The first game of the new Black Country Poker Club Premier League 1 was played on Thursday night.
Using the PokerStars "Home Games" format, 9 of the 12 registered players took part in Week One and the League began with a bang when the Stars sofware put everyone onto 2 tables as it has to allow for late registrations (even though there would be none !).
After early confusion, we all sat out until the admin could be contacted but once the late reg period had passed, we were off and running.
The first casualty was Tod Wood when on a
td board, he raised, Will Young re-raised and Tod shoved with
only for Will to flip ts tc and send Tod out with zero points.
We had a big pot develop on a jh
jd :
:
board and Andy Overton put a meaty 975 bet in on the river. Paul Foy made what he hoped was a hero call with ac
but Andy had ks js and moved into the chip-lead, leaving Paul desperately trying to get the Stars software to allow him to type a swear-word !!
Soon afterwards, Paul siezed his moment and shoved his qh qs in and was delighted to get a call from Tony Trippier holding ad jc ....that was until the flop came down ac kc
and Paul was out in 8th place.
We then saw what was probably the hand of the night.
On a board of jc
Will bet, Tony called and short-stacked Steve Redfern (installed by Ladbrokes as 5-2 Favourite to win the Premier League) shoved all-in. Chip-Leader Will re-shoved and Tony snap-called........
Steve had js tc for top pair, Will had
for bottom set while Tony put his tourney on the line with
for the straight flush AND straight draws. Steve had less than 6% equity in the hand but the
on the turn left Will a 2-1 favourite to eliminate Tony as well as Steve who was now out in 7th. But the river came to Tony"s rescue when a
dropped to complete his straight and to give him a big lead with 12k and put Will down to 2k.
Will got it all-in good once again with kh kd to Brian Yates"s ac ks but as always, the ad tc td board saw Will out in 6th to become the first points-scorer in BCPC Premier League history..even if it was only 1 point !
Tony"s lead would prove short-lived though, when on a board of js :as:
:
: Tony called Andy Overton"s all-in shove holding ah qd only to see Andy holding :
: :
: and he then took over the lead on 10k with Tony back to 7k.
Rob Hewlitt was now down to just 800 chips and looked set to exit when his shove with
was dominated by Tony"s ks
. The board of td :
: ad
was no help but the magical
kept Rob alive and left Tony firing expletives in his own inimitable way.
It was at this stage that the only non-BCPC live player in this Premier League, Aneurin Venables, was sat out for a long period. We believed it to be computer problems but rumours that he was servicing a few sheep were unconfirmed as we went to press
. As it was, everyone showed how friendly the BCPC is by gang-raping his blinds and so when he finally returned, he was down to around 800.
He quickly doubled-up though when a raise that was 27 chips shy of all-in got re-raised by Brian with ac qd . Aneurin flipped ah
and doubled-up (probably with laughter !).
Despite that great bit of play, in a blind-on-blind duel with Andy, Aneurin"s qd :
: was dominated by kc
and when they both missed totally, Aneurin exited in 5th for 2 points.
Tony and Andy were now contesting several pots and on a board of
js
td
both of them flipped Q-10 for the flopped nuts and split the pot.
But the next time that they clashed, short-stack Rob got involved too. The board showed
jc :
: ts and when Tony bet out, Andy raised and Rob shoved all-in. Tony then called and so did Andy.
Rob must have thought he was good on the flop holding
but exited with 5 pts in 4th place but Tony was holding ac :
: for the turned nut-flush.....but he had let Andy catch up and his th
gave him the winning full house and gave andy the 12k chip-lead while he dropped to 5k.
With all 3 players now in the money, Bri and Andy went to war on several occasions. First on a board of jd kd
Bri bet, Andy raised and Bri shoved, prompting Andy to tank then fold.
Then came a qc
flop and Andy bet, Bri raised and Andy shoved, forcing Bri to fold and slip to 6k while Andy held a dominant 16k and prompted Tony to coin the phrase "Folded like a Bri".
The 3rd clash was a close one but resulted in Bri regaining the chip-lead when his kd td was too good for Andy"s kh
on a ks :
: :
:
board.
Tony though had become the whipping boy and when he finally shoved his last 2k with kd td , Bri decided to call with
and got lucky on an amazing ac
flop to leave tony with $36 and 7 pts.
Bri now held a substantial 4-1 chip-lead heads-up over Andy but it proved a cagey battle and when Bri made a rare shove with tc jd Andy made the call with
and doubled-up to 7k.
He made further inroads and when he called another shove with tc th he looked set to grab the lead against Brian"s ah js when the flop came down
:
: kc but the jc hit on the turn Andy knew it was game over and so he had to settle for $54 and 9pts while Brian Yates was the week one winner, collecting $90 and 12 vital points.
The game, with 3000 chips and 15-minute blinds lasted 3:32 and was an excellent structure. Next Wednesday night sees the Premier League debuts of Clive Padden , Steve Bayliff and Mark Eagles while Steve Redfern, Tony Trippier and Andy Overton take a week off.
