Marathon on the Mezzanine

Please leave me alone

“Everytime I get home from being out, the wife has been knocking back the vodka - what’s that about?”

“I’m not sure”

I hope this cigarette ends soon

“I’m addicted to buying motorbikes. I buy them instead of taking the kids on holiday. I take them apart and then put them back together”

“I see”

“Are you addicted to cigarettes?”

“I guess”

Once I have extracated myself from this bizarre conversation, I make my way back up the Mezzanine level of the Loose Cannon to continue the League tournament. We are upstairs due to a Cheltenham Preview going on in the main hall, at which my new friend must be an attendee. It’s a nice change, as the smaller environment gives it the feel of a home game. Everyone is cramped back to back, and I imagine this is how day 1 of the WSOP used to feel like at Binnions, before they had to move it to the more functional Rio.

It’s a marathon event as well - only 20 runners but finishes past 1am. I place 2nd for £440 - it’s a welcome return to the winners enclosure, and puts me clear at the top of the leaderboard. A ton of hands to get through so here we go:

Hand1

It’s been a poor first 50 mins, and I am down to 2800 from the starting stack of 4000. Blinds are 100-200, and Tom raises UTG to 600. I look down at AK so have to play it. I have no doubt Tom would call me if he knew I had AK, if he thinks he has live cards, so I decide to try and make it look like a beast by re-raising to 1600 leaving only 1200 behind, rather than going all in. Tom folds thankfully, as I would have had to continuation push on any flop.

Hand2 (fun hand)

Tom raises to 600 in early position and it’s called by Sonny in the big blind. Both are deep stacked.
Flop 3, 7, 9 rainbow

Check Check
Turn is a 6
Sonny bets 600
Tom re-raises to 2400
Sonny calls
River is a 2
Check Check
Tom’s King high is good :)

Hand3

3 limpers and I check in the big blind with 84 (1200 in the pot)
Flop 8, 8, 7
Checked all around
Turn 4
Checked all around
River is a 10
Sonny checks, McDee bets 1200
I raise to 2400
Sonny passes, but McDee pushes
I call and his top straight is beaten by the Uber big blind special full house I am now big stacked for the first time in the tournament

Hand4

Very next hand I flat call an UTG raise with TT.

Flop T, 9, 2 rainbow

Checked around

Turn Q

UTG puts out a pot bet

The board is starting to look a bit threatening to my set so I re-raise 3 times the pot which puts him all in.

He shows QK and passes.

I now use my big stack to steal a few blinds ahead of the final table, before popping out for a cigarette, and my destiny with the motocycle enthusiast with a vodka drinking wife.

Final Table Participants:

Komrad Michael, The French Professor, “Aces Queen” Briony (I have never seen a tournament when Bri doesn’t get the rockets at least twice ;)), Hugh, Jason, Sir Mike, Sonny, myself and a new guy who I haven’t played with before. He’s heavy set and reminds me of Andrew Flintoff.

I am big stacked on about 16k, Sonny has 21k. A selection of shorter stacks (4k-12k) populate the rest of the field.

Hand5

Folded round to me in the small blind and I complete the 300 blind with K♠2♠

Flop K, 10, 4

I check, Flintoff bets 600 which I call.

Turn 7

Flintoff bets 1500. Hmm - I am pretty close to folding here but then I notice that Flintoff has split his chips into 2 piles - one pile is out of the way with about 4k in it, and the other pile is smaller of about 2k in front of him. It kind of looks like he only wants to commit 2k more to this hand on the river, so after a long thought I push all-in and he instafolds.

Hand6&7

I bust the french professor when I have unwisely priced myself in to calling his push with my J9. He has 44, so I am lucky, and hit the 9 to take his stack. I then lose a huge pot the very next hand. I raise on the button to 1600 with 88 and Michael pushes for 5500. I could take the prudent route here and fold, but I decide to try and bust him and his AK wins the race. This puts me down to about 12k

Hand8

This is an interesting hand. Jason raises to 2000 with about 4000 behind on the button and Sir Mike pushes for 3000 total. I am in the big blind with AQ. I decide to fold, because I thought that by me calling the all-in, Jason could then push all his chips im himself, and I don’t want to toast half my stack on AQ. In fact, Jason would have been unable to raise, due to Mike’s underaise so I could have called if I had known that. Live and learn.

Jason KK, Mike KQ

Clearly an Ace on the flop so I may have got all of Jason’s chips, if he felt comitted to the Kings. Mike is busted.

Hand9

Sonny min-raises to 800 in the small blind, and I call with 78

Flop is J, 2, 5

Sonny bets 1200 and clearly I have nothing. However, I haven’t bluffed yet tonight, and I think Sonny has me pencilled as a tighter player than I am, so I re-raise to 3600. Sonny passes showing the 2. Winning a pot with a bluff is the best feeling in poker, particularly against a tricky player such as Sonny.

Hand10&11

I get a lucky run of cards in good spots, and bust Hugh with QQ v AQ and Flintoff with JJ v A7. Both times they pushed into me in the big blind, so all of a sudden I am chip leader with 4 left.

Hand12 (Revenge of Sonny)

Sonny limps in the SB and I check my 57.

Flop Q, 7, 8 with 2 diamonds (I have none)

Sonny bets 2000 and I call

Turn 2

Check, Check (Ah-ha, so Sonny was betting on the draw I reckon)

River 3

Sonny bets 4000. Ok, all the straight draws missed as did the diamond flush draw. This looks like polarised river betting to me of a busted draw, so I reckon my pair of 7s is good. I call feeling pretty confident.

Sonny’s betting was polarised indeed, as he tables QQ for the nuts. Made the mistake there of forgetting that Sonny can actually get big starting hands, although limping in the SB was clearly a low blow ;)

Hand13

Both Michael and Jason are short stacked. I make up the SB with 2♠5♠. This is a mistake as Michael pushes with Q8 for only 1600 more, and I have to call. I should have pushed.

I table my meagre holding and by the turn I have a flush to eliminate Michael. I don’t think he was too pleased with it, but I was probably going to play any 2 cards there against him once Sonny was out of the hand.

“That was a brave call you made there…a brave call” says Michael darkly, sounding more and more like John Malkovitch in Rounders. I hope the call was brave in relation to my poor chances of winning the hand, rather than any other implications ;) ;) Apologies Michael!

Hand14

3 left, I raise UTG with J8 to 6000. Jason goes to move all in for 7200 but makes a string bet so it goes as a call. Sonny folds

Flop K, 7, 3

Jason pushes and I have to call with the huge odds.

I sheepishly turn my cards over and Jason has 55. However, the 8 pops up on the river and that’s the second bad beat I’ve dished out to Jason in the last 2 times he has final tabled.

Hand15

This hand decides the tournament - Sonny plays about 35k, I have 45k.

Sonny limps and I check with 3, 10

Flop 5,7,6

Sonny bets 2000, which I call

Turn is a 4 making me the fool’s end of the straight

Sonny bets 4000, I push and Sonny instacalls with the 8 for the bigger straight.

Down to 10k

Hand16

I push with A7 and am beaten out by Sonny’s J10. Game over, but some very useful league points, as the number of points awarded has now increased with the new month. Sonny moves ominously into 4th postion.

On Monday night, I shall celebrate Boyzone legends Ronan Keating and Steven Gately’s birthdays by attending the Empire £200 festival tournament.