Poker: Home Tourney–August 2011

It looked for a while like there would only be a few players due to holidays, however Martin, Luke, Daniel and Janice all made a rare but most welcome return

My night started out interesting, and found myself all-in on first hand with flop of J-9-8 with 9-8 against Bill, who turned over J-9 and Darren who turned over Q-T !   As it turned out, Bill hit his J on the river (of course!) and I had my first double buy in of the night.   Couple of hands later, half my stack is in pre-flop with T-T after 3 betting Darren.   The A-K-6 flop (2 clubs) looks like it’s hit Darren, but decide to shove anyway and Darren calls with A-K (obv!) so it’s my second double buy in in quick succession…. looks like it’s gonna be one of those nights….

As things settled down, my luck changed and won a big pot of around 6000, so now playing with the number of chips I bought in for    I build my stack up to around 13’000 and am big chip lead on the table, but still playing pretty solidly.

After the break I have maintained my stack, but decide to raise from the button with 5-4   Bill folds but Karen calls.  The flop of A-T-x looks like it may have hit Karen, but she checks to me so I bet out and get called.   I’m a bit concerned, but Karen looks a bit nervous and checks again on the K turn.   I stick in another 2000 which is around half her stack, so expect her to fold or shove.  After tanking for a while, she calls.   I’m a bit perplexed and the river has made the flush possible.   With Karen checking again, around 6000 in the pot and Karen with only around 2000 behind I’ve gotta fire the third barrel, but sadly for me she has A-Qo   She said after she was thinking about re-raising all-in on the turn (so that was why she looked nervous then ) but she got my chips anyway and took the chip lead on the table.  I’m down to around 8000 which is average stack

Soon after Karen goes wild and takes out Bill and Daniel in one hand so we’re down to the final table.

With blinds up to 1000/500 I’m not in great shape with only around 6000, but get a nice run of cards and manage to win a couple of pots which put me right back into contention.   In the next level I again hit some cards and first take out Lee blind on blind (my A-3 against his 6-3) and take his bounty as well (or Twix as it was)  I then get all-in next hand against Alex with my A-A holding against Alex 8-8 so am starting to look very healthy indeed now.

In the last level, blinds are 4000/2000 so no-one can take it easy.   Karen has dribbled away her stack, so when she shoves into my BB from the SB it is easy call with A-T.  This time Im ahead against Karen (for a change) as she shows Q-T   The T on the flop changes nothing but the A on the turn seals her fate, seems I’m on fire tonight.

Luke has been sitting quietly with his short stack, taking the odd pot here and there to survive, but gets in good against Jock who is the other short stack.  With neither improving, were down to three players, all with roughly equal chips.

It’s a tough battle, but with all players on around 6 BB it’s not gonna last long.  Sure enough Simon is the next man down by me (that’s two twixes… umm, Bounties for me tonight ) and we’re into a heads up battle.    We are both playing pretty aggressively so I think we only play around 4 or 5 hands.  The last hand sees us both limp into a 6-5-2 flop.  I’ve got to believe my 5-2 is way ahead and bet, Luke raises and then calls my shove with 8-6    Neither improve and I end up taking it down and Luke taking 2nd at his first attempt in the league game

It was an exciting game and the different mix of players certainly mixed it up a bit.   

Sadly I’ll be missing next month, but gives someone else a chance to catch up

Roll on next time….