Aspers

Last weekend so the 1st of Gala Teesside’s £100 (+£10) NLH F/O w/£1000 added but unfortunately after trying tirelessly speaking w/Wayne (card room manager) on Friday afternoon I wasn’t able to have my ban rescinded in time to play on Saturday 21st November. However he was extremely helpful & told me if I get a letter into GM Steve Andrew that fingers crossed I should be able to get it sorted in time to attend December’s as I understand it is to be a monthly game & judging by the success it got this month w/121 runners & a prize pool of £13,100 I fully expect this to go from strength to strength. So I decided to head to Aspers to participate in;

£50 (+£5) NLH F/O 15:00
£30 (+£3) NLH F/O 20:00
£1/£2 NLH


& Mark was off to Teesside so we took equal equity in each other in the MTTs. This was my 1st visit in 4yrs since been reinstated a couple of months ago & I met NPFer Aspers_Chris the card room manager their who was good crack. Moving onto the 1st £50 afternoon MTT the game was poorly attended largely due to the influx of Newcastle players heading south to Teesside so only 11 runners began the MTT w/£550 prize pool & I managed to finish 11/11 when I refused to put AA down on a Q9x w/2 diamonds flop to be shown Q9o for a flopped 2 pair after I had made it 6xBB PF, sigh NVM. So w/4 hours to kill whilst I waited for the evening MTT to commence I headed to “Lau’s Buffet King” for an early dinner before meeting some old friends in town & catching up over a few pints whilst watching Man Utd beat Everton 3-0 to keep the pressure on Chelsea at the top of the premiership. Big improvement on numbers so 70+ for the 2nd £30 evening MTT but as I’m not familiar w/Aspers regulars only person I recognized in the field was NPFer playa, I faired slightly better here lasting around 50% of the field when I had to get 10,000 AIPF w/AQo from BTN w/9BB’s & SB w/8BB’s moved AI behind w/1010 & when board ran Qxxx10 I lost the race & got my last BB in w/89s vs. AJs & when board gave me no help I headed to the cash tables. I sat down at the £1/£2 around 23:00 w/£200 & 100BB’s & I was fuelled w/Forsters so it was inevitable I was going to be playing very fast, within half an hour I had my 1st dispute as I was forced to table my cards after I had called an AIPF & I understood it was globally recognized in a cash game that it’s not mandatory like it is in MTT, anyway house rules are house rules so once this was explained to me I of course adhered to them & lost the £40 pot as I sheepishly turned over Q10d & villains QJs held. So despite the drink I was playing really well & accumulating chips very fast & was fortunate enough to sit to the left of a middle aged well spoken gentleman called David who was great company & we shared Vegas stories, below are a few hands I played throughout the 9 hours at the table;

Won

JJ vs. 1010 AIPF (£300) Called light vs. over valuing villain & expected to have 80% hand vs. middle pair.
57d vs. 86c AIOTF Ad8d6x (£400) OES+FD got their on the turn.
KJs vs. ?? AIOTF 2c10cAc (£280) I 3BET AI w/K high after having my CBET of £25 2BET up to £110 & villain folded.

Lost

QQ vs. KQd AIOTF 2dQx7d (£1400) This would have seen my stack have £2200 behind & 1100BB’s deep.
KK vs. AA AIPF (£500) Villain 4BET AI which I called & found myself w/20% hand.
108c vs. AQo AIOTF AQ2r (£550) I 3BET AI w/10 high after having my CBET of £35 2BET up to £90 & got caught as villain had top 2.

Despite the big pot losses being substantially more than the big pot wins I made up for it by raking a number of £50-£150 pots which ensured I left around 8:00 w/£500.

The following day Sunday 22nd November I decided w/FTPers George & Steven to head to Circus for their £20+£20 (+£2) NLH D/C MTT & after arriving around an hour late I sat at table 3 seat 9 w/Celia dealing & following recognizable faces;

3) Jay “Tank” Brooks
5) Steve “fatfish” Brennan

I got my stack to peak around 15,000 after I got my KK AIPF vs. fatfish’s AKs which held crippling him & he later hit the rail. I had 1 hand towards the end of level 4 which was most disappointing where I had called a 2BET from Jay “Tank” Brooks w/89s OTB & flop fell xx9 & after checked to me I bet ½ pot which Jay called & on OTT I 1BET AI OOP which prompted Jay to flex his rights & min 1BET which I could only call. He had AKo & called ½PSB OTF w/20% hand fishing for an A/K it’s these plays that derived his now commonly known nickname Jay “FishTank” Brooks, moving on he missed his 6 outs OTR but it brought a 3rd heart which prevent me from getting anymore chips in for value. This hand IMO epitomizes the sportsmanship of “Tank” & his disregard for ethics, so yea like I say not a major hand in regards to my MTT just disappointing to have this ruling implemented but cest la vie, GG “Tank”. Then after getting AA UTG & opening 2.5xBB to be followed w/4 callers I knew when flop fell KKx w/2 diamonds that if my CBET didn’t get through I would have to give them up & after BTN showed some resistance I C/F to the diamond turn which left me w/10,000 at 400/800. Breaking a table so NPFer & local player;

4) GazWalker
5) Jed Conway

Join me over at table 1. Moving on I opened 2xBB OTB w/78o which FWIW was a mistake as I was supposed to make it 2.5xBB but the new level had just began so for the discounted price the BB came along w/Q5o & when he lead into the JJ5r flop for ½PSB I moved AI OTT for another 5,000 which after tanking he made the call & I didn’t improve to send me to the rail & over to Aspers for some £1/£2. Upon arriving at Aspers I put my name on the waiting list (3rd) & had a bit crack w/NPFer BOB THE GOB who was 1st on the waiting list while I awaited my seat, I also decided to pre-register Mark & I into the £50 (+£5) NLH F/O MTT w/$15,000 GTD ran by OneWayPoker next weekend on Saturday 28th which has already sold 100+ of it’s 190 capped seats so any readers who plan to play I would recommend getting down & pre-registering ASAP to ensure you get seated. After approximately 45 minutes wait I took my seat around midnight in the 1 hole w/NPFers;

7) BOB THE GOB
9) Mullet

Already seated & I BI for the maximum £300 (150BB), table banter was good & Bob as always was joker of the table. I was surprised after my fast play was criticized as MTT strategy by a young short stacked lad I didn’t recognize & questioned if I’d ever heard of small ball? I was going to divert his attentions to Phil Ivey & Tom “Durr” Dwan IMO the 2 fastest most successful cash players alive today when I asked if he thought limping into every pot was optimal +EV strategy? He replied no of course not so I kind of didn’t understand why he was advocating small ball. I explained I play fast & volatile & CBA to sit around w/25BB’s waiting to find AA/KK for a double up but reminded him that villains misinterpret this as reckless & forget when I pass the 102o type hands when getting 9-1 OOP from the SB. I played until 4:30am cashing out £700 without ever really playing a pot over £200+, TBH I was in a horrible spot w/2 short stacks to my left all night who kept moving AIPF over my openings & I was having to call light & race for a lot of £100ish pots but fortunately I ran pretty average & won about 50% of my flips.