I won an Alea tournament (technically)

A few quick reports on some recent tournies..

Monday 2nd Feb - Gala £10 rebuy

This was my first visit to Gala. I usually run a home game on Monday's but didn't arrange one this week. I fancied giving this rebuy a go, and given the horrendous weather, 2000 chips, and a £2000 guarantee this seemed like excellent value.

Indeed it was, only £880 was collected. Unfortuantely my UTG push with 23s with 8 remaining was called by 99. The JJ6 flop wasn't good for my hand. The 5 on the turn gave me some hope, but I was ultimitley unlucky, as the river bricked, and my undercards got busted.

Wednesday 4th Feb - Alea £40 freezeout

I set a new record here for me, as it was the first time I've ever been the first knocked out of a tournament I've played in. Second hand: couple of limpers, I raise to 350 with QQ. Milan reraises to 1400. Flop: 99T. Milan shoves. I pay off KK.

Only 13 people started this tournament, which was shocking. Everyone else was at Gala. This is a shame, as this is my favourite tourney at Alea. At least it is now an easy source of league points.

Wednesday 4th Feb - Gala £25+£15 second chance

This was my second Gala visit, and it went just as badly as my previous one. I ended up going out shortly after the break when my 72o was busted by AK.

A couple of notes on Gala - the guarantees are excellent, especially seeing as they never seem to hit them. But the cardroom itself is poor. Having dealers is a good point, although a couple of them don't appear to be fully competent. The dealers showing your cards at showdown when you try to muck is just daft. The chips are shockingly poor - when they're putting this much money into the cardroom I don't see why they don't invest in some new chips. The tables are a bit of a squeeze with 10 players and a dealer. The tables are also close together, which can make moving around a pain. The tables could do with some new felt too. The tournament clock runs on a laptop, lol. All in all, it felt as if I was playing in a home game run in a casino. Alea is a much nicer place to play.

Thursday 5th Feb - Alea £20 second chance

This marked the second week running that I decided to play poker rather than snooker in search of some league points. Thankfully, I got my wish and ended up finishing 4th (for £105 I think). Daniel won a race against me, me with 77, him with AJ, continuing my run of fourth place finishes at Alea, further cementing my belief that their cardroom is rigged against me winning one of these things.

Friday 6th Feb - Alea £25 triple chance

With the APAT event the next day I fancied some poker as a warm up. Gala had a £100 freezeout on, but with a 15k stack and a 20 minute clock, and no doubt a 4.30am finishing time I decided not to bother with this. Instead, I went to Alea hoping the tourney would be quiet, and we might be done by 1am.

Both predictions turned out to be true. We started with 2 tables, and ended up with only 21 runners. Eventually there were 4 of us left on the final. One guy was short stacked and on one hand after tanking for a while he eventually pushed. His 56 was no match for my AA and we were down to three. As I wanted an early night I proposed a 3 way chop for £300 each, despite having a slight chip lead. Seeing as I had the chip lead at the time I technically won this tournament, netting me a cool 1000 league points.

Saturday 7th Feb - APAT UK Championship

This tournament took place in Grosvenor Walsall. As such I'd already driven to my mother's house in Heywood the previous night, to knock 40 minutes off the drive.

The casino itself was quite nice. It was an old style Grosvenor, rather than one of the newly rebranded Gs.

The tournament itself had 205 runners (200+5 alts). The buyin was £75, and for this we got an excellent structure with a 10k stack and 45 minute levels.

I never really got going in this tournament unfortuantely. My exit eventually came in the 300/600-50 level. I lost two races in consecutive hands. TT lost to AK. Then AK lost to 88. Bah.

Sunday 8th Feb - Alea £30 rebuy

Yet again we started a sunday comp with one table. Nothing much to report here, I finished 6th which at least netted me 500 league points. Out of 11 players the top 4 were being paid, which is just daft. 4th only got £40. Even worse was a saver was agreed on for 5th place for another £40 lol.

Monday 9th Feb - Alea £15 freezeout

The standard of the Monday games at Alea continues to amuse me. At the 25/50 level open raises of 600+ were the norm. "I had KK, I don't want anyone calling and hitting an ace".

Nothing much to really go into here, the standard is so bad. I laughed at a double up I recieved with KJ when the big blind called with J9 because "i like this hand".

Busted in 10th which was annoying as it mean no more league points. More annoying was Andy Jacques made the final, meaning he'll have got a little more of a lead into 2nd place now. I was previously on 9000 points to his 9300.Still, few weeks to go yet :)

My First Big Score

I have two tournaments to cover in this blog entry, the first being the new tournament at Alea, followed by Blackpool's deepstack event..

Alea £20 Second Chance

I wasn't planning on going to this tournament but decided to do so in an effort to get some league points, and also some last minute practice before Saturday.

We had an interesting hand in the 3rd hand where Steve Bolton held QT on a TcQcKcQhX board. His full house was no good against the J9cc lol.

I ended up getting 3rd in this tournament. What was so tilting was the woman who got to split 1st/2nd. She was so bad. With blinds at 5k/10k and 4 left the shortstack moved all in for 13k. The SB folded, and she then folded her BB. Oh dear god. I ended up getting £180 for 3rd, which was a reasonable return.

Blackpool G £100 Deepstack

I went to this tournament last month, and had a highly frustrating game. I don't think I'd ever been dealt J4o so many times in my life.

So, I went back again, hoping for a better run. £100, a 40 minute clock, and a 15k starting stack (though no 75/150 or 150/300) represent a decent structure.

My first interesting hand came in the 4th hand of the game. 3 limpers into the pot and I check my option in the BB with A8. The flop was 863. I fire 150 into the 200 pot and recieve one caller to my left. The turn brings another 8 which I check not wanting to scare him off. Unfortuantly, he checked behind - I was hoping he might take a stab. The river brought the final 8. I now bet 300 into the 500 pot which he called. I turned over my hand, he laughed and said it was good.

I had another interesting hand in the 25/50 level when I completed the SB with KJ. There had been about 5 limpers before me. J82 on the flop, which I checked. Guy to my left bet out, which recieved a couple of callers, and I called too. J on the turn, and again I check thinking I can check/raise. Annoyingly it checked around. 9 on the river and I don't particulary like my hand at this point. Guy to my left bets 250, which recieves a caller, and I just flat call too. He turns over QT. Lost the minimum there.

I made a bit of a blunder a bit later on in the 50/100 level. Having flopped a set of deuces I bet out and recieved about 4 callers. The turn brought a straight draw to go along with the flush draw already there and I decided to bet 1500 into the ~1800 pot to try and price out these draws. Unfortuantly as I wasn't used to the colour of the chips I accidently bet 6000. Obviously I like my hand and don't mind getting looked up, but I missed out on some value here. Though given how draw heavy that board was I wasn't too bothered.

Around about this point a guy named Ali Mallu was seated to my right, and my tournament changed from here on. The guy is an absolute maniac, and was involved in almost every pot of the game. I was already playing quite tight, but my game really had to turn tight at this point, waiting for an oppurtunity to trap this guy.

And so I grinded away. Picking up the occasional pot with raises, and trying to avoid this guy until I could trap him.

After dinner (they provided a carvery buffet) and the blinds are up to 300/600-25. I'm still at about 16k and need to start thinking of getting my stack up. However, after one or two unsucesful raises I find myself down to 9k in the 400/800-50 level, not good. My double up come however with AK winning a race against QQ. A few succesful blind steals later, including shoving over the top of a raise with 54s, and I find myself up to the dizzy heights of 40k.

From here on in I found myself pretty card dead, and with very few oppurtunities to make moves due to the guy sat to my right. I grinded and grinded though and managed to keep my head above water.

Fast forward to the 1k/2k-100 level and Ali raises to 6k on the button. With about 30-40k myself I shove over the top with AQ. He calls with ATs and manages to pick up a flush draw on the flop. I dodge the bullets however and double up.

At the 1.5k/3k-100 level Ali again raises it up, this time to 11k. With about 60k in my stack I push over the top of him again, this time with AK. He calls and turns over QQ, and my AK wins another race. With this double up I finally find myself with a somewhat comfortable chip position.

By this point 151 runners has been reduced to about 30ish. Players are dropping like flies, and the approaching bubble is seeing people make a push to get chips. The top 12 are getting paid, which seems a bit tight. With 2,265,000 chips in play everyone realised this meant an average stack by the final would be 226k.

With the blinds at 3k/6k-300 I find myself in a nice position. A guy raised from EP to 20k. With about 90k in my stack I pushed all in with KK. He tanked for a short while before calling with JJ. My KK held up and I'm in good shape.

We're now down to 2 tables. Players continued to get knocked out until only 14 remained. We remained at 14 players for quite some time, probably 30 minutes or so. Eventually someone busted and we were hand for hand. Everyone at the table agreed to do a £10 saver from everyone for the bubble. Everyone except Ali that is, who earlier said to me he thinks it should only be top 3 paid..

During the bubble I picked up AA for the first time all night. I raised pre, and got two further streets of value before the other guy folded. Shortly after, the bubble burst, and we're in the money.

I then finally got into a big pot against Ali. He started with ~220k. I myself had ~180k. Blinds at 5k/10k-400. It folded to Ali in the SB and he completed. I checked my option with KT. Flop was KT9. Ali lead for 10k, which I raised to 35k. He then shoved and I insta called. He turned over T9, which to be fair was bigger than I anticipated. No miracle and I'm very well chipped up, and he is crippled.

He exited soon after, and at the same time a player was eliminated on the other table, leaving us with our final table of 10.

I started the final table with 375k. Joining me there was Steve, who I mentioned earlier in the Alea tournament. Railing us was Justin, who had been knocked out in about 30th. He was interested in our progress as he had 10% of Steve's action and 5% of mine.

The final started with blinds at 6k/12k-500. I picked up KK early on. An aggressive player raised to 36k. I was in mid position myself, and deciding not to get too tricky here I went all in (to put him in essentially). He annoyingly passed, but given the blinds and antes, this was a nice pot to pick up.

I then had a fun hand against Steve. He was sat to my right and it folded to him in the SB. He completed, and I checked my option with A6. We checked it down to the river when an A came off. He asked me if I hit anything, to which I replied no. He then bet 12k. I called, and said I lied. He turned over A5. I then turned over A6 and said scoooop.

Unfortuantly Steve got knocked out in 9th not too long later. The earlier mentioned aggressive guy in the KK hand raised it up to 36k again. Steve went all in for ~100k and his AQ was looked up by A5. A flop of A23 and he commented that he just needs to dodge a 4. I mention that he obviously still needs to dodge a 5, which cruely comes down on the turn, sending him to the rail.

With 8 left came perhaps my most interesting hand of the night from the analysis point of view. I won't repeat it here, as it's generated some discussion on Blonde. Instead I'll just copy the link to the thread: http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=39932.0

Not too long later the remaining 8 of us agreed to do a deal. There was only about 30 minutes left until we'd be forced into a chip count as it was currently about 4.30am. The deal was for £2000 for 5 of us, and £1500 for the other three. I was thankfully one of the ones to recieve £2000 despite having taken a hit in that previous hand - I only had about 40k more than one of the £1500 winners.

When counting the money we realised the guy told us the prizepool wrong. He forgot to knock 9th place money off leaving us a few hundred short. As a result three of us gave £50 to the shorter amounts, leaving me with a nice healthy £1950 for my efforts :) Tim got £195 of it, as we'd agreed 10% of each other beforehand. Justin got £97.50 for his 5%. Daniel also got £100 due to a deal we did for if either of us cashed over £1000. Next month I'm gonna keep these deals to a minimum, most likely only taking a % with Justin, assuming he's up for it again next month.

All in all it was a completely tiring day. I was up at 10.30am on Saturday morning, having got to sleep at 4am the night before. I then had to drive to Blackpool, and we started playing a 3pm. By the time we were done and I'd took Tim back to Bradford it was 7am before I got to bed. But I loved every minute of it. It's an excellent tournament, and I was so pleased to finally get a decent result under my belt.

Next weekend is the APAT UK Championship, which I have a seat in. Hopefully I will be able to get a similary good run there :)