I decided to play the first Day 1, partly because I knew that some of my poker-buddies from the GNF forum were coming up from the south-west to play that day, but also if I did decide to re-enter I had the pick of all remaining days.
With starting stacks of 15,000 and a very slow structure, this was real deep-stacked poker and recently I have found myself preferring this format, although rarely having the time to play it.
Playing pretty snug at the start of play although playing more hands than I expected and building my stack up bit by bit, I was involved in a massive cooler pot, where my JJ hit a J4x board and ended up getting it all-in with a guy whose 44's hit. The set-over-set situation eliminated him and gave me a healthy stack to work with. Unfortunately it didn't last too long and a table move and a couple of failed pots where I was probably trying to get too 'fancy' saw me approaching a short-stack status. Thankfully a couple of pots saved me - firstly a guy playing KK far too passively against my Ax allowing me to hit the Ace on the turn (he ended up folding), and then a big stack moving to the table who wanted to throw his chip-weight around....I picked up QQ, raised and he called. Flop was Jxx. I bet he calls. Turn was a blank and we both check. River brought an ace. He quickly throws a pot-sized bet out which would be for most of my chips. I tank for a bit and run the hand through, figuring that his likelihood of holding a big ace is pretty small as he would be value betting the river to bring me along, especially as I showed 'weakness' on the turn. Figuring he is trying to buy the pot, I shove all-in and he insta-mucks his cards, taking me up to the 40k mark.
Then I move tables and go on a nice mini-heater. The sort of sequence of hands you dream about, especially when moving to a new table where no-one knows how you play. First hand there I get JJ, raise and call a short-stacks re-shove who shows 99 and my jacks hold up. Two hands later I get KK and call ANOTHER re-shove from a guy who shows QQ and my kings hold up. I use my table-image to steal probably 50% of the pots in the next orbit, and despite a couple of lost pots which slow me down a bit, I'm still looking pretty healthy chip-wise. Following the break, a guy who has clearly had too much to drink starts ribbing myself and the couple of youngish lads at our end of the table for not talking and not smiling enough, the guy keeps on and on and on as well as saying how he is just waiting to double-up through someone. He shoves all-in a few times successfully, but then he shoves and I look down at pocket-tens. I think for a while as I could easily be in a coin flip situation and the one guy I really don't want to give a stack to is this bloke, but eventually call and he shows 77, and my TT holds up. Later on, a fellow-player at the table said he was so pleased when he went. Drink may liven up cash games, but it is so annoying at tournament tables.
After that hand, I pretty much fold my way to Day 2, leaving with a roughly average stack of 77k and the long wait til the following Saturday to play again.
The only other GNF'er to get through to Day 2 was Dann Williams, so I knew there would be some familiar faces at least. On arriving at DTD I suggested that if we both make it to Day 3, I will pay for a hotel room for Dann who was contemplating the prospect of sleeping in his car. I wasn't seriously thinking we would both last though :)
Day 2 started brilliantly. I knew I had the chip-leader from the previous Day 1 with over 200k in chips two to my right, so doubted I would see many cheap flops and pretty much elected to play tight for the first 40 min level to get a lay of the land. First hand though was KJ suited in late position. Mr Chip-Lead raised, I called and the flop was Jack high. He checked, I bet, he called. Turn was a blank. He bet, I raised and he folded, picking up a bunch of chips within minutes. A few hands later I picked up JJ - fast becoming one of my favourite hands this tournament. Again, I had Mr Big-Stack in a pot and the flop came AJx. He bet, I called with my set of Jacks. Turn and river were fairly inconsequential and I managed to win against his Ax hand. Unfortunately not a double-up as I was really hoping for a repeat of the set-over-set in Day 1. The only other hand of note was against a baseball-capped chap who came to the table late. We became involved in a pot where I had Ace-high but had missed the fairly dry Qxx board but had re-raised his turn bet when a 5 dropped. Figuring that the only card he could possibly call my raise with would be a Q, when he called I shut down and we checked the river for him to show a 5! Really surprised at the call but fair play he must have read that I had nothing. I did mentally note that he could get a little out of line without much problem though. All in all, I managed to amass a decent enough stack in the 150k mark by the time my table broke. This was about the time of the money bubble and hand-for-hand, which I pretty much sat out of and didn't take long at all. I was finally in the money and had at least won my buy in back! Yay!
Then the worst possible thing happened. Well, not the WORST possible thing - that would be picking up KK when someone else picks up AA, but I became completely and utterly card-dead. This wasn't even a situation where I could make my own fortune, as there were one or two aggressive players who were raising a lot pre-flop and whenever I picked up a vaguely playable hand it was under-the-gun with 9 players left to act and they were clear folds.
Eventually we broke for dinner, and Dann - who was still in and hovering around the 15-20 big blind range in chips, said he wanted to go and get a takeaway from Nandos. Bad mistake....Nando's was heaving and it took absolutely ages for the food to be prepared, causing Dann to rush off before collecting his food. When you haven't eaten all day, that certainly qualifies as a bad-beat!
Back at the club, Dann moved to a new table and immediately got into an AA vs AK situation to double his stack, which he tweeted about and shortly afterwards moved to my table. Having Dann there didn't seem to change my card-deadness though which went on and on and on....
Eventually, I had a very interesting hand with the baseball-cap lad who had been at my previous table. Shortly prior to it - I was involved in a pot with him, where he called my raise and bet into me on the flop, after which I shoved over the top of him and forced a fold. Anyway, with that still fresh in my mind, I raised from mid-position with A2 of clubs. It folded round to him in the BB and he called. Flop was K5x and I fully expected him to lead out into me if he had a King but he checked and I checked behind. Turn brought a 4, giving me a gut-shot straight draw and an over card. He then put out a big bet which would take just over half my stack. I had to think about this one a bit...I was sure he didn't have a King and had seem him play a low pair on a board with an over card fairly passively earlier (small bet, call raise) so felt that was possibly unlikely. His calling from the blinds instead of raising also ruled out any kind of monster-holding. I felt he was likely holding nothing and was just trying to bully me off the pot, especially as I had re-shoved on him a short while ago. I still had seven probably outs (four 3's and 3 Aces) and calling seemed a bad play as I would be pot-committed if the river blanked or paired the board. It seemed like the only effective play if I trusted my read was to shove all-in. I figured that an all-in shove would look strong enough for him to fold the small pair or Ace-x possibility that most worried me, in fact I felt that an all-in shove would probably get a fold, and if I get a call I am miles behind and just have to put it down to experience. Before deciding I had a good look at him and just felt he looked weak and this solidified my decision to go all-in. He then tanked and talked about how he 'had' to call as its 'only' putting another 45k into the pot, shrugged his shoulders and called. I figured I would be DQ'ed the moment he called, but he flipped over Q9 which hadn't connected at all. The river blanked and I doubled up, and this bloke was furious 'How could you shove with A2?' he asked 'I felt my air was better than your air' probably wound him up even more. He was still moaning about the hand and my play several hands later and he eventually peter'ed out and went bust not long after. I felt good about this hand specifically as obtaining reads, specifically relating to betting patterns, is something I have worked hard on for a while now and it paid dividends in this instance. He probably thought I was a fish that got lucky mind :)
After that hand, I picked up a small pot with 22 but as I wasn't picking up any really decent cards, and after I had shown down the A2 pot above (possibly), I wasn't getting any respect from raises, and had to fold to re-shoves a few times leaving me short and just waiting for a hand to get it in with.
That hand came when a player to my right raised, and I looked down at 55. It was the first pair I'd had for ages, so with just 10 big blinds left I shoved, and Dann started asking for a count and shoved in over the top. The other player folded and Dann flipped over JJ which held up and eliminated me in 85th position out of 2089 and an eventual payout of €250. I wished Dann luck but said he may well be sleeping in the car after all!
Dann looked pretty good stack-wise to make it to Day 3, but eventually busted when his 88 runs into AA, only five minutes from the end of proceedings, but finishes in 51st place which is still a good achievement.
The next Grand Prix is in April which I will hopefully be able to make, but in the meantime I plan on using the €250 being deposited back into my DTD account to try and actually satellite for some events rather than paying the full buy-in, especially as DTD run the 'golden chip' promotion for satellite winners. For this weekends Grand Prix, a golden-chipper who makes the final table would be given a Mini (no one made it), and for the next event they would win a £6k package to an event in the Caribbean, so its certainly worth a shot....Will keep you posted....
