Jan 11th - £50+£5 NL Hold'Em (Loose Cannons)

Thursday Night is 'Loose Cannons' night although the worst case scenario for them is that Gutshot lose their current court case then appeal! In this instance the place will shut (too expensive to keep going I feel) and I won't get my trip to Vegas!

As I said in last weeks blog I'm determined to win this league for the free trip to the WSOP so was anxious to do well again in tonights event!

A slight change in the rules means that if you crap out of the 6pm event in short order you can play in the 8.30pm event as you can take your BEST score from the night into the league.

Tonights 6pm event attracted 15 runners so 3 prizes were on offer - £375 - £225 & £150 plus, of course, all the £5 bounty chips you can get your hands on.

Early doors and I chipped up quite nicely. Fair play to the fella that folded A-Q face up, after I'd moved all-in once the river card appeared, on a board of Qd-8d-5h-4c-Ad. I was first to act and held the Kd-5d for the nuts. He claimed it was too early to put all his chips out there...nonetheless a great laydown!

My first setback came when holding 7-7 and the blinds were at 100-200. I was in the cut-off seat (one before the button) and raised it to 600. The BB called for the extra 400 and we saw a flop of 4-5-J. He checked, I bet 1500, he goes all-in! I can't put him on a Jack (too lucky) so call. He flips 4h-5h for two pair and I don't improve!

Never mind....I still had just over 3k (from a start stack of 3.5k) so I could still play a while!

Players dropped and we got to 10 players. (Final table at 9). I launched all-in a couple of times with no callers but with the blinds now at 300-600 I was picking up close to 1k in chips each time and I eventually reached the final table with just short of 6k.

With the table back to 9 players I could afford to play tight again and got lucky in one hand when I got dealt A-A in LP. A MP player went all-in for 4k with K-Q and my Aces stood up on a board of J-J-4-J-10.

Blinds increased to 400-800. The chipped up guy at the other end of the table to me was hitting everything and knocking people out every other hand. We were soon 4 handed!

My stack wasn't improving though and with 7c-5c in hand I flat called, from the SB, an extra 1k for a family pot look at 7-2-3. I checked, as did two others, but the button decided to bet out 2k. I decided that I was winning and went all-in for 6k. All passed to the raiser who joyfully called my all-in bet flipping 2-2 for a set!

Ok...so coat on time...but wait...a 4 on the turn was followed by an Ace on the river giving me a straight (A-2-3-4-5) and my opponent could hardly believe it!!

Shortly after that the same guy bet out 2k. I looked down to see Kc-10c and decided to bet out 10k. All folded back to the original raiser who decided that with only 3k left he'd better call. He flipped A-3. A King on the flop sealed his fate and I was in the money!

My chip stack had increased to circa 16k and when the chip leader went all-in and I found Ah-Qh in the hole I could hardly refuse a call.

He flipped A-J but a Queen on the flop sealed the deal I was now chipped up table captain!

Heads up soon came when the one time chip leader got knocked out so we did a quick chip count and with a 30k-22k lead we did a deal where I took £325 and my opponent got £275. Now for the points!!

I called an all-in bet with 5-5 only to see my opponent with 9-9! Boooooo!!

I called my last chips off with J-9 only to see my opponent with Q-Q! Boooo!!

So in points terms I collected 15 for finishing 2nd (even though I picked up more cash), 4 points for my 2 bounty chips (2 for each 1) and 3 points for entering. Total = 22 points.

After last weeks 29 point haul I'm still top of the tree with 51 points!! Only 11 weeks to go!!

Entries -> 15 - Place -> 2nd - Win -> £280 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> +£550
(As from 1st Jan 2007 rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.90)