Circus £75 (+£7.50) NLH F/O w/£500 Added

Busy weekend on the felt for FTP as I visited all 3 Newcastle casinos playing Grosvenor 3-2-1 (Friday), Circus £75 (+£5) w/£500 added (Saturday Afternoon), & Aspers £30 (+£3) w/£300 added (Saturday Evening) Mark travelled down Manchester for the £500 (+£50) PokerStars UKIPT main event (Friday) & after busting in day 1 joined me for both Saturday events. Mark will be reporting on his UKIPT exploits & today I’m hear to report the monthly Circus game but I’ll just give a brief summary of the Grosvenor 3-2-1 before I begin;

Grosvenor 3-2-1
44 runners generated a prize pool of £2570 which was divided between top 10%;

1) £980
2) £630
3) £460
4) £260
5) £180

I was a late arrival & found myself to CGK’s left in T4-S9, we played the flop game again my 97 vs. CGK’s 56 & he beat me out of £2.50 which was rounded up to £3 FML (I’m still £2 ahead overall though). Aryan also on the table until we split & I joined T2-S2 w/NPFers Camel Toe, PJBAces, Mrs. CGK, & MrNiceGuy before getting AIPF for 13,000 w/TT vs. villains 77 at 300/600/50 & when board ran A8795 I hit the rail. 6/10 for the bangers & mash buffet so a slight improvement from last week, not something I would personally opt for but complimentary so no complaints. Another impressive game littered w/NPFers & I for sure will endeavour to support this game if & when possible, finally congratulations to s2c, Valley High, BGR1, CGK, spoona999, & Younger who I understand split 6 ways for approximately £400...well done guys.

Circus £75 (+£7.50) NLH F/O w/£500 Added
Big improvement in numbers so 74 turn up for this creating a well impressive £6050 (including added £500) & it was kind of a who’s who with a very talented field;

1) £1895
2) £1165
3) £740
4) £545
5) £440
6) £365
7) £300
8) £240
9) £195
10) £165

I was sat in T1-S1 with a number of recognizable faces;

D) Dan “The Ultimate Dealer”
3) Kris Lawrence
4) Stephen “*S*LA**L*” Laker
6) Lynne “georgesam” Beaumont
7) Jason Elliott
8) Andy Chesire
9) Ross “roscopiko” Johnson

So needless to say accumulating chips wouldn’t be easy. I managed to get to around 20,000 by the break largely down to a flopped flush vs. Andy Chesire’s flopped smaller flush & the FTP GIM;

FTP GIM: I find QJo from the BTN & make a well timed squeeze play vs. loose villain who opened 300 UTG & picked up a call in 5 spots, I made it 2100 expecting everybody to pass but UTG called so we took a flop heads up which fell J7x & when he fired 3000 I felt for sure it was good & although it’s hugely over representing my hand I got it AI & he folded declaring he had A7.

After the break we were joined by Nutflush & teamdobb & I went card dead w/ATs (UTG) the best hand I seen, so to try & keep my head above water I 3BET roscopiko’s BTN open AI out of the BB blind & he found a very good call w/A6o which had me dominated as I turned over Q6o, no help & I plummet to 3600 at 300/600 level. Then the same orbit I find JTd on the BTN & find an opportunity to get it in a multiway pot vs. teamdobb (K6s), Malcolm “The Rebuy” Brown, & a shorter stacked villain (22) which gave me an opportunity to go back above 10,000 but no joy & when board runs JxK6x teamdobb scoops w/2P & I hit the rail, shake Dave’s hand & wish him GL. Mark lasted approximately half an hour longer until getting his short stacked 6000 AIPF w/KTo vs. omahaha (AK) vs. unknown villain (AK) & when flop (JTQ) gave both villains broadway Mark was drawing to runner runner house which didn’t show up. Mark recounts his day…

"After my disappointing day down in Manchester I decided to play the Saturday £75 game at Circus the following day. I arrived a little late and joined my table which not surprisingly was littered with good players. This game always seems to attract a tough field and I’m yet to get a soft starting table in this game and Saturday was no different. My table included TeamDobbs, Jonny Tingate, Mullet, Steve Brennan & a few others decent players but I’m not sure of their names. I don’t really pick up much early doors and just tried to play as patiently as possible. I tried to pick good spots to get involved but pretty much air balled every board and was just spraying chips about. I got a few of them back when I 3BET Jonny Tingate with KsQs after he opened from early position. I get one caller from the SB and Jonny passes. The flop is 9 high and villain checks to me. I put in a standard C-BET and villain passes TT face up. Interestingly the same guy had also passed trips to me in the £50 game the previous week when I VB the river with an over pair. I show him a King and muck my cards. Tingate and Brennan both claim to have passed AQ pre which I was pretty pleased about. Coming up to the break and I’ve been playing quite loose and generally quite spewy when I find QQ in mid. I open raise and TeamDobbs 3BETs from the BTN. I 4-BET shove and TD makes a standard call with AQ for a small percentage of his stack. The flop is AQ high and I find a nice double up. One thing I did notice whilst at this table was TD’s table talk. It’s been a while since I last played with him and his ability to talk good players into putting their chips in bad was actually quite impressive. I watched as he convinced both Jonny Tingate and Steve Brennan to stick the rest of their chips into the middle drawing dead. It reminded me of a similar incident about 12 months ago when he also talked me into sticking my stack in with AQ on a Axxx-x-x board and he tabled top set.

So anyway our tables breaks and I briefly join a new table which includes Martin Turnbull from Teesside, Stumpy & Paul Nixon amongst others. Anyway, nothing to speak of really as I was only at this table for a short period before being moved to a new table including Buzz and Milo. I never really get going on this table and lose a few small pots here and there before I eventually stick my remaining stack in with K10 from EP. Milo re-ships behind me and tables AK. He flops broadway to send me to the rail. I didn’t really feel like I played particularly well and probably got what I deserved. Maybe it was because if was off the back of Manchester & subconsciously I just wasn’t prepared or had the right approach to the game.

I wandered over to Aspers to play the £30 game and after an early double through I was gone the next level when I get it all on with AK on a A8Q flop and villain tables A8o to send me packing. I couldn’t be arsed to play cash so I just headed home and fired up some MTT’s online. Next stop for me will probably be Teesside this weekend. Although I’m still not 100% certain I’ll be playing this event. Will see how I feel nearer the time."

Although Circus haven’t published the final standings yet I understand knerrad, mugpunt, & omahaha went onto split this 4 ways, so N1 guys KUTGW & also congratulations to any other friends who got ITM & apologies for not giving you a shout out. So after Mark bust 21:15 we made our way over Aspers for late registration of their £30 F/O w/£300 added, below I’ve gave a very brief summary;

Aspers £30 (+£3) NLH F/O w/£300 Added
62 Runners generated a prize pool of £2030 which considering there was £300 added should have been £2200 but Aspers ripped £170 out of the pot to go towards their league final, which TBH is a little use of underhand tactics advertising to the high hills the added cash & then small print the 7% deduction but hey ho cest la vie;

1) £710
2) £405
3) £205
4) £160
5) £140
6) £120
7) £100
8) £80
9) £60
10) £50

I was drawn T2-S10 w/Mrs. Stumpy the only recognizable face over S7. I was in the mood to accumulate or go home so within 20 minutes at 100/200 I had my 5,000 AIPF w/22 vs. villains ATs which held. Mark wasn’t so lucky as with the same mentality he stacked off w/AK vs. A8 when board read A8xxx, so after the break I charged on & peaked at 18,000 until couple of cold deck spots seen me drop to 9,800 which I got AIPF at 400/800 from the BTN w/J9h vs. KQs & no help seen me bust in 21st. IDK the results of this but both Mrs. Stumpy & ChipmunkDobbs were still in upon my elimination so hopefully they managed to get ITM.

So a disappointing 0/3 across every casino all with reasonable prize pool’s & no cash played to substitute the £180.50 loss but NVM. Next weekend see’s the Gala £100 (+£10) NLH F/O w/£1000 added down Teesside so although not confirmed it’s likely we’ll make the journey for that but in the meantime look out for Mark’s PokerStars UKIPT that will be available soon.

Thanks as always for reading