Clear Skys and then the Sky fell in.Really enjoyed the day at the G Casino Luton for the Sky Poker Tour. 160+ runners with a 5k starting stack and 30 minute blinds. Had a quick catch up with Tighty and met up with Rich Baker and Dai, got my seat draw. Table 16, Seat 8. Last table, so probably first to break (Errr, wrong, would be last to break), not a problem though, shouldn"t be too tough a table.
Sat in seat 8, I had Team Sky Poker player Glitterbabe to my right. To his right was Julian Thew. To his right was James Hartigan. FML.
Really enjoyable table though. We were quickly made the feature table on the live stream, and away we went. Little to report in the first two levels. Won a couple of pots and was upto 6k.
Then got it allin preflop against Julian. AK v AQ. He"d been running quite good at the table, so everyone was quite shocked that he didn"t hit his queen outs. So, upto 12k, and get it allin preflop again with AK. This time against James Hartigan for his tourney life. James has KQ, and although we both made a flush, my ace of clubs was a nice comfort against his queen of clubs.
Now on 19k, and got three times average. I get another one allin preflop against a 5k stack. Pocket Jacks up against Ace Ten. Board comes AAxTx. Nothing wrong with it, just unlucky.
I then play Ace Four of clubs. I wasn"t completely happy with the way I played it, but actually it probably wasn"t that bad. Blinds were 300/600, folded round to me on the button. I raise to 1750, big blind calls. Flop comes out with two clubs. I bet out, BB calls. Blank on the turn. Big blind bets out, I reraise, BB flat calls and leaves himself about 2.5k back. River brings the killer club. Big Blind checks, I bet 2.5k, and eventually he reluctantly calls with his 9-10k stack now in the pot. I declare the nuts, and he just goes "oh".
Up to 25k, and that"s pretty much where I stayed for the next two hours. Just couldn"t find positions or cards. Tries a few steals that got played back on, managed to get a few through, but the levels passed, and before I knew it, I"d gone from three times average stack to less than average stack, but down to two tables.
Blinds were now 1.5k/3k/300. We are down to 19 players, and the top 17 are getting paid, with £220 a minimum cash. I"ve got 21k, average is now about 40k. If I can get a double up, I"m convinced I can do some damage in the latter stages of this.
It folds round to me in mid position, and I have pocket eights. Having not seen anything for ages, the temptation is to much not to ship it in. The player to my left pretty much instantly declares allin. Folds round the rest, and I"m up against poclet queens. A quiet "One Time Please Dealer" under my breath, but out came a queen on the flop to kill any hopes. he just had me covered, so I departed in 19th place.
Thoroughly enjoyed the 7 hours of play. The structure is a bit brutal, but means you have no option to play from the early stages. My problem is that I"d built a stack, but then didn"t push on. But the cards for those 2-3 hours were truly horrendous. I spent the last couple of hours with Dai Llewellyn to my right, and I"m sure he will vouch for all the Sighs and FFS every time I got dealt two cards. Dai managed to cash, so well played to that man.
All in all, it was a really enjoyable table to play poker on. I only actually had five showdowns in 7 hours.
AK v AQ ( For Tourney Life) - WON
AK v KQ - WON
JJ v AT - LOST
A4 v Mucked - WON
88 v QQ (For Tourney Life) - LOST
Don"t know where I get this ATC image from.
Many thanks to Tighty and Tikay and all the guys at Sky, who work very hard to make these events great fun. Not sure if I"ll play another one this season, don"t know if I can face the one day structure.
