So, had a week in Leeds not really playing a lot of poker, just catching up with friends and drinking too much. On Saturday we went out way too early to attempt the otley run but that failed miserably; however the early start still ensured a messy night. At the end of the night I offered some guy HU4rollz in the kebab shop before going back home and watching the calzaghe fight and then passing out. On Sunday I needed to get back home to play the Sunday tournaments, including the main event of the Ladbrokes LEOCOP festival which had a juicy $250k added. I was still feeling very rough from the Saturday night and had to get up quite early to get a train home from Leeds before playing. I only ended up playing 7 tournaments in total, starting nothing later than 8pm because I was that tired/hungover.
Never really got going in any tournament and ended up 1 tabling Ladbrokes from about 10pm onwards. It was such a grind for long stretches with me never building a stack in the early stages. I was watching loads of stuff on ninja video including Madagascar 2, Eden lake, entourage, Dexter, American dad, Simpsons and family guy to keep me going, lol. Quite a few hours into the tournament I only had 11k from the 10k starting stack yet the blinds had now escalated to 400/800 – 80. I managed to double up with AA vs QQ and then never looked back. I used my tight image, newly acquired stack and the approaching bubble to build over the next few levels to get to over 100k when the blinds were 800/1600 – 160.
The next couple hours were a bit of a blur tbh, I was steadily building, trying to avoid massive confrontations and seemed to be picking my spots well. We got down to the final two tables and I was in the top 4 chip stacks. It was now 6am though and I was really struggling to stay alert and concentrate. On the break I grabbed a shower and a coffee to wake me up and it seemed to work for about 20 mins, lol. When we got down to 12 players I opened up again taking advantage of the players who were hanging on to make the final adding a fair amount of chips to my stack with little or no risk.
I made the final 3rd in chips and with $230k ftw this was another great opportunity for my first 6 figure score that I’ve been chasing for so long now. 4 of the shorter stacks bust quite quickly but that consolidated the stacks to make it fairly even between the remaining players. Up until now I had been quite quiet not playing any big pots but still managing to add to my stack to be 1/6 albeit very slightly. Then things started to go wrong, I 4 bet/folded vs an aggressive scandie who time banked then 5 bet me all in sigh.... Next orbit I flat his raise with KQs, flop T9x with 1 of my suit. He bets the flop and I call hoping to either hit a K,Q,J or to pick up a flush draw in order to jam over his inevitable 2nd barrel. Unfortunately I got no help on the turn and had to fold to his bet :-(.
My exit hand was pretty much a cooler, playing 550k at 20k BB I picked up AJs in the SB folded to me and I raise, the BB who was a very good aggressive player 3 bet me and the was no other option but to get it in. We had clashed several times throughout the tournament and there is just no way I can fold in this spot, unfortunately though he had woken up with KK and I was gone in 5th place. $50k was a good score but I’m still left chasing that elusive 6 figures..............
After this it was a live outing, Amsterdam masters classic. Really liked the look of this event for the past couple of years but always been out of the country. Never got going at all, played pretty badly in the first couple of levels and then bust b4 the antes with TT on the button vs KK in the BB. I feel like my patience has been lacking in my last two events and will be looking to sort this in my next few live mtt’s. Amsterdam was pretty cool though, changed my flight to come home early than I originally planned but couldn’t get off my bed in the morning as I was too stoned, lol.
Grinded a bit online since getting back home, pretty brutal couple of days with a 3rd in the FTP $120 being the highlight for $4300. Not great considering it was the conclusion of the FTOPS last weekend which included a $5k event, sigh. Trying to cut down on online mtt volume in general though to play more cash again, and leave more free time for socialising with my friends who don’t play poker.
Won’t be playing very much this weekend as I’m doing the otley run in Leeds for my mates going away party. The otley run is a pretty epic pub crawl and we will be in fancy dress. The theme is badly dressed golfers, not my idea, lol but I’ll go with it and should be good fun regardless. Off to London next week for the GUKPT main event, then to DTD for their £1k anniversary cup event, followed by EPT Prague. If I’m running good there is a chance i'll be off to Vegas for the WPT just b4 Xmas as well. That’s about all, gl at the tables,
Pab
