skalie.org

Saturday
Adam called me to meet for breakfast. Well lunch I suppose.
“Ooops, slept in. Quick shower, and I’ll be down”
The shower was fitted with a really handy seat, what I great Idea I thought. I might get one fitted at home. These handicapped rooms have everything.
I met Adam and his better half for lunch. He had got through but unfortunately he was nursing a small stack of around 13k.
PlymLegend and Potstealer had both made it to day two also and were in pretty good shape. New1Home had exited after a sick set up hand. He had pocket Kings on an A K Q flop against the 10 J of Iwan Jones. Iwan also holding a royal flush draw. Having not seen Drewster at the end I thought I should call him.
“Hi Andy, how did you finish up last night mate, did you get through.”
“No! You knocked me out didn’t ya!”
“Oops, I totally forgot. Sorry mate.”
He took this little faux pas with good spirits and wished me luck.
(Never used this phrase before, I like it and may use it again. Hope it’s spelt right.)
People quickly dropped out and I was far from chip lead now. Although I hadn’t increased my stack, my chip count was still way above the average.
I raised with K9 of diamonds and get 2 callers. I am delighted to see a flop of 8 7 5 all diamonds. I bet out and James Martin moves all in. I make the call. The pot is around 130k, a massive pot for this stage and I would be cruising if I could win this. He flips over pocket sevens and when a seven arrived on the turn, I was needing the 6 of diamonds to beat his quads. It never materialised and I was down to less than 20k. Gutted!
I find AJ of clubs and raise. The big blind pushes. With 14k left I have had enough to pass but I wanna go home. I call and he turns pocket 10’s. The board comes A 9 7 A J. With the blinds it was nearly a 40k pot, I was back with a shout.
Pot Steal (Aka Jonathan Kemsley, the Ladbrokes qualifier) had been quietly going about his business slowly gathering chips. He raised 3 times the blinds to 3000, and the chap to my left re-raised to 12. After a dwell Potsteal pushed all his chips in the middle and the decision was back on his opponent. He thought for an age and eventually called with his AQ of diamonds. Potsteal was in great shape with AK and looked like he would win an 80k+ pot. However the all diamond flop was to all but knock him out. An outstanding performance and a player to watch for the future. I was surprised to hear this was one of his first major live events.
By 10.30 we were down to the 9 finalists. This included 2 other Ladbrokes players in Andreas Hoivold, a fellow Ladbrokes pro and relative newcomer Craig Swatton (Aka PlymLegend).
Had Potsteal not got so unlucky and indeed Richard Sinclair (aka Daddymac) who also went deep, more the half the table could have been Ladbrokes regulars.
Sunday
After another long drive across the car park to the casino I was ready for the final. Although 7th in chip count the difference between us all was nominal and easily recovered.
I picked up a few hands early but got no action and was simply able to steal the blinds. Daniel Nutt had been knocked out and I was sitting on around 175k. James Martin limped in with the blinds 1500/3000. Big Karl limped behind and I found A 10. I decided to try and steal and made it 13k to go. James made the call and after a dwell Karl raised to 50k. This stunk of a squeeze, I didn’t have him on anything too strong, not after limping behind James. I thought most likely a middle pair so I decide to push. He can only really call with aces or kings. Unfortunately he had kings and made the call after James passed. Luckily for me an Ace came to the rescue and I was fortunate to now be sat on a chip lead.
After making the move I decided to make the most of my Kamikaze image and proceeded to raise every pot. It worked and no one seemed to want to get involved. On my big blind with the blinds still 1500/3000 James raises to 9000 from the button. I look down and see pocket kings. I know he won’t respect a re-raise and i hope he will push back. I quickly make it 21k and after a dwell he falls for it pushing all in for 90k with A5. I make the call and when my hand holds up I have over 500k, nearly half the chips in play. At this point I really thought it was to be my day.
Papa fell to Iwan Jones and Tristan to Andreas we were now five handed and I still had a healthy lead. We were to play five handed for the next 4 hours. Every time the short stack was all in, he would survive.
The sickest of these was Plymlegend getting outdrawn from Iwan Jones. Both all in preflop, Plym (Craig Swatton) has 88 and Iwan 66 the board comes 8 7 5 9 Q. And Iwan doubles up.
I called a raise in the big blind from Iwan with 10 7 of diamonds. When the flop can K J 6 with 2 diamonds I check raise him all in. He makes a brave call with a queen and thats enough.
I call Karls all in with AJ, he turns K9 and spikes a king. Iwan passed a king.
I raise Andreas’ big blind with A9 spades he pushes with A7 and I make the call. The 7 comes to his rescue.
I do get lucky pushing with K10 of hearts from the button when short stacked, getting called off Andreas with A8 of hearts. I spike a king and double up. It was short lived though. The very next hand I pick up pocket 10’s and run into the pocket Jacks of Iwan and become the fifth place finisher.
Iwan continued to hit. Next knocking out Andreas with Q 10 to pocket eights, making a full house. Then A5 to poor Plym’s AQ, a sick 5 on the turn ending his tournament.
It was heads up with 2 evenly matched players in Karl and Iwan, however Iwan had a 3 to 1 chip lead. Though despite what most people think, cards dictate most finals. And after Karl doubled up all the chips went in pre-flop with AK vs Iwans AQ of spades. A cooler to be sure.
Karl kept his cool after the earlier beat he took off me and picked up a very deserved win.
I drove home feeling quite ambivalent. It was good to be in the mix again but nothing felt like it ran for me once i got the chips. However had Karl justly won with his pocket kings against me I’d have been home by now and considerably worse off. Then some news came on the radio that cheered me up.
Jordan had been knocked out while watching a cage fight. Sweet!

Thursday

Rushed down Thursday afternoon to register, not just myself but for four Ladbrokes qualifiers too. I needn’t have worried. Only 49 players were playing and day 1 and at the time only 50 had registered for day 2. This is not too unusual for these events. Many players arrive last minute and register. It was still expected to have over a 100 player for the next day.

My hotel was right next door to the hotel. Very convenient,  however the rooms can’t be more baron at Broadmoor. You at least have to be as mad to think this was a nice place to stop. Now I know Travelodge is a budget hotel, but for 70 quid a night it was hardly a budget price.

I bumped into BigAdz (Adam Collins) and I reluctantly had a drink or five at the bar while we waited for the Ladbrokes lads. We were later joined by New1Home, PlymLegend and Potstealer. The latter 2 being far more sensible and resisting a good drink. New1Home on the other hand was not hard to convince.

After foolishly playing the 100 quid crapshoot I retired to my room and fell asleep watching The Wire. Possible my favourite ever TV program.

Friday

I woke up early and decided to have breakfast. Obviously the Travel Lodge restaurant had just shut (which was like wining a big pot no doubt) so I called Adam to have breakfast at his hotel. Now Adam is a shrewd cookie. He has made the Travelodge mistake himself on a previous occasion. He had booked into the Future inn.

I drove over there and asked if they had any rooms available for the next 2 nights.

“Yes Sir, but I am afraid we only have a handicapped room left”

“Well that’s ironic, I’m parked in a handicapped space, I’ll take it.”

I returned to my hotel to check out. The problem with the robbing bastards at Travelodge is they charge your card in advance. I assume it’s in the hope that people do not chase the refunds. I was not falling for this.

“Why are you checking out sir” the man asked.

“Well frankly it’s the worst room I have stopped in since a small unfortunate event on Chorley Taxi Rank a few years back.” I replied.

“Well I can’t refund you just because you don’t like the room”

“Yes you can, you see it is supposed to be a ‘Flexible Rate’. That means I can check out when I want, now gimme my money”

After about 20 minutes and some huffing and puffing from the staff they eventually charged the money back to my card.

While at breakfast with Adam we pondered on how many runners day 2 would get. I set a spread at 105 and he sold for a quid. I mean, there can’t be a swing bigger than a fiver either way.

Drewster, the last remained Ladbrokes player joined us and we all sat down at 2 o clock.

On my table was James Keys (after his early exit he went onto Nottingham to win the £300 Deepstack at DTD, nice work), Tristan McDonald and the long Missing Stuart Fox. We were also joined by Ladbrokes player Potstealer, who was looking pretty damn useful himself.

Stu is not only a one of the best players in the UK but maybe the world. He is also a good friend of mine and I was not looking forward to locking horns.

 After a while I pick up pocket nines and raised. Stu calls and we see a flop of 4 8 9, two spades. I don’t want to go daft here and bet out. Stu re-raises and we get the lot in. He’s holding pocket eights and had no chance of escape. I was sad to see him go but consoled by the fact the most dangerous player on the table had exited.

The guy to my left I had pegged to be a standard tight player however it became apparent I had misjudged him. And every time I limped in the small blind he would raise it. He bluffed off a huge part of his chips to Tristan and was now on around 5.5k. Folded round to me I limped in with 79 on the small blind. He immediately raised. I had planned to set a trap with a big hand so I was prepared to fold. Strangely some reflex re-action made me set him all in. He called in a flash and his pocket 10’s were plenty to double him up. Oops. I didn’t mind losing so much, except for his smug comment of “nice doing business with ya!”. It was obvious he had taken a dislike to me, and it made me think he was playing back at me in previous pots purely for this reason.

With the blinds at 100/200 I find 10 J on the button and raise to 600 when It is checked to me. My new “MATE” calls in the small blind and we see a flop of 4 5 J with 2 spades. He checks and I bet 1100. He raises to 4000. I decide he is at it and push all in for around 8k more. He calls in a flash and I am sure I’m toast. I ask if he has AJ and he smugly shakes his head and tables a pocket pair. I glance at them and assume a set. The turn and river are blanks and I say nice hand, getting up to leave. Everyone shouts “YOU’VE WON”. Eh! I look again and he has pocket 6’s. He hadn’t made a set at all. Not sure how he called me so quick, but hey ho!

The table got broken and I moved to a new table with over 30k. I started picking up hands and won some tasty pots with AK and pocket queens. Finally finishing the day with over 72k and the chip lead. Felt nice to finally do that again. Time for a few beers back at my fancy smancy new hotel.

Bollox, only 71 runners day 2 FFS. I had to give Adam 34 quid. He’s buying.