Genting Players Championship – Birmingham, Nov 2011

My first blog and my first proper tournament this year. Let’s go!

Genting Casinos have been running a number of value added poker events around the UK. This time, with no exception and 10k added to the prize pool, Genting Players Championsip in Birmingham was the place to be.

Since coming back from a months trip in Asia on the same week, I only had a few days to get into the poker spirits.

A bit of poker training online  and a few MTT sessions did the trick and Saturday afternoon I was more than ready to take down the most stunning trophy:) Apparenly it’s silver plated and cost £1,000 to make!

With 302 runners and a few familiar faces such as Karl Mahrenholz and with Mad Marty Wilson in place it looked like it was going to be a fun day.

The first couple of levels went without much noticable action, I was just ticking along and stealing my blinds back to preserve 10,000 chip stack.

A few hands later, the blinds gone up to 150/75, I found myself in a BB with 3 limpers and with Q10 in hand. No need to get crazy at this stage so I just elected to check and hope for a good flop to continue.

The flop comes – 89J rainbow- Bingo! Check on my behalf is reasonable i guess:) UTG+1 bets out 500, the lady on the COF and me just smooth call. I wanted to conceal my hand and let them to catch up for hopefully more action on the turn.
The next card is an A which brings unlikely flush draw possibilities. I decided to check raise this time. UTG+1 bets 1,000 and the lady just calls and I re-pop it to 3,500 and the lady is my only customer.

The river brings 7 blank, which is a perfect card for me. After a few minutes of Bollywood acting I push the rest of my stack in the middle and get an instant call by AJ. Happy days! I am on 22k now!

After 30 min or so, once the blinds had gone up to 400/200, I found myself looking down at 99 when sitting in mid position. UTG+1 raised to 1000 and I called and the short stack on my left pushed all in for 1,340. To my surprise the button joins the party too.
Flop brings 774 rainbow and after a check from a villain UTG+1 I decided have a stab at the pot with a 2,700 bet. Both guys fold and I am heads up with the short stack – my 99 survive against KQ. Sweet!

One orbit later and one early position limper in the pot, I elect to tag along with my 55 whereas SB and BB create the family pot. The flop comes K49. Three checks in front of me and I felt I had the information I needed, 1,100 seemed to me to be the right amount to take down 1,600 pot. Strangely enough SB goes into the tank and ends up folding K face up. Very bizarre!

I didn’t really get many big hands and kept on building my stack by playing small ball and avoiding getting into the big pots with another chip leader on the table. And just before dinner break I found myself to have accumulated 43,000 stack in process. At that point there were 123 players left with the average stack being 23,800.Not a bad first half of the day!

90 minutes and 2 sandwiches later I was back to the table thinking of making some adjustments to my game.Taking into consideration the 30 min clock & the 1600/800 blinds I was going to be aggressive!

First hand dealt – AK – I am in mid position and raise x 2.5 to 4000. My only customer is another chip leader on the table and a solid player  – Steve Dunnett – sitting on the button, who just smooth calls my bet.The flop brings J56 and without much thought I C bet the flop, just to be almost instantly min reraised…..grrrrrrrr! Not happy but fold seems like the best option as I can’t think of any hands I am beating but a juicy bluff. The villain later told me that he had a set.

After another subsequent failure in my steal attempt and I am down to 26k with the blinds rising to 2400/1200.

I am on a BB with 69 of hearts, the button limps and so does the SB. I have to admit I was a little suspicious of the button limp so I decided to proceed cautiously and just see the flop. It brought an interesting J,10,4 with two hearts and a flush draw for me. Check from all of us and we get to see another card for free.

The turn brings 8 of hearts and completes my flush. At that point I was obviously thinking how to extract the most value, yet didn’t want to lose any of the players by betting out on this scary looking board. I was really hoping one of them is going to hit something playable on the river, hence just check.

The final card comes A of spades. Small blind checks and I representing a bluff push all in with the hope that the button holds an A or some funky trappy hand. To my surprise I receive an instant call and my 69 of hearts beat 57 of the same suit! Wow, that’s sick but I am up to 52k now!

Few hands later and I get involved in an interesting spot where the same player, who lost to my higher flush, pushes all in UTG his 18k stack, im in UTG+3 position with AQ off suit.In that instance my thought process goes as follows:

The player has only 7.5 BB and he is going to be blinded next, so he is kind of desperate to make a move. I put him on a wide range of hands…any low pair, any suited mid/high connectors, A10+. I had a feeling my AQ was a huge favourite and the worst scenario could have been a race.

Taking into account 30 min clock and the fact that the guy mentioned earlier on that he is pushing all in with any pocket pair, I have decided to just call and get out-of-the-way in case I am re-raised by another chip leader on the table, who could only have KK or AA in that spot.
Unfortunately, another small stack on the table announces all in for 24,000. Obviously at that point although I know I am beat but I can’t escape the odds. I call and lose to KK:(

Being Blinded next and subsequently down to 22k I wasnt going to let myself get even lower, and was just waiting for the right opportunity to steal or double up.
Didnt need to wait for too long, as everyone folded to my button. I shoved on blinds and unfortunately ran into a hand once again. SB snapped called with 88 and my 9,4s hand failed to improve.

I ended up finishing in a 57th place out of 302 runners. Hopefully better luck next time!