At last the night of the Satellite Tournament “The Invitation Cup” Final table has come, everyone is keen to get cracking and the tension is mounting as people take their seats….
The first hand of the first level and everyone starts out quite cagey. The flop comes 2-3-A (2 hearts) with three out the eight players still in. The 8h comes on the turn and everyone checks, but the Jh on the river sees Sean all-in !! Alex and Roger fold, but Sean shows his nut flush (so wasn’t a mad move after all :-) )
The first level is pretty tight, with a lot of calling and checking and most people having something half decent on the showdowns… for example a flop of T-6-5 (rainbow) sees everyone check, Darren bets 200 into a 100 pot when a 9 comes and Sean, Karen and Derek call. We get a bit of action when an A comes on the river, with Darren betting 500 and only Sean calls with A, but Darren has A-T
Level 2 is much the same, but some risks are being taken…. on a board of 8-8-9-9 Martin bets 1000 into Derek who folds, showing 6-6 Martin shows Q-J !
Level 3 sees one of the first larger pots as Alex hits his straight to take some chips off Karen but restore himself to starting chip level (4000)
Level 4 sees Sean hit his flush again and take a good size pot, but the action is starting to come as Derek raises to 500 and Martin/Jon call. The T high flop is good enough for Derek to bet 1000 and takes it, showing QQ
On the first break, there has been a lot of tough playing, mostly tight. Roger has 2500 chips, with Jon on 4100, Sean 5000, Derek 5200, Karen 4000, Darren 4300, Alex 3300 and Martin on 3600 so not much in it at this stage
Level 5 is really where the fun starts, as the blinds are at 200/100 and some people need to catch up ! We suddenly see a spate of pre-flop raises but normally they take the pot there and then. Alex raises to 600 and takes pot, then Martin… then we have 4 players see an un-raised flop, but Derek bets 600 and takes it down. Then we see Martin and Alex take turns at raising and taking pot pre-flop again. Sean is obviously not being believed as his raise is called by Martin and we see a flop of 9-7-6 Martin checks and Sean bets 1000, but Martin responds by going all-in !! After a long think, Sean folds and sits there for several hands thinking about whether he made the right move or not…..
Martin is on form though as he manages to fold his A-Q against A-8 when the flop comes K-8-5
Sean is low on chips and the blinds are going up…. 4 people see flop of Q-T-5 Sean bets 1100 and only Martin calls. The turn of 9 sees Sean all-in for his last 1400 and is called again. Martin has J-9 to Sean’s J-T so Sean is way ahead ! Neither player improves so Sean survives and Martin is getting low on chips. Soon after, Martin raises and Sean and Karen call. The flop of K-8-5 sees Karen betting out 600, but Martin moving all-in. Sean quickly folds, but Karen thinks for a long time before calling with her K-9. Unfortunately for her, Martin has K-T and with A then 3 coming his better kicker holds up and is back in business, but Karen is now low stacked with 900 chips
Level 7’s sees the blinds at 500/300 and Roger calling all-in against Sean. Rogers J-8 against A-K doesn’t look good on the flop of 9-4-4 but J on the turn doubles up Roger
With the blinds on their way to her, Karen launches all-in with 2 callers. The board is Q-8-Q-8-A and Karen has Q-J so triples up ! Jon and Alex split the top pot
Martin has been pretty steady all night, so when he launches a 2000 attack pre-flop he takes it down. Couple of hands later his aggression pays off when on the BB with J-4 sees a Q-4-2 flop. Alex, Martin and Sean all check, but another Q on the turn sees Martin bet 1500 and Sean re-raise all-in, but Martin call ! Sean has A-6 so was only slightly more optimistic than Martin, but the blank on the river sees Martin take a huge stack of chips and take Sean out first
Level 8 starts to see the nose bleed blinds levels with 7 players still in… Martin uses his new found wealth to raise 3000 and take uncontested. Then it’s Jon all-in with A-T against Derek who has to call as it’s only another 600 to him on the BB, so his K-3 has a chance… but Jon doubles up
Alex is all-in with 55 against Karen with A-Q Neither improve so Alex is safe and Karen is down to 500 chips. This leaves Karen to be all-in on the SB with 8-2 but is dominating Darren’s 3-2 Unlucky again for Karen, as 4 diamonds give Darren a flush and she is out !
The last hand of the level sees Jon all-in with 3200 (Q-9) Darren all-in with A-Ks (3800) and Roger all-in for 3000 (A-Qs) Only a 9 is good for Jon, but after a flop of T-5-3 the 9 comes on the turn and Jon has suddenly leapt towards the chip leader and Roger is out
The last level has blinds of 2000/100 and chip counts of Darren with 600, Derek 5600, Jon 9900, Alex 550 and Martin chip leader with 10’400
Alex shows he means business by sticking it all-in first hand on the new level, but takes it down without a fight
Darren is all in and triples up with 7-7 so is showing that he won’t go down without a fight, but is all-in on BB all too quickly for 1800 His A-6 is up against Martins Q-J and the flop of 9-6-5 is good for Darren, but the fickle poker gods throw down a J on the turn to take out Darren
It’s all action now with just 4 players left, Jon is all-in and takes the pot, Alex is all-in but gets called by Martin. Alex’s Q-Q is against A-K so close race, although the Q on the flop doubles Alex up. Martin is then all-in put gets no takers, but shows A-K again to prove he’s not really on tilt. Alex and Martin on the blinds see an un-raised flop, but then Martin sticks it all-in when Alex checks and takes it down
Alex is all-in but Jon calls from BB with J-9 It seems to be a bad move with Alex showing T-T but the turn is good for Jon (again!) as a J falls for him (again!) This leaves Alex in poor shape with just 1100
Derek can’t hang around with his 1400 chips but the blinds come round too quick and sees him all-in with 9-6 against Jon in SB with T-8 An 8 on the flop puts Jon more firmly in the driving seat, but then the T and another 8 come to really stick the boot in and Derek is out in 4th
Alex is in trouble now, and is all-in on BB with 7-4 Martins K-8 doesn’t improve but is good enough to take out Alex and give us our two final players
Martin has 17’800 and Jon is on 14’200
It is never really going to last too long, but there is a bit of to-ing and fro-ing before we see Martin raise 6000 and Jon call. The flop of J-9-4 doesn’t look too inspiring so it is no surprise that when Martin goes all-in to eagerly (out of turn) that Jon folds
Soon we have the key hand of the heads up battle when Jon raises and Martin re-raises to put Jon all-in, who duly calls. Jon’s 8-8 is ahead of Martin’s K-Js until the flop which comes J-9-3 The turn of A is no good to Jon, but he hits his 8 on the river! This gives him around 22’400 against Martins 9’600 chips so is an uphill battle for Martin from here
The last hand probably typifies the sorts of clashes we had all night, in that the un-raised flop of 8-7-4 sees Martin push all-in and Jon call. Martin shows K-4 but is crushed by Jon’s A-4 and sure enough it is all over and we crown Jon our 2009 Champion
Well done to Jon for putting it out there and winning, but Martin was no pushover and showed the same discipline and strength seen in the heat to be a worthy runner up
Everyone played well and was entertaining to watch, so hope everyone who took part in the heats and final table all enjoyed the experience and will want to try again next year !
Onward and upward, see you next time.
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