After last night's late night and a busy day at work, I was ready for bed by tea time, but this is the last night for qualification to Late Night Poker so decided I had to give it a go. My last attempt to qualify was not a great success and so playing whilst feeling fatigued and watching Friday night TV doesn't sound like a recipe for a great game either.....
The game kicks off at 7:15pm with 1464 entrants and the top 27 progressing to round 2. There is a mix of players, some who seem not to have turned up and those who are chucking in their chips at every opportunity. I am trying to play sensibly, but get some semi-decent hands that I have to call a raise pre-flop, but throw away on the flop to an all-in bet (when I miss) so my starting stack of 1500 is soon down to around 900. Luckily I get a good run and start hitting flops, so by the first break after 45 min's am in 101st place out of 727 remaining players with 6315 chips (avg 3020)
I have the luxury of being able to bully when an opportunity appears, but mainly just be tight aggressive and push like crazy when I think (or know!) am ahead. Overall I am doing OK, although get lucky a couple of times when I go in behind, but also find myself throwing away a huge number of rubbish cards that would have been winners... two full houses on the flop, several flushes and straights by the turn - never seen so many monsters thrown away in one game before !
The second break at 9pm sees me 46th from 190 with 16'916 chips (avg 11557) so still doing OK
The game starts to get a bit tighter now, as most of the idiots have been taken out so have to think a bit more, which is a bit tricky for me tonight... but not feeling so tired now after a couple of beers !
The next break is 10pm and I've been a bit up and down... but now in 26th from 70 with 34'671 chips (Avg 31371) so still hanging in there. It starts to get a bit more loose, aggressive now, as the people in the relatively short stacks have to attack more to move up the rankings.... I manage to stay around the 20th to 30th mark and am 23rd from 49 players at 10:25pm
Down to the last 32 things are very tense. I limp with T-9 behind 4 other limpers as there is a lot of value and am happy to see a 9 high flop and straight draw for me. One player min-bets but I decide it's make or break time as think it unlikely he would have an over pair to the flop and go all-in Unfortunately he had T-T and I don't improve so am out in a gut wrenching 32rd place after 3.5 hours playing time !
I am very disappointed I didn't get through, but on reflection it is OK as had I got through round 1, as then I would have to play round 2 tonight (starting at 8:35pm) and would need to finish in the top 18 out of 390 entrants to go through to the final round.
The final round is on Sunday night at 7:35pm which only the winner out of 115 players will actually go through to the Late Night Poker TV tables ! They are certainly not making it easy this time round !! Maybe I won't bother at all next time... it seems more likely I could win the lottery than get to the TV tables :-)
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