pads1161 England rail
11-15-2014
, 07:20 PM
11-15-2014
, 07:30 PM
Day 1b, Blackpool GUKPT
We played Day 1b on the main event. I stayed on the same table all day and we had very few eliminations, it was one of the softest tables you will ever see.
Can't remember exactly what happened throughout the day but here are some "comedy" hands
Hand 1- Cut off constantly pulls his cards up to his face and basically in my face too. I see he has o, tell him and he says ok i still want to see a flop and limps. I raise 4x, blinds fold and he calls.
Flop 852, he check calls, I'm like hmm did he have t4 or t5?
Ws pretty sure he had t4 though.
Turn is 2, he checks and I bet biggish again and he pretty much snap calls
River is J which brings in a flush, I think the guy has forgotten what he has or something, or thinks he has his hand from the last time so I say "lets do a club check" so he HAS to realise he has ten high lol. We both look and I bet and he folds. That would have hurt lol.
I get some chips from raising utg with QJs, utg+1 and bb call. Flop is QJTfd, I bet big as they are both huge whales. UTG+1 raises me, he's raised like top pairs etc before but I don't want to 3bet the flop. Turn is Q, I lead out 7k into around 10k confident that he folds 0% of the time.
River is a Queen annoyingly I guess, but I go all in for around pot, he tells me "If you got the queen you got me" which made me believe he had AA which would kind of made sense, before he turned over AK. I guess he didn't know the rules.
Anyway end up with 80k with 4 levels to go and at 200/400 but run pretty bad, a few all ins vs short stacks where they jam 10bbs and I just call and lose, but end the day with 79125 which was in the top 10 chips for the day.
We played Day 1b on the main event. I stayed on the same table all day and we had very few eliminations, it was one of the softest tables you will ever see.
Can't remember exactly what happened throughout the day but here are some "comedy" hands
Hand 1- Cut off constantly pulls his cards up to his face and basically in my face too. I see he has o, tell him and he says ok i still want to see a flop and limps. I raise 4x, blinds fold and he calls.
Flop 852, he check calls, I'm like hmm did he have t4 or t5?
Ws pretty sure he had t4 though.Turn is 2, he checks and I bet biggish again and he pretty much snap calls
River is J which brings in a flush, I think the guy has forgotten what he has or something, or thinks he has his hand from the last time so I say "lets do a club check" so he HAS to realise he has ten high lol. We both look and I bet and he folds. That would have hurt lol.
I get some chips from raising utg with QJs, utg+1 and bb call. Flop is QJTfd, I bet big as they are both huge whales. UTG+1 raises me, he's raised like top pairs etc before but I don't want to 3bet the flop. Turn is Q, I lead out 7k into around 10k confident that he folds 0% of the time.
River is a Queen annoyingly I guess, but I go all in for around pot, he tells me "If you got the queen you got me" which made me believe he had AA which would kind of made sense, before he turned over AK. I guess he didn't know the rules.
Anyway end up with 80k with 4 levels to go and at 200/400 but run pretty bad, a few all ins vs short stacks where they jam 10bbs and I just call and lose, but end the day with 79125 which was in the top 10 chips for the day.
11-15-2014
, 07:51 PM
11-15-2014
, 08:23 PM
An investor on another forum asked me why I chose Blackpool over the WPT500 which got 2000+ runners so I thought I'd share the post here too, don't feel compelled to read it for any detailed information on results!
I used to be 18 playing with friends in their houses. It used to be a 0.5/0.10p game and I was really pretty bad. My friend had played in the casino one Wednesday in a freeroll that you could rebuy in for £5. I told my Dad I wouldn't be home for dinner because I had won a "raffle" into a poker game. I ended up losing pretty quickly and telling the table "I'm way out of my league here" when they asked me to rebuy. When the GUKPT came around I went down to watch and was in complete awe of everybody who was there. There was a 5/5 cash game that felt like a 100/200 cash game.
I worked really hard that year and by the time I was 19 I was starting to become more of a regular in the games, playing £30 freezeouts sometimes. I went to the Sunday tournament that was £20+£20+£20 and remembering I only had £40 so couldn't afford to buy in for the 3rd bullet. I final tabled but didn't cash, but I enjoyed it. I remember at this time I was really, really tight, I once looked at a Queen utg and folded without looking at the second card It was pinged him to play very tight UTG and I knew the button was special but didn't know why or how I could use its special powers. When the GUKPT came around this year I went and watched again, a huge fanboy. I didn't know a single player, most people with like 30-60. There was a group of around 6-7 younger guys though and I remember Francis Creed was railing them, her boyfriend at the time Tony Phillips was dressed like Channing and used to play good. I stood next to her on the rail and after a few minutes saw the cut off open, this young kid with long dark hair 3bet him and I saw him peel his cards and saw A9o. I almost jumped over the rail, I really couldn't think why he'd ever do that with such a bad hand. The guy called, and folded to a cbet. That was my first ever AHA moment in poker. I found out who he was and he was a young kid who had a poker blog that was about playing 100nlhu online and online tournaments, he was called Jake Cody! His travelling partner was Tom MacDonald and they were instantly upgraded to numbet 1 heroes. I added both of them on facebook and would tell my friends about things they'd post etc. Jake then went on to win Deauville that year iirc and then the rest is history.
I worked hard for that next year again but was at University, this time when GUKPT came around I sold action for a £220 and a £330 side event, this was HUGE to me at the time. I remember getting to the last 2 tables and playing some pot against Jeraint Herzain? Where I defend his 3bet then stop and go'd when I knew he was trying to push me about. Things were starting to tick a little bit, but I hadn't accelerated enough or improved at the pace I wanted to.
Newcastle was then taking off the tour and even though I improved significantly in that time I wasn't at the stage where I could financially afford to travel around playing the live circuit. I moved to Gibraltar to work for PokerStrategy.com then lived in Spain/Hungary since.
Since then I have always followed the tour online, I like to watch the stream from time to time and often check the chip counts with interest.
When I realised I could play WPT next week and saw that Blackpool was this week it wasn't really a decision if I'm honest. Playing a GUKPT was weirdly as close to the bucket list as playing a WPT is, perhaps even higher!
I loved my entire experience at Blackpool, it was without doubt an incredibly soft tournament that I wouldn't feel bad about selling a 1.8 but the whole experience and atmosphere was great.
I used to be 18 playing with friends in their houses. It used to be a 0.5/0.10p game and I was really pretty bad. My friend had played in the casino one Wednesday in a freeroll that you could rebuy in for £5. I told my Dad I wouldn't be home for dinner because I had won a "raffle" into a poker game. I ended up losing pretty quickly and telling the table "I'm way out of my league here" when they asked me to rebuy. When the GUKPT came around I went down to watch and was in complete awe of everybody who was there. There was a 5/5 cash game that felt like a 100/200 cash game.
I worked really hard that year and by the time I was 19 I was starting to become more of a regular in the games, playing £30 freezeouts sometimes. I went to the Sunday tournament that was £20+£20+£20 and remembering I only had £40 so couldn't afford to buy in for the 3rd bullet. I final tabled but didn't cash, but I enjoyed it. I remember at this time I was really, really tight, I once looked at a Queen utg and folded without looking at the second card
It was pinged him to play very tight UTG and I knew the button was special but didn't know why or how I could use its special powers. When the GUKPT came around this year I went and watched again, a huge fanboy. I didn't know a single player, most people with like 30-60. There was a group of around 6-7 younger guys though and I remember Francis Creed was railing them, her boyfriend at the time Tony Phillips was dressed like Channing and used to play good. I stood next to her on the rail and after a few minutes saw the cut off open, this young kid with long dark hair 3bet him and I saw him peel his cards and saw A9o. I almost jumped over the rail, I really couldn't think why he'd ever do that with such a bad hand. The guy called, and folded to a cbet. That was my first ever AHA moment in poker. I found out who he was and he was a young kid who had a poker blog that was about playing 100nlhu online and online tournaments, he was called Jake Cody! His travelling partner was Tom MacDonald and they were instantly upgraded to numbet 1 heroes. I added both of them on facebook and would tell my friends about things they'd post etc. Jake then went on to win Deauville that year iirc and then the rest is history.I worked hard for that next year again but was at University, this time when GUKPT came around I sold action for a £220 and a £330 side event, this was HUGE to me at the time. I remember getting to the last 2 tables and playing some pot against Jeraint Herzain? Where I defend his 3bet then stop and go'd when I knew he was trying to push me about. Things were starting to tick a little bit, but I hadn't accelerated enough or improved at the pace I wanted to.
Newcastle was then taking off the tour and even though I improved significantly in that time I wasn't at the stage where I could financially afford to travel around playing the live circuit. I moved to Gibraltar to work for PokerStrategy.com then lived in Spain/Hungary since.
Since then I have always followed the tour online, I like to watch the stream from time to time and often check the chip counts with interest.
When I realised I could play WPT next week and saw that Blackpool was this week it wasn't really a decision if I'm honest. Playing a GUKPT was weirdly as close to the bucket list as playing a WPT is, perhaps even higher!
I loved my entire experience at Blackpool, it was without doubt an incredibly soft tournament that I wouldn't feel bad about selling a 1.8 but the whole experience and atmosphere was great.
11-17-2014
, 10:08 AM
11-17-2014
, 07:21 PM
11-17-2014
, 10:22 PM
11-18-2014
, 02:22 PM
11-18-2014
, 06:44 PM
11-18-2014
, 11:01 PM
11-19-2014
, 12:20 AM
11-19-2014
, 08:02 PM
WPT Nottingham Main Event
This was a frustrating day. My first bullet was on a table with Sofia Lovren, Roberto Romanello, Brammer amongst others. I think I know all the regs here games very well actually, or more than they would expect so was happy with the table draw. The first pot I played on any meaning was when I squeezed the button to 5x after 2 limps from cut off and hijac. The flop was q44x have AT and obviously bet, the first limper calls and the second folds. My read now was that he was going to be stubborn and not fold.
The turn was Q44K and I checked back as I just didnt expect him to fold Qx and against these players I don't want to fire 3 against him.
River was Q44KJ and he checked, I think he has a lot of QJ, AQ, mayyybe KQ in his range so bet really big. He put the calling chips in his hand as I was saying to myself "ship it to poppa" he said raise. I was super surprised but just don't think he ever raises KQ for value here vs a large sizing from me and he was very dramatic and there was no draw so I just expected him to have quads or something like that. It felt like a good fold.
He kept playing very weak passive at this point and I had another decision against him where I flop a set 5 way. He leads out and I decide to raise 22 on 632 and he 3bet the flop against me. It was a large sizing and I was comitting to the hand or folding. I was very sure at the time he had me beat. I could flat the flop bet but somebody called in-between and between the two of them I thought raising would show the highest ev.
I doubled up against Brammer where I rivered a full house against possibly a flush but he didn't show down. I then played a really interesting hand.
I raise QJhx and get 3 callers. The flop is J53hxx, I decide to check, I think in hindsight betting is best. The button who is a young cash game player from London bets, both the blinds call and I decide to call. Flop was very very close, but sb was splashing around and would be calling way more than normal here.
The turn was J537hxxh I check again, theres 11k in the pot and the button bets 1200 with 27k back meaning he cant have a big value hand as obviously he'd bet bigger so he could jam the river right? The sb now who was the kind of guy to raise to find out where he was made it 3100 and the bb folded. I assumed the SB range will almost always be Jx the way he played it as he'd raised top pair and got to show down a couple of times now. So I decided to 3bet the flop to get him to fold QJ,KJ,JT,AJ as both bets were extremely weak. The button who had bet 1200 into 11k now started tanking for ages, I just didn't get it but he jammed for 27k. It would be super super weird to bet this sizing with 55,33 and he very likely doesn't have 64 pre flop when I raise from EP. I checked by cards and I had Jh so he couldn't have JhXh. The sb folded quickly and claimed QJ after the hand. I gave it up pretty quickly as he obviously can't be bluffing here, but it was a really weird/sick spot and I struggled to find any kind of range for him there.
Anyway, I keep playing and end up having 35bbs and opening, the cut off called and then the button squeezed. He has squeezed 98s in a similar spot previously and had been 3betting hands that seem to be better to flat so I think I made a pretty standard jam with 77. He snapped me off and showed ATo which felt like a really weird/bad 3bet/call but I guess he just thinks because I play online I'm going to do something stupid. Anyway he rivers a 4 card flush and thats bullet 1 gg.
He tweeted after the hand
norbert berent @wantmemoney 5h5 hours ago
sry @4bet2induce i just go for a fame to bust u out
Marvellous.
I got a second bullet and had Gaelle Bauman, Matt Davenport, Rob Sherwood and then huge huge punters. I made a pretty big fold where I checked back A9hh on A48hh, turn was 5s bringing double flush draw and he bet and I called, river was A845Thhssx and he bet again, I think most people will never check back flop/fold river, but I was just pretty sure from everything in the hand that I was beat, sure there are combos that I beat but theres a lot that beat me too and my live tells seemed to give it off he was strong, so that was a pretty big fold.
A tight Indian guy raised utg and I defended my bb with A3. The flop was 966 and we both checked, the turn was an Ace, I checked and he bet, I called. The river was a 5 giving the 966A5 board and I decided to fold to his river bet so that was two pretty big river folds, but I was really happy I was making them whilst on a second bullet and short and whilst not going to call myself "proud" for doing it, it did feel good to know I was not on autopilot.
I was getting short and told Matt Davenport youre going to double me up next hand. He is an aggressive player who likes to battle and a really nice guy. Dealer deals me AKhh utg, I tell Matt "I told you" and raise, he 3bets me and I smile, I didn't actually think he was that light but with my stack I had to gii and he would likely be 3bc AQ and possibly AJ here. He didn't ask for a count and turned over AA and it was gg.
Entering again tomorrow with 30bbs, its a 90 minute clock and I'm feeling very good and busting at least allows me a good sleep!
This was a frustrating day. My first bullet was on a table with Sofia Lovren, Roberto Romanello, Brammer amongst others. I think I know all the regs here games very well actually, or more than they would expect so was happy with the table draw. The first pot I played on any meaning was when I squeezed the button to 5x after 2 limps from cut off and hijac. The flop was q44x have AT and obviously bet, the first limper calls and the second folds. My read now was that he was going to be stubborn and not fold.
The turn was Q44K and I checked back as I just didnt expect him to fold Qx and against these players I don't want to fire 3 against him.
River was Q44KJ and he checked, I think he has a lot of QJ, AQ, mayyybe KQ in his range so bet really big. He put the calling chips in his hand as I was saying to myself "ship it to poppa" he said raise. I was super surprised but just don't think he ever raises KQ for value here vs a large sizing from me and he was very dramatic and there was no draw so I just expected him to have quads or something like that. It felt like a good fold.
He kept playing very weak passive at this point and I had another decision against him where I flop a set 5 way. He leads out and I decide to raise 22 on 632 and he 3bet the flop against me. It was a large sizing and I was comitting to the hand or folding. I was very sure at the time he had me beat. I could flat the flop bet but somebody called in-between and between the two of them I thought raising would show the highest ev.
I doubled up against Brammer where I rivered a full house against possibly a flush but he didn't show down. I then played a really interesting hand.
I raise QJhx and get 3 callers. The flop is J53hxx, I decide to check, I think in hindsight betting is best. The button who is a young cash game player from London bets, both the blinds call and I decide to call. Flop was very very close, but sb was splashing around and would be calling way more than normal here.
The turn was J537hxxh I check again, theres 11k in the pot and the button bets 1200 with 27k back meaning he cant have a big value hand as obviously he'd bet bigger so he could jam the river right? The sb now who was the kind of guy to raise to find out where he was made it 3100 and the bb folded. I assumed the SB range will almost always be Jx the way he played it as he'd raised top pair and got to show down a couple of times now. So I decided to 3bet the flop to get him to fold QJ,KJ,JT,AJ as both bets were extremely weak. The button who had bet 1200 into 11k now started tanking for ages, I just didn't get it but he jammed for 27k. It would be super super weird to bet this sizing with 55,33 and he very likely doesn't have 64 pre flop when I raise from EP. I checked by cards and I had Jh so he couldn't have JhXh. The sb folded quickly and claimed QJ after the hand. I gave it up pretty quickly as he obviously can't be bluffing here, but it was a really weird/sick spot and I struggled to find any kind of range for him there.
Anyway, I keep playing and end up having 35bbs and opening, the cut off called and then the button squeezed. He has squeezed 98s in a similar spot previously and had been 3betting hands that seem to be better to flat so I think I made a pretty standard jam with 77. He snapped me off and showed ATo which felt like a really weird/bad 3bet/call but I guess he just thinks because I play online I'm going to do something stupid. Anyway he rivers a 4 card flush and thats bullet 1 gg.
He tweeted after the hand
norbert berent @wantmemoney 5h5 hours ago
sry @4bet2induce i just go for a fame to bust u out
Marvellous.
I got a second bullet and had Gaelle Bauman, Matt Davenport, Rob Sherwood and then huge huge punters. I made a pretty big fold where I checked back A9hh on A48hh, turn was 5s bringing double flush draw and he bet and I called, river was A845Thhssx and he bet again, I think most people will never check back flop/fold river, but I was just pretty sure from everything in the hand that I was beat, sure there are combos that I beat but theres a lot that beat me too and my live tells seemed to give it off he was strong, so that was a pretty big fold.
A tight Indian guy raised utg and I defended my bb with A3. The flop was 966 and we both checked, the turn was an Ace, I checked and he bet, I called. The river was a 5 giving the 966A5 board and I decided to fold to his river bet so that was two pretty big river folds, but I was really happy I was making them whilst on a second bullet and short and whilst not going to call myself "proud" for doing it, it did feel good to know I was not on autopilot.
I was getting short and told Matt Davenport youre going to double me up next hand. He is an aggressive player who likes to battle and a really nice guy. Dealer deals me AKhh utg, I tell Matt "I told you" and raise, he 3bets me and I smile, I didn't actually think he was that light but with my stack I had to gii and he would likely be 3bc AQ and possibly AJ here. He didn't ask for a count and turned over AA and it was gg.
Entering again tomorrow with 30bbs, its a 90 minute clock and I'm feeling very good and busting at least allows me a good sleep!
11-19-2014
, 10:18 PM
WPT Nottingham, High Roller Day 2
So first off don't get me wrong, I ran well on day 2 of this tournament, I'm going to mention hands I lose but its in no way a moan, I was very happy with the end result and would have taken it going into the day.
Throughout the day I played more pots than anybody else which is rare for a highroller, I usually play tight, but I just felt so on my game throughout that I wanted to play pots and battle.
My starting table was pretty tough and reggy, I immediately lost a really big pot. I raised cut off with AJ, Simon Higgins, a perceived recreational player flat on the button and Sergio Aido (petgaming online) who had fired 3 bullets into this tournament jammed around 38k at 2kbb. I had 63k to start the hand and made the relatively easy rejam. He had AQ and we were really dented and on the brink of busting.
I won a nice pot raising AK, min betting q22 and calling vs leads on 94 vs 87o and winning vs Dhru Patel. I chipped up and won around 7 hands in a row when I had pretty good starting hands but didnt get to show them down unfortunately. Very early in the day I got KK in vs Middy to put me on around 130k when average was 65k and he rivered an ace. I was down to 6bbs at 3kbb so it felt for the second time within an hour "gg".
Shortly afterwards we got it all in again, me for 18k this time and with AJ and he had KK, however this time I won the 30/70 and doubled up. I took a lot of different lines to chip up and was accumulating a lot of small pots that were essential to my stack. Mike Sexton moved to our table and I jammed around 14bbs with A7 and beat his JJ to give me 30bbs which was more than fine in this structure.
I got moved tables to Toby Lewis, Craig Mccorkell, Stevie Chidwick, Paul Newey and a few others and was playing around a 65% vpip. For transparency I played 2 debatable hands.
It was the last hand before the break, I limped button with 9Ts into Stevie Chidwick in the bb and John Haigh in the sb. John raised to 7.5k and I called. The flop was K23 and I decided to raise his cbet of 8k to 19.4k with 50 behind as I felt he folded a lot in this exact spot. He called and we checked down and he had KQ.
Another hand was against Vamplew, I opened cut off into his bb 3 orbits in a row, I had 20bbs in the last one and he decided to 3bet me, I had ATs and I just didn't want to fold. He had chunks and I expected he was pretty light. If he jammed I was 100% snapping. The flop came q73ssx he checked and I think the Queen is the nut card for me and hits me really well so bet. He called and I gave up on the 8/J run out but was super super close to piling river. He had 99.
We were playing with 14 left for 2 full levels and nobody was busting and I was manipulating my stack sizes as I moved from 12-20-30-40-60bbs by adjusting my game accordingly. I won a lot of pots defending my bb and other spots and went from 45k to around 280k. It felt very assuring to get this stack without showing down much and I felt very comfortable.
The pivotal hand of pre-final table then happened, it was 6k bb and Craig went all in for around 80ish. I called with jacks with the intention of calling everybody except Stevies rejams and Toby quickly jammed the bb with QQ for around 93-103k and told them that one of us would flop a set, fortunately it was me and that gave me a really nice stack to abuse the final table bubble and got there with a pretty good stack. I took a lot of lines against certain players because of tendancies in their games and despite wanting to give a good report can't go into some of the hands unfortunately.
Final table
We eventually got to the final table and it looked something like
Seat 1 - Steve Warbutton, 250k
Seat 2 - Stu Rutter, 350k
Seat 3 - Oliver Price, 60k
Seat 4 - Stevie Chidwick, 350k
seat 5 - John Haigh, 200k
Seat 6 - Pablo Fernandez, 250k
seat 7 - Me, 400k
Seat 8 - Bryn Kenney - 450k
Seat 9 - Dhru Patel - 500k
Pay outs were
£100k
£60k
£45
£30
£25
£18k
Obviously the first thing to realise here is a min cash is absolutely huge. 3x the buy in and the equivalent of around $30,000. I have a very good record in final tables online, generally converting a top 3 finish and went with that approach going in. Basically chipping up as slowly and steadily as possible, pushing it as much as possible and then if theres a major set back give up and get into a top 3 position (in this case ITM) before trying to go for the win.
I won the first 4/5 pots I played and my stack kept creeping up, I had gone from a little under 400 to over 600. One hand was against Bryn that was interesting.
BB12k, I make it 25k in the hijac, in the cut off with 350k he made it 54k. With this sizing I am going to flat a lot, I probably will flat AA/KK too and with AQcc it seems to me like a perfect hand to have in my flatting range that will continue well as the streets develop. I'd be more inclined to jam AQo He checks back T82 and then bets the T on the turn. I call and on the As river it goes check, check and he berates me a little "if you played your hand properly you'd have busted me" implying he had JJ-KK but it didn't go to showdown. I think he was a little tilted that I had won. Bryn came across throughout the final as a really, really good guy. He played exceptional throughout and really helped the overall mood of the final.
I then played a very important hand. We were 8 handed I was chip leader and Stu Rutter was 2/8. He had been playing aggressively against the mid stack guys as he should but we hadn't played any pots of significance.
It folds to me on the button and I make it 24k with KcJc off 600k, he has around 400k and 3bets me to around 55k. This felt very, very, very weird to me, in theory I think he shouldnt have a 3bet range as I have a really easy 4bet with so many hands and there were two guys with basically 100k and less. He had also satalited into the event through a tournament won and knew that it was a big cash to him as it was me and everybody else (excpet Bryn perhaps)
I decided to call and we got a beautiful Jd 4c 2c, he checked and I decided to check back, I figured if he has AK then its pretty hard for me to get beat due to having both clubs and a King and he will probably just c/f as his range will look weak and I have a great stack manipulation bet on the turn.
The turn was the Js 4c 2c Qs and he bet 65k. I called which I don't think is close.
The river is the 5s and he bet 109k.
This was really weird to me, in my mind he would never 3bet a hand like QJ,KQ almost ever at this point of the tournament, I also figured it would be highly, highly unlikely he 3bet AQ pre flop because of the icm implications and we have to expect that AA/KK cbets flop a decent amount of the time. I considered shoving because I expected him to cbet back door spades often and obviously if he does have a one pair hand he's going to be very hard pressed to call. I eventually decided to call, mainly because I would still be 2/8 if I lost and if I won I'd be a huge 1/7 whilst still thinking it was probably a profitable call anyway. He had AQ which really surprised me at the time, wp though and in general Stu really didn't play money shy around the bubble, he was playing as aggressive as anybody throughout.
Anyway the bubble bursts and first hand after the bust out Pablo jams 13bbs from the cut off and I have a7cc on the button. Painfully close but I gotta gii and I lose to KJ on the xxxxJ for rubs. My mindset was so wrong after the bubble I think, I'm not sure why but I had a winning process from just min cashing instead of trying to win, not sure exactly why this was. We had a break and I kind of got back on track and was more focused and thinking more through bets and sizes etc Don't get me wrong, I wasn't punting, just previously for 7 hours I was super A+ game and then I slipped into c game for 20 minutes and it was a little frustrating.
One orbit after the break Pablo opens, I 3bet TT, he piles and I call and beat his AQ.
I then play a crippling pot for John Haigh. I open AdAc from UTG to 25k and he defends his BB. The flop comes Jc 6d 4h, he checks and I bet 15k, trying to induce something from an aggressive player who had been handcuffed throughout the final so far. He raised to 50k and I called. The turn was the 2s completing the rainbow and he bet 70k. I didn't particuarly liked it but called. The river was a beautiful 6s. This takes away his 66/j6/64 combos considerably and he bets 90k. Now I think he has a hand like Jx, but I doubt he can ever call a river jam and he has J4 for a counterfitted two pair. His river bet is perhaps not optimal, but when you're in a pot like that and expect to stack the kid raising and winning every pot sometimes you do that kind of thing. Again a word on John, he was a top guy, we went to dinner and I thought he played really good throughout.
Dhru Patel busted to Rutter and Rutter took Stevie Chidwick, Warbutton and somebody else out and had chunks. We were 3 handed
Rutter 1.2m
Me 600K
Brun 400k
Estimated chip stacks. 3rd hand into 3 handed, I opened 88 otb, my first button open and Bryn 3bet the sb, I jammed 40bbs and he called it off with A9. Pretty gangster and we were flipping for a big stack. It came Axxxx and we were short again, this time we were still very focused and wanted to play as perfectly as possible.
We battled for around 3 hours, maybe 4 hours 3 handed, it was a truly really great battle with loads of strat, counter strat and counter counter strat going on. We ended up with me having 1.3m, Bryn 320k and Stu 700k. S At bb 15k I gii with Js 8s bvb vs Bryn's A9 for his 300k but lose and put the stacks back to 1m, 600k, 700k. Stu and I had a really interesting dynamic where I was min raising his button, min betting the flop and 2x potting the turn, it was putting really big ICM pressure on him and I guess he didn't have any really strong hands to continue with as it was boards like J762 and Q544 etc where he was forced to continue on the flop because of my sizing.
Bryn eventually showered Stu in a cooler and we re-positioned ourselves for heads up. If anybody was watching heads up you would have been 99% sure we had chopped it, we were playing very lax and very laid back, theres a great picture on my twitter (4bet2induce) of him, check it out We hadn't dealt, honestly I think Bryn probably wouldn't have dealt with me to be honest. I just think he's a huge gangster who doesn't give a **** and is a huge boss. I respected that and was looking forward to the battle, but playing hu for $62k is pretty crazy. We went into HU with exactly 1.2m each and we had 60bbs each.
We both changed our strat alot from limping/raising out buttons. I was pretty card dead for a while and lost a really crucial pot. He had around 1.4m and I had around 1m. He raised to 50k otb and I defended 6c 5c. The flop was 7s4s2d I checked and he bet 65k and I called. The turn was the 9s and I checked and he bet 115k, at this point he 100000% thought I was a station and not aggro on streets past the flop. I decided to raise to 395k leaving a nice river sized jam. He took a while and called and I check/folded on the 4c river and he said he had a flush.
I doubled up from limping A5 on the button and calling his 18bb jam, pretty unorthodox, but it was right for the spot.
Then the big crucial hand of heads up happened, he limped button and I had lost the last 6/7 pots so decided to raise to 100k at 24kbb he called.
The flop was Q82 and I cbet 65k and he called. The turn was an amazing Q and I bet 180k and he called. At this point I was just very sure he had 8x, he could have Qx too, but just everything felt like 8x. I had also watched a video of him randomly heads up a few weeks ago at WSOP where he check/called turn with 2nd pair to a big bet, called the river jam and told his opponent he couldnt fold river if he called. I decided I'd overbet any river and this was the "win"
The river was the Qc 8h 3d Qs 2d and I bet around 500-600k and he sigh'd whilst I fistpumped inside and called with 8... A. Pretty annoying as I'm sure he calls all 8x on the river.
He puts me all in next button, I call looking at one Ace for 18bbs and then flip over another Ace and double. We then get it AJ vs 22 and he flops a 2.
Hard for me to really describe much here as we played short handed for literally the whole day and I played a 65% vpip there was obviously 30+ really interesting spots.
I really enjoyed playing the tournament, meeting some new people and battling with players I knew of but hadn't played before. As everybody knew I had bricked the 6 or so big live tournaments that I had played previously so this really gave me some more confidence going forward.
So first off don't get me wrong, I ran well on day 2 of this tournament, I'm going to mention hands I lose but its in no way a moan, I was very happy with the end result and would have taken it going into the day.
Throughout the day I played more pots than anybody else which is rare for a highroller, I usually play tight, but I just felt so on my game throughout that I wanted to play pots and battle.
My starting table was pretty tough and reggy, I immediately lost a really big pot. I raised cut off with AJ, Simon Higgins, a perceived recreational player flat on the button and Sergio Aido (petgaming online) who had fired 3 bullets into this tournament jammed around 38k at 2kbb. I had 63k to start the hand and made the relatively easy rejam. He had AQ and we were really dented and on the brink of busting.
I won a nice pot raising AK, min betting q22 and calling vs leads on 94 vs 87o and winning vs Dhru Patel. I chipped up and won around 7 hands in a row when I had pretty good starting hands but didnt get to show them down unfortunately. Very early in the day I got KK in vs Middy to put me on around 130k when average was 65k and he rivered an ace. I was down to 6bbs at 3kbb so it felt for the second time within an hour "gg".
Shortly afterwards we got it all in again, me for 18k this time and with AJ and he had KK, however this time I won the 30/70 and doubled up. I took a lot of different lines to chip up and was accumulating a lot of small pots that were essential to my stack. Mike Sexton moved to our table and I jammed around 14bbs with A7 and beat his JJ to give me 30bbs which was more than fine in this structure.
I got moved tables to Toby Lewis, Craig Mccorkell, Stevie Chidwick, Paul Newey and a few others and was playing around a 65% vpip. For transparency I played 2 debatable hands.
It was the last hand before the break, I limped button with 9Ts into Stevie Chidwick in the bb and John Haigh in the sb. John raised to 7.5k and I called. The flop was K23 and I decided to raise his cbet of 8k to 19.4k with 50 behind as I felt he folded a lot in this exact spot. He called and we checked down and he had KQ.
Another hand was against Vamplew, I opened cut off into his bb 3 orbits in a row, I had 20bbs in the last one and he decided to 3bet me, I had ATs and I just didn't want to fold. He had chunks and I expected he was pretty light. If he jammed I was 100% snapping. The flop came q73ssx he checked and I think the Queen is the nut card for me and hits me really well so bet. He called and I gave up on the 8/J run out but was super super close to piling river. He had 99.
We were playing with 14 left for 2 full levels and nobody was busting and I was manipulating my stack sizes as I moved from 12-20-30-40-60bbs by adjusting my game accordingly. I won a lot of pots defending my bb and other spots and went from 45k to around 280k. It felt very assuring to get this stack without showing down much and I felt very comfortable.
The pivotal hand of pre-final table then happened, it was 6k bb and Craig went all in for around 80ish. I called with jacks with the intention of calling everybody except Stevies rejams and Toby quickly jammed the bb with QQ for around 93-103k and told them that one of us would flop a set, fortunately it was me and that gave me a really nice stack to abuse the final table bubble and got there with a pretty good stack. I took a lot of lines against certain players because of tendancies in their games and despite wanting to give a good report can't go into some of the hands unfortunately.
Final table
We eventually got to the final table and it looked something like
Seat 1 - Steve Warbutton, 250k
Seat 2 - Stu Rutter, 350k
Seat 3 - Oliver Price, 60k
Seat 4 - Stevie Chidwick, 350k
seat 5 - John Haigh, 200k
Seat 6 - Pablo Fernandez, 250k
seat 7 - Me, 400k
Seat 8 - Bryn Kenney - 450k
Seat 9 - Dhru Patel - 500k
Pay outs were
£100k
£60k
£45
£30
£25
£18k
Obviously the first thing to realise here is a min cash is absolutely huge. 3x the buy in and the equivalent of around $30,000. I have a very good record in final tables online, generally converting a top 3 finish and went with that approach going in. Basically chipping up as slowly and steadily as possible, pushing it as much as possible and then if theres a major set back give up and get into a top 3 position (in this case ITM) before trying to go for the win.
I won the first 4/5 pots I played and my stack kept creeping up, I had gone from a little under 400 to over 600. One hand was against Bryn that was interesting.
BB12k, I make it 25k in the hijac, in the cut off with 350k he made it 54k. With this sizing I am going to flat a lot, I probably will flat AA/KK too and with AQcc it seems to me like a perfect hand to have in my flatting range that will continue well as the streets develop. I'd be more inclined to jam AQo He checks back T82 and then bets the T on the turn. I call and on the As river it goes check, check and he berates me a little "if you played your hand properly you'd have busted me" implying he had JJ-KK but it didn't go to showdown. I think he was a little tilted that I had won. Bryn came across throughout the final as a really, really good guy. He played exceptional throughout and really helped the overall mood of the final.
I then played a very important hand. We were 8 handed I was chip leader and Stu Rutter was 2/8. He had been playing aggressively against the mid stack guys as he should but we hadn't played any pots of significance.
It folds to me on the button and I make it 24k with KcJc off 600k, he has around 400k and 3bets me to around 55k. This felt very, very, very weird to me, in theory I think he shouldnt have a 3bet range as I have a really easy 4bet with so many hands and there were two guys with basically 100k and less. He had also satalited into the event through a tournament won and knew that it was a big cash to him as it was me and everybody else (excpet Bryn perhaps)
I decided to call and we got a beautiful Jd 4c 2c, he checked and I decided to check back, I figured if he has AK then its pretty hard for me to get beat due to having both clubs and a King and he will probably just c/f as his range will look weak and I have a great stack manipulation bet on the turn.
The turn was the Js 4c 2c Qs and he bet 65k. I called which I don't think is close.
The river is the 5s and he bet 109k.
This was really weird to me, in my mind he would never 3bet a hand like QJ,KQ almost ever at this point of the tournament, I also figured it would be highly, highly unlikely he 3bet AQ pre flop because of the icm implications and we have to expect that AA/KK cbets flop a decent amount of the time. I considered shoving because I expected him to cbet back door spades often and obviously if he does have a one pair hand he's going to be very hard pressed to call. I eventually decided to call, mainly because I would still be 2/8 if I lost and if I won I'd be a huge 1/7 whilst still thinking it was probably a profitable call anyway. He had AQ which really surprised me at the time, wp though and in general Stu really didn't play money shy around the bubble, he was playing as aggressive as anybody throughout.
Anyway the bubble bursts and first hand after the bust out Pablo jams 13bbs from the cut off and I have a7cc on the button. Painfully close but I gotta gii and I lose to KJ on the xxxxJ for rubs. My mindset was so wrong after the bubble I think, I'm not sure why but I had a winning process from just min cashing instead of trying to win, not sure exactly why this was. We had a break and I kind of got back on track and was more focused and thinking more through bets and sizes etc Don't get me wrong, I wasn't punting, just previously for 7 hours I was super A+ game and then I slipped into c game for 20 minutes and it was a little frustrating.
One orbit after the break Pablo opens, I 3bet TT, he piles and I call and beat his AQ.
I then play a crippling pot for John Haigh. I open AdAc from UTG to 25k and he defends his BB. The flop comes Jc 6d 4h, he checks and I bet 15k, trying to induce something from an aggressive player who had been handcuffed throughout the final so far. He raised to 50k and I called. The turn was the 2s completing the rainbow and he bet 70k. I didn't particuarly liked it but called. The river was a beautiful 6s. This takes away his 66/j6/64 combos considerably and he bets 90k. Now I think he has a hand like Jx, but I doubt he can ever call a river jam and he has J4 for a counterfitted two pair. His river bet is perhaps not optimal, but when you're in a pot like that and expect to stack the kid raising and winning every pot sometimes you do that kind of thing. Again a word on John, he was a top guy, we went to dinner and I thought he played really good throughout.
Dhru Patel busted to Rutter and Rutter took Stevie Chidwick, Warbutton and somebody else out and had chunks. We were 3 handed
Rutter 1.2m
Me 600K
Brun 400k
Estimated chip stacks. 3rd hand into 3 handed, I opened 88 otb, my first button open and Bryn 3bet the sb, I jammed 40bbs and he called it off with A9. Pretty gangster and we were flipping for a big stack. It came Axxxx and we were short again, this time we were still very focused and wanted to play as perfectly as possible.
We battled for around 3 hours, maybe 4 hours 3 handed, it was a truly really great battle with loads of strat, counter strat and counter counter strat going on. We ended up with me having 1.3m, Bryn 320k and Stu 700k. S At bb 15k I gii with Js 8s bvb vs Bryn's A9 for his 300k but lose and put the stacks back to 1m, 600k, 700k. Stu and I had a really interesting dynamic where I was min raising his button, min betting the flop and 2x potting the turn, it was putting really big ICM pressure on him and I guess he didn't have any really strong hands to continue with as it was boards like J762 and Q544 etc where he was forced to continue on the flop because of my sizing.
Bryn eventually showered Stu in a cooler and we re-positioned ourselves for heads up. If anybody was watching heads up you would have been 99% sure we had chopped it, we were playing very lax and very laid back, theres a great picture on my twitter (4bet2induce) of him, check it out
We hadn't dealt, honestly I think Bryn probably wouldn't have dealt with me to be honest. I just think he's a huge gangster who doesn't give a **** and is a huge boss. I respected that and was looking forward to the battle, but playing hu for $62k is pretty crazy. We went into HU with exactly 1.2m each and we had 60bbs each.We both changed our strat alot from limping/raising out buttons. I was pretty card dead for a while and lost a really crucial pot. He had around 1.4m and I had around 1m. He raised to 50k otb and I defended 6c 5c. The flop was 7s4s2d I checked and he bet 65k and I called. The turn was the 9s and I checked and he bet 115k, at this point he 100000% thought I was a station and not aggro on streets past the flop. I decided to raise to 395k leaving a nice river sized jam. He took a while and called and I check/folded on the 4c river and he said he had a flush.
I doubled up from limping A5 on the button and calling his 18bb jam, pretty unorthodox, but it was right for the spot.
Then the big crucial hand of heads up happened, he limped button and I had lost the last 6/7 pots so decided to raise to 100k at 24kbb he called.
The flop was Q82 and I cbet 65k and he called. The turn was an amazing Q and I bet 180k and he called. At this point I was just very sure he had 8x, he could have Qx too, but just everything felt like 8x. I had also watched a video of him randomly heads up a few weeks ago at WSOP where he check/called turn with 2nd pair to a big bet, called the river jam and told his opponent he couldnt fold river if he called. I decided I'd overbet any river and this was the "win"
The river was the Qc 8h 3d Qs 2d and I bet around 500-600k and he sigh'd whilst I fistpumped inside and called with 8... A. Pretty annoying as I'm sure he calls all 8x on the river.
He puts me all in next button, I call looking at one Ace for 18bbs and then flip over another Ace and double. We then get it AJ vs 22 and he flops a 2.
Hard for me to really describe much here as we played short handed for literally the whole day and I played a 65% vpip there was obviously 30+ really interesting spots.
I really enjoyed playing the tournament, meeting some new people and battling with players I knew of but hadn't played before. As everybody knew I had bricked the 6 or so big live tournaments that I had played previously so this really gave me some more confidence going forward.
11-20-2014
, 02:10 PM
11-20-2014
, 06:37 PM
11-20-2014
, 08:12 PM
11-21-2014
, 07:40 AM