From The Bahamas to Birmingham

It’s been a great 2013 so far!

I started my new poker year by playing the Genting Big Game at the Mint casino & making the final table. After chopping the same tourney heads up in December, I was feeling confident and with alittle luck on my side I knew I could do well again.

Unfortunately it was not meant to be! I ended up finishing in 9th when getting it all in with QQ v A,9 and not being able to fade an ace.

I still made some money that night, as me and Joe Beevers swapped a piece of each other with 2 tables left and he went on to finish in 5th for £9k.

Well played Joe and thanks again for my new handbag money:)

Next for me was a trip to Bahamas for the PCA adventure, where I played in the $1,000 Ladies event.

This tournament attracted 66 runners, including a few very well known names; such as Jan Combes who has won the EPT Ladies Event in 2011 and finished fourth in the EPT Grand Final Ladies Event in 2012 & Fatima Moreira de Melo of Team PokerStars.
My starting table was fast and furiuous and after losing a couple of key pots early doors I  never really recovered. I shipped the remaining of my stack in with Q,10s on the 10 high flop and unfortunately got called by K,10 for an exit. Sigh!

Although the tournament didn’t go to plan, I had a blast exploring the Atlantis Resort & enjoying the Caribbean sun for the next couple of days. I spent majority of the time in a water park; trying out various slides & scenic river rides as well as testing out traditional Pina Coladas:) Who cares about day 2 when you can have this instead!?

My hometown – Silute!

I was taking in every sun ray I could as 48 hours I knew I was going to be in Lithuania, where the winter temperature at the time was reaching -13!

I love winter back home! My hometown was gorgeous in white and it was great being able to play with my nieces outside the house and build a snowman.

I also had a few fun trips snow sliding and driving on frozen river ice with my family & friends.

After 16 days in Lithuania with no poker, I was very much looking forward to going back and getting involved in the first leg of the Genting Poker Series 2013.

The GPS main event attracted a record field of 590 players, which created a sweet prizepool of £236,000 & nearly £60k for the winner.

I started my GPS adventure on Thursday by playing in the Button Poker side event. It was not only a good opportunity for me to catch up with some friends at the tables but also to put in some live poker practice before the main event the following day.

After busting with AA in the later stages of the game, I ended chatting to the Main Event Travel team & helping them out with the wine:))

Genting Club Star City

Few hours later and I was back to the Star City to play in the £440 buy-in Main Event.

A fantastic structure was in place with a 25k starting stack and 1 hour clock – which  allowed even the most conservative player an opportunity to make day 2.

I had a rollecoaster day, where I peaked at 60k (avg stack at that point being 35k) and was down to 10k before baging & tagging a disappointing 26k for day 2:(

With 193 players coming back for day 2 and me being placed in the bottom 5 – it was not looking too optimistic!

I had 16bb & a dream! My strategy included looking for some decent re-shoving spots in order to keep on going and waiting for a double up opportunity.

Chaz Chattha

Having Chaz Chattha seated 2 to my left was not ideal for this, but at least there were a couple of unknown players, which seemed to be folding a lot – so I targeted them instead.

I built my stack to 100k (half average at that point) before looking down and finding AA in my hand. I raised and then got it all in on the 8h,7h,3c flop v Jh,10h and held.

From there on I never looked back and ended the day on 500k, which was around average with 23 players left.

I recall not being able to fall asleep for ages that night as I was too excited about the next day & getting so close to the final table. It seemed that 4 hours sleep was as much as I was going to get and after a cup of tea and some good music to properly wake me up, I was heading back to Star City full of excitement:)

I had a terrible start & was down to 10 bigs, when my KK got cracked by 4,5s! I raised pre & bet the pot on the J,6,7 flop. We both checked the turn n then I paid of a bet on the river.

Genting Poker Series Final Table

I couldn’t have done anything differently in that hand, and I’m happy I didn’t go broke there & had an opportunity to build my stack up afterwards.

I was down to 6bb before trippling up with KQ v QJ and another hand I was not shown. Then not long after I shipped again with JJ and got paid by A,3 to get back in the game.

From there on, I was grinding a short stack for a few levels and never seemed to get back to the average stack, before making it to the final 9.

It was a strong final table with some very experienced & capable players still in; eventual winner of the first GPS main event of 2013  – Julian Thew, Hendon Mobster – Ross Boatman, poker veteran – Barry Neville & the previous Monte Carlo at DTD winner – Alex Goulder.

I was definitely going to need some luck to spin my short stack up! Unfortunately my run-good never showed up and after re-stealing in some good spots with marginal hands, I was finally caught out by aces of Ross Boatman when shoving pre was a no-brainer.

I was really happy to finish 8th, but understandably disappointed not to hit a really big payday. Still 7k for a weekends work has been the ideal start to the new year and I’m looking forward to what promises to be an exciting March of poker in London.