Mar 6th - 8th - NL Hold'Em (Vic & Loose Cannons)

I'm going though what is known in the trade as a 'dry spell' at the moment. Two plays from this weeks events showed that although behaviour of other players can be assessed to a certain degree there really is no way of knowing if the next hand you play to the river in ANY tournament will be the last one of the night.

Firstly to Tuesday night where I played in the £30+£5 rebuy at the Vic. This used to be a £20 rebuy but bumping it upto £30 seems to have no impact on the numbers playing (circa 40) and over £3k in prize money was available to those that made it that far. I wasn't one of them.

During the rebuy period the usual monkey plays take place but even I had to scratch my head at this one...

Blinds were 25-50 and I'm on the BB with 8c-7c. The SB raises to 200 and both myself and another player, who'd flat called the original 50, came along for the ride. Flop is 3-3-7. I checked, as the next player, but, as expected, the SB put all his chips forward (around 1750).

I'd been fortunate to double up in early play, from a start stack of 1000, when my J-9 hit trips against a player with A-10 on a 9-9-10 flop and with the likelyhood of the SB attempting to nick the pot with nothing much better that A-J I duly called with my pair of 7's.

What surprised both me & the SB was that the next player ALSO called. There was almost 6k in the pot and it was turn-m-over time!

SB flipped A-10 (as hoped), I flipped my 8-7, next players flips K-3 o/s!!!!

Gasps of amazement and when nothing else came to help my cause the massive pot (for a 25-50 level) was pushed to my left! I was gobsmacked!

I had a rebuy...followed by 2 more followed by a top up. As the 'freezeout' phase started I had 3k in chips but with blinds shortly to be 200-400 I couldn't wait long.

Looking down I found the Qc-Jc and pushed all-in only to be called by a player with A-A. Wonderful! A Queen on the flop brought a glimmer of hope but that was all she wrote!!

Entries -> 41 - Place -> ??? - Loss -> £155 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> +£92
(As from 1st Jan 2007 rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.90)

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Thursday night and the Loose Cannons league. Week 10 of 13.

Before start of play I was still in 2nd place on 138 points. Leader had 165 but he's on holiday for three weeks!!!

With a start stack of 3500 I took it nice and easy for 50 mins. My stack had barely reached 4k when this hand occurred...

On the SB with 10c-7c the BB had gone walkabout. With blinds at 100-200 this was noticed by all the table and everyone was itching to try and nick the free blinds as there was only one hand to defend against in the blinds (me) and not the usual two.

Anyway its passed round to the button who raises it to 700. An obvious nick if ever there was one. Desperate to disappoint him I flat called. Of course 10c-7c on the SB isn't the best spot to call a 700 raise but I felt he was making a move and would give up on the flop if I showed some strength.

Flop was 3-4-7. I felt sure that sort of flop could not have helped him. I checked and he immediately bet out 1500. So now put yourself in my shoes!!

If the pre-flop bet WAS a move with A-9, A-10 etc then he missed. I have top pair (albeit 7's) and I've given him a chance to check as well. He's bet 1500 on an obvious miss...right???

'Im all-in', I stated, and pushed my load out front. 'I call', came back the reply. What?????

He flipped A-7!!!!! Feck a doodle-doo. I never saw THAT coming!

So I'm out and that was that. What a freakin luckbox to have THAT hand and hit THAT 7.

Poker eh....don't you just love it!!

Entries -> 20 - Place -> 16th - Loss -> £55 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> +£37
(As from 1st Jan 2007 rate of exchange is calculated at £1 = $1.90)