On Sunday I played in a poker tournament that had a bit of a twist. As well as playing poker online, there are regular table games that are on offer that I usually find myself participating in. The difference this time was that we intended to take advantage of the fact that the seventh leg of this years Grosvenor UK poker tour was to be hosted in Plymouth.
Each leg of the tour is a £1000 buy in no limit tournament, and the prize fund has an additional £10,000 added to it by sponsors Blue Square Poker. It is played over a four day spread form the 5th September to the 9th September and players can either buy in or win a seat by finishing in a qualifying position in on of the online qualifying tournaments.
With the seventh leg of the tour being held locally, we decided to run our own table qualifier, with 21 seats, £50 a seat, and a ‘winner takes all’ format paying for a seat at the event.
As it happens the day went well with a lot of good local players filling the seats. As the tournament progressed the three tables of seven eventually merged into to tables and then a final nine seat table.
After progressing through the day and making the final table a seat at the event was firmly in my sights. After hitting a string of bad cards and losing an all in shout on pocket KK against pocket bullets pre flop I still managed to sit last three, mainly thanks to two medium pocket pairs holding up against the draw heads up.
This was a tight tournament and long day as you can expect, and when I received pocket bullets twice whilst in the final three and failed to get paid, it was clear how tight it remained right up until the end.
The table sat with one favourite who held over 70% of the chips, followed the other two of us waiting for an opportunity. The short stack (but not by far from me) was gradually being worn down by the blinds, and my opportunity would have to come against the stack in order to swing the chip percentage enough to mount a challenge.
This opportunity came on my big blind, last to act one player had folded and the small blind (and chip leader) limped in and I subsequently put a rise in on on A7s. After his re-raise I was left only with an all in shout which was then called. When he turned K9o I was notably quite pleased. The flop paired my seven, with a 4 7 10 which further impressed me with cautious optimism . The turn then delivered an 8 and I cringed with the thought of him catching his straight through running cards.
This pot would have resulted in a two horse raise with a 60/40 chip divide, (or near enough minus the third players stack). Anything but a King, 9 or a 6 would have seen my battle back from being done on KK complete, with a good chance of a seat on the tour event. As you may have guessed he hit the running cards needed with a 6 on the river to make a straight off his kicker.
A great reminder of how you can play solid cards, make the right decisions time after time, but there will always be that element of chance, and that is what makes poker the exhilarating game it is. Better luck next time!
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