July 29th - £100+£10 NL Hold'Em - Sportsman - London W1

My first time at the Sportsman in W1 proved to be pretty uneventful. I won a grand on the 3-Card-Brag game when, apart from a good run of flushes & straights, I hit trip 9's for a £700+ payout but apart from that excitement my poker form has somewhat deserted me!

The £100 event attracted 42 runners and with rebuys added it there was a prize pool of over £10k by the time the dust had settled.

From an opening stack of 2500, and 2 rebuys, I'd managed to get my stack upto around 12k at the break. This was mainly derived from a great hand holding of 8-9. With blinds at 50-100 4 of us saw the flop of 8d-5d-3c. I bet out 500 and got 2 callers. Now as usual with a '2 flush flop' I assumed that one of my calling opponents held a flush draw so I hoped for a blank on the turn in order to pound the pot!

The 6s fell on the turn and it was checked to me. 'All-In', I announce and pushed my last 5k into the middle. After much humming & aaring I get a caller. The 3rd player still in moans and folds! My opponent flips 8-7 and when a King appears on the river I collect a nice pot!

The cards weren't co-operating though really. I didn't get two picture cards once and my best hand was 6-6 and that lost!

After the break more shite hands followed. Mr Newbie, at the far end of the table to me, was winning pot after pot and hitting evertyhing in sight. I might have known my chips would go to him!

Holding 4s-4h I raised, in MP, to 3k in order to pick up the antes. No such luck. I get 2 callers one of whom is Mr Newbie! The flop is Js-7s-5s. I'm first to act so, with spade in hand, I go all-in in the hope of getting through the pack.

My next player folds but Mr Newbie calls and flips As-7s for the made nut flush! A Jack falls on the turn giving me some hope but a 10 falls on the river and its goodnight from me!

A good crowd though and a good tournament structure (blinds every 30 mins). I'll be back!

Entries ->42 - Place -> 25th - Loss -> £310 ($543) Profit/Loss for 2006 -> +$10105