Day One
Seat Draw
After the seats were drawn I hurried over with everyone else to see who I’d be sitting with, only to find that I wasn’t on the list! Minor shock! The Maybury staff soon sorted this out, though, and I got seated at table 4, in the middle of the main poker room. I was happy to see a couple of Maybury regulars to my left, with Arshad Hussain and another UK pro (Rumit Somaiya) to the left of them.
My Table
Two players at my table bust out on the first level, donking their chips off to Ash, who was up to around 24k. It became evident that the guy to my right, George McKeever, was a strong player. He was playing good small-ball poker, raising a lot of pots pre-flop and taking down pots when people were showing weakness. He chipped up to around 15k in the first few levels without getting involved in any big pots. Had a look on his Hendon Mob on the Saturday night and he’s been playing poker for ages, he even cashed the 1987 WSOP main event. Legend!
So the table was pretty good, I wanted 1 big name pro which I got. A couple more lesser known pros too, and the rest of the table were all pretty unknowns. I stuck pretty tight in the first few levels, probably played about 20% of hands. During which the following 2 hands occured, probably some of the most important during the first day.
Arshad Hussain TT
This is definitely one of the biggest hands of the tourney for me, and the first real pressure decision Iâve had to make in a high buy-in tourney.
Blinds: 100/200
Stacks: Baz-9k ~ Ash-23k
I hold black TT on the BB.
Preflop
1 fold, Ash 3.5x raises from UTG+1, 5 folds, Baz calls 500.
Heâs been raising from EP more than any other position, so I can widen his range a bit here.
Flop
Board: Qh Th 8h.
Pot: 1500
I check, Ash bets 700, Baz raises to 2000, Ash calls 1300.
My check-raise here was pretty dangerous. At the time I figured I had way the strongest hand and wanted to build the pot. I probably prefer leading for about 1200 here instead now, I really don’t want him checking behind to peel off a free heart. If he comes over the top i’ll be calling too.
Turn
Board: Qh Th 8h Ks.
Pot: 5500
Baz bets 2700, Ash pushes all-in, Baz calls 5100.
Ash: KcQd
Baz: TsTc
Ok first off i’m 90% sure he doesn’t have a flush here. His flop play is entirely consistent with a flopped flush, but there’s pretty much no way he’d shove at me on the turn if he had the flush.
His bet represents to me that heâs got a strong enough hand to think heâs ahead, maybe with a big heart too. So long as he doesnât have KK/QQ Iâve got outs to the boat, 88 is possible too. I think thereâs as much chance he has AK/AQ/KQ with a heart as there is AJ, getting 3/1 I make the call. I flip the tens, Ash taps the table and shows KQ no hearts and is drawing to just 4 outs.
I’m also 90% sure he’s confident that I don’t have the flush. My bet on the flop was defensive, if I had the flush I’d likely just call… if I raised it’d be a smaller raise.
River
Board: Qh Th 8h Ks blank!
Pot: 18100
Rumit S KK
In the next level I’m delighted to pick up KK after a MP player raises it up for me…
Blinds: 200/400
Stacks: Baz-18k ~ Rumit-16k
I hold KdKs on the SB.
Preflop
2 folds, Rumit raises to 1100 from MP1, 3 folds, Baz raises to 3000, BB folds, Rumit calls 1900.
He took his time calling, asking how much I had left before making the call.
Flop
Board: Ts 8s 3s.
Pot: 6400
Baz pushes all-in for 13k, Rumit folds.
I played it way too defensively. I had KK with the Ks. At the time I can remember being worried about giving him a draw to the As, or to an ace. I figured there was enough in the pot to take it down right now.
If I could play this one again Iâd bet 3500 for sure. If he shoved Iâd be worried about AA/TT, but he could also have QQ/JJ so Iâd have to make the call. I was too worried about being OOP and giving myself a tough decision if he came back over the top, or called. However, my hand here is way strong enough here heads up to stick out a regular sized bet.
Time to Steal
The blinds went up (200/400-25 & 300/600-50) and antes were introduced, there was now enough money in the pot preflop now to make stealing worthwhile. Surprisingly I actually found the 2 professional players the easiest to steal from. I was able to make use of tells of strength, including a good bit of table banter, while stealing from them to make myself appear comfortable and confident. Whether this made a difference or whether they just weren’t picking up cards I don’t know, but I didn’t have much of a problem picking up a set of blinds per orbit.
New Players – final 2 levels
I was sitting pretty at around 23k, just above average, with just the final 2 levels of the night to come. Then a couple of new players were moved in to my left: a Scottish player Gary Swan, who was a really nice guy, and eventual 5th place finisher Steve Jelenik. Steve was an aggressive player and defended his big blind really well by calling raises preflop raises that came from steal positions then playing tricky post-flop. This made it difficult for me to make steal moves, Ash was pretty low at this point too (at around 7-8k), so I was really having to commit myself to a steal. Also, in the last half hour of the first day a lot of the pros were extremely aggressive making moves to either go home or have a decent stack on day 2. Unfortunately for the last 2 hours I just didn’t pick up hands. I was really cold carded and instead of playing aggressively like I would have like the situation didn’t allow it.
How not to play JJ
The only hand I did pick up was JJ when the blinds were 500/1000 nearing the end of the last level. An internet qualifier min-raised from UTG, I had 12k left and was in MP2 with JJ, I should have put him in right there. My m was low enough at this point to need to push that hand, but I worried that his min-raise mean’t AA/KK and cold-called instead. Cold calling 2k with a 12k stack wasn’t very smart, especially with JJ which would be very difficult to play post-flop. When Ash and Rumit came into the pot behind me I knew I was in trouble unless I flopped the J.
The flop came Q84, the EP pre-flop raiser checked. I felt that to bet into an 11k pot at this stage with 10k left in my stack I’d either be committing myself, or makign a weak bet and possibly crippling myself. Although the texture of the board was good I had 2 players still to act behind me, and the EP player who’s play was still consistent with AA/KK. I checked, check, check behind me. Flop brings a 5, EP player bets 5k, everyone folds, he shows 66. I fold to the end of the day knowing I should have re-shoved preflop with my jacks instead of worrying about AA/KK.
Day 1 End
Finished at around 4am, and I was back to my starting stack of just 10k, putting me in 44th place out of the 45 that made it to day 2. I was really happy to be coming back for day 2, and I play really good crapshoot poker as i’m a turbo SNG player so I was confident I knew exactly where and when to get aggressive at these stages.
With the blinds at 750/1500-150 in day 2 I would absolutely need to push before the BB hit me, and try to double through before the next level. Fortunately I got home and logged into the aworldofpoker.com website which had chip counts for each of the tables. From this I singled out the 2 points which would be best for stealing, and decided I’d had to move at one of them regardless of my cards.
Pretty cool free gift bag thing everyone got too. Got a t-shirt, really nice GBPT card protector, pin badge, deck of cards, pen, keyring, etc! None of which i’ll probably ever use… Score!
Day Two
Tourney Banter
A half 2 start on day 2 and I get there early to take a look at them setting up the TV final table. It’s damn cool. Big 8 seater with hole card cams, cool chairs, etc. The best thing about arriving early though was getting to chat to a few of the other players. Everyone I spoke to at the tournament was really nice, and I really enjoyed meeting a lot of other players. I spoke to one guy that qualified for the tourney for just $2(!!!) online by playing a series of 5 or 6 satellites, and other plays who play high stakes cash game onlines. Talked to the tourney director, Liam Flood, too which was cool.
Anyways, on to the action. I get dealt trash on the first 2 hands, then pick up K8s in my first steal position, I shove and everyone folds, picking me up to 13k.
My 2nd victim
I plan to shove from UTG with any reasonable hand, but unfortunately a player gets busted the hand before it, and I’m pissed off and on the BB. UTG Gary Swan pushes all-in for his last 5k, blinds are 750/1500-150a. Folds around to me in the BB with a 13k stack, with an m of just under 4. I look down at A8o and figure he’s gonna be pushing pretty wide, I’m confident I’m ahead of his range here, and make the call. He flips J9o. I flop the ace and my hand holds up. Iâm up to 18k but still need to push hard.
Iâm delighted to see El Blondie carrying his chips across to our table, he sits down 1 to my right and has about double the average stack. A new player sits down on my right also.
3rd victim
The next orbit itâs folded to me in MP2, I look down at QQ. The 3 stacks to my left are all about average, the BB is Rumit, heâs short with only about 5k left after being crippled in a previous hand. With 3.5k in the pot before I bet I figure heâs calling with pretty much anything, so I ask how much he has left and take my time before pushing all-in for ~16k. He calls with K6s, my queens hold, and Iâm up to 23k!
This is the real high point of the day for me. Iâve just bust 2 players, over doubled my stack from the start of the day, and have El Blondie at my table. I also know that the guys from aworldofpoker.com are updating their forum with the details of me busting one of the bigger players left in the tourney. So Iâm feeling pretty good⦠CUE DISASTER!
My Final Hand
Another orbit passes and Iâve got about 19k, the blinds have now went up to 1000/2000-200a. With an m of 4 I’m open-pushing a wide range again. I pick up AQs on the button, folds around the cutoff who 3x raises. Iâve only seen him play an orbit as heâs just moved to our table, I donât think heâs played a hand yet. I know with an m of 4 and 4600+6000 in the pot I canât fold. I contemplate it, but know Iâll have to push before the BB hits me and figure pushing here is my better option. The raiser has 25k, so Iâve got some good fold equity here too.
I shove it in, the blinds fold, at which point he doesnât realise itâs on him to act. I figure Iâm probably at least a flip as heâs taking so long to call, then he realises itâs him to act and insta-calls with AK. Flop comes AAK!! …and Iâm drawing dead. As Colclough pointed out it would have made a good bad beat story if I had just called preflop, but i’m still shoving AQs there every day of the week. A couple of hand shakes and good lucks and Iâm out of there, satisfied with my overall performance but naturally questioning my AQ play.
Conclusion
The tourney way surpassed what I’d expected from my first bigger buy-in event. I played really good poker, and didn’t feel outclassed at any stage. The people really made the tourney for me. I’m used to playing online and to have the interaction and the banter from the tables was just fantastic. Each of the individual characters and styles was evident from their appearances right down to the way they stacked their chips. You just don’t get that playing online.
I managed to factor the money out of my thinking completely, and purely concentrated on decision making. Although I was a bit too excited for the first couple of levels, to be playing in a tourney with a lot of my poker heroes, I settled down into the rest of the tourney really well.
I look forward to playing a lot more of these in the future when i’ve got a bigger bankroll, for now it’s back to the $27 turbos and £30 live tourneys. But now i’ve got a lot more direction, determination, and experience.
All in all not a bad weekend for £40 
Cashed 3/3 tonight, so that’s a great confidence booster.
