After returning from Vegas, I was eager to start playing online again but the first 2 or 3 weeks lacked results until I managed to win the PKR Prestige on 31st July. The following week brought 5 consecutive final tables in the Prestige along with in the 2 Monte Carlo and an Open final table, but unfortunately none of these ended in wins they still yielded tidy profits.
The following week I final tabled the Prestige 2 days in a
row and this time I converted them into back to back wins, one was a 9 seater
and the other was 6 max so this was pleasing as I feel my 6 max game is weaker
than full ring. I also won the Open and had a few other final tables and August
proved to be a very profitable month for me, it also saw me climb into 3rd
place in the PKR All Time MTT Money list, overtaking my good friend Destacker
(who hasn’t been playing much of late to be fair!), however after this my
volume of MTTs has dropped dramatically as I have started to play cash games
and also live MTTs at the weekend.
Fox Club Main Event
I played the Fox Poker Club Main event in September; this is
a 2 day event with 25,000 starting chips (plus 2,500 extra as a dealer bonus)
and 45 minute levels. I started off playing fairly tight but still managed to
get 3 streets of value with AA against a calling station. That aside I
struggled to win many chips until one hand directly before a break, a LAG
player limped from the hijack, the cut-off folded and I saw Q7hh on the button,
my image was tight, the LAG player had only limped which suggested he had a
poor holding and as it was the last hand before a break I thought it might be a
good spot to pick up a few chips so I raised. The BB decided to flat and the
hijack folded, the flop came down A77 and the BB decided to check call, the
turn brought another 7 giving me quads and in a greater piece of fortune the BB
decided to lead out, I paused for a short while to check the effective stacks
sizes and deduced that I would be better flatting as this would give me an ideal stack size to shove the river if checked too. The river brought another ace and
the BB put me all in which I quickly called and he said that I must have the
other Ace, I flipped my quads and he wasn’t too happy.
A while after this the same guy from the previous hand
limped from EP and a MP also called, I looked down to see TT in the BB but
decided to check it as the EP player had previously limped AA in a similar
spot, he was also short enough that I couldn’t raise fold. The flop came down JJT,
so I flopped the bottom boat, I decided to lead out in the hope that one of
them had the J or got stubborn with a PP or an unlikely Tx, the EP then shoved
and MP flat called, so I decided to re-raise fairly small as I am pretty
certain MP has Jx and I can then shove the turn which is an Ace, I shove and MP
calls and flips over J8, EP flips AA for the turned higher full but the river
bricks so I end up making a big profit despite losing the main pot to the short
stack and I was able to make day 2 with 141,000 which was the 3rd
biggest chip stack.
Day 2 was incredibly frustrating as I had very few hands and
was struggling against loose opponents; I got some bluffs through but rarely
had a hand I wanted to play for value. We reached the final table and the first
hand after the break I picked up KQo UTG, I decided to raise as I had a tight
image and the BB was away, I got one caller and the flop came Ace high, I tried
to double barrel it my opponent called and I gave up on the river and he tabled
A7o. This left me with around 12bb and I squeeze shoved with 66 and ran into AA
and busted 7th for a min cash. While I was disappointed not to go
deeper I was also happy that I managed to cash with so few hands, although I
was fortunate on day 1 that pretty much every value hand I had I got paid
handsomely on, in day 2 I just had a lack of anything playable and never felt
there was enough fold equity to get out of line too often.
 |
Fox Club Super Saturday
A couple of weeks later I returned to the Fox for their
Super Saturday MTT, a 1 day event with 20k (+2,500) stacks and 30 minute
levels. The event only attracted 50 entries in total but there was close to £5k
for first, definitely worth grinding for a few hours!
The first major pot I got involved with was when I saw QQ in
EP, I raised a little over 2.5x and got 2 callers, one of whom was getting
short and was playing loose looking to bust so he could re-enter. The flop came
down J42 and I lead out for around half pot he snap shoves and the other guy
folds, I call and flip and see he has A2o, the turn is an Ace and suddenly I am
the one with around 15bb.
A short time later I am in the BB with 15bb at 200/400 when
UTG raises to 1,000, UTG + 1 makes it 6,000 and then the hijack cold 4 bets to
15k ish and it folds to me, I haven’t looked at my cards yet but think to
myself what a great spot this would be to gamble, the first card I see is the
Ad and when I slide the other to see the As I of course get my chips in, both
UTG and UTG + 1 fold (stating they had AT and JJ) the 4 bettor shows KK and my
Aces hold to give me a triple up. Soon after I bluff some chips off and the
blinds go up and I end up with a 15bb stack when Eleanor joins my table to my
direct right. It isn’t too long before she opens and I shove over the top with
AQ she calls with 88 and I catch an Ace on the turn to double up and leave her
short (Sorry Elz!) then not long after I win a big pot with AKd v KQs and then
get a couple of good bluffs through, before slow playing Aces on the turn (to get max value on the river) and
allowing a draw to get there which cost me a medium pot and was probably the hand I was least happy with my play in. We reach the final table and I am below average when a
couple of players bust and we are on the bubble but quickly agree to take a bit
out of 1st and 2nd to give the bubble boy £300, I happily
agreed to this as it was likely that I would be that bubble boy!
Almost immediately after this hand I get dealt KK UTG and
raise, MP shoves and then another guy 4 bet shoves, I call and I am in bad
shape with KK v AA v AQ, however I hit a King on the flop and eliminate two
players in the process. Not long after I 3 bet shove JJ and eliminate 88 and we
are down to 4 players and I am the chip leader, another player got eliminated
and 3 handed play went on for a short while before the other 2 villains went to
war JJ v TT and the Jacks held meaning we went to HU about even in chips. We
decided to do a deal, as there was £7,570 to play for split £4,790/£2,780 we
agreed to make the split £4,070/£3.5k. I was happy to agree the split as my
opponent was loose aggressive and we would invariably be getting it in light
and essentially flipping so reducing the variance was ideal. As it turns out I
4 bet shoved KQ and got called by A3 and flopped two pair to take a big lead
and shortly after got it in with KQ v 77 and hit the King on the flop to seal
my first live MTT win. While I was happy with my plan in general (there was
maybe 2 hands I would have played differently) I still owed a lot to luck,
which has been lacking in my live games to date. I finally ran good in a live
MTT and managed to turn it into a win, which has helped boost my confidence.
The following week I returned to the play the Super Saturday
again but ran really cold and eventually busted shoving QQ UTG for 10bb and
getting called by A8o UTG + 1, the flop brought all clubs giving me the flush
draw as insurance but he hit one of his two outs on the river to send me
packing. Given that I ran well the week before I can’t really complain! J
