Apr 14th - £30+£3 NL Hold'Em Freeze - Western Club

Within this blog you'll be told of the donkiest donkey call by one of my opponents I've ever had the pleasure of being involved with. Infact the call made must rank as the No. 1 donkey call of all time. Read on....

Sixty-Five runners in todays £30 freezeout at the Western and as with all these events held at the Western over the past few months (London Poker Meet Up event) the standard of play can vary between 'good' to 'shit poor' and mostly in between. For the odd player, like myself, that think they're better than 'good' then there's money to be made. Unfortunately there are just too many 'donkeys' to get past in the normal course of events to make it pay...as I was to find to my cost!

Early doors and I find A-A in MP. Me and A-A at the Western don't seem to get on at the moment so I raised it up to 400 (blinds were 50-100) and I get a reraiser from across the table to 1100. With a 5k start stack, a 30 minute blind level and the whole of Saturday afternoon ahead of me I wasn't keen to comitt all my chips just yet so I flat called and checked the flop before it had been dealt which came Q-J-2. My opponent immediately checked as well.

Having this information I immediately bet out to 2k on a turn card of a 7. Surprise, surprise...my opponent went all-in and I was committed to call. He flipped Q-Q, for a set, and when no Ace came to save me on the river I was already down to 600.

Two double ups later and I had close to 3k again. I then continued to hit some cards, get lucky when I needed to and generally move up the chip count.

By the time the level was 350-700 I had 18k in chips and we were down to 34 runners. Then came THIS hand which even now I have no logic to explain WHY it happened the way it did...

I'm in LP with 4d-6d. Not a super hand by any extreme but a nice flop can change all that so I flat called the 700 and four of us saw a flop of 4s-5c-6s. From a distance this flop could have been better but I'd flopped two pair and so was considering my options when suddenly the BB went all-in for 4k.

I wasn't worried by this bet as he was short stacked and was more likely than not drawing to either the flush or the straight. A 4k call wasn't going to be the end of the world so I got ready to call. The player between me and the BB then flat called as well. He had 17k in chips, before the call, and the flat call smelt like he was fishing as well. Isolation time!!

I loaded up the barrells and announced 'all-in'. If the player with the 13k left HAD a big hand he'd have raised immediately after the all-in from the BB and NOT flat called. The 4th player folded and it was back to the player with 13k left. I had him covered!

The player ummed and aared then called. I was expecting to see either a straight or a flush draw. Instead I saw As-Jc. WHAT???? No draw no nuffin...just Ace high!!

The BB shoved oved 10-6 for a pair of 6's and even if I got unlucky with a TEN dropping I was surely going to pick up the side pot of over 26k. Right....WRONG!!!

The turn was the 9s the river the 10s and Mr Donkey had hit the nut flush to scoop the lot!!

Fuming wasn't the word. I had 1700 left and with blinds coming at me I gambled with Kc-9c and ran into...A-A!!

Arrrrrrrgggghhhhhh!!