Friday, August 07, 2009

Poker : Home Tournament – August 2009

Its a typical English August evening… yes, it’s pouring with rain ! but that did not dampen the spirits nor enthusiasm of the Poker players :-)

The evening started out with brisk business for the re-buys as everyone is in the mood for gambling it seems.   I sit back for a while but no cards come my way and find myself drawn into some dodgy draws because of the pot odds.   Soon find myself rebuying as draws don't materialize and am not getting any good hands to raise it up with pre-flop.

As the end of rebuys approaches I am delighted to see pocket A but have just had a rebuy so on 500 chips.   Sean before me goes all-in for 500 so I follow suit and we are called by two others (fairly typical for the night)   The pot gets checked down to the showdown but there are all low cards and a flush possible…. sure enough Sean has has hit his flush and takes a large pot.   In typical Sean style,couple of hands later he is sticking all the chips in the middle but this time looses to Roger, who is on fire tonight !

Sean does show some control by folding to my raise all-in when we are blind on blind, but Derek rabbit hunts the flop cards and Sean's J-7 would have flopped a full house (I was ahead with A-T) 

My big win of the night (I don’t remember winning more than 2 or 3 pots all night) was with 6-4s on the SB   There are about 5 to see the flop, which comes 6 high, so I lump in a pot sized bet and get one caller.   The turn is a K but I only have a few chips left so they go all in and to my surprise win the showdown with my 6 !   That gave me about 2000 chips and is about where I was when rebuys stop.

After the break I am still struggling to get any cards worth playing, especially when calling the BB is 10% of my chips !   I put in a couple of calls to see flops cheaply with mediocre cards, but the flops are never good to me so end up folding.  I do remember winning another hand but that only took me to about 2500 which is probably my peak of the night.   Luckily other people are in worse shape than me, and Derek is the first one out.  It was probably a relief for him as he’d been in pain with his cracked rib all night !   Immediately after, Jon on the other table gets knocked out to continue the reigning champions dire season  (Jon, you must know how Lewis Hamilton feels :-) )

Steve and Sean are the short stacks on my table, both now in the blinds.  Steve makes a move for the pot, but Sean's not great hand is better than Steve’s so another player goes down

More or less the next hand though, Sean is taken out by Simon and Karen gets busted out exactly the same time by Alex on the other table…. slightly spooky ? ;-)

Now with 9 players left, everyone is hanging on for the final table and it looks like I will be the bubble boy… however Bill (on his normal form) helps me out by busting Jock and Alex on the other table, just as I wake up with A-Ks on the BB   Lee has just raised but I am calling but unfortunately his K-K holds up and I am out in 7th

The final table of 6 is unusually early, Bill and Roger have large pile of chips and Steve W, Lee and Simon are under pressure now the blinds are 1000/500  

Steve W and Lee are early casualties and we are already down to 4 with two rounds left to play

It doesn't take long for chips to start flying around, mainly Bill’s but he hits a run of luck to double up against Roger.    He then gets lucky to take out Andy (who had been quiet all night as he was doing well… I am sure this has happened before!)

Roger gets busy as he is the short stack, but despite winning a couple of hands to get into 2nd, he runs into a better hand against Simon and is out in 3rd (receiving all the loose change in prizes , including Sean and Karen's coppers)

The final heads up is interesting but Bill’s luck has finally run out…. he is getting reasonable hands, but Simons are always slightly better….it is all over with 4 hands to play as Simon has enough chips to fold to a win, but even though the hands are played out Bill cannot persuade Simon to take any risks and Bill finishes second with Simon taking another deserved win

Great game, very lively tonight so can’t wait for the next one

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