Brighton. Lovely place. Again the plan is to drive up Friday morning for a couple of nights. I pick up Dan (Ward) from Market Harborough at 8am and set off. Despite only getting a few hours sleep after watching Harry Potter with Esme and Kieran (it is awesome, going with Rio to watch it again tomorrow) I feel surprisingly fresh. It's my turn to be designated driver and for some reason I just don't like driving long distance. I mean Brighton is only 3 hours away but I consider that 2 hrs and 30 mins too long for me. Maybe it's because I've always slept long journeys. Any type of travel and I'm asleep within 5 mins and up 5 mins before we get there. It's an uncanny talent I have.
We arrive at the hotel around 11.30am and we see if we can get an early check in. Unfort it's not possible at present but ask us to come back a little later and they'd see what they can do. Parked the car outside which is 4.70 a day. Quite cheap for Brighton I think so we're pretty pleased with ourselves. Head for brekkie on the sea front. It was a beautiful, hot. Sun shining, sky blue, sea gleaming. This is the life.
Head back to hotel who allow to check in shortly after 1. Quick shower and we walk up the seafront again. The venue is just a 10 min walk up. We arrive just after two with tourney in full swing. I sit down at my first table which looked fairly mixed.
Seat 1: Tightish guy but seemed to know what he was doing
Seat 2: cockney- hilar bad and didn't mind saying what he thought in pots. More on him later
Seat 3: Again tight but very loose with 20 bigs or less
Seat 4: Oldish guy- very bad. Serial peeler
Seat 5: Chris Dowling. Never played with him before but has had some pretty impressive results on this tour. Very good
Seat 6: David Rudling Smith- Rudders's son. Has a good future in the game if he can learn some live rules
Seat 7: Me
Seat 8: Will Fry. Haven't played with Will much but I know he's decent.
Seat 9: Spewy guy who peel/played too many hands
Seat 10: Tightish guy but listening to him at the table he knew what he was doing.
Table played pretty loose mainly due to seat 2 who wanted to play every hand and try bluffing every pot. Him and seat 9 got into a pot where Seat 2 c/raised turn multi way on an
board and got one caller in seat 9. He then bet 2/3 pot on a
river and was called pretty quickly by seat 9 who turned over Jacks to scoop. Seat 2 did not look amused, waited a full 5 mins before then saying to seat 9 in the thickest accent ever "So Wat did you put me on in that hand then to call with Jacks?" Everyone smiled. Was a true live tournament moment.
I was keeping out of the shenanigans. It was going crazy. Will Fry limped as did seat 9. Cockney makes it 225 at 25/50. Chris dowling calls. Back to will who now makes it 1650. I'm 99% confident Will doesn't have anything here and when everyone folds sure enough he shows the 63 off suit.
I'm on around 12k having seen a few flops but not really connecting. One hand I peel an utg raise from Chris with 108ss. Cockney calls as does BB. Board is 972 rainbow. Checked to me I bet. Cockney calls. Turn is a 6. Weeeeeeeee. I bet again knowing Cockney can't resist. River is a 10. Bollox. Least I can polarize my range here (or basically turn my hand face up to anyone who has a clue) I bet full pot and he snaps. I'm pretty annoyed when he turns over Q8. I look at the flop again and shake my head slightly "I was floating you on the flop" he says. I just laugh and shake me head.
Cockney opens mp and c/off calls. I peel KQdd and board comes
. Cockney bets and I call.
and he bets again. I call again. River is
and I check and he now fires 2k. It's pretty much a sigh call for me cos I don't think I can ever fold this hand to him. Having said that it's pretty likely he has it this time and sure enough he has the Ace King. I slump back a bit and look at my 8k stack at 100/200. The grind is on....