APAT Season 3 English Open

This weekend just gone I played my first live event of 2009.

It was the APAT Season 3 opener, the English Open held at the Grovesnor Casino in Cardiff.

I don't know what it is about casinos in this country, but I always seem to feel a bit dissapointed, because they are just not Vegas! A big ask I know!

Anyway the casino managed to fit in the 20 tables for the 200+ runnner event and mostly keep the event running smoothly.

I like the idea behind APAT, putting on a good tournament for amateurs at the cost of £75 for a deepstack tournament and have a lot of time for Tony Kendall, who runs the show.

As for my performance, well I made the dinner break! A personal triumph!

I started the day with 10,000 in chips, moved up to 13k within the first 2 levels before losing the majority of my stack.

A scottish guy next to me, had been drinking vast amounts of lager throughout the day. I asked him for some change at one point and he took about 2 minutes to count out the chips, gave the wrong amount and then stared at them for 5 minutes trying to work it out.

He then tried to bluff a pot got rearaised on the river, but decided he should call with K high anyway.
A few hands later, I had AhQh. The board came Qs,5h,2h. When he bet twice the size of , the pot I decided to put him all in and just my luck that he had AA. So down to 5k.

I waited around for a while taking the blinds occasionally to keep above 5k. The amount of times I shook my head during this tournament was frightening.
I saw someone commit 8k of their 14k stack . On the river, the board was King high, no flush no straight and they open folded AA to a bet of 3k. Stunned I was! lol

A few hands later this monster pot unfolded.
See if you can guess the hands involved.

Both players have around 10k, blinds are as high as 75/150.
Under the gun, raises to 450, seat 4 calls. BB calls.

Flop Js5h6s.

BB Checks.
UTG checks.
Seat 4 bets 1200
BB folds
UTG instant all in.
Seat 4 instant calls.

So what do we think - two premium pairs, maybe seat 4 has hit a set. Maybe UTG has AKs. My guess was AKs and either a made set or an overpair to the board.

UTG shows 2s4s.
Seat 4 shows 7h8h.

And I run into aces lol.

For the record the 24 won, he hit a 3 on the turn to hit a straight.
The river was a 8, giving seat 4 an apparent reason to celebrate, until 10 seconds he realised that the 8 was a spade and he had lost to a flush. No-one had the heart to tell him the guy had hit a straight on the turn.

I also saw someone call a big bet on a 2345 board, lead on the river after a T came down and then fold to a reraise!

Quite honestly it was madness out there.

As for me I got going quite nicely and fought my way to 24k. I won a race when short AK vs TT.

My exit hand, was typical for the moment.
I had KT on the button and put an above average raise in. I was called as expected by the BB, a decent player, he was on my first table (he should have been out when the guy folded AA to his Q high) and was now on my 3rd table.

He had about 50% more chips than me at this point.
The flop was K94. He checked, I led out with a typical continuation bet and he reraised, a familiar play that had worked for him many times.
I went all in to which he reluctantly called.

He showed Q9 for second pair, I said good hand as I felt my end was coming and sure enough the next card was a Q. I shook his hand and left to a round of applause and some comments about how sick that was (Everyone got applauded when the went out - well most!)

I has seem some rare sights that evening, those hands I had mentioned. The fact that the 3rd table I played on was a ten seater, but on average had just 5-6 players on it.

Seat 1 played 1 hand in 8 and then just went round the room chatting to each other. Seats 2&3 kept going to the toilet or having cigarette breaks at 20 mins a time. Seat 3 bless her was so drunk, that shortly after dinner she was crying her eyes out, couldn't count her chips and would throw her arms around anything that went near her. (This did not stop her from doubling up 3 times with garbage!)
Seats 5 & 9 would be knocked out within 5 mins of sitting down! So it was effectively a short handed table!

Anyway I won't be rushing back to play in one of these tournaments, but they are a very good way for someone to experience deep stack poker play at realtively cheap costs.


Other news.
Just keeping an eye on the online situation following the latest string of moves. It appears the Ongame network are going well (Poker Room - is the skin I play on there), two of their guarantees have been increased. The 6.30pm has gone from $5k to $7.5k and the 8.30pm from $5k to $8k.

I have continued my work on finding the best overlays and here is the current top 5.

1) Littlewoods Sunday 9.30pm $4k GTD - Overlay 25%
2) Celeb (Boss) Sunday 3pm E7.5k GTD - Overlay 23%
3) Littlewoods Daily 8pm $2.5k GTD - Overlay 18%
4) Littlewoods Sunday 8pm $100k GTD - Overlay 18%
5) Littlewoods Daily 8.35pm $20k GTD - Overlay 17%

Littlewoods currently have 7 of the top 8 overlays in the market at the moment!

Also if there are any Omaha players out there, who may be interested in a good deal, drop me a line!

Good Luck one and all
ClintonO