Thursday, April 13, 2006

Confidence restored!

Tonight was looking like being one of those nights again.
The Littlewoods player points was first on the agenda, after a poor start, I picked my game up and found myself on the final table.
With 5 players left I had moved into 3rd and found myself with AK on the button, I put a steal size raise in and HUABOY goes all in with A6, a flop of A58 looks like giving me first place, a turn and a river of 7 and 9 eliminates me to a straight. SICK!

The 15k was a similiar story, a slow start but picked up as the tournament progress. Unfortunately another nine on the river, crippled me. This time AK to A9. I eventually went out in 47th when my tens ran into Cowboys.

The World Series qualifiers saw me eliminated when my Aces were busted by Jacks and I overplayed AK on a AJ9 flop and went out to a set of Jacks.

I decided to play one last game, a 37 player LOQ Tournament, with the winner taking a seat in the final on Saturday. (The first of the seven remaining World Series tournaments left this month).
I played very loose poker to start with as I was still reeling from the lack of success, but whilst my chip stack yo-yoed I did not move much. Then when I was short stacked and I pushed all in with A3, on a 668 flop, I was called with A7 and after a 9 on the turn, with the pot looking like it would be split pot, the river was a 3. Oh my god, I got lucky!

This event gave me the confidence I needed and the realisation that not every card is against me!
I played some good aggressive poker and by time we got to ten players, I was the chip leader. This was a position that I never slip until the last 3. The short stacked went all in with A7 and I called with AK, of course the flop included a 7!.

At this point the useful Meijer was 50 chips in front! Meijer had already won a LOQ Final so this would be a real test for me. We had 25k in chips each and jolindi1 had 5k. From this point on I regained my composure and played some great poker to take this tournament and win my seat in the LOQ final on Saturday. After 2hours and 11 seconds, I had won my first MTT this month and maintained my target of achieving at least one World Series opportunity a weekend.

It really is time to get my world series seat! A night off is in order after that performance tonight, but I will be back with renewed confidence on Friday.

With Dewi Cool and bifta, two of the sites best players already in the LOQ final on Saturday, this will be a real challenge, but I feel I am ready for it.

Time to take it down!
ClintonO

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