This is the annual Newcastle Poker Forum championship which attracts almost all NPF regulars and features the vast majority of the best players in Newcastle. It has a brilliant atmosphere with Steve "Cardguard Kid" Wills on the mic announcing the action and taking various side bets to spice up the game.
I was sat down at table 9, seat 1 (a bad beat before even starting because I hate seat 1 and seat 10). I had the following people at my table:
Seat 2: David Sykes (Quietman)
Seat 3: Rubes
Seat 4: Dawn Foggo (Mrs Entertainment)
Seat 5: Cheryl Routledge
Seat 6: Gazscoop
Seat 7: I can't remember who started here, but Mark Trett sat here in the second level
Seat 8: Pam Butler
Seat 9: Dunno his name, but I know his face
Seat 10: Neil Harvey (Buzz)
On the eve of the tournament I made the mistake of going to a house party and I was very hungover when I arrived. Without wanting to make excuses, I think this contributed to me playing QQ very poorly early in the first level. Seat 9 raised from early position to 175 and I flat which attracts a call from Rubes on the button and Cheryl Routledge in the big blind. Cheryl leads out with a bet for 400 on a TJ6ss, initial raiser folds, I call and Rubes folds. The turn was a 4, putting out a second flush draw, Cheryl bets 400 into a pot which was now 1525. I interpreted this as weakness and raise to 1200 and she calls without thinking too long. The river brought an offsuit deuce and Cheryl bets 1000 into me. I snap instantly without considering folding or value raising. She shows me TJ for a flopped two pair. Sigh. Raise pre next time yeah?
I managed to make my way back to my starting stack in the second level after flatting my SB with TT to Neil Harveys button raise. This brought Quietman along for the ride. I check an 895cc flop, Quietman bets, Buzz folds and I call. Turn was an 8 which didn't scare me too much. I expected David was only betting 9x hands and draws on the flop, I check/call a near pot sized bet. The river brought a 3 and I was torn between value betting and letting Quietman bluff missed flush draws. I thought that he would still try and bet some of 9x hands for value too which lead me to check, unfortunately he checked behind and showed Q9 so I think I missed a little value there.
A few hands later, I raise to 250 in the highjack with JJ, Rubes flats the button and Cheryl calls from the big blind. Cheryl checks a T42r flop, I bet 500, Rubes calls and then Cheryl raises to 1500. I don't think for too long before folding and based on the play that I saw as the tournament progressed, I'm quite confident it was a good fold.
Obviously I had nitmode engaged as I made another huge fold. Rubes bets 250 from UTG+1, Gazscoop 3bets to 600 from middle position. I look down at KK in the BB and 4bet to 1600. Rubes then surprises me with a 5bet to 3900 leaving himself about 4.5k behind. Gaz doesn't take too long to fold, but I tank for a decent amount of time and found it a bit hard to concentrate as CGK was shouting about some other hand in the backround. If you're gonna fold KK pre then you've gotta be close to 100% certain that the other person has exactly AA, I haven't played with Rubes before, but I was fairly confident that he wasn't gonna be 5betting anything other than AA in that spot as he should be perceiving my cold 4bet range as super strong especially as I hadn't been 3betting anything earlier in the tournament. I still had 8000 chips left and I decided to be a nit for a change. I offered Rubes £5 if he could show a hand that wasn't aces and he declined to show. Rubes later told me that he had Aces, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna get some stick for this hand or not.
This seemed to be the pattern of the tournament and I found myself in another tricky spot towards the end of the 3rd level. Mark Trett had just joined the table and was predictably opening lots of pots. He bets 315 fr0m UTG+1 and I raise to 800 with JJ. Everyone folds and Mark then 4bet jams. I had about 7k and Mark had me covered. Against most people, my hand would be in the muck quite fast, but I have a little history with Mark from playing in the weekly NPF online game and there were a few metagame things going through my head. I was trying to think of what hands Mark would overbet shove and it really puzzled me. I initially thought that he would want to try and get a bit more value out of AA/KK and that there was a chance he was absolutely airballing, perhaps with the Azbo... After a little think, I realised this was really unlikely, because I know how desperate Mark was to win this tournament. I eventually fold and Mark later told me that he had KK and I think he was trying to level me into calling with QQ/AK.
I get moved to another table which featured Sam James, Bendystash, Knerrad, Bella Costa and Cheryl Routlege. I find it very difficult to play a hand as I had Sam J two seats to my right raising just about every hand. I play a few small pots, mostly just taking it down pre or with a cbet on the flop. I get 3bet a few times when I'm raising weaker and I hover around the 10K mark for a couple of levels. I made one really good squeeze from the button in what I'm sure Lex Veldhuis would describe as a "too good to be true" spot. With Sam J getting involved from the hijack and Knerrad flatting the CO I just couldn't help myself raising with TJs and I stole a nice pot.
Unfortunately, I couldn't find any similar spots for the rest of tournament - Knerrad took two away from me when I was holding AJ and 77. Looking back at the time where I had AJ, I really wish I shoved, but Darren appeared strong.
I made my final stand when Sam opens UTG, I shove for my last 12bb with 99. Bendystash tank shoves for what I think was about 20BB holding 88. Steve "Sensation" Gibson then makes what turned out to be a very good call with JJ and Sam still to act. Stevie's JJ held up and that was the end of the tournament for me. Perhaps I played a little too timid this year after being a little to aggro last year. I made a lot of very big folds, but you don't win tournaments by folding.
Bring on the 2011 NPF Championships, I can't wait :)
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