Title 11 for 2007

Well its been an interesting few days, culminating in winning my favourite tournament the $4.5k.

I am back in the situation I was in last year, deciding what to do with my future, something that I am sure happens with a lot of people with a new year approaching.

I am still working on my objectives for the next year and I will post them over the next few days.

On a personal level, I would like to have a go at playing more live tournaments that would help improve my stats. There is a David Orchard from the US who has more live career earnings than me, so being the number 1 Orchard in the world from this persepective is certainly one.

I played in qualifier last night. The winner got a $2.4k package for a tournament in Nottingham in March. I managed to get heads up, turn a 12k to 6k deficit into a 12k to 6k advantage, before having it stolen away from me!

I will play in more qualifiers to get to these live events. I could never pay a substantial amount of money to enter an event, so I will have to win my way there.

There is a 20000 MPP tournament on Littlewoods in May, which has 25 WSOP packages up for grabs, so getting in there is one objective. I won the 200MPP version tonight, so I have the 2000 to go next saturday.

As for tonight, I was playing in a few tournaments, cursing my bad luck as usual, when the $4.5k came along. 120 runners tonight and the guarantee is up to $6k and 1st prize $1800.

By level 3 I have already had to split a pot with AA againt A2 and lost with a flopped set to a gutshot, but I am desperately hanging on.
I decide that KJ is a raising hand, and raise 3 x BB to 150, Mugu99 min raises to 300, so I call.
A flop of QT3, gives me a open ended straight, potential outs with a King and a backdoor flush, so I put my remaining 900 in the middle. I get called by AQ and I hit a King.
I get all sorts of abuse from Mugu99 and make a note that knocking him out would be funny.

2 hands later I raise with A9 and Mugu calls. Please let me hit, I can knock him out. Flop 829. I bet the pot to make it look like a steal, he is all in, I have to call. He has A6 and he is out, I am up to 4055 and now need to start playing properly.
I ignore my advice and am up and down between 4 and 6k in the next few levels.
As we approach the business end, I never really get above the 6k mark and am hanging on a bit at the bubble and throughout the last 20.
I scrap my way to the final table and the situation is as follows.

Seat 1: Kim27072 (15708 in chips)
Seat 2: Ric220456 (29890 in chips)
Seat 3: Daddy_g (14891 in chips)
Seat 4: Elgregi (47516 in chips)
Seat 5: Clive0407 (6984 in chips)
Seat 6: Don_dingo (11205 in chips)
Seat 7: Lee27015 (19148 in chips)
Seat 8: Icejam (9646 in chips)
Seat 9: Vict13093 (13692 in chips)
Seat 10: ClintonO (11320 in chips)

So whilst I am not last, I am not in that good shape with the blinds at 400/800.
Clive goes first when Elgregi rivers an Ace with his A4 against Clives QQ.
Icejam goes the very next hand when Don_dingo calls his all in.
Its AK vs A5. TJ554 is the board and Iceman goes in 9th.

At this point I become very short stacked and just think about hanging on until I can make a move.
Meanwhile Daddy-g goes when his TT loses to Rics AJ, with an Ace on the river and two hands later Elgregi takes out Don_dingo with his 55 against AQ.

Now it is
Seat 1: Kim27072 (18758 in chips)
Seat 2: Ric220456 (41481 in chips)
Seat 4: Elgregi (71503 in chips)
Seat 7: Lee27015 (29846 in chips)
Seat 9: Vict13093 (11242 in chips)
Seat 10: ClintonO (7170 in chips)

Time to get very busy blinds 800/1600.
I push at the first opportunity with Q9, Elgregi calls instantly with A6.
A board of 5989A allows me to double up and work out how I can win this.

Kim takes out Lee in 6th when 55 beats A8.

I find AK and a raise of 9600 from Elgegi, I push and get called and am up against 44. The Ace comes on the Turn and now I have 50000, this could be the night. Two coin flips gone my way in a row, I know I am on to something!

2 hands later sitting in second I get 99 in the Big Blind. Vict is short stack pushes from the small as he has been doing. I have to call a 3rd of my stack, but its a no brainer from here.
He has JT. Board comes T (No) 9 (Yes) 3 AA. From nowhere to 68k and vying for the lead.

Seat 1: Kim27072 (18762 in chips)
Seat 2: Ric220456 (20223 in chips)
Seat 4: Elgregi (74751 in chips)
Seat 10: ClintonO (66264 in chips)

I now get AT on the button against the short stacks, so I have to raise and keep the pressure on.
I make it 7200 (3xBB) and Ric pushes his 19k. Its 12k to call to win 42k, its a no brainer. He turns over JJ. The gods by this time are on my side.
The board is [8d Th As Ac][3h]

Elgregi knocks out Kim in 3rd with KJ, versus KJ. 4 running hearts! and we are heads up.

Seat 4: Elgregi (98913 in chips)
Seat 10: ClintonO (81087 in chips)

Hand 1 (4s Js) Elgregi min raises to 4800. I call
----- FLOP ----- [Kh Jc 4d] (v.nice)
I check, he bets a massive 24000, easy call.
----- TURN ----- [Kh Jc 4d][Qc]
ClintonO: checks
Elgregi: bets 69813 and is all-in (wow another major bet, I have to call)
ClintonO: is all-in 51987

He had K8 and the title is almost mine.

Hand 2 (8c 5s) knowing he will go all in - I fold as it is 162k to 18k in my favour.

Hand 3 (8h 5s) same hand.
He calls, so I see the flop.
----- FLOP ----- [8d 6c 4s]
Very nice indeed, I will check and see if he does the same.
ClintonO: checks
Elgregi: bets 16626 and is all-in
ClintonO: calls 16626

He has Q3 and its all over.

My 11th title of the year!
Sometimes you need to get very lucky to win. I effectively got two crucial coin flips to hold up to win the tournament from a very short chip stack.

The heads up first hand was beautiful, I really did not expect him to make an all in bet after I called his massive overbet, but thankful that he did.

Now time for bed and to think more about what on earth I do with this Poker lark. I need to play a lot better than this to be successful, that much is for certain.

ClintonO