I returned home in September broke and feeling pretty low. I started Uni in October but before then got a job dealing for the WSOPE in London. I was staying with a mate so living expensives were going to pretty low, but I borrowed £200 from Hannah to get me by. I decided I needed £100 for food and transport and I could afford to lose the other £100 in a onetime spin-up at the Vic. I flopped a set. That gave me another £100. I sat with it in a 1/2game. I limped
utg, young guy made it £13, old guy flatted on the button, I made it £51, young guy folds, old guy calls.
, I bet 65, He put me all in. I called. The board ran out
. My heart was on the floor I was gutted. How could I possibly win? The old guy proudly announces two pair, and flips
. I couldn’t believe it! For the rest of my spell in London I played 1/1 every day before work, crushed it, ran like god and coupled with my wages from the WSOPE - I had 3k to my name.
The WSOPE was incredible; I dealt to just about every famous TV pro; I dealt Durrrs opening match in the 10k HU shootout and to Phil Ivey on the final day of the main event (where I was completely out of it, due to playing at the Vic until 9am, and back for work at 12 doh). I dealt Chinese Poker to Mike Matusow. Him paying for me to get a massage whilst dealing was hilarious. Another highlight was dealing to Viktor Blom on the final 3tables of the main. He sure plays like Isildur1 and was thrilling to watch. He is also hilarious. After overbetting the pot on EVERY street and finally getting some guy to fold to an all-in shove on the river, he showed the bluff and said “much spew….much spew…many times you call there…many times Ace King….many times call….much spew”. He was always berating his own play and having some great banter with Roland De Wolfe.
I was extremely jealous for the lifestyle they all had, and left London inspired to make it there one day. I was keen to finish Uni however, by way of insurance. However the same problems cropped up again and it was clear very soon that Uni was not for me and I was never going to be able to get through 3 years of it. I wasn’t inspired by anything within the course, the lecturers, the students. I listened but all I was really thinking about was Vegas and the fuckin' Mirage. I was playing every night at Gala (I had to wait until December before I could play cash at DTD) and doing well. I dropped out mid October to the disappointment of my family and Hannah. They were supportive though and wanted me to be happy.
I was doing well in cash, but since those run of cashes before the summer; I hadn’t cashed in a single tournament. I was playing the £100 and £50 comps at DTD and I went about 20 tournaments without cashing (I did cash in one actually, a £10 rebuy at Gala where I ran like god. Great). After a bad downswing in December I was feeling pretty down again about things and was looking for ways out of it. I took a few 1/2 shots which went badly, I was down to about 2k in my roll. On the Saturday before Christmas, I played the £100 tournament on the Saturday of Monte Carlo weekend. In level 1, I found some guy who decided to bluff allin with 42 on an AQT3 rainbow board (having limped called UTG and called my flop bet) with absolutely no fold equity (I’d put 5k out of my 7k stack in on the turn) when I had top set. Things were going my way. I reached the money with a big stack. With 10 left, the other big stack at the table opened, I 3bet shoved 99 from the BB and he snapped with KK and held. I was gutted that it had happened again. The big score just seemed to keep eluding me. I was down to 10k at 3k/6k. I was allin next hand UTG with AQ and held 3 ways for a treble up. I found 22 the next hand and got it allin again vs ATo. He flopped the world, turned the uberworld, but 22 were still winning. I shouted out for a “brrrrrickkkk” and sure enough, an offsuit 4 rolled off on the river. I shoved the next two hands and took down the blinds. I was back up to average. I open shoved AThh and the guy who had the KK vs my 99 snapped with AK. I had a decent rail behind me now and the atmosphere was great. However I was in bad shape here and needed to bink. The Kxx flop pretty much killed me. The Q turn gave me a gutter and we were all cheering for the Jack ball. Even a few of the dealers that had finished their shifts were railing and cheering for the Jack. It rolled in sure enough and massive cheers and high fives ensued. All table etiquette was lost, I’m ashamed to say. I did get completely wrapped up in the moment – it was awesome. I think I went on to the final table with 450k, 45minutes after having 10k. We did a deal 4 ways; I was equal chip leader and got £3.9k.
It was not only a massive boost to my roll and confidence but just an amazing way to finish the year and head back home for Christmas. It was wicked having a rail behind me and it has inspired me to play tournaments far more often this year.
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