Monte Carlo or ...

BUST!
It was the night that was supposed to catapult me to the coveted 2nd place position in the monthly leaderboard, but it could not have gone more wrong!
First the basics I did manage 35 points for the night which should take me up to 6th place (worth $1k).
However it really is a case of what might have been.
Firstly the £12k. A nice comfortable start adding 50% to my starting stack in the first hour. 15 minutes later I get my first hand of the night. KK in the cut off. One UTG limper for 150, I raise it up to 600. Button calls, limper folds.
Flop is nine high. I bet half the pot leaving me 1500 chips back to which he calls. I put him on two overcards with a flush draw or a pocket pair. Pot is now worth 3200. I push the remainder of my chips in and am called with a set of 9s. Nicely played by him. Probably a bit risky with an under the gun limper to call 600, with a potential reraise behind him, but well played nonetheless. I then move whats left of my chips with AQ and lose to KJ.

The £8k.
Started this tournament really well. Doubled early with AQ against AJ on an AQ4 flop and moved in the top 5 with 8k in the first hour.
Then I am dealt A5 in the big blind, with 3 limpers I take a look at the flop. A53. Very nice.
Button bets ¾ of the pot, to which I call. Turn is a King, which is probably a good card for me. Button bets the pot, I decide to take the pot there and then and he calls the remainder of his 6.5k with AJ. Surprised he limped preflop, but happy that I am about to move into a nice lead in the tournament. River another king, my 2nd pair is now worthless and his Jack kicker plays. Sick – I believe the phrase is.

$4k.
Last chance saloon for the night, my aim is to make top 35 to move me up to 6th in the rankings as my two rivals had crashed out in all the tournaments.
I never build up a stack, but claw and fight my way through to that 35th place. I am sitting 34th of 35.
Having accomplished this, it was a matter of seeing how far I could go. I was raising 2 pots a round without any resistance. Suddenly my 3k stack was up at 18k.
I then got fortunate as my AJclubs beat AQ, with a flush and suddenly winning the tournament was a reality. I had stayed up until 2.30am so I might as well win the thing. A win would put me within 16 points of the Monte Carlo seat.
We are down to 11 players, I am in 2nd place. 5 players on the table, myself and the chip leader are taking down every pot.
I am dealt QQ under the gun, to which I make my standard 3x BB raise (7200 at this point). The Big Blind (shortest stack on the table) moves in for his final 20k. I decide to call and am up against A7, to join the chip leader in the 75k mark. However the river card decided to be an Ace and I am right back in the thick of things!
The very next hand I have AT clubs in the BB. The chip leader continued his approach of raising every hand where he was ahead of me to act. I moved all in. Unfortunately he had a hand QQ. The flop bought two clubs, giving me two chances to hit the 12 outs (plus the backdoor straight and running tens) but it was not to be. I crashed out in 11th.
$60 and 28 points for almost 4 hours work, plus a severe dent on my sleeping time.
So so disappointing when I could almost sense victory.

Last chance saloon tonight, to be honest holding onto 6th place (assuming no-one managed to overtake me from the final table last night) is my number aim and taking the $1k prize associated with it. The leaderboard has two days to run, but I can’t play on Thursday, so I want to sure up my position was a points scoring position in the £12k tonight.

I will also be playing the UKPT Walsall qualifier on blue square, where I am going to make it 3rd time lucky!

ClintonO