Poker : Home Tournament : November 2008

It's not quite "end of term" yet, but the game tonight had a end-of-term joviality to it for some reason (I only had 1 beer!) but was great to be in that atmosphere.

My poker night started well also as I got Pocket Q first hand, raised got 4 callers (no one respects me anymore!) and hit trips with a Q high rainbow flop. Even more lucky was that Sean decided to call my all-in with nothing, and apart from a brief scare of runner-runner flush was given a comfortable stack to play with.

Lucky for me as I didn't get many cards after that and started to get blinded down, but had plenty of time.

Our table was quite solid with not all that many rebuys, but on the other table Mick seemed to be grabbing more chips every hand !

As the blinds went up, I got involved in a hand where it looked like I was good on the flop (can't remember the exact details now), so managed to get all the chips in but Steve had me well dominated and I needed a ten to save me.....it came on the river and was suitably embarrassed as I gleefully raked in the large pot :-)

Luck always evens out and I later lost an even bigger hand to Derek. I had K9 on a KTx flop. Derek called my all in bet with AT but hit his A to take my stack

As the blinds were going up and we were approaching the last rebuy time, I got dealt K9h and decided to go for it. Unfortunately I got called by Sean and Steve (I think) who had KJ and KQ respectively. Needing a 9 or lots of Hearts, I got lucky again and a third Heart came on the river to give me around 2500 chips as we went to the break !

It had been an exciting night for me and my last hand was no exception.... my A6 on the blind looked a bit light to bet on the flop of 245 but the turn of 3 gave me the straight hit and so made a large pot sized bet. Derek called me and despite the flush coming on river pushed his remaining chips in. Feeling obliged to call, he showed his flush to leave me with 100 chips (with the BB at 200 !) Two hands later I was in the BB and Sean K3 took my KJ out when he rivered trips and I finished 9th.

One of my championship rivals Alex had also got knocked out just before me, so only Andy could mount a challenge for the title.

With 8 players left we were down to the final table. Mick got knocked out my Lee and then quickly went on to put Andy to an all-in decision. Deciding he was ahead Andy called... and was ahead! With Lee needing a ten to win the hand, sure enough it came on the turn and Andy was out in 7th place..... meaning I cannot be caught and have won the 2008 League :-)

Lee, Bill and Derek all had dominating chip stacks so it was inevitable that the others quickly got swallowed up, despite some valiant attempts to survive.

Bill made an all-in lunge at the top but unfortunately his bluff was called by Derek and it was down to the final two.

The heads up battle didn't last all that long. Derek had a huge chip lead but both players were playing it tight and it needed both to hit something to see the final showdown.... and we were not long in waiting. With the blinds at 1000/500 Lee raised on a flop of 92x all diamonds which Derek re-raised all-in. Lee called and shows Ad with a Q Derek had 9-2 (two pair) Lee thought it was his when he hit the nut flush on turn, but river came with a 9 to give Derek a hard fought victory

Phew what a night, the chips were flying around and everyone seemed to be involved...

The final battle of the year is only a month away, and should be a cracker so don't miss it !!