Before I get on to that, a few things to catch up on.
Poccer 4 - SOLD OUT! Fantastic news, 18 Teams its going to be a lot of fun. The online tournaments are picking up as well, 19 players took part this week, currently Ian Overson is leading the way with 4 rounds to go. The poccer website will be updated shortly.
Next up the BadBeat dream team. The last two years, I have entered a team in the contest with some great poccer players. Year 1 we won and won packages to the Asian Poker Tour, last year we were 2nd. Well year 3 is underway, 10 weeks in fact. After 9 weeks we were doing quite well, in 8th place in the table. Well this Monday what an effort, an awesome team performance.
This is the latest situation.
The Poccer Players take a massive lead in Dream Team 3
This week was a massive week for The Poccer Players, with Onny87 getting his FIRST points for the team, but those points being a 1st place and 15,000 points his team aren't complaining. They also managed 2nd with RiggedElvis for 10,000 points, 5th by M.M for 4,500 points and 18th by UriGeller for 1,600 points, a spoonbending team total of 31,100 points taking them to a massive 51,360 team points, 18,000 ahead of 2nd spot!!
1st The Poccer Players 51360
2nd Team Pokerchamps 33470
3rd The Lost Boys 32610
4th DynamicDemps 31440
5th The Crushed Nutz 27330
EPT Leaderboard. With just 3 days to go, I am over 1000 pts clear, so I am hoping to be celebrating this achievement at the weekend. I am exhausted from playing this much!
However the main achievement, well Saturday I was playing and not having any luck coupled with the fact I was playing badly. The one bright spark was I the Vegas Vacation qualifier. It was a $60 entry, which I managed to finish in the top two of, to qualify for Sundays $530 final.
Sunday came and I was bruised and battered from playing football, so playing poker was the last thing I wanted to do. At 3 mins to six, the vegas vacation still only had 16 entries, two short of the required, so I was happy to take the $530. However a late surge saw it reach 19 and we were away.
Basically there is one prize in the vegas vacation, $12k in cash and a hotel in the Rio, however aim 1 is to get to the final ten. Littlewoods kindly provide you with your money back if you make the final ten, so lets play tight and secure this first.
The tournament did not start well and 2500 chips soon became less than 2000. Then KQ appears in level 3, flop J9T. Bingo. Logitech bets 300 in to a 200 pot. So I have to call. Turn is a harmless 3, and logitech moves all in, I have to call. Unfortunately for him he has a set of 9s. An ace on the river and I am above 4000 and safe for the final table.
I make it to the final table without much fluctuation from 4000. With 8 left WestPark (Mihai) is a clear chip leader with 14k and the rest are between 2k and 8k.
I then get QQ and find myself in a race situation all in against Logitech (again) with AK. A very low board of 46743, moves me on to 9k and 2nd place of 7 remaining (all my chips coming from logitech!)
WestPark continued his completed domination of the final table and we are down to 3 players.
Seat 5: WestPark (31675 in chips)
Seat 6: ClintonO (8595 in chips)
Seat 9: kashen (7230 in chips)
After plenty of ups and downs (chips varied between 5k and 13k), we are down to two players.
I have 12495, WestPark 35005.
I am heads up for $12k and a hotel in Vegas in an event where I have done just enough to hang
in there. Its time for the best part of my game to kick in, but there is a lot to be doneBlinds
300/600 ante 75
Hand 1 (4s,7s) fold to a 3xbb raise.
Hand 2 (5s,6h) not a hand to get involved with yet, I fold
Hand 3 (8d,7s) He folds. No action yet.
Hand 4 (Js,6s) I call, we get a flop. Jd,2d,4d. Top pair but plenty of diamonds. He leads out with 600, I call. Turn 5s, he checks, thats enough for me, I bet 1200 and take the pot.
Hand 5 (3s,7c) He raises I fold.
Hand 6 (2h,5c) I see a flop, but 7,6,Q is no good for 25.
Hand 7 (8s, 2h) He folds. I wonder whether I will get a hand.
Hand 8 (7c,6c) I raise and take the blind.
Hand 9 (4c,6s) He raises, nothing to play with here. I fold
Hand 10 (Kh,Qs) A hand, I raise, take blinds
Hand 11 (7d,2c) He folds and its very tight as the feeling out process takes place!
Hand 12 (6c,6s) I min raise and get called. Flop 4,9,9. A nice flop for me. I bet and take the chips.
Hand 13 (Ts,8h) He folds
Hand 14 (4h,4c) I see the flop. 5,9,9 good enough for me, I bet and take the pot. I feel he has been quite tame so far, so think that I will need to take him on soon as he may get frustrated.
Hand 15 (8c,5h) He raises, this is not the hand.
Hand 16 (As,9d) I raise and take blinds
Hand 17 (8h,4c) He raises I fold, its all very tight and Im 3k better off.
Hand 18 (2s,3h) I decide to see a flop. 7Q2. I bet and take the pot.
Hand 19 (8d,3s) These hands are dire, he raises I fold.
Hand 20 (Qd,2h) A picture card, I call as Im being allowed to see flops. 295. I bet and get pot.
Hand 21 (4d,6d) He folds.
Hand 22 (Kd,Qs) I raise and take blinds. This is not making great reading, but its a very tactical game. Being behind I cant afford to make a mistake.
Hand 23 (6c,4s) I fold to a raise.
Hand 24 (6s,Kd) Another picture card, so I min raise and get called. Flop 3s,9d,4c. He checks, lets see the turn. Turn Td. He bets a small bet of 600, thats seems weak, I raise and take the pot.
Hand 25 (7d,3h) He folds. Im up to 18k.
Hand 26 (7d,Th) I call. 9h,Td,4h. Top pair, he checks, I bet and he reraises. Interesting. His first reraise and a check raise at that. I call and see the turn. Turn As. I don't think this helps him, there was no raise preflop. He bets another 2400. This is tough one, I call. River 8d. He puts a big bet of 7200, this call is worth $12k in real cash to me. I have second pair, thats it. What does he have, what did the min raise mean. I am not sure and am not going to risk $12k here. This is a hard fold.
Hand 27 (Qh,7d) I have to step up my game, he raises, there will be a better opportunity.
Hand 28 (Ac,8c) Get with it, come on, I raise he folds.
Hand 29 (2c,5s) I get a free flop, 8d,Qd,6d. I fold to a bet.
Hand 30 (Ad,7d) I raise, take pot.
Hand 31 (Kh,8c) He raises x3. I call. I need to get busy. Flop Kc,Ac,3c. I check, he bets just 600, that was weak before, I believe it is again, I reraise and take the pot. Thats better.
Hand 32 (Qc,8h) Feeling better, I call. He raises, is this a reaction, I am starting to feel more confident about this game. Flop Ad,7s,8s. Ok I am still interested. He bets 1800, a stronger bet, but still less than half pot. Thats enough encouragement to call. Turn 2d. He checks, that means no ace in my book, I check and see what develops. River 8d, bingo 3 8s, flush is out there, but he does not have it. He checks. I bet 3000, he moves all in. Into the think tank.... I have trip 8s heads up, he does not have a flush. Its a huge overbet from him, I only have 8k back, in all honesty its an easy call. He turns over QT and nothing.
Hand 33 (As,8d) I am 30k to 17k in front, this is now strongly in my favour. He folds.
Hand 34 (As,9h) One of my favourite hands, I raise. He reraises to 4800. What is this, a reaction to losing the lead, I have got to keep the pressure on. I move all in. He does not take too long to call. He turns over TT. I just have a feeling this is my night. Flop 9d, 8d, Ac. Its all over! Turn Jd. I quickly check for diamonds, no one has diamonds, but he has 10 outs. Come on deucy weucy. Incredibly it is 2d.
Its all over, I have won the first Vegas Vacation package. $12k and a room a the rio. I am already planning to be in Vegas at this time, I had booked a room at the Wynn. I would rather stay there after already staying in the Rio twice, but there are great rooms, so I am not complaining in the slightest!
After a month of non-stop playing, I really have had enough of poker for a while. My game has undoubtedly suffered from playing too many games, but when I look back on the month from a short term perspective, assuming I hang on for the EPT seat. I will be up £10k, have an EPT seat for San Remo and a hotel room in Vegas. That is not bad at all for a months work. I just hope it has not affected my game in the long run.
Good Luck all
ClintonO
