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 :)
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