Well after starting out quite late I finally hit the road for Manchester at 1.15pm, the sexy young blondish voice of Jane on the sat nav is geared up to get me there for 2.30pm, 82 miles away and 90% motorway.
I stopped off to fill up with diesel and pick up my breakfast from KFC (a boneless deluxe meal) I get on the M6 and start to tuck into my Colonel Sanders trying not to spill the bbq beans on my white top.
Jane takes me straight there and the traffic isnt to heavy and we arrive for 2.40pm. Zac tells me I am on Table 8 seat 7 and the good news is 40 mins late and I've only lost 175 chips, 2 exits as well so I cant be first out, Result.
There's a hand in progress on my table with three people involved and around 9.5k in the middle with just the flop on board, I check the clock to make sure it's still the first level and I make a comment along the lines of "nice pot", Paul Gourlay tells me that every pots been like it!!!
My starting table was daunting to say the least:
1)James Morgan
2)Joey Lovelady
3)Dave Colclough
4)Nicholas Katovsky
5)Bahman Aghatabay
6)Paul Gourlay
7)Me
8)Joe Grech
9)Andrew Johnson
122 runners in the mix
17,300 at the first break
14,025 at the dinner break
Raise from the seat 4 half way through level 5 to 1200, blinds at 150/300 I'm on the bb with KQ so I flat call, flop comes 5K9 rainbow, I lead out for 1600 and he shoves all-in for another 4500, I call and he flips over 9 10 turn and river are bricks and I'm up to 23k.
Couple of orbits later I raise the cut off to 1200 with pocket jacks, bb r/r me to 3500 so I flat call giving myself a chance to get away, T72 flop and he leads out for 1600, I r/r to 4200 and he re pops me all in for another 4500, I call, then he slow rolls me with pocket aces waiting for me to turn my jacks??? any way, no help and I'm down to 10800.
Very next hand raise from seat 5 to 1025 so I repop to 3100 with AdKd, folds round to i/r who flat calls me, T42r flop and i/r checks to me so I bet out 4k here, he asks "how much more you playing" I show him my remaining 3700 and he goes over the top of me, I fold and now I'm steaming.
At the start of level 6 I've got back to 6k, I have a conversation with Joe (the joker) Gresh who see's that I'm steaming and I tell him that it's so much easier pushing a short stack. I steal some blinds and elevate myself back up to 15k.
Blinds at 200/400 folds to Dave Colclough who raises to 1200, folds to me on the bb and I find AsQs so I decide to flat call, flop comes AdQh9c, I lead out for 1200 and DC r/r me to 3600, I then r/r him back another 3500 to which he pushes all in and it's another 4800 for me to call, I make the call and DC flips Ah9h, Turn comes the
giving Dave a nut flush draw although the river bricks out for him and I'm now up to 31,000
At the end of level 8 and after a couple of table moves I find myself on 44,000
Almost at the end of level 9 (last level for the day) and the chip leader on the table Mohammad Elkoussa gets in the mix with Mickey Wernick bb v utg encounter, the later calling a 7,500 bet on the river to scoop a 30k pot with a rivered flush.
The clock is paused with 15 minutes of day 1A remaining and we are informed that there will be 6 more hands at each table.
Very first hand of the six, blinds at 500/1000/75ra I am utg and I find KcKs in the hole so I raise it up to 3500 (we are 7 handed), folds to the sb Mohammad, I'm not really certain whats going on here as I'm not really observing and I got Pink Floyd giving me "wish you were here" on the ipod, I look at the dealer and he is pointing at the small blind, I take my earphones out and the dealer tells me that the sb has gone all-in, although he hasnt pushed any chips over the line, (bugger me I think- that's some stack) I ask for a count and at the same time I count my stack - it's another 31,500 to call and I've got around 8,500 left if I lose the call, I call and he flips pocket tens, I cant bear to watch and just stare at Mohammad's face waiting to see if he smiles if he hits one of his two outers, No miracle card and that's really it for the day, 87075 and in 2nd place after day 1A.
Thanks for all the good luck messages yesterday coming through Blonde and on my phone.
Absolutely agree with what Jaffa says about the old dear drawing a random card, has to be best way to end each day as each table HAS to play the same number of hands, should alleviate slow play.
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