Sunday, March 11, 2007

Live Tourneys

This month (and last month) I have concentrated on Live Tourneys, and just used online for Cash.

Luton being my "Local" - now moved just down the road from the old place. What a venue this is now! The Casino itself looks very nice and the cardroom is just outstounding! All new tables with plenty of room around each one. All the tables are full 9 seater tables, the downside being in self deal tourneys, it is quite hard to deal on a full table. However, this is not too much of a problem, as someone usually nominates to deal for the whole table and sits in the dealers chair.

Luton also have a new Tourney schedule (thanks to the players committe), with some real good comps. The one's I have decided to play are a £50 one rebuy OR add on (Wednesday) with 5000 starting chips and 30 minute clock, the £75 F/O (Friday) with 5000 chips and either 45 or 30 minute clock and Sundays, which rotates from a £100 p/l, £100 n/l, £100 rebuy and a £250 f/o. The sunday comps are usually 7000 chips with a 45 minute clock.

These tourneys are proving popular, and no wonder given those structures!

I played my first tourney here for a while, the £50 one rebuy or add on, and made the final table where I nursed my short stack to take it heads up - I lost the heads up and took 2nd for a nice £1180.

End of February saw me play the £75 f/o where I was struggling and found myself with just 2050 chips with blinds at 100 200. I am UTG with 99 and decide this is the hand and raise it to 900. 3 people AFTER me decide to ALL go all in. Now I know I am behind, but cannot pass. Sure enough I am up against AK, AA and KK.
Flop bought a 9 and I quadrupled up!
From there I progressed nicely until 2 tables were left (14 of us I think) and I have 35000 and am bullying the table. I am in early position and find J Q o/s and decide I am going to raise (again!), as I am counting out my chips, the guy behind me says "call" and puts in the BB of 600. He is forced to take back this bet as I have not yet acted. I announce "raise" and make it 2500. The guy THEN decides he wants to move all in for 30,000! He is told that he cannot do that as he acted out of turn and now can only call my raise, which he does.
Now I think I am in very bad shape here and ask the dealer to "flop me a good one as I seriously need help!"
Out comes the flop - 9 10 K - I flop the nuts!!
I am deciding what to do here, and as I am thinking, the guy again acts out of turn and says "All in". This was music to my ears, and I was pretty sure that if I checked, then his all in would stand. I checked and his all in did stand which I obliged and took down a nice pot. This saw me to the final table where I again make final table, this time with plenty of chips and it was soon heads up. I was determined to win this one and I was a 2-1 chip disadvantage. But with blinds of only 2000 4000 there was PLENTY of play left.
The other guy offered an even chop. Now although tempting - given the money situation , but I wanted to "win" my first live tourney so I declined the offer. This proved to be a good move as I went on to win the tourney outright for £1600.

Special mention to my buddy, Alex Martin. Me and Alex swap 15% of each other when we play at Luton at the same time, so he has made £300+ from me in 2 comps. Not bad for him.

Even better for him was the 2 times I did not goto Luton, he went on and won BOTH times!! So if I had gone to Luton those 2 nights, he would of owed me £500.

To be fair to Alex, I have given him alot of stick about this, he tried to give me £50 as he felt guilty, I declined the offer though.

Following those 2 returns in the same week, I then played the £100 f/o on the Sunday and was looking for 3 good cashes in a row. Things started off nicely and with 3 tables left I had around 20k, but then had an "accident" and lost half my stack.
Now with 10,000 and blinds of 400 800 (soon to goto 600 1200) I find 10 10 in early position and raise it up to 3000. All fold round to the BB who announces "all in" . He has circa 25K and although I do not like the call, I cannot fold in this situation. Sure enough he had KK and out I went.

One final note on live play, I am also playing in the £250 n/l table after the comps, where I am approx £800 up in the 4 times I have played.

All in all a good February, winning online, 2 nice cashes from live tourneys, and also winning in live cash games.

Long may this spell of "form" continue!!

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