Mar 9th - £10+£1 NL Hold'Em - LCI Club (Brighton)

Tonight was the £10 NL 'rookies' night at the LCI in Brighton and I managed to scrape my way to 1st place and a £1000 first prize.

Actually I was never really in bother! In the re-buy period I had 6 rebuys and a top-up for a total spend of £81 as I attempted to accumulate chips from all around me. With it being rookies night though the buggers wouldn't pass so I kept losing and kept rebuying.

After the break I started with 8k. This turned to 15k when my 6-6 beat out Q-10 and from then on it was plain sailing to the final table where I sat down with around 60k of the 280k in play.

With 6 of us left came the defining hand of the night for me. With blinds at 4k-8k I held 8-8 U-T-G and raised to 20k in the hope I could get round (as you do). The player, to my immediate left, hummed & arred for a while before calling my 20k and then RAISING another 20k. Now whilst I thought this might have been a bit odd he had actually priced me in as I could see the flop and then get off the hand if a horrible looking Q-K-A fell or something like that.

The next two players passed. 'Hmmm...40k', came the voice of the next player in line. 'Thats exactly what I have!'. They then proceeded to push all-in. So...112k in the pot and 20k to me...well duh! I called leaving me with 31k left. Enough if things went horribly wrong.

The flop came KING-SEVEN-EIGHT! Weeeeeeee. I had a set. All I needed now was some more of matey boyz chips. I checked, as did he!

Now the other thing with rookies is that they don't like betting if they don't hit the flop. They'd much rather call. Agressive play is not their style but passive play is. Once he'd checked I knew he didn't have a KING. Oh well never mind. The turn card was a FOUR.

I decided to lump in my 31k. He'd probably pass but hey-ho! He called leaving himself 12k! With cards on their backs time the 'raise another 20k' guy had 9-9 and the 40k caller held Q-Q. A harmless 10 fell on the river and I now had almost 200k, out of the 280k in play. I'd gotton exceedingly lucky.

With only 80k between 5 players now it was only a matter of time. I knocked out 3 of my remaining 4 opponents with hands like 5-3 v K-3 (5-5 on the flop), J-8 v 7-7 (J on the flop) and finally, when heads up, I called the all-in bet of 34k with K-7 v A-5. A 7 on the flop sealed the deal.

Poker...its EAZY...especially against the rookies!

Entries -> 70 - Place -> 1st - Win -> £919 ($1608) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$3583