BRIGHTON GUKPT

For the last 6 weeks or so, ive was on a trip to Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and finally 5 days in Thailand. Last week, Wednesday, I completed the 30hr journey back from Phuket, stopping over in Dubai and eventually landed at Heathrow. I was absolutely knackered, but now had to make my way to Brighton in order to play the GUKPT event on Thursday. 2 tube journeys, and an hours train from Victoria and I finally arrive a flushy’s flat, just as I walk through the door, my suitcase busted, marvellous.

The general idea was to go and play the £100 comp at the grovesnor, we were reliably informed that it was an 8pm start, but it was in fact 7pm. After a phone call from somebody in the know that was already there we arrived in time for the start, Grosvenor’s lack of punctuality with tournament start times a blessing in disguise. My comp was very uneventful, due the fact I was still comatosed, and eventually came to an end when I bet out, got raised, then shoved with KT clubs on a Q 9 6 two club board, my opponents Q9 held. Noflopshomer did the best out of us all lasting quite a while, but just didn’t get the rub of the green when the blinds got ridiculously high as they so often do in 1 day affairs. Once he was out, fried breakfasts around then back to flushy’s to watch him lose money at 5-10 PLO, lol.

On to day 1 of the GUKPT, after waking up at stupid o clock in the morning due to body clock, I was still pretty tired as we headed over to the casino. Me and Flushy did a cheeky 5% saver in the taxi and we were all set to go. I locate my table and don’t recognise anyone at my table, apart from Sid Harris who I have never played with and have no knowledge of how he plays. After about an hour it has become apparent that my table is painfully tight, so I take it upon myself, as I so often do, to create some action and start raising about 4 or 5 hands every orbit and be very aggressive post flop. This was working as the players were all looking not to get involved so early and were seemingly scared shitless by any marginal situations, happy days for me. I got up to about 13k without playing a pot worth more than about 600 chips, when this hand came up. I limped 44 UTG, didn’t want to get RR off my hand, and Sid Harris raises and the big blind calls as do I. The flop comes 9 4 2 rainbow, blind checks, I think about betting and then see Sid already has chips in his hand so let him do the betting. He bets the pot, about 600, the other guy passes and I pump it to 2k, I have a horrible image and want him to do the lot if he has overpair. He then announces re-raise and makes It 5k total to play. I think for a while and have just over 9k chips total and cant see how he can pass for 4k more, and don’t want to lose him on the turn if I flat call and a Q comes and he has JJ etc... So I lump it in and he insta passes, how bizarre.

From then it was uneventful, I was raising often, sometimes meeting resistance sometime not, but never really playing any big pots. When we reached the 200-400 (50) level the rocks were starting to feel the pinch a little and were looking for spots to move in. My raises got snapped off twice in quick succession so I slowed down and took a back seat for a while. We moved onto 300-600 (75) when it all went wrong. I open a pot with A8 from the cut-off only for the SB to jam and he has enough to make me pass, then sitting in the BB I look at JJ, and then wait to see how the action develops. All folds round to Paul Parker in the cut-off who opens for 3k and has just over 6k behind. I’m just getting ready to set him in when the SB looks at his cards and instantly pushes all in for 17k. I had already observed he didn’t look at his cards until the action was on him so knew it was a genuine reaction. I cap my cards and start thinking, I check my stack have 17.5k total so am effectively all in. I'm convinced if he had a pair that crushes me, QQ KK AA, then he would at least take a few seconds to determine how best to play it. The speed of his push signalled weakness and he was also reluctant to look back at the table as I was pondering the decision. I’m not really any good at live tells so this could all be complete nonsense but it made sense at the time. I figured I was racing, or had a smaller pair dominated, and the hands I was racing against I felt there was a good chance that Paul parker had one of his cards making me a clear favourite. With all these factors in mind and my desire to have a big stack enter to middle-late stages made me call, Paul got out of the way and we have a 42k pot at 300/600. He flips 99, I’m happy my read was right but don’t even get a chance to pat myself on the back as he immediately flops quads, lol. A jack on the turn, not sure what I did to deserve that rubdown from the dealer, and a meaningless river card and it was all over.

Was happy with how I played, but i'm not one to dwell and moved onto the bar, occasionally popping back to rail Flushy, he ended the day on about 55k and went on to finish 7th for £12k, a great result and very well played. My appetite for live poker had been wetted once again, but that will have to wait for Vegas I imagine…..