I arrived at the Randolf hotal,venue for Oxford cup V,at 10:15 AM !,,having driven up from sussex accompanied by a pkt of chesse snips,and an apple pie!!.
I was directed to the ballroom whare the cup was to be held,along with the bar and extra room,as overfill......the place was packed,with student types,and a smattering of poker pros,and other leminaries of the poker world,meny that were making a return visit to the tournement.
Having failed,stupidly, to pre book my place,I was told that the list was full,and a reserve list had bagan to fill.I caught the eye of Tony Bernard MC again for the day, who ushered me throgh the trong,as a previous runner up,he made an exception for my foolhardy belief that there would be no chance that students would be up at this unearthly hour,and I was given my seat number.
After the nessasery anoucements,we were underway.
Curtis (Sherif fatman ) was the only person I knew on my table,and although the game was tight,it was friendly but in time, we were broken from the bar area, and moved to the main room.numerous unremarkable hands came and went,student on a one buyin policy started to stand up,the pros racked up re-buys with apparent abandon, whilst I saw nothing good till the add on.
We had a tight table so few rebuys,yet other tables had 'tower like chip stacks'....time to move,or I'm a gonner.KK seemed the right hand,spechily when my raise was matched then added to by a third player,till we were allin...KK,66,A7. no scares, and i'd tripled up just into the post re-buy segment.
We were broken again,and I was not to see all but one of them again.
I was moved from table 28 to 4,which ment a hazardus trip past the best part of 300,people left of the original 351 starters........As already stated this ment that the Oxford cup five was the biggest live tournement held in the UK in history......neat eh.
My healthy stack,took a knock from the player on the earlier table,but in time I got him back,when my AJ suited,faced his AK,I'd raised after a couple of callers. he reraised,putting me allin, i called,cos i needed chips,so it wasall or nothing,but the Jack on the river saved me again.
The tables,thinned,the blinds rose (great 1/2 hr clock),I limped along, break after break came and went....I took another knock when my latest raise was called by a student type with 72o,for all his chips.....and my AQ suited looked a bit forlorn as he rivered the mighty 2.
I'd been playing about 12 hours when finnally I was moved onto the last two tables...the four remaining students split the prize of £1000 for top finisher,I went card dead, but hung on winning blinds with the impressive 32o 73o etc,while it seemed meny of the players were trying for the final table.
By the way prize money went down to 27 places,27/18=£100 17/10= £150, before the money rose through the top nine to £4790 for 1st place.
Our table down to five players,was jioned by a friendly as ever Simon (ACEs)Trumper,carrying TWO count them two racks of chips totalling approx 450,000 of the 1,920,000 chips in play.
I on the other hand had the healthy sum of 85,000,after yet more holding tightly on to my puny stack.
With 11 players left I was dealt my only AA with the raising machine (ACES) in the big blind,
It was yet again folded round to me as everyone feared simon's huge stack!!!,i raised 50,000 leaving 35,000 to slam in when i got the inevitable raise to put me allin........but no, mucho respecto by St,sees him fold.
We were now hand for hand,when again in the small blind v big blind repeat with simon, i got 88. I dwelled my bestest Dwell,when i noted there was a three waypot on the othe table.....two allins v big stack, simon commented he knew what i was waiting for,and kindly failed to put the clock on me........"That's it final table"was the cry, and i kept my powder dry and passed the eights.
The final table bagan soon after.........three small stacks two with slightly better prospects, andfour biggy stacks,sat down serrounded by friends and others watching from the rails.
un fortunatly the tale has no happy end for me,and after going card dead yet again,i limped out a creditable 7th place A4 v AJ. for £490.
I cannot bring you the full result,as after my Rhowena moment, I left with my ceque, for the long drive home.
Meny thanks toall those who helped make Oxford cup 5 a great success, including,in no order......Joe Barnard, Tony Barnard, Roy Haughton,Eric engles, all the chip runners the staf at the hotal, all the Pros, who put in an apperance,and notably Simon Trumper, who was near chip daddy when i left,I hope you went on to do well.
And finnally the student who made the final table,plus the others who all put on a great game.
Author