Circus “Tag Team” £30 (+£3) NLH F/O

Monday 21st December was the 3rd event of “Circus’s Christmas Schedule” in the form of a “Tag Team Night” w/£30 (+£3) BI per team so £15 (+1.50) individually. FTPers DT, MT, GT, & KT all supported this event & for reason’s IDK ST boycotted partner requests from fellow FTPers & chose to attend either Asper or Grosvenor but NVM. So FTPers had partnered the following;

Team Full Trett Poker: DT & MT
GT w/Rob Flett
KT w/Scotty Hocking

IDK why GT & KT weren’t partnered up but I can only assume a break down in communication, anyway the MTT was well attended w/46 teams giving a prize pool of £1,380. Casino was full of 1st class lads & a number of quality teams;

The Natural Disasters: CGK & gazmiester
avkid & JuniorBomber
kiddha & Simmy3k
Dom & Mrs. Dom (sorry IDK her name)
Team Baywatch: Buzz & FarmerDave
Team Metro Centre: knerrad & BO$$HOGG

Among many others, sorry if I’ve missed you but like I say the room was brimming & the atmosphere was brilliant. I caught up w/NPFers about the “NPF 2009 Christmas Party” & particularly the “Walkers Sensation’s” who continually took the piss about how pissed I was, LOL D’OH IDK I was that bad but apparently yes…NVM was an awesome night w/1st class group. So TFTP were drawn T5-S8 & MT was up 1st for level 1 w/NPFers;

D) Celia Liu
1) Team Sensation: Stevie Sensation & andrizu
2) GiMac & EmmaFullarton
3) GazWalker & Ridla

Along w/other non recognizable faces & teams. Majority of teams opted to swap after every level or in some cases every orbit but “Team Sensation” had the bright idea to swap every hand, however I’m in no POS to criticize their tactic’s as they appeared to be accumulating chips. So whilst MT played the ME I entered a £10 (+£1) STT w/3,000 S/S which for the purposes of this evening you could also tag your partner in & out to align w/ME & shared a table w/the following;

1) goldfoxdom & Partner
2) Anton & Partner
4) KT & Scotty Hocking
5) GT & Rob Flett
6) Steven AKA “The Teacher” & Gladys Jarvis
8) Team Full Trett Poker

I found a double up 1st level w/JJ vs. “The Teacher‘s” 89s after we’d put 60% of our stack in between PF+OTF it eventually got AIOTT reading J10x7r leaving me w/20% hand drawing to FH & fortunately I found case J OTR for quads, MBN. MT was trying to accumulate chips early over the 1st level of ME & ultimately bled 50% of our 10,000 S/S w/AQd vs. Team Sensation’s AKo doing the most damage after. So half hour in & I took over the ME w/5,000 & MT replaced me in the STT. 1st hand I lost another 1,500 when I opened LP 3.1x w/AKh & found 1 caller from PTL & CBET 892r which was called, & B/F OTT after incorrectly reading villain for a SD he showed me 1010. I managed to find a double up to CA after I completed the SB w/10Js & seen a 4 way flop 8x9r & lead for ½PSB/C 2.5x 2BET from Anton & blank on turn went CC then I found nuts OTR w/J, I tactically threw in my time out token to discuss w/MT before moving AI & Anton made the call w/KK. End of level 2 & we swapped again w/o anything to report as both stack’s remained the same until MTT break & TFTP congregated in the restaurant whilst MT ordered a late dinner & we discussed festive plans. Shortly after the break GT & Rob Flett went bust after a controversial floor decision was made to cripple their stack, IDK for sure but understand Rob was in MP w/AA & after using his time out token PF to look weak he made the call & flop fell KKx & villain CBET which after some verbal words w/GT Rob decided to 2BET AI & villain very unethically IMO objected & called the floor. Gary “iamgaryr” Ramsay who by all account’s is an exceptional TD ruled that the AI stood & if villain wanted to continue he had to commit AI, but after further noise from the villain Gary reversed his decision & ruled to take the 2BET AI back & run it out, which TBF is an awful position to be in giving the unorthodox circumstances of it being a “Tag Team” & not being entirely clear if your 90 second time out allowance is still valid during hand as long as the time hasn’t elapsed. Either way IYAM Gary made his decision in the interest of fairness/ethics & the only objection was reversing the decision after what appeared to be peer pressure from players.

I managed to catch up w/KT partner & fellow CUB member Scotty Hocking (left) who very kindly spared some of his evening to share his thoughts on the night & gave some details of his line in some key hands;

"My night started out at about 7.30pm, scraping approximately 20inches of snow and ice off my car windscreen. I underestimated how long this would take and arrived at Circus just on time at 8pm, thankfully the game was running a little late so I had the chance to talk to a few people before it got started. There was a SNG running parallel to the tag team tournament and Kev decided that he wanted to start off playing in this, whilst I played the first level or two of the main tournament. I got dealt AKo UTG in my very first hand, usually this would be a raise from me, but since we were playing with 10K starting stacks and I didn't recognise half of the table, I opted not to build a big pot out of position in the very first hand and just limped in. Part of my reasoning was that I would not hear the last of it if I lost a big pot with AK in the very first hand! Anyway, this prompted about 7 other people to limp in and there was a J53r flop, the blinds check, I check and Rob Taylor overbets the pot. I contemplate calling for a very short period of time as I've played with Rob a lot, but I think there's a reasonable chance that he had AJ/KJ/QJ and I'd have to commit a load of chips to make him fold making this an easy muck. I was reasonably quiet for a little while, then I was dealt AQo OTB. The lad to my right in the CO was a stranger to me and he limped in after it was folded to him. I raise to 175, the blinds fold and he calls. Flop A93dd, he checks and I bet 250, he then insta raised to 1100. This guy must have had a very high VPIP and was limping into lots of hands, however I hadn't seen him get involved once postflop. I tanked for a while and then decided to fold as I didn't fancy calling all the way to the river, I thought it was more likely that he had A9/A3/33 than a flush draw or a funky AJ/AT. He shows me A3. I got involved in a hand with Sean, but I can't remember whether it was 25/50 or 50/100. Either way, I opened with my standard raise with 89s from LP and he flats from the BB. Flop was TT6, he bets and I raise and he calls. Turn was a 4, he checks and I fire out a big bet and he folds. I have played with him a lot and I know he never ever plays a ten like that and I must have a good image in his eyes as I always seem to show him the nuts whenever he calls me down :p. After that, I got involved in one more hand before passing the reigns back to Kev. I open 54cc from the Hijack for 250 (at 50/100) and get called by Neil Harvey on the button. Flop was 783hh and I think think misses Neil a lot of the time so I lead into it for 400. I actually only meant to bet 300, but I put the wrong amount of chips in (oops). Neil raises me to 1200 and I think for a while. I know Neil is a good aggressive player who recognises that this flop misses me loads and there is a decent chance I'm cbetting with two high cards. Against most players this is my cue to give up, but it's hard to make a set or two pair and I realise that Neil is capable of folding hands like 99-JJ unlike most of the players in local tournies. I decide to 3bet the flop to 2500, hoping to take it down there and obviously give up if Neil shipped it. Neil calls. I had some gutshot outs and my intention was to fire again on any non-heart small card and give up on anything else. I'm 90% certain that Neil doesn't have a set or two pair as soon as he flats my bet and I put him on a range of mostly flush draws, two high cards and medium sized overpairs. I hit a non-heart 4 on the turn and decide to bet again, firing out 2800 which stops Neil from taking the pot away from me with ATC, which as it turns out was his plan. He folded and later told me that he had King high. Looking back, I don't think I played this hand too well despite winning it with a good read, but not gonna complain when the chips come my way. I played in Kev's SNG for a while, but didn't really get involved too much. My typical 9man SNG strategy is to fold, fold, fold anything but big hands until I approach the bubble. I had KK on one occasion but got no action. Stole a few blinds, lost a few blinds and I think that I left Kev with the same amount of chips that he left me with. When it gets back to me, I play another couple of levels. I was very active, winning and losing lots of small pots and I grinded the stack up to over 20k. At 400/800 I open AQ from EP for 1800 and Ali sitting to my immediate left raises to 5000. Folds back around to me and I have a quick check of Ali's stack, he has over 10K back so I make an easy fold. I don't think I played in any other big hands during this period, took down a few small pots and gave up on a few small pots OTF. Exit from the tournament was a bit spewy. About 25 players left at 500/1000 and I have AQ in the small blind. Recurring theme here! A player that I don't recognise raised to 3K from EP, he had about 12-13k behind and I had ~25K. As he raised about 80% of the hands since I sat at the table, I felt AQ crushed his range so I shipped it all in. He snapped me with KK and I unfortunately ran into the top of his range. Ace on the flop, but he made a set. A few hands later, I get A6 in the CO and it's folded to me. With not much more than 10BB and several of the players still to act telegraphing folds I decide it's time to ship again. BB tanks for what felt like ages, before eventually calling with AKdd. 6 on the flop, but there was also a king on the flop. No help and that was the end of the tournament. Certainly not my best tournament ever, but I never really got a big hand and had to work to get whatever chips we had. I ended up playing cash afterwards with Bo$$ Hogg, Knerrard, Gaz Walker, Alex Brown and eventually a very drunken Pads. It wasn't a very good session for me, despite sucking out on Boss Hogg in one pot and despite my customary large non-showdown winnings, I managed to get AA, KK and QQ twice each and lost big pots with all of them. There was one hand that amused me a lot - I raised from the small blind with 55 and announced to the table that I was gonna flop quads, just fold now, blah blah blah... and sure enough I actually flopped quads!! I was doing my very best to give out the trash talk without officially announcing that I had quads, didn't want a nitty dealer declaring my hand dead. Unfortunately, nobody else hit any of the board and I got no action, but it was still oddly satisfying to hit quads after telling the table that's what is gonna happen! Hope that's not too long and rambling for you! Scotty"

WOW M8 that's an awesome response TYVM for sparing the time to share all this & UL it wasn't a profitable night but NVM. It wasn’t long before TFTP went bust after a couple of ill timed bluff’s we found ourselves SS & I went AIPF w/A10o for 4,500 at 300/600 behind EPC w/1500 ITM & Team Sensation found a call OTB w/AJd & my fate was almost sealed PF as EPC had L/F w/1010 so I was drawing to case 10 or some BDS/FD which didn’t come & we hit the rail. Meanwhile over the STT MT was V.AGRO opening every unopened pot from any POS & calling SS shove which ultimately bubbled KT after getting his SS AIPF w/J7s vs. KT’s AKo & board ran xxxx7 FTW…shortly after they had agreed a 3 way chop w/MT taking £40 for holding the CL & w/GT & goldfoxdom doubling their money after registration taking £20 each so a profitable 3-1 for our money over the STT meant we were only £2 shy of a break even night. Congratulations to good friend of mine Graeme Morl & his partner Gary Graham who collectively formed “Team Morlspin” & I understand went onto beat “Team H1LOYEAH?” HU for 1st place prize & the title “Circus Tag Team Champions 2009” WD lads.


That’s my 2009 poker calendar wrapped up & now I’m going to enjoy some time w/family & friends over festive season, I’ll blog a “2009 Annual Review” over the holiday’s & hopefully draw up a 2010 plan to include some personal targets & goals.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year All