In which I win the world, and come damn close to the universe...

Note: Before I start, there will be parts of this post which are incredibly braggy. I make no apologies for it.

Friday 2nd July saw the start of the £10 rebuy with £2000 gtd at the G, and value like this I couldn't pass. I turn up to be, eventually, joined by 36 others leaving the G with an overlay of about £700. Amazing value, pretty shocked it didn't get more runners to be honest. I don't remember much about this game, to be honest, other than the final table where I ran like God in amazing spots to go from short-stack to second in chips and take a 4 way chop for £400, with Garry Wilson Snr (who owned me in a few spots tbf) taking about £550 for the chip lead. Nice way to start my week.

Anyway, I'm not going to dwell on that, other than to say that it's a fantastic value tournament and deserves some support. I don't know how much longer the G can sustain the overlay (which was £1000 last Friday!!!) so get in whilst you can.

The following day, I played the G Tag Team game with Glen the Geek Whitehead. I'd like to apologise to him for playing so bad. I completely butchered a hand with 66 on a 432 board, and Gary Wilson Jnr had trips already, and I missed when he made quads on the turn. *sigh*. Anyway, that night, Dan Trett, Scotty Hocking and I go out instead of playing the evening game at the G. We. Get. Battered. What a fantastic night, complete degeneracy at it's very finest. Ask Dan about our taxi, he'll love telling you that story... :D

< < < fast forward > > >

Saturday, July 10th, I step up a buy-in level and play my first ever live £100+ tournament by playing in the £220 GUKPT Club Championship for the Newcastle G. I know I have game in the £75 circus game (keep coming really close to a big score in that one!) but decided to sell half my action to reduce variance in this game. As I've said before, I have no fear of the big boys and want to mix it with the best all the time. One quick text later, and Nemesis has bought half my action in this game.

On to the game. I get a tough table draw, I think, with some unknowns, but also with Nemesis, Dave Heathfield, TeamDobbs and Dan Trett on my table. Obviously I run amazing because Dan has position on me, but I have position on Nemesis. Ok, I can't have it all my own way, I guess, and I immediately form a plan to take these two on, as well as Hamed R, at one time one of the best players in the universe, by all accounts, and a real nice guy too. Without giving too much away, I decide I'm really going to under-rep my hands vs Dan and Nemesis, they can sometimes be so aggressive that you don't need to bet.

As it turned out, this was a good strategy. I underrep QQ vs Nemesis v early doors and he gets there in a small pot with A2...having limped UTG.....fish. :p

Some hands later, when I've severly underrepped hands vs Dan (check calling three streets with KcJx on a JXXccc board) and Hamad (checking the turn with flopped top-top to induce a call of a river value bet if he can put me on missed hearts...) and I'm shooting towards 30k from the 10k start. By this point, I've already knocked Nemesis out in a three way pot with AQ against a pair and a draw for Hamed and a bare draw for Nemesis QxxA in what was a huge pot. Details are fuzzy, but I shove the turn into a smallish side spot, and Hamed folds and I hold vs Iain to get a huge pot. EDIT: Nemesis reminds me that I bet Hamed off the pot and he shoves with fold equity with his draw. No fold equity vs top two, though, eh ;)

I'm really confident and playing well as we move to 200/400/50. This level crushes me, as we're joined by Lynne Beaumont (great player, obv) and Stumpy and by the end of the level I'm down to 16k and the break can't come soon enough. I did well not to double Stumpy up, and also had overpair vs underset 3 times in one level. That was so sick. I also lost 88 < Q6cc to Hamed.

At the break, I got myself back in the zone and thought about what i was going to do. I knew that I had a lot of BBs, and it wasn't panic stations by any means, but when you're running so bad (and, I might add, losing the minimum each time...) it's hard not to be affected. I take a break before we return for 300/600/50 and I basically have a word with myself. When we come back, I breeze to about 40k without really showing a hand down. When Lynne shoves ~11BBs from the button to my BB, it must be so fucking nice to find AK and hold vs QT.

< < < fast forward > > >

I then go card dead for what seems like an eternity, and i can't find a spot because shorties are often in the pot before me, pretty standard really.  I must admit, I've forgotten a whole load about what happens now, and what happens when I have like 40k on the FT. I do remember winning a huge pot 5 way by getting a bluff through. I've been really tight and raise early with 78cc. Obviously nobody believes me and I get called in 4 spots to create like a 25k pot (blinds were 8-1600). I get my reads perfect (two guys overcalling for value and leading anything where they hit, Dom on the button has a hand like AQ because he checked himself before not 3 betting me pre, and he expects me to have QQ+ here a lot. Boris, in the SB, determined to defend. Anyway, flop comes JTccT and I lead half pot to pick it all up with my gutshot SFD. I show the 8high, which I think gets me a lot of action in the most crucial pot of the day, not much later. We're 7 handed, I think, having dealt to have £200 back to 6th and 7th, leaving the following prizes:

1st: £2540
2nd: £1800
3rd: £1330
4th: £740
5th: £590

I raise in MP with two black Aces. I make it 4200 at 1k/2k/200. Dom calls from the BB and checks a flop of AT5r to me. Surprisingly here, I lead with top set, for about 3300, about 1/3 of the pot. With me having ~67k and just covering Dom, I'm leading here because he has a stack size to float me and I'm also inducing bluffs from hands like JTs, 99, etc. I couldn't believe it when he shoved on me. I had to ask the dealer if he was all in as I had my earphones in. It genuinely was not a slowroll. Dom shows 33 and needs runner runner, the turn bricks and now 6 handed I have 140k from 370k in play.

A little later, we lose Boris when 2 Shades Nick opens for 12k at (I think) 1500/3000 and I make it 40k right behind him with 77. Nick had been opening a lot of pots lately, and not found much resistance. His bet sizing was pretty horrible all day, often overbetting pots both pre and post flop (erm...3 and 4x against all villains is so 2008, especially when the blinds are so large, there is literally almost no need to bet that much, imo. I'm not criticising as such, I'm just pointing out that I found I could exploit it with a pretty large range and thus win more than I should be able to than, say, if he opened to 2.3xBB). Horrifically for me, Boris jams in the SB for like 55k total and I obviously can't fold once Nick passes. I'm not happy about it, but I say 'well, I just hope you have AK, then'...'Yup, nh'..and the board bricks out. I must admit, having watched Boris play so well on the FT and around the bubble it is absolutely no surprise that he has had a couple of deep runs in the Newcastle GUKPTs of late.

< < < fast forward > > >

Anyway, I'll fast forward a bit more now, as my memory is fading to be honest. I dunno how we get 3 handed, but we do. It's some guy that won a pot from me earlier and I told him to show both cards to win before the dealer mucked his hand (helping the guy out by not angleshooting his pot...) and he immediately replied 'show me your hand'. In this spot, I could just muck my cards and be a knob, but I flash him my cards and explain why that's bad etiquette and instantly label him knob. Actually, that was an overreaction, the dude is decent I guess, probably too nitty and I start being the table captain 3 handed, bluffing and barrelling and basically running over the two of them until this hand:

Nick opens the button for 15k (3k/6k blinds with ante) and I find AQs in the SB. I run through the possible options here. I'm pretty sure he's opening a v wide range, but I think I've run into the 'value' end of his range (not, like JJ+, AK+, but more like all pairs, JT+ since I think he's been opening a lot of pots on the button and all of a sudden he opens for 2.5X not 3+x). In the end, after about 45 seconds, I decide jamming is the optimal play. Here's why I think that:

1. I have over half the chips in play
2. I have him covered by like 40k.
3. We both cover the short-stack by at least 80k.
4. I've always shown down AQ+, 77+ at this table when I've moved in, pretty much been that way all day, actually.
5. ICM would dictate that he needs at least JJ+ to call here (and I think even that's a fold) and should prolly need KK+ tbh. (I haven't worked it out, but that's what I'm guesstimating)
6. He's a nit, and tank called a shorties all in with AK. Total nitroll when it comes down to putting his tournament on the line.

He tanks. For aaaaaagges. And then asks about the prize structure and the difference between 3rd and 2nd (like, £500...). He finds the hero call with 55 and holds, which I think is a snap fold for me. (fwiw, I think 55 can also be a snap call in other circumstances, e.g. if I 3bet him to 28k or so, you can jam on me then, etc..) All of a sudden I've gone from hero to zero in one pot. Tank calling with AK and 55 in those different spots is so weird, so maybe I should have played small pots with him, but like I say, I thought his bet sizing was exploitable and  expected a snap fold tbh.

Anyway, I get one double up with A8 v JT (through the shorty, lol) then later, when down to about 70k (up from 40k..) I flop a pair and a flush draw on a J94hh board with 93hh and get it in against KJo. I bink the flush on the river and knock the other guy out.

Heads Up:
Doesn't last too long, I get a walk in the BB with QQ for the second time today (happened 4 or 5 handed, too), I start winning more and more pots, we make a deal (£2000 for me and £2300 for him with me having 160k and him 210k) and then a few hands later I three bet jam A8 and find AJ in the top of his range. He tank calls. lol. I don't run good enough to get there, though.

Oh well. Still a great score and my best live score ever so I'm cartwheeling, fistpumping and all that jazz. Big, big, big thanks to Nemesis who backed me to make an impression in this game, so pleased I could get you a good return, although giving you a grand was quite surreal lol. Thanks also to various others, incl Mark Trett, for giving me advice on the mental mindset needed for a 'bigger game', to Stumpy for rubbing me down at exactly the right time (in my level of hell) and making me laugh just when I needed it, to the G for being awesome, and to everyone else who has helped me with my game, knowingly and unknowingly, in recent months.

Alright, enough now, you only won some money at cards, not a fucking Oscar; I hear you.

Peace, love and grapes,

--mulhuzz