Swings and Roundabouts

I nearly didn't play it.

Sorry for the long time since the last post but I find it hard to blog during a downswing. I'd had a few days of break even poker and was in a period of frustrated tilt at the table. I ended up stuck a fair bit but I heard some talk of a big poker tournament in the Solent split between Southampton and Portsmouth, getting together for the finals at Portsmouth. I figured if I ran a bit better over the next few days I could enter and give it a shot.

The next day I'm playing at Portsmouth and lose even more, I know the losses aren't big but I was getting frustrated, I left, planned to take a break from poker and skip the tournament. I figured the games aren't going anywhere, conserve the bankroll and get my mindset back that let me win. Skipping Saturday night is not something I like to do given the good money on the table but I just needed to have a break and spent the evening at home with the girlfriend.

Sunday morning came around and I decided to head down and just give the tournament a go, it was only £50 and I figured the change might get me back into cash games and winning. It turned out to be a £50 with one optional rebuy or addon which I took at the end of the addon period having been down to a single 1000 chip at one point. After 3 levels entry and rebuys were over and I was pretty low on chips, I figured I'd be out pretty soon and have the drive of shame back home having left only hours before. I spent the next few hours reasonably short stacked, doubling up and surviving, stealing any dead money on the table at every opportunity. After a while we began to head down to the final 10 players of the Portsmouth starting flight, we would stop at 7 players and wait for the other starting flight's survivors to arrive. The final 7 from each flight would make the money. Having somehow survived being the shortstack throughout the entire day I entered the final 10 in 9th position, 7 of us would make the final 14 with Southampton and be in the money. The action was fast and furious, the chipleader coming into the final 7 didn't survive and was out and we were down to 7 within 30 minutes. Having spent the 30 minutes in hyper aggressive mode I came out as the chip leader from the Portsmouth flight. There was an element of scared money on the table, shortstacks trying to survive and big stacks trying to protect their lead. I was happy to ship my stack in often and scored some big double ups and stole some big pots.

Down to the final 7 we had a long break while the players from the Southampton flight travelled the short trip down and got setup for the final two tables. I grabbed some food with another of the players, a guy named Reese from a local card club. He was down to get some practice for a UKIPT event he had won a seat in through his poker league. He had a good chip stack and was glad to see that he was on my table of 7 on my right for the restart. We would play down to 10 and then combine for the final table. What happened next was one of the most spectacular blow ups I have ever seen. Between myself and Reese was a short stack, who in the space of three hands managed to take all of Reese's chips. Reese would stick around the rest of the night and rail me, I didn't see enough of his as it was late afterwards but I'm going to go down to his local club and find him, I hope to play with him again and wish him the best at UKIPT Brighton!

Pretty soon we were down to the final 10 which pretty soon became the final 8. By now the blinds had eaten my stack a fair bit and I had chipped down to one of the shortstacks at the table, it was time to get aggressive and start stealing again. The money jumps were reasonably big but if you come this far, it's time to win. Slowly players began to fall around us and eventually we were down to 5, where I was the shortstack and guaranteed £750, a great return on my investment. At this point the players started to discuss a deal, being the shortstack I was surprised that we agreed we would all guarantee ourselves £1500, then play for an additional £1000 for first, £560 for second and £300ish for 3rd.

The deal seemed to loosen up play a bit which surprised me as there was still a lot to play for. 5th place busted quickly and we were down to four where myself and the other shortstack would cling on for dear life. I would have had him out early on but he survived a AK vs QJ encounter and we played on. Finally we got to three handed and the money started going up again, by this point I was a big chip leader, I proceeded to lose a big pot to the man in 2nd place then busted the shortstack the next hand and we were heads up. The blinds were so high at this point that we both knew it would be over soon. The final hand saw my 76o against 83hh on a 765hh board, the money went in and he hit his draw to knock me out in second for over £2000.

I really feel I played the best poker of my life, I lost hands when I was ahead, I won hands when I was behind, I would say I was pretty luck neutral during the tournament. After a hard week or two of cash games this is exactly what I needed to get back on the grind, a few bad results lives span a lot longer than on online, you can begin to question your ability. This score gave me the confidence (and a nice bankroll boost) to come back stronger and win even more.

The next day I went down to my local casino, wrapped up a win and felt good. We're back on track, swings and roundabouts baby.

Tournament:
£55 entry +£50 addon
£2060 cashout

Cash game:
Time played: 2:42
Buyin: £100
Cashout: £226
Profit: £126
Hourly: £46.67