Gala £100 (+£10) NLH F/O w/£1,000 Added

SUP Guys. Reporting today on our monthly Teesside trip & I guess their isn’t much to say really especially regarding my tournament but I did manage to catch up with Wayne (I’m not familiar with his surname) who I understand is 1 of the casino’s management & was very influential in over turning my Gala suspension last December. I thanked him in person on Saturday evening & he’s a really nice guy, so if your reading thanks again mate & see you next month. Moving onto the tournament, an impressive 86 turned out which including the £1000 added created a generous prize pool of £9600;

1) £3,320
2) £2,000
3) £1,360
4) £800
5) £600
6) £470
7) £370
8) £290
9) £220
10) £170

& for the 2nd month in a row we we’re late resulting in starting with a 1,000 chip deficit. I get seated immediately to Mark’s (7) right in T9-S6 as they opened a table to accommodate us which was also populated with Teessider John Cairns (3) & Russ “The Suit” (8) amongst other unfamiliar faces. I’m immediately told by the dealer that I’m not allowed a pen/paper at the table, when I question this I’m told “because it’s the rules” I explained I’ve played all over the world (including several times in Gala, Teesside) using pen/paper to monitor exploits & have never once had this ruling enforced. I of course adhered to the rules & immediately got rid of the pen/paper but it would have been nice to have some sort of explanation, but anyway whatever. So I’ve only looked at 3 hands, all of which were junk in early position so never got involved until;

AA vs. KK: 50/100 “18,000” (Russ “The Suit” opens 3x out front which get’s called from the BTN, I squeeze AA out the BB & make it 1,100 to play. Russ moves AIPF & has both of us covered, BTN tank folds & I of course make the easy call. Board ensures 89Tcc (prompting BTN to declare he folded TT) then 6c on the turn give’s Russ a live flush draw for like 25% & the cruel Ac hit’s the river to give me a 2nd best set to the nut flush of Russ.)

Obviously no complaints as I’m very much decision orientated not results but still a sicko to travel all that way for an early exit, but chin up & after shaking Russ’s hand & wishing the table good luck I head to the bar to watch the 2nd half of Arsenal’s 2-0 win over West Ham United. It’s still to early for any side game action so tell Mark I’m off next door to the Showcase Cinema (which by the way isn’t cheap nowadays & after the movie ticket, hot dog, large Pepsi, & an ice cream sundae I had like £3 change of a £20) to catch a 19:30 viewing of Bounty Hunter which to give a quick review;

Starring Gerard Butler (Milo) & the red hot Jennifer Aniston (Nicole) it’s a comedy about a bounty hunter who’s assigned the enviable job of tracking down his bail skipping ex-wife & taking her back to custody. With sub plots going on involving both Milo & Nicole being chased by other villains for different reason’s it makes for lots of funny scenes & it’s largely set in Atlantic City, New Jersey so lots of good views of the famous hotels including Borgata, Trump Taj Mahal, Caesars, etc.

It finished around 21:30 in good time to catch some 200NL action whilst Mark grinded the tournament but as I’m leaving the cinema I get a text from Mark saying he’d went bust so rather than hit the tables we opt to hit the road & are back in Newcastle for a little before 23:00. Mark recounts his tournament;

On Saturday I took the trip down to Teesside again for there monthly £100 MTT. As Dan has already stated and no thanks to me we arrived late again and were subject to the 1,000 chip deduction. The card room is full so they open a cash table up at the other side of the casino to accommodate the late entrants. Consequently I’m on the same starting table as Dan.

As usual, along with myself and Dan the NPF accounted for about 10% of the field with Russ ‘The Suit’, Jimmy Chimpmunk, Can Only Get Better, COGB’s father Richard, Rosi, Nemesis & Gary Collins all spotted in and around the card room.

So other than Dan, Russ ‘The Suit’ is also at the table amongst a bunch of Teesside lads. I haven’t seen Russ for a while so I have a catch up and we talk poker, he tells me about his impressive run of final tables. Russ was a regular on the NPS a few years ago when I used to play live a lot and he’s a really nice guy who I have a lot of time for. Anyway, as you would have read already he bust Dan after four hands after getting his KK all in pre vs Dan’s AA and finding his 20%. I’m not at the table long really before it breaks and I’m not really involved much, since it’s a cash table and not actually in the card room it’s the obvious choice to be broken.

I’m re-seated in T2 S2 and share the same table as Teessiders Rocky, Swampy and NPFer COGB. I’ve got pretty much my starting stack when I arrive at the table. I win a nice pot with 9d7d when I turn a flush in a multi-way and get paid off nicely after I value bet the river perfectly. Shortly after I make another flush out of the BB with Kd7d but don’t get the same action. All the same my stack was moving along nicely in the right direction and I was sitting on about 16,000.

I go through a card dead period and just try to maintain my stack as the blinds increase. I haven’t played a pot in a while when I raise from mid position with QTo to 1,500 with the blinds at 300/600/50. I’m called off the BB who has been playing pretty loose and some of his plays have been rather unorthodox to say the least. Anyway the flop is K high and he leads 2,000 into me. I don’t like it but float the flop looking to take the pot away on the turn. The turn bricks and he again bets into me. This time he makes it 5,000. With 12,500 behind his bet has seriously reduced my fold equity in the hand. Despite feeling certain he is weak I don’t have enough back to get him off any type of hand and let it go. I later found out this lad was called Nathan Horsley and he had 5c3c when he two barreled me. Not a play I advocate but well played to him all the same.

As the level is coming to an end Nathan opens another pot to 1,800 from mid position. Action passes around to me in the cut off. I have TT and with about 12,500 behind I consider my options. I think about a shove but decide to flat call instead hoping to get it in with the right flop. I’m not too happy when the BTN comes along and also calls the 1,800. TT is not a hand I like to play 3 way or out of position but never mind. The flop is K-8-K and action is checked around to the BTN who leads for 3,200 (about half the pot). Original raiser passes and I move all in. I pretty sure my hand is good and my check raise is representing a bigger hand than TT. I don’t like the fold here, the BTN could have any two cards and the check call is just a bit to spewy. Anyway, I’m quickly looked up by AK and drawing to 2 outs which don’t get there. So that was it. Yeah I can fold and still have 10,000 back but with the blinds due to increase again it felt like a good spot to gather a few chips. I made a miss-read but I don’t regret my play.

So that was that, I give Dan a call and we jump in car and head back home up the A1. So that’s it for FTP in terms of live MTT’s for March. So three months gone now in 2010 and two of them profitable ones so no complaints really. Next stop for me is the Coventry UKIPT on April 9th. I’m really looking forward to this one. I’m travelling down with Graham (Mono on NPF) who good crack so should make the drive down a good laugh. I feel like I’m due a deep run and hopefully a cash in one of the bigger games having done nothing in the first three events I’ve played this year.

So 2-cats tells me it was eventually decided in a 4 way chop which included FTP fan & interviewee Paul “swampy” Gardener taking £1,700 & another fan Gary Collins was the unfortunate chop bubble finishing 5th for £600, so congratulations gents.

Now then guys, late Sunday afternoon whilst I write & I’ve spent the day at my nephew Zach Ethan’s christening before catching the 2nd half of Man Utd’s 2-1 win over Liverpool (apologies to anybody that had Rooney 1st goal off the back of my last post). Right I’m away travelling Asia for a little shy of a month & needless to say I won’t be actively updating FTP but hopefully Mark will keep you all updated with his exploits, as far as I know his foreseeable schedule is as follows;

CGK Team Game (Saturday 27th March)
Circus £50 (+£5) w/£500 Added (Tuesday 6th April)
Coventry £500 (+£50) UKIPT (Friday 9th April)
Circus £75 (+£7.50) w/£500 Added (Saturday 10th April)

Obviously the Circus £75 is depended on whether or not he make’s day 2 of the UKIPT. Their’s also talk over the NPF that their birthday game will be held whilst I’m away but things appear to have gone quiet on that front which suggests maybe it’s no longer scheduled & fingers crossed rearranged to a date I can attended. As well as his tournament synopsis I know Mark has a very exciting guest for our April’s edition of “In The Tank With…” so stay tuned for that guys I’m pretty sure you’ll all find it exceptional reading. So I’ll be back in UK for next months Teesside £100 game (Saturday 17th April) & hoping to see a few more than 4 hands that time round which will most likely be my next update, meanwhile I’ll leave you with this photo (many more over my facebook profile) which will hopefully go some way to explaining why I’m a little preoccupied to be blogging.


La-Gon & Chok Dee (Thai for Goodbye & Good Luck)