Golden Sands £500 main event.

What can I say?

Fantastic tournament!

Apart from being juice free, this £500 comp was a 2 day event with BOTH days commencing at 3pm, meaning you got a decent sleep before returning to day 2 - well for those who dont sit in the cash games afterwards! (more about that later)

120 or so entrants, 10000 starting stack, 45 minute clock AND a decent blind structure including 75-150 and 150-300, and a running ante.

Superb comp with soooo much play. Day one saw me with a big decision on level 2. I am on the button with AA and there are 4 limpers. I make it 600 and get 4 callers! eek!!
Flop is K 2 5 with two spades. The SB then bets out 1500, and it is folded to me and I make it 3000. He calls. Turn comes 7 spades and he goes all in for 5250. If I call here and loose I am on 525 chips!!
Thought process?? I think he has K x - x being 10, J or something similar. Possibility he has a baby flush, I have the Ace spades which does make my decision a little easier. After a little deliberation I say "I dont see how I can pass this hand" and then "call".
On their backs and he does indeed have K 10. So a nice double up early on.
From there I never looked back and by level 5 I had 42k - must of been c/l at this point.
I then had a couple of accidents and went back down to 20k, then to 38k, then back to 12k!!
Eventually I finished day one on 44k (av of 30k) with 34 others.

Day 2 and I just could not get going at all, all I was doing was surviving around the 36k mark when down to 3 tables (21 players) I have to play the BB and SB and release both of them . Blinds at this stage are 1500 3000 with a 300 running ante. So now I have the button and a little breathing space to find a good spot, when they break the table and we go to 2 tables of 10 - a very strange decision as 18 were getting paid.
I get moved straight into the BB!! So after just posting 5100 in the blinds and ante's I am looking at posting ANOTHER 5100 in the next 2 hands!!!
The luck of poker eh?
I suppose I should of known at this point that I was destined NOT to make the money. I had to release my BB so now I am small blind with 26.5k back. It is folded round to me and I have A 8. The BB has circa 80k and I think if I shove he would probably call with a huge range of hands so I decide to show immense strength and raise it 10k more. (Leaving myself 14k back)
The BB announces "All in". Not what I wanted to hear!
Now I am faced with a big decision. Fold leaving myself with 14k, or call and hope I am not a huge dog.
I wanted to fold, but with the blinds as big as they were, I would need to double up twice to get to the 70k that this pot was now worth. So playing for the win and not to place I decide to call and "gamble".
He flips over 88 - my worse nightmare (apart from AA of course). I am resigned to going out just before the money again when the dealer flops an Ace high flop!!
Result!! I think, until the dealer turns the CASE 8 :(

So thats now 3 major tourneys, have played really well and had a good position to push for a decent final table cash, only to see it go up in smoke.

Always look on the bright side though, finishing 20th I didnt bubble! lol

Not a bad weekend though, including the travel costs, I ended up a £1k thanks to the cash games.

I will DEFINATELY play another one of these events - superbly run and well structured.

Next stop - APAT in Luton this weekend.