40-45 runners last night, lots of fun. Had TV's Tony Kendell to my right for the first few hours. Cliffnotes for our table: - A ridiculously annoying guy in a pinstripe suit. Literally used the old, [looking at his opponant] 'You look SO strong! look how confident you look! you must have trips!' [looking at his chips] '....... I raise......' - TK getting the obligatory rubdown upon exiting by a classy man who knocked him out by hitting a full-house on the turn, then seemed to take some delight in pointing out to Tony that at least he had spiked his flush on the river.
Things went well for me throughout, and i'm pretty sure I was amongst the chipleaders for the vast majority of the tournament. When down to the final two tables I shared a table with a Mr Willie Tann- we stayed away from each other for the mostpart, but both continued stacking up- he won a couple of monster pots making him CL going into the FT. He played one hand beautifully, flatting from the SB with

into one of the shorter stacks, who raised. Willie shoved (which looked SO bluffy imo) and was called by the short stacks

and held.
The final table draw was kind, putting me directly to Willie's left. Since the two of us were pretty much the largest stacks on the table, and I know that Willie is likely to open light, I considered this a bit of a result, and my confidence of shipping it only grew. A deal was done (orchestrated by Willie) to get 7th-10th their money back. I was the only one reluctant to deal at the time. I am 100% for paying the bubble, but paying the bubble +3 seemed a bit over the top. Also I had suspicions that a deal like that would change the dynamic of the table drastically- as one of the bigstacks on the table, it wasnt in my interest to have shortstacks not caring if they came 10th or 7th.
As it turned out the deal was pretty irrelevant. As everyone on the table (bar Willie) seemed to want to fold their way to the finish line, I started getting more active. I doubled up 3 shortstacks, losing one race and twice having to call reshoves with terrible cards due to not leaving myself odds to fold. I've thought quite a lot about these plays, and I'm still relatively happy. 1. the table was exceedingly tight, and there were a lot of chips up for grabs.
2. As bad as it is to raise-fold 20bb (which is what it got to as the blinds increased), I still feel that raising light should have got through enough to make it profitable.
Anyway, 10th busted quite early on, but it was pretty frustrating. an 8 way chop was even considered at one point. Willie, after initiating deal-talks which fell through, busted in 7th, bubbling the profit, being one of the two people on the table willing to open a pot without a premium hand.
I soon followed, shockingly for me. Youngster to my right limped my blind with KK, and I was planning not to put an extra chip in the pot with my

. Unfortunately the flop got checked so by the turn the board was reading

, the chips went in and the river blanked. fml, 6th for £260.
-> Filthiest hand I think i've ever played.:
I get moved to a new table, at which i am one of the big stacks. I fold for one round, trying to get a few hints on the table dynamic. First hand I play, I look down at

in the SB. One limper. The big blind has just filled up a plate from the buffet, so I decide to pop it, to see if I can take it down while he's distracted. BB folds and limper smooth calls. Flop comes down

, and I donk-lead for 5k into 6ish. Limper insta-ships, revealing to my horror that he only has 6k more than my raise. I admit my extreme embarrassment and call.
He flips

.
bink.