THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS.......
After finishing 8th in the Virgin Festival, little did I know that success in that tournament was only the beginning of a week that previously I could only have only "Dared to dream" about.
I sat down on Thursday July 3rd to play in the Latvian Open and after twice hitting runner-runner flushes when behind, I somehow found myself crowned Champion around midnight to take down a $240 prize but more importantly, my first ever APAT medal AND Title.
Now while a lot of you cynical people out there would say that winning an online Title is devalued by the lack of numbers in the field, the tourney still has to be won and I am proud to be able to say that I am now a Champion and that I have realised one of the goals that I set myself at the start of 2008 - namely to win an APAT medal. Anyone who enters any of these APAT events would gladly trade places with me today as we ALL play with the ultimate goal of winning in mind.....and you can only attempt to finish ahead of all the opponents infront of you, be it 4 or 444.
After throwing my arms up in the air and doing my best Meg Ryan impersonation (Yes, Yes,......YESSSSSSSSSS !!! ) I carried on playing in my 2nd tourney of the night, a $25 freezeout on Laddies, which had the added touch of being played on their all new improved software. Well lo and behold, 2 hours after becoming Latvian Open Champion I was claiming my 2nd first place of the night, winning a tidy $1050.....the first time I have EVER won back-to-back tourneys on the same night (This poker lark is easy !)
I had the day off on Friday so that on Saturday July 5th I would go to my "Home" venue of the Grosvenor Casino Walsall feeling supremely confident as I contested the PokerPlayer Championship Leg 2. This would be a £50 buy-in with 10,000 starting chips, a 30-minute clock and a field limited to 100 runners. Could I make it a Hat-Trick of First places ?
Well the tourney began quietly for me until I got involved in a monster pot that ended up being strangely similar to one that I was involved in in Nottingham last week.....on that occasion I layed-down a flopped flush.
This time I made an attempted button-steal with
td
but a young guy who had played back at me on a couple of previous occasions was having none of it on his BB and called my raise.
The flop came down
jd
which he checked and when I made a continuation bet, he called.
The turn brought
which gave me a pair to go with my flush draw. This time he bet out and I called. The river brought
:
:
which completed my flush. He checked and I bet 1500 to take the pot up to 2800, but he came right back at me by doubling my bet to 3000. Off came my "Uniform" of sunglasses and cap and I went into the tank. What could he have ? He had checked the flop yet bet out on the turn and now check-raised me on the river. His play where he bet out on the turn didnt suggest to me that he was holding one of the 3 diamonds that could be beating me and if he did have a big hand, I couldn"t see it being good enough to beat my flush and so, I told him "I folded in a similar situation to this last week and was proved right. Today I think folding would be the wrong play. I call "
He smiled and said "Well played" as he turned over
He had missed his open-ended straight draw and didn"t even have a pair. "I thought I could get you off it with a re-raise" he said. Thankfully, this week, as with last week, I managed to read the situation correctly and make the right decision (Is there a better feeling in this game ?) and was rewarded by suddenly having 15,000 chips, despite not having having had a higher pair than 8-8.....and I FOLDED THEM !
I continued to play reasonably well and was feeling very confident, especially when I finally began to get a few hands, although my old Nemesis A-Q continued to get me into a little trouble as I lost 2 races against pairs and also lost to A-K once, although the one time I did win with it I beat A-K to send one guy to the rail. (I must ask Swinebag how to play A-Q !)
As we reached the bubble, we had 6 players on our table when I looked down at A-5 in the SB. It was folded to me and I pushed all-in against the tight lady in the BB to my left who was trying to limp into the money slots. "I have to call" she said.....and turned over A-K !! Losing that hand would have lost me about 20% of my stack, having earlier called an all-in after, MUCH deliberation, for 38,000 chips and leaving myself with 68,000 after A-K dominated my........A-Q !!. This time my luck was in though as a 5 fell on the turn to take us to the Final Table and leave myself with a very healthy stack of around 90,000 chips.
FINAL TABLE (With apologies to the Rolling Stones !) So
SURPRISE SURPRISE, here we were at a second straight Final Table at a big tourney in successive weekends.
ANYWAY YOU LOOK AT IT it could be a
LONG LONG WHILE before that happens again. These are
GOOD TIMES at the moment and poker"s
HAND OF FATE is being dealt to me and
EVERYTHING IS TURNING TO GOLD. But when it"s all over, will I be doing the
CASINO BOOGIE tonight or will I be left
SAD,SAD,SAD ?
NEW FACES were moved to our table including, in seat 4, a Jimmy Carter lookalike, while to my left was one Michael Jagger....the inspiration for this little blog-entry.
With the
LUXURY of 90k in chips infront of me, the action began quickly and with a few short-stacks now at the table, I thought "
IT WONT TAKE LONG before some of these are
GOING HOME "
It was time to
HOLD ONTO YOUR HAT as almost every 4 or 5 hands another player was
OUT OF TIME and
SLIPPING AWAY to the bar, left
SHATTERED at the
ROUGH JUSTICE this game can give out.
I picked up Q-Q and A-K to take out a couple of players, one of whom was in George Bedi"s party and had
GOTTA GET AWAY to Dusk Till Dawn for the big comp there.
Suddenly I was chip-leader. "
YOU CAN"T CATCH ME" I thought. "I"ve got you
UNDER MY THUMB & now
I WONT HOLD BACK and
SPARKS WILL FLY"
The real
HOT STUFF at this table now though was Mick Jagger as he astonishingly picked up A-A in successive hands to leave 2 more players
HIGH AND DRY and BEGGING FOR
MERCY MERCY.
"
LOOK WHAT YOUV"E DONE" I said "
LITTLE BY LITTLE you are catching me up.
I WISH I"D NEVER MET YOU"
Three-handed I had 240k of the 440k in play with Mr Jagger
COOL,CALM AND COLLECTED on 120k and Jimmy Carter the short-stack on about 80k.
APAT friends & fellow Walsall locals were coming & giving me words of support during a short break. "
YOU CAN MAKE IT IF YOU TRY" said one. "You got him by the
SHORT AND CURLIES" said another.....but would I end up taking the
CONGRATULATIONS or would it be me with the
EMPTY HEART ?
Well after a day of solid play I managed to blow it all in just two hands & left myself
CRACKING UP & in need of
EMOTIONAL RESCUE. With blinds at 5k / 10k I raised Mr Carter to 30k with my 4-4. "
PLEASE GO HOME" I thought....
I AIN"T TO PROUD TO BEG", but he pushed all-in for his last 73k.
If I call I am hoping he ain"t got a pair but we would be racing at best I could end up
PRETTY BEAT UP if I lose.
THE LAST TIME I was in this situation I decided to
PLAY WITH FIRE and paid for it.
"
WHAT TO DO ?"
I ALMOST HEAR YOU SIGH ?
"
I CAN"T BE SATISFIED with a race.
I AM WAITING for
SOMETHING BETTER" I said, and folded.. Jimmy seemed
HAPPY as he showed an Ace.
LAUGH, I NEARLY DIED.
"
YOU BETTER MOVE ON" I said to myself and decided to get those lost chips back immediately with a button steal on the very next hand. Looking down at
ts
I raised it to 25k......but Jagger called me. I guess
YOU CAN"T ALWAYS GET WHAT YOU WANT in this game.
The flop came
qs
& I took the
FIGHT to him with a 30k bet after he had checked. "I have the Queen....
HONEST I DO.
IF YOU REALLY WANNA BE MY FRIEND you will fold" I screamed inside. But I guess I was
LOSING MY TOUCH as he check-raised me to 75k, forcing me to fold.
WHAT A SHAME....but it"s
NO USE IN CRYING over spilt milk......until the reality of losing 85k in just 2 hands hit me. I was no longer chip-leader !
My head was spinning
AROUND AND AROUND at my loss of focus & it seemed like
100 YEARS AGO that I had those 240k in chips.
Jagger eliminated Mr President soon afterwards & so we went to heads-up with him holding 260k to my 160k. It would be a
HEARTBREAKER to lose this from such a strong 3-handed position but I wouldn"t mind
WINNING UGLY if it meant I was the
SOLE SURVIVOR.
I had the worst possible start to the final showdown, getting hands like 2-6, 3-8 and 4-9 & pretty soon it was all-in or fold time. On my 3rd push, Mick Jagger called my
kd qd
with his
ts
"
COME ON!" I screamed, but with all my nerves
TORN AND FRAYED, the flop came down
th
:
:
and so that was me
BACK TO ZERO.
"
IT"S ALL OVER NOW" I said, without seeing the turn and river.....but I would be a
FOOL TO CRY as the £950 2nd prize was my biggest-ever cash......and it was great that my wife was there to see it.
"
THINK, she said "£950 is not
THE WORST thing that could happen to you and at least
YOU GOT THE SILVER"
That was very true, but the £1700 first prize, plus trophy, plus Title, plus entry into a 7-handed £2500 guaranteed tourney with a GUKPT Final £3150 seat for the winner.......would have been better.
And I know it was mine for the taking !
P.S. I make that 72 Rolling Stones song titles....congratulations to Michael Jagger and good luck in the final mate.
