Sat / Sun Aug 25th & 26th - Victoria & Luton

The forums are abuzz with the hand I went out on at the European APAT championships this past Sunday. Before I divulge the play, and the reason for my sudden exit, I'll start with Saturday and my trip down the Vic!

The satellite event for the £250 NL game at 7.30pm attracted 30 or so runners. This £20 rebuy event eventually offered 6 seats and £170 for 7th so how would I fair?

To begin with I couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo! I'd had 3 rebuys before I dealt myself A-J and decided that with two all-ins already in front of me I'd swallow another rebuy and hope for value. I was up against A-K and 10-10.

Its always said that if you're dealing yourself in situations like this then why not deal yourself the winning hand so on a flop of A-7-J-9-4 I reaped the pot and was suddenly upto circa 3k in chips.

From then until the break I could do no wrong. I finished up with 7k in chips and no add-on.

Total cost for satellite was £83.

After the break it was a case of sitting tight and waiting for opportunities. I took down a nice pot with 9-9 v 3-3 & 5-3 (nice man had decided to bluff!) and with 12 of us left I looked a shoo-in for a top 6 place with over 15k in chips.

Its never that easy!

By the time the final table started (9 of us) I had 10k, after playing tighter than a ducks arse, but with antes at 800-1600 I was hopeful others would drop before me.

I attempted to take out the blinds, who were short stacked themselves, with A-J. The BB refused to let go of his K-5 though and a flop of A-9-K-5-7 saw me move down to 5k and on life support myself.

With 8 left I found myself on the BB and with one stack all-in there were 5 of us in the pot. We checked down a flop of 9-9-9-7-K. I turned over my cards and found A-9 and won an 11k pot!

I'd qualified....!!

The evenings event attracted some 44 runners and a prize pool of £12,000 which to be fair I never got near!

I finished 19th though but was short stacked when I decided to make a stand with Jc-9c against an A-Q. The flop of Q-10-7 kept me interested but I then got bricked out when two fives completed the flop!

Entries -> 42 - Place -> 19th Loss-> £83 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> £407

And so to Sunday....

The European APAT event held at the new 'G' casino in Luton attracted 300 runners. 150 played day 1 on the Saturday...another 150 played on the Sunday although they played 151 as one player hadn't turned up on the Saturday!

I took my seat at a friendly table of unknowns and play began at 2.30pm with 10k in chips and a 40 minute clock.

By the end of level 1 I'd 10600 and had no bother.

At the end of the table (seat 9) sat a gentleman who APPEARED to play too many pots. Infact in the time I was sat there he appeared to play in around 1 in 2 pots either by raising or re-raising. Of course it didn't bother me until I came up against him shortly after the start of level 2.

UTG I got dealt A-K and, with blinds of 50-100, I raised it up to 300. It was passed around to seat 9 who promptly re-raised to 700. I flat called and we saw a flop of 7-8-9. Not a great flop for A-K by any means so I checked. Seat 9 bet out 800 and I called. A 6 fell on the turn.

To anyone to act AFTER a bet on that flop without a 5 or a 10 in their hand would be mightily worried so when I fired out a bet of 1500 to indicate I had some of that seat 9 looked mightily pissed as he turned over Q-Q and folded. I flipped my A-K! 'Nice bet sir', he said but you could tell he wasn't happy!

About a round later I get 10h-9h in EP and decide to raise it up to test the waters. I make it 250. Its again passed to seat 9 who flat calls. You could tell he was itching to get back at me.

The flop looked nice from my point of view...10-8-4. I immediately bet out to 750 but was amazed when seat 9 then re-raised it to 3000.

To me this smelt like an obvious bluff. After all I'd just minutes earlier taken his pot away with my A-K against his Q-Q and he was surely looking to get back at me.

'I'm all-in', I said as I pushed my stack forwards. 'I call', came the reply. Oops!

He tabled 8-8, for a set, and there was no way back. I wasn't playing my cards I was playing the man. Wrong time to do it!

C'est la vie!

Entries -> 300 - Place -> --- Loss-> £75 Profit/Loss for 2007 -> £482