Main Event Travel Launch Party

I relatively recently had the pleasure to attend the  MainEventTravel.com launch party which was held at the Full House poker club in Surrey.

The MET brand is pretty new in the poker market, but their name has been circulating around for some time now and I was looking forward to attending this event to find out more about MET business & their offerings.

In addition, I treat these kind of events as a good opportunity to catch up with my poker buddies as well as meet new interesting characters whilst playing a bit of fun poker on the side:)

The added value for me was that I was free-rolling in their launch tournament too. I  won a seat to their £220 freezeout game via a Facebook competition, where you had to “like” their corporate FB page to be entered into a random draw for a tournament seat.  I was running good so far!

Not wanting to be late, I arrived at the venue a little early and just to find that I was one of the first guests in. I’m usually running late for nearly everything, so this was a unique experience.

I was greeted with a glass of champagne on my arrival which is always a good way to start the afternoon. Now, when a girl sees ‘drinks reception’ and ‘cocktails’ she generally picks out a nice frock.

I quickly realised when other players  (mostly male) began to arrive they didn’t have the same criteria and it was hoodies and trainers everywhere!

Chatting with the MET guys, they have positioned themselves to provide packages for travelling poker players to take away the hassle of booking when attending the large poker events.

A nice idea, especially given poker players can often be unorganised and don’t like taking time out from playing, to plan trips- it is the poker that counts. I hope their reputation continues to grow in the tight knit poker community.

Having had enough of the business talk, I was pleased to be distracted by the happy face of Nick Wealthall. I haven’t met Nick in person before, and I can tell that he is as funny as when commentating UKIPT series:)

Another couple glasses of champagne( well, they kept on being put in my hand- what was I to do!) whilst having a cheeky conversation with Nick & the lovely photographer for the night – Iain Raydon -and I was directed to my starting table or to be precise – feature table.

I noted Sam McDonald, Scott Shelley and Luke Fields taking their seats on my starting table too and I instantly knew that this is going to be full of action and probably the most aggressive table in the house!

As I suspected, there was 3 and 4 betting going on nearly every hand and I tried to adjust to this by tightening up my hand range & biding my time for some good spots in position- no point going into a 5-bet war too early!

On the feature table with Scott Shelley

Action continued to get even more ferocious  and not long before we had our first casualty who 6 bet all in with J,10 with no success when running into A,K for an exit.

Sam McDonald was soon to follow the rail when he was crippled down in a huge pot where he was being the initial aggressor & betting out every street & making a big fold to the shove on the river and then unfortunately busting a flip when a shortie.

I had Scott seated on my immediate right, so we got involved in a few blind v blind battles before the following hand took place:

I raised on the button with a genuine hand this time (AA:) and Scott decided to 3bet, I 4bet of course, he still didn’t believe me and 5bet shove all in.

Nice scenario to be in when you hold the nuts pre-flop! I snapped and he showed 4,7 for a stone cold bluff. Bully!!! He managed to catch a 4 but failed to improve further and I scooped a massive pot early doors in the game.

I really enjoyed being the chip leader at the table and the opportunity to try a few different moves before losing a big chunk of my stack in two consecutive hands with AK < QJ and 99 < AJ aipf.

Shortly after we were off to enjoy lovely dinner & drinks on the house & have a mini break from poker. It was good to have an opportunity to meet my new table mates & gauge their seriousness over winning;)

More Champagne!

The Full House club is not a big venue, but they were fully prepared to accommodate a big number of players on this occasion; customer service, food & employee professionalism was second to none and everyone seemed to be enjoying the great atmosphere.

1 hour of chit chatting and relaxation was just enough to get back into full swing of poker.

My new table was ok, with a couple of familiar faces and I took my time to assess my opponents and their betting tendencies before getting involved.

Unfortunately, I lost yet another big flip & I was down to below average stack before getting the rest of my chips in on the turn with open ended flush & straight draws and bricked for an exit and the final table bubble:(

Although I did not manage to cash in this event, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of the launch party. Thanks to the MET team for the invite and all the best of luck with your business venture!;)