As you may know my form's been great. February 2006 has been my best ever month both online but particularly Live.
Figures are immaterial but its been a huge confidence booster as I have worked hard at my game, very hard and put in the hours both playing and studying to improve from a decent part time player into, I hope, a consistently profitable full time player. Confidence is especially important to me because, unlike in a lot of other areas, I do lack a bit of natuaral confidence in my poker game.
This study and aim to improve is partly out of necessity and partly because whenever in life I do something I do it to the full. My bookshelves are full of manuals and texts on a variety of subjects and are testament to the fact that when I have a hobby or pastime, I get to know it well!
Anyway, I wanted to play my rush and wanted a game last night.
I had heard of a good freezeout at The Sportsman Casino near Marble Arch in London which had been attracting some of the Luton crowd.
The Sportsman is a smart upper end London Clubs casino, with a gaming floor and a 60 seater poker room below next to a restaurant. What an experience! A fully comped two course meal for all poker players and staff that pulled out all the stops to make the customer feel wanted.
As I sat eating my Lamb Rogan Josh my spirits rather fell as in trooped a succession of Poker's great and good that were going to be my opposition for the night....
Willie Tann...uh huh. Bambos Xanthos...uh huh....Neil Channing...uh huh....Carlo Citrone....uh huh....Racing Ronnie....uh huh...Ian Woodley....uh huh....Steve Bovis...uh huh.....and on and on it went.
At 8pm 63 of us sat down to the comp, 30 minute clock, 4000 chips and by 2am I was in the final....37k chips against 25k average and still feeling slightly overawed.....
Seven left and a key hand occurs
A player with 30k chips raises to 9k (blinds 1500-3000) and the Small blind goes all in from the Small blind for 18000
I look down at QQ in the BB. Over the top, all in
The original raiser calls. Eek
and we go to the flop with the following hands
(raiser)
(small blind)
Get in there
only for me to see an 8 hit the turn and a 6 hit the river
blimey! I was crestfallen and was left with 9k with blnds of 1500-3000 and clearly the shortstack
This is where temperament comes in. A quick count to 20, think of something else, refocus, and carry on. Patience, no chucking it in unneccesarily and recover
To cut a long story short, one double up with Kings and hitting a draw against a pair later I was four handed, and went on to win the tournament. Again, I am not quoting money, suffice to say it mattered!
What got me, and really made me believe that I might have something to offer this game, was when one of the players above, a big name legend, who I shall leave nameless came up to me afterwards.
He had been watching the final table from start to finish as it had a protege of his on it. He asked me my name and said to me
"it was terrific to see you knuckle down and carry on after the bad beat. Many players would have just thrown their chips in on a gamble and gone out next. It was great to watch"
I literally floated home up the M1
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