Poker: August 2006

Another full house this time round, although only thanks to our "reserve" Ant who stepped in at the last moment to fill the last seat.

Once the game started, even by our normal manic standards it was completely mad ! On my table we had 4 people all in on the first hand (which went to Ant) and so the standard was set for the early stages of the game. The other table was keeping up with us, so after about 20 mins play there had been 32 buy ins. Ant won another big pot taking him to large table chip lead, which he kept for large amount of the game

My luck wasn't good to begin with. Got pocket 10's on the button and debated whether to call or push all-in. Just called a small raise to start. Another T on the flop gave me trips, but there was 2 spades and possibility of a Str8. Decided to go all-in anyways and sure enough someone hit a flush but lost to a Full House..... trips just ain't good enough these days :-) Eventually I hit a but of luck and quadrupled my stack, and couple of hands later took a bundle of chips again... so had gone from no where to table chip lead in two hands.

By the break and last rebuy, myself and Ant were well ahead on our table with about 5000 chips each. On the other table I think Andrew W was tournament chip lead with around 7000 chips

With the unforgiving blinds people started dropping out and some had miracle survives. When we got down to 10 players I had to move to balance tables. Andy was massive chips lead so my 7000 odd chips looked a bit insignificant compared to him, although was joint chip lead on my original table. On the second hand I raised from the big blind making it 3000 to go. Only Andy called me and seeing nothing on the flop we both checked. On the turn Andy bet to put me all-in so had to fold. Unfortunately that was half my chips gone already !

With the blinds going up to 2000 it looked like we may run out of time before we got a final table, but then 2 players went out in quick succession, leaving 7 to go to the final table with about 12 mins left to play

As Andy had a large chunk of the chips and three or four of the survivors having little more than a big blind or two left, it got busy quickly. Simon W was on small blind with most of his chips, so stuck them all in, with only Andy calling and taking him out. Steve only had 1000 in chips so just needed to decide when to stick it in. Luckily he won the first time, then was on big blind... went all-in and tripled up again.... then won another hand and was suddenly up to around 15'000 in chips and second place ! On my big blind I had half my stack in, so seeing AT stuck in the rest of them with only Andy calling (a pattern emerging here....) but showed QQ. I didn't hit my A so went out in fifth.

Dealing out the next hand the time ran out so had 4 hands to play. Simon called Darren's all-in but lost, leaving him with 900 in chips, which of course went all-in next hand. Darren went all in again and Steve also called. Steve won the hand taking two players out, with just 2 hands left to play.

Steve went all-in but Andy folded. The chip's looked close, so for the last hand we did a quick chip count and found that there was only 1000 in it, so however won the blinds won the game. Both went all-in with Andy taking the pot and first place.... what a game, exciting to the last hand !!

Great buzz to the game tonight and lots of manic play, probably something to do with the heat :-)

Results posted to Statsgenie as normal (http://www.statsgenie.com/poker/default.aspx?HH=1&OrgID=1499)

See most of you next time......