May 17th - Players League Final - LCI (Brighton)

Phew...the drought is over!

Tonight was the final of the players league held at the LCI in Brighton. Twenty-six runners showed up (one on holiday) with an average starting stack of circa 9k and a 30 minute clock meant that there was no rush to get involved.

There was a prize pool of 12k and 9 prizes to play for!

For the first 90 minutes I played like a rock. Not like me at all really. Then came the hand that I undoubtedly got lucky with.

With blinds at 75-150 I got Qs-10s in the BB. There was one caller by the time it got back around to me so I raised to 600. My opponent called.

The flop brought an unremarkable 3-6-7. I checked, as did my opponent, and a 10 fell on the turn. Now the fireworks started!

I bet 600...it was raised to 2600 by my opponent and I went all-in, for another 6200, convinced I was ahead and it was a ploy by my opponent to make it look as though THEY had a good hand. My opponent sat back in his chair...hummered and arred...then passed...flipping K-10 in the process! Phew!

From that point on, for the next two hours, I hardly moved. With the bigger blinds I managed to start stealing. Hands like 8-3 and 7-4 were obvious shite but players weren't prepared to call all-in bets with them for 12k or more when I found myself on the BB and limpers all round.

With 11 players left a deal was done to give 11th £110 and 10th £250 before the final table. Then this happens...

UTG I get A-A (first of the night) and with blinds at 800-1600 I raise to 3200. Its passed around to the small blind who looks at his cards, looks at his chips then announced ALL-IN for 15k! Weeeeeeeeee!!!

Needless to say I call and he flips A-Q which gets nowhere near and we're down to 10.

At 1am its final table time!!

With the average stack now close to 30k we all do a deal where that the 3 current short stacks all get a guaranteed £900 whilst the other 6 of us get a guaranteed £1250. Once that deal is agreed it becomes a free for all and I go out in 8th place with my 10-9 hits top pair on the flop but fails to improve to a player holding 10-10.

£1250 is clear profit on the night and is better than 4th place money. I leave Brighton with the realisation that it may be a while before I return there...if ever!

Entries -> 26 - Place -> 8th - Win -> £1250 ($2312) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$12350