I don't usually play live festivals, so I thought I'd do a trip report. I might start to play them more, after seeing the standard...
It was my first visit to the new G Casino, found near Ramsgate in Kent. The tournament had a decent structure, with 6,000 starting chips at 25/50 blinds. The clock was 45 minutes, and the blinds had fairly gentle increases (but no 500/1000 level, why do most UK casinos ignore this level?!), so there was plenty of time to make moves if you wanted to play that kind of style. 114 runners gave us a good sized field, with the top 13 getting paid.
As it was the first day of the GUKPT Festival, there was a fair smattering of well known pros playing, including Marc Goodwin, Dave Colclough, Ian Frazer and James Akenhead. As luck would have it, I drew a table of unknowns except for Frazer, two seats to my left in Seat 3. So every time I raised from the button, he’d be in the big blind – no doubt a few confrontations would be likely here.
It didn’t take long for us to butt heads, it was folded to my button where I opened AT diamonds, he called. Flop came low and paired, and he check-called my continuation bet. The turn and river checked, and he showed a wierdly played AK to scoop the small pot.
I played quite a few spec hands, usually with me raising in position, and my stack wavered around the starting stack for most of the duration of the first level. Then, I picked up TT on the button at 50/100 level 2, raised to 400 behind 1 limper and was raised to 1,000 by the guy immediately to my left in the small blind, who seemed quite loose with various degrees of aggression, and also severe issues with his bet sizing. I called with position and we both checked a QJJ flop. The turn also came a jack, he bet 200 (wtf!) and I called. River was a 4, he bet 300 and I called. He showed AA for a better full house, again bizarrely played in my opinion.
It was in the 50/100 level that I achieved a much needed double up. It took it’s shape in a huge donation – it was raised to 300 by a new player to the table, I reraised to 900 with AK, leaving myself with 3k in chips. He called and led for 1500 on a 4TA rainbow flop – I shoved and he tanked it and then called with KJ, lol. I doubled through and I hit the break with 8k.
More chips soon ended up in my stack with K7, 3 limpers and I complete the SB. BB checks and we see a lovely K74 flop. I check with the intention of checkraising, but the huge donk UTG+1 who had a habit of severely overbetting the flop with air, bet 2500 allin into the 1000 pot. I obviously called, he showed 64, so another huge donation.
I got moved soon after to a new table, where bizarrely two of my friends I know from the local scene were on. The rest were unknowns, and I generally just took pots down with single raises and reraises, actually with premium hands every time. I probably worked my stack upto about 16k, and then got moved to another table.
I knew several players on there, including Joe Grech, who I’ve played with in several festival events before. I ducked and dived with my tight image before losing a smallish pot with AA v AJ, all in preflop where he turned a straight, lol. I got the chips back plus interest though, when I found AJ in the small blind folded round to me. I knew the BB had about 10BBs in his stack, so I just shoved and he snap called with AT. No improvement for him, and I hit a jack on the river for good measure.
Dave Colclough soon got moved to our table and started off playing quite tight. Then, with the last two levels of the day soon upon us, he gave a masterclass in pre-bubble play, probably raising about 70% of pots. I’m pretty sure he viewed me as super tight, so I reraised his open on my big blind with air, as I felt his range was any two cards, he turbo mucked. I then raised his big blind the next two orbits just to show him that maybe I might just have seen what he was upto…Unfortunately none of the other players on our table seemed to mind him doing this, and just folded to his constant minraises every hand.
It got to the end of Day 1, and I finished with 33k in chips, slightly above the average of 32k. 21 players left, with 13 to be paid.
Day 2 started at 2pm, and I made a couple of raises and reraises to get upto about 40k quite quickly, although I think that my image was somewhat tight still. It wasn’t easy to steal though, as the table redraw gave me Colclough and Karl Mahrenholz in the blinds when I was in late position. Though the latter soon bombed out, when he made an excellent checkraise allin holding 77 on a Q456 2 club board. He was called by a loose guy to my immediate right from Hong Kong, with J2c, who promptly rivered the final club.
I found myself getting shortish stacked near the prize money, the blinds had reached 1500/3000/a200 and I had about 30k in chips, so I started shoving in good spots and never getting called, though there were several occasions I would have liked a call. It got to the first break and finally the bubble burst, the other table had the unlucky victim and we were all in the money.
Unfortunately, with the blinds at 2000/4000/a200, even the average stack was around the 12BB mark, so the tournament was turning into somewhat of a crapshoot. I shoved AK in mid position, the small blind tanked for several minutes before calling with AQ. If I double through, I’m probably the chip leader on my table with 70k and only James Akenhead on the other table would have had more chips. But a cruel queen on the turn ended my tournament in 13th place.
Whilst I was disappointed in how the tournament ended, I felt I gained a lot from the tournament, particularly regarding pre-bubble play. I also realised that the so-called live ‘pros’ really aren’t that good, and I felt like I was one of the best players in the field. If I win with the AK hand, I’m pretty sure I cash in the top 3, and I got my money in good, and that’s all I can do. There wasn’t one hand I’d have played differently, and whilst I can only take a small profit from the event, the amount of confidence I can take from this into my usual online cash games and future live tournaments is invaluable.
