Circus £50 (+£5) NLH F/O w/£500 Added

1st Tuesday of the month & it’s Circus’s monthly £50 NLH F/O which due to the added £500 always get’s 100+ runners & this month was no different getting underway w/125 (+Alternates) giving a prize pool of £6750 before any alternates had been seated. Full Trett Poker had;

Myself
Mark Trett
George Trett
Kevin Trett

All in the field hoping to get a share of the prize pool. I was seated at table 13 seat 10 along w/fellow NPFers & widely respected Newcastle poker players;

Russ ”The Suit” Taylor
Richard “madasawasp” Whitmore
Hamid “DeHammer” Rowshanaei

Among other recognisable face’s whom I can’t put name’s to ATM. Given the unforgiving structure that this MTT has to have due to the volume of players & needing to be wrapped up within 1 day it’s IMO vital to chip up early to have some firepower for the middle to late stage’s when blinds begin to rise. So I was relatively active during the 1st 2 level’s but failing to gather any momentum & my 9000 starting stack appeared to just be yo-yoing between 7000 & 13000. 1 interesting hand w/DeHammer;

Blinds: 50/100
Chip Average: 9200
Me: 12000
DeHammer: 11000

I’d limped UTG w/10s8s (I know it’s not optimal to make this limp but like I said earlier I was looking to gather chips early) & both The Suit & DeHammer followed from MP & CO respectively then SB completed & BB checked going to a 5 handed flop w/500 ITM. The flop came down 67Jr given me a middle pin, it was checked around to DeHammer who bet 350 which was called by BB & I decided he + BB were weak so made a play at the pot with 1050 total which was called by DeHammer & BB passed. D’OH now I’m OOP playing 2950 pot at 50/100 w/10 high vs. very AGRO player so I declare after he called with a sigh “Called w/89 Hamid” in an attempted to slow him up. Turn/river both blank & it goes C/C & by now I’m certain he has 89 & I will pick this pot up w/10 high unfortunately he showed up w/34s & the river card gave him a 4 which was enough to collect the pot. Although this pot wasn't significant in how my MTT unfolded & in actual fact it represent’s diabolical poker from both myself & DeHammer which again I put down to the structure I was just impressed with my speech play which IMO was the overwhelming factor in preventing DeHammer putting on the pressure on turn or river which if it wasn’t for the river 4 could have helped me scoop a healthy pot for that early stage of the MTT, sigh NVM. Moving onto my exit hand which TBH was fairly standard;

Blinds: 150/300
Chip Average: 12000
Me: 11000
Villain: 14000

I had been moved table’s & was now amongst Ifrikher Ali & Syed “Zaffa” Zaidi neither of which I believe are members of the NPF but both widely respected poker players around Newcastle with experience & talent in abundance. I was playing at least 60% of pot’s & playing them all very fast from flop onwards but mixing up my PF play w/limps, raises, & 3BET’s w/marginal’s in POS so anyway I limp UTG+2 w/KK which is followed by Zaffa limping & SB completed but BB peaked down at his card’s & made it 1500 more making pot now 2700 so I 3BET PF to 4500 total so committing around 42% of my stack & it’s passed round to BB who 4BET’s AI which I call & he flips QQ so I have 80% hand @ 150/300 for 22000 chip pot then board runs xxxQx to send me to the rail for an early bath.

Mark shared the same starting table w/Teesider Chris Woods & Jay “Tank” Brook’s. Mark opts for a similar strategy to me in this MTT to either go big or go broke so I was surprised when he told me about the following hand;

Blinds: 25/50
Chip Average: 9000
Mark: 9000
Villain: 9000

Mark is in the BB w/QQ & UTG+1 opens for 350 which is flatted by BTN & then he 3BET’s out of BB to 1350 then UTG+1 folds & BTN 4BET’s to 3500 which after tanking Mark decided to fold…IMO AA/KK are both 3BETing PF with blinds so small I don’t see any value in slow playing these here so I would be 5BETing AIPF vs. unorthodox villain play w/QQ. Mark explained his thought’s behind the hand & although it appeared an inexperienced approach to the hand irrelevant of villains holdings he credited him as a good player as he was a regular at Teesside’s cash game which was made evident due to an ongoing conversation he was having w/Chris Woods. Crippling hand for Mark was 3 way pot w/77 vs. 55 & A9o…Mark opened from EP then short stack move’s AI for less & BB 3BET’s OTT to isolate & as Mark is already invested for 25% of his chip’s he make’s the call & find’s himself w/45%+ hand for the 3 way main pot & 55%+ hand for HU side pot w/BB however the 9 on the flop quickly change’s that & leave’s Mark crippled w/7BB’s. Final hand before the 2nd break he get’s AIPF w/K10 & is looked up by 77 & when the board give’s him no help he hit’s the rail around 80th.

Nothing to report/hand details on George but I understand he went bust before getting ITM however last but not least FTP had Kevin on the FT w/following;

Ifrikher Ali
Nathan "NRH" Hope
Thomas Dunwoodie

w/another 3 less familiar name's so 7 handed w/Ifrikher Ali CL holding 45% of chip's in play a deal was struck w/Ifriker Ali taking £1465 & the remaining 6 player's including our very own Kev Trett taking home £800 each...WP GG Kev.

So 2 live MTT’s this week including NPF Championship & Circus’s flagship monthly 1st Tuesday & between them I accumulated approximately 4hr’s on the felt busting out of both before reaching 1st break both time’s being AI for around double chip average pot w/70%+ hand. This Saturday brings Circus’s sister MTT to what I’ve just played the monthly 1st Saturday £75 (+£7.50) NLH F/O w/£500 added which has;

1) Earlier start time
2) Around half the field
3) More level’s
4) Longer level’s

Which allow’s for a lot more play, hopefully I can use this to my advantage & make a charge FTW.