeat, phone Epat hotel and told there are no rooms available. Get up go for shower. Get shouted at by Regimental Sergeant Major type for standing starkers at big window whilst shaving (didn't realise) in full view of officers and VIPs down on the camp for some parade. Quickly get dressed and get away from camp before RSM finds me!!!!
1430 onwards: Play starts. For the first hour or so I'm at a pretty tight table. Everyone is on around 10k when the table is broken. I feel quite pleased with my 12k, but this is hort lived when I sit down on a table full of 25k + chips. I feel very vulnerable. I try making a couple of moves but am quickly raised all in. I struggle to find breathing space but just before being moved I double up on a lady player with my
holding.
I move tables several times but nothing spectacular happens. At some point I double up knocking out Max Ward, which is the first time I start to feel slightly at ease in the tourney and get a feeling that I am not totally out of my depth. I am soon moved to a table with Mark Donnelly, where I make a nice wedge with my first hand and continue taking chips off all the players with the exception of Mark. I could not get a read of him and could not crack his wall of chips. I try convincing him I could see his cards in his glasses but it doesn't work!!!
I tell myself that if I get to the final I will have to beat him. Mental note made that he's a very good player.
I move a few more times and come to a table containing Dan Coles, Paul Garnham, Duncan Hodgkins and Graham Cox at about 2200 hrs. At the time of coming to the table I have double the average chip count and am feeling more and more confident. But I had not reckoned with Duncan, who was soon to become my arch nemesis
I continued my solid play and at some point had the opportunity to attack Duncans short stack on the BB. My first
ran into his
and lost to a Jack. My next
split the pot with his
. I then decided to kill him off with another high pair, but then lost to Duncans flush on the river (Dunc correct these hands if they are wrong as I feel they are!! I have forgotten them in the heat of battle). At this point Dunc got a telling off for his whooping - not that I noticed as I was making as much noise punching the floor!!!
I was now involved in what amounted to lots of hand to hand fighting - namely with that Blo*dy Duncan!!!! By 0030 I was hanging on grimly to survive the night. On one of the last hands of the night I attacked the blinds and brought myself up to 31,500 - a meager half of the chipstack average.
I get to sleep at about 0300 hrs, but it is fitful as my head is full of cards.
All in all though I am extremely happy with my performance. I did not think I would get into the top 32 and now found myself with a chance of bettering my best 19th place APAT online finish. I had played extremely tight and made my hands pay for the most part. Most encouragingly, I had only lost 3 showdowns all day and had made some really good reads and lay downs
(very nice of people to show you
)
25 FebI get woken up at 6/7 & 8 again by the TA. This time they are a hell of a lot quieter though!! I get up at 1030 and settle into my little routine. At this point I realise never do routines and that I have suddenly turned OCD on myself. I cannot break the habits though and carry on with some odd behaviour throughout the day convinved that if I don't follow things through that I'll be getting knocked out in the next session!
I decide early on that I would like to go on the attack. With a stack of 3150 and blinds of 300/600 (I think) my M is 3. Time to PUSH. But I resolve to pick a spot and fight rather than go in needlessly. I am 2 off the BB and receive total junk and before I know it I have 2250 chips left. I decide to pick my fight with my arch nemesis Duncans BB
And what was my holding?
!!!!! But why???
Well firstly I have a vindicative streak and I wanted my chips back off Duncan. Second, not thinking of his pot odds, I figured my tight image would convinve him not to tangle with me again. Third, I had a gut feeling for the cards and decided it was death or glory time!!! This was totally at odds with any play that I ever commit to. But it paid off when I hit a 7 on the flop and survived, doubling up to 45 k. A few more steals of the BB saw me rise to 71 k, close to the average stack as the bubble approached. It was also heartening to see several others in the same situation. Funnily enough 3 other short stacks at this table would make the final table.
The table broke after the bubble and I soon set to work on my new table. I got my aces in against James Knox early on to double up to about 120 k. I was now able to start value betting again rather than pushing at every given opportunity. I started making some nice profits when Linda Iwaniak started bullying the table. She struck me as a rock, who had suddenly started to use this image to steal blinds. Then the BB came to myself and it was time for the pivotal hand of my tournament. Linda raised my big blind all in. I got a read on her and decided she did not have anything. I looked down at my hand to see
. I sat and stared at them for a while and got a real gut feeling that the straight or flush would come. There were also 18 players left and the moey was all the same to the final table at 300 quid. I decided on another Death or Glory push. I remembered 2 pieces of advice: 1. play to win the tournament 2. (Mike Caro) Make whatever play feels natural. SO I PUSHED ALL IN! This was a move that goes against all my principles, but it just felt right. I must admit I nearly fell off my chair when she showed 10/9 offsuit as I had Linda down for a much worse hand. But my gut instinct was right and a 3/5 came on the flop followed by a 7 on the turn!!! I had doubled up t about 300 k.
Next Roberto Romanello came to the table with a massive stack. I decided I wanted to attack him as I had a feeling that if he got too much room/respect he would completely dominate the table. My chance came when I raised the BB x 3 UTG (I think - again not certain of position) and got a call. My
paired with the Ace on the board and when he raised my check by 200 k I got the chips in the middle. After a bit of a chat between us he decided to fold and I was up to about 500k. This was down to 420k by the final table.
I was flabbergasted. I had come from 27th to chip leader for the final table. I had blown a similar situation before by attacking too much once in the lead. So I went and had a little think for my final table tactics during the break.
I was chuffed when on the first and Robert got all his chips in the middle with
and I looked down to see
. I had to call. They stood up to win and now I had about 750k in chips. A few more steals saw me hit 900 k and it was time to attack the short stacks.
Which is where I renewed my rivallry with Duncan
He paired the flop and pushed all in. I had a straight draw and the 10/1 chip advantage made it an auto call. Duncan departed and wished me all the best. It was a fantastic light hearted battle that had taken place over the 2 days. I soon had 1.1 million in chips and was going a bit power crazy.
It was at this point that I must express my gratefulness to Chris Barnes, who brought me down to earth by telling me with a wink I didn't have to knock everyone out. This was priceless advice and a timely reminder of disasters past. Thankyou Chris!!!! So I tightened up, sat back and let the others knock each other out. Linda soon obliged by taking on Chris and then colliding with Mark Donnelly several times and coming off the worst for it. We were soon down to 4 when Graham Cox knocked out Richard Davies.
Dan, Mark, Graham and I battled for a while before Mark knocked out Dan to take the chip lead.
We battled 3 handed for what seemed like an age. I suddenyl stopped getting reads on Graham and it was like somebody had turned my radar off so that I was flying blind. Graham started playing a blinder and took the chip lead. Several times I found myself down to 300 k with an M of 3 and really feared going out.
At some point Mark went all in on me and I called fold, mucking my cards. He misheard me and showed down 5 3 offsuit. He was gutted to have shown me his stone cold bluff, but I it hit me like an absolute sucker punch. It was the first time I knew I had been bluffed all tourney.
Throughout this period I desperately wanted to stand up to the attacks on my blind but simply could not beacuse of complete junk holdings. I also decided that I could not get any sort of reading on Mark, so my strategy would concentrate on knocking out Graham to give me enough chips to take to war with Mark. At some point I managed to get some room to manouevre and stole some blinds; then got Graham into 2 pots running where he committed chips and rather than push all in I would value bet the flop with the intention of scaring him with the smaller bet. It worked and I was soon on 900 k again, breathing a sigh of relief. A toilet break, a pause in battle and a chance to sit down and collect my thoughts. It was really tough and taking its toll, but I was surprised at how fresh I still felt.
We went back in and at some point I got
. I raised Gahams BB up from 90 k to 240 k. I was a bit miffed when he went all in. I decided to ask for a chip count and was audibly stunned when told he only had a total of 450 k of chips extra. This made my call a little easier. I knew that I could call, lose and still have 300 k to start pushing with. Death or Glory time again!
I initially thought he might have a decent holding, but i thought i might leave him out there to sweat it for a while. He seemd too dam calm for someone with a decent hand, so I called. Rumbled. What balls he had to run a bluff in the face of a raise with
. I hit a Jack on the flop and the room went dizzy again as I went heads up.
I was still raking my chips in when the dealer dealt and Mark called heads up. I had about 1.5 million to Marks 700 k. I looked down to see
. An automatic call heads up, a hand I knew was 62% beat any random hand. Chips went in and it all went a bit hazy. A 10 came and I made a funny yelping sound I've never heard before and it was won!
Room went really really spinny and I had to sit down. After that it was all a blurr and I couldn't stop smiling. Absolutely amazed. I didn't get to sleep til 0430 the next morning and still only slept fitfully!!! Thinking of poker all the time and trying to analyse everything.
I know I got lucky with 2 crazy hands, but tell me if this is strange....
My best hand of the tourney was a straight (twice).
The next best was top pair.
I lost 6 hands at most at showdown.
The top 2 strike me as strangest. I managed to win without producing anything special. I think my lay downs if anything won the tourney in the end for me.
ps. please criticique my play where necessary. I appreciate critisiscm as I can only learn from it!
An extra note for Mark DonnellyI was lucky enough to play at over 10 tables in the tourney and had faced all the final table prior to the final. Mark is that a good a player that I could not get any chips off him on our first meeting. At the final table I still could not get a read on him. I really do think he was the best player at the tourney. Better than myself by a country mile. I sincerely hope that Mark goes on to win the APAT, as it takes something special to hit 2nd in 2/3 tourneys. To add that he strikes me as a genuinely nice guy and gentleman to boot. I wish him all the best for the rest of the season.
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