was hoping to report back on Tuesday, but can do it on Monday now
I turned up at the Hilton Metropole just after 4pm, ready to register for the 5pm start. After winding my way through the hotel, I find a pokerstars branded desk with several women hanging around and ask one of them if this is where we register. She says it is. It very quickly becomes apparent that that's not the case at all, and the women milling around are the 10 that won packages in the freeroll and are beiing sorted out for their rooms for the night. Sigh, a rubdown before we've even started. I overhear Mrs Pokerstars saying that registrations are upstairs, so off I trot. After negotiating what seem like 10 flights of stairs I reach the tournament registration area. "I'd like to buy in for the women's tournament please". "of course, you can register electronically using a pre-registered card or through your pokerstars account". "I'd like to buy in using cash please". "oh, you'll need to go to the casino to do that". Off I trundle again, towards the lifts this time, and am somewhat surprised when I get in the lift to find I'm not on the 10th floor at all, but only the 3rd. After popping to the Vic and back, I'm back at the Metropole at 4.30. With half an hour to kill I decide to get a coffee from the Costa concession in the lobby. I order a small cappucino and a bottle of water. I presume the server has misheard my order when she says "£8.05 please", but apparently not. I tell her that that's just ridiculous, and I'll take my business elsewhere thank you very much. After another detour to M&S for a 75p bottle of water, I renegotiate my way through the hotel up to the tournament area.
My starting table is a mixed bag. A couple of people I have played against before, so I know pretty much where I am with them. Two very tight players, a very attractive blonde European woman covered from head to toe in pokerstars logos, and another couple of Europeans representing some outfit called 'Maria Poker'. There are around 10-15 of these 'Maria Poker' players in the tournament, decked out in black outfits with red sashes, red ribbons round their necks and white hats reminiscent of the type worn by that bloke what works down the chippie. 'Maria Poker', it transpires, is an online cardroom exclusively for women. It also transpires, rather quickly, that the Maria poker players are both inexperienced, will limp call with any two suited cards and call bets on any street with any part of the board or any pair.
Anyhoo. We start with 5k rather than the expected 3k, but with a 25 minute clock it's still going to be rather quick. Opening blinds are 25/25, and I open for 75 with AK to scoop the 50 and become table chip leader. I get involved in a couple of pots with one or other of the Maria Poker girls and by the end of 25/50 my stack is up to around 6k. At 50/100 myself and Maria 1 get involved in another hand together when she limp calls my late position raise. I have AK and continuation bet following Maria’s check on the Q76 flop. She calls. Check again on the T turn, and I fire out again, again getting flat called. When she checks the 9 river to me I don’t have a clue where I am and check behind deciding she’ll probably call with any part of the board, and she flips J9. I’m now down to just under starting stack, and remain there or thereabouts until the dinner break at the end of 75/150.
Shortly after the break, I’m moved to another table which is a bit more lively. Despite there being lots of stacks of 8-10bbs, limp folding appears to be in vogue, and I take advantage, building my stack up to 7k without seeing a flop. Players at this table do like to not pay particular attention to what is going on or take time over their decisions though, and I think we only see 5 hands during the entire 150/300 level. During that level I pop it up to 1100 UTG+1 with AK (smaller raises don’t work so well in this tournament), and call a 3k shove from a player in late position. I’m up against 77. The ace high flop looks nice, the king turn looks pretty, the 7 river looks ugly. With blinds up to 200/400, I’m down to 8-9bbs, and build it back up a bit shoving over a couple of standard raises and taking the pots pre-flop. Next big hand for me comes at 300/600/75. Short stack shoves UTG for 3kish, and I ship my 6k stack in on the button with 88. The small blind has a decision apparently, but eventually passes, as does the BB. I’m up against KQ and hope I can win this race. JJ5 on the flop, a blank on the turn, Q on the river, and now I’m down to 3k myself. Next hand I have KQ of clubs in the button, and decide it’s enough to call the all in of a similar stack who has pushed just in front of me. The small blind - another Maria - (after a lot of umming and arring and confusion over whether she is calling or reraising ) flat calls, and the big blind gets out of the way. Original raiser has K9 and small blind has AJ of clubs. No help for anyone on the board, and ace high takes both us shorties out of the tournament.
All in all, a pretty uneventful tournament. I didn’t find a lot of hands, and think I hit one board all night, so it was really left to me just to find the right spots to get the chips in. Unfortunately, it came down to luck in the end, and I didn’t flip well
Thanks to everyone who made it possible for me to play the tournament, and I’m sorry there was no return this time.
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