Poker is such a fickle mistress 
Twelve players eagerly took their seats, with Alex, Derek and myself having the most interest in doing well this month, to give us the best chance to take down the league title and bizarrely, we all ended up on the same table !
My game started quietly, with no decent hands and lots of aggression. My patience paid off and managed to get a Check/raise all-in called by two players with KK, with Derek and Alex both having trash hands, but the flop was kind and my Kings held up, so off to a flyer.
Both Derek and Alex were both very active, getting it all-in as much as possible it seemed… Andy and Jock were joining in at times as well, so needed to pick my spots. Another spot seemed to come when I picked up A-T and with Alex and Derek all-in again with non-prime hands I was ahead, until the flop at least…. with Alex taking the pot and leaving me with <2000 chips.
I got a bit busier, but my blind shove defending big blind from Derek shove and Jon all-in as well, was perhaps hoping to much. My K-4 was dominated by Jon’s K-Ts which hit flush and I joined Derek in a double buy-in.
Soon after I got lucky when with Derek all-in and Jon calling, decided to shove my A-J on K-4-2 flop. Sadly for me Jon did have the K, but my A turned his hand to dust and I got a huge stack.
Derek was stoking the pot (ending up with 26 buy-in’s which must be a record!) so at the break it was no surprise he was doing the triple buy-in with Alex having chip lead at around 18k chips and the rest of us all with around 10k chips.
On the restart, despite a valiant fight, Derek was first man down, however it was not long after that when Jon got it all-in with his A-T, I had re-shoved my A-K but Alex woke up with A-A He had a sweat with a T on the flop and Q turned, but my miracle card didn’t come and Alex has around 30k in chips and knocks two of us out! I’m out in 9th, so no points for me this month 
We also have our final table, as Sean had also been knocked out from the other table. Daniel also has a huge stack, probably around 30k as well, but Karen, Janice and Lee are very short, with no-one else having much more than 10k
It wasn’t long before Alex got busy again, this time taking out Jock. Soon after, with the blinds at 1000/500, both the girls were forced all-in against Daniel, with him taking them both out… (Ooer missus ) leaving only 5 players
Double knock-outs seems to be in fashion, as Alex takes out both Andy and Steve W just before the end of level 7 and we’re down to 3 already.
Alex and Daniel both have around 45-46k, with Lee under 10k. On an innocuous looking K-8-4 flop, it is no surprise to see Lee all-in, but when Alex re-shoves all-in, I was a little surprised to see Daniel insta-shove as well ! Lee has K-8 and took pot 1, but Daniel missed hit flush draw, so was out in third…. giving Alex a huge chip lead over Lee for the battle for victory
The blinds went up to 4000/2000 but Lee doubles up and wins another big pot, so soon are about even in chips. The battle is tense but neither player is prepared to give up and are both giving it some welly ! Someone was always going to be disappointed, so after a bit more toing and froing, all the chips fly in the middle… and Alex emerges from the dust with most of the chips and only three hands left to play. Lee doesn’t really have the chips to do Alex any damage, but they play on… but Alex’s straight finishes off a valiant attempt by Lee to take the game.
It was a very hard fought and fascinating head-up battle, but Alex’s tenacity paid off, giving him a well earned victory. Unlucky to Lee, who also played very well to get back into the game. I’m exhausted just watching
We have one more game for this season, and although Alex is on pole position, he still has work to do… there is some small adjustments due to myself and Alex being effected by the “best 8 results” rule, but in rough terms:
- Derek can take the league title if he comes first or second, Alex doesn’t score any points and I don’t finish 4th or better (think I worked that one out right…..)
- I can take the title (for the fourth year in a row
) if I score 7 points more than Alex and finish no more than 1 place behind Derek (this is gonna get complicated ) - The simplest consideration is for Alex, who simply needs to finish 3rd or better to guarantee the title, or just finish ahead of Derek and me
In any case, next months game will be exciting (it’s a £10 special as well of course, as well as being the first “Xmas” event of the season) but don't forget it will be December 8th (2nd Thursday of the month) this time round…..
Looking forward to it already, hope to see you there
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