Went to TC Poker again last Thursday for a No Limit Texas Hold'em £50+5 tournament (2nd chance freezeout, see http://www.tcpoker.co.uk/schedule.htm for schedule)
Managed to get some of the guys together, so ended up with myself, Sean, Bill, Jon, Andy W, Simon W and Andy's father in law (Jo)
This is my narrative of the tournament events as I remember them, although additional thoughts and corrections welcomed
TC's seem to be getting the timings together better now, as the tournament started roughly on time and the breaks were only 20 minutes as scheduled :-)
There were 28 entrants, so making three tables. There were prizes for the top 5 players, around about 600 to first, then 300, 250, 200, 100 (or similar) I was on a table with Andy and Bill, the others were on another table together.
My initial strategy was to get in cheap if possible but otherwise play tight solid poker to begin with and see how things go, especially as the guy to my left I knew from before as a tight agressive player. As I was not getting any hands, it was easy to follow my strategy to begin with, but later on I was on the big blind and Andy put in a raise. I would have folded but he got called by 2 other players before me, so I made a quite loose call with T-4 o/s... but then saw a near miracle flop of T-7-4 albeit with 2 suited cards. With the possibility of a flush draw I decided to make a reasonable bet and to my astonishment Andy went all in. The other players folded but it was an automatic call for me. Luckily Andy had two high cards so I managed to virtually double up early in the game
This allowed me to sit back and relax, waiting for good cards. I kept an eye on the average chip stacks to ensure I wasnt getting below average, but otherwise was playing tight.
Did make one silly mistake when I was raising one hand. I decided to make a standard raise of 3x blind, so put in 1200 chips, but stated "raise 12000" ooops..... of course the dealer wanted me to go all-in (still had around 7000 chips at this point) but the players on the table kindly agreed they knew the bet I intended to make so I only had to put in the 1200. As it turned out everyone folded anyway so it made no real difference... but still decided to keep my mouth shut after that and just stick the chips in !
By the break I had about 7400 chips which was a bit above average
When my chips were dwindling a bit and so when I got pocket 3's decided to make a move so put in a decent raise after a couple of callers. Andy went all-in and the other two players folded. I was getting good pot odd's decided to call and saw Andy with two over cards. Andy hit his card on the flop, so was just putting on my watch to get up and go, when another 3 came on the river to give me the pot... phew ! Unfortunately my good fortune meant that Andy went crashing out
Later on I made another raise when the low stack was in the blind and he went all in. Even with Q9 I still decided to call as was getting good odds and could afford to loose the hand. He showed pocket 3's ! but I hit my 9 on the flop and nothing came to help him so took the hand.
We were down to about 11 players at this stage with the blinds around 1200/600 so was quite expensive to see a flop. Bill called an all-in move by the tight guy to my left, but actually Bill had Kx against Q4. Unfortunatly the 4 on the flop was all that helped either player and Bill was out in 10th place. Someone on the other table was out immediately after, so this left 8 players for the final table.
Myself and Jon were the only CamberleyBoyz on the final table, both with short stacks as well ! When I was big blind, Jon called from late position to see the flop. The flop came down A-5-6 (or similar) giving me an up and down straight draw, but was worried Jon had hit the A. I called his smallish bet on the flop but the turn didn't help me, so had to fold to his next bet. This left me with probably lowest stack at around 14000 chips.
As the blinds had just passed me I sat back to wait for a hand. One before the big blind I got dealt pocket A's ! I put in a normal raise, but the table was playing tight and everyone was folding. Luckily the big blind called.... with a flop of Q-J-6 rainbow, I was happy enough but whilst deciding how much to bet, the Big Blind player put in all his chips so was very happy to call him, especially when he showed K-T. Problem was that he hit a 9 on the turn giving him a straight to turn over my aces. I was definatley very disappointed but there was no other way to play the hand so was happy that I had got all my chips in whilst ahead and just got unlucky
Decided to go home after that, but Jon ended up in 2nd place (in the early hours again I guess) so well done to you
There will definately be a next time so start saving up again ;-)
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