Posted Sat Feb 17, 2007 3:57 am GMT by Geno
So last night about 2am just before going to bed, I check my emails and find out that there is a poker tourney at the University of Reading at 11am today. It's a £20 buy-in with no rebuys/add-ons (ug) and the crappy site promoting it (www.burningaces.com - so, so bad) is adding £500 and an 80GB iPod video to the prize pool.
Obviously, the iPod can kiss my ass, as can the website, but I figure that if 50 people play, it'll still be maybe £400+ for first which makes the trip worthwhile. That said, I got drunk last night, left my car at work and just got up after less than 6hrs sleep to do this so I better win!
Report later today 
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Posted Sat Feb 17, 2007 4:27 am GMT by misterjokerboy
I'm gonna check out that website, I spend a fair bit of time in Reading with work. could be a useful distraction for when I'm there next if it's a regular thing
Posted Sun Feb 18, 2007 7:08 pm GMT by Geno
Sounds good - I've got the email address of the Reading Uni Poker Society president now so I will post up details of all future tourneys.
So yesterday went ok, it was a deep stacks tourney - 10,000 starting chips and 25/50 starting blinds  48 players entered with £500 added by that sh*tty poker site so 1st was worth about £350 + £150 in the online account.
With the blinds giving a starting M of 133 I figured I'd see a lot of flops and play a LAG style early on. Indeed, I made a conscious decision to win the first hand and did exactly that with a re-raise on a KKX flop with 63o. I went on to take down about 5 of the first 10 hands and created a decent early image.
The players at my table were all fairly decent - most of them were members of the Reading Poker Society which has been running a league all year so they play a lot and they play well. At the other end of the table was the Poker Soc president who was sitting #1 in their league leaderboard and the 3 guys to my right were all solid. The guys to my left were a different story entirely with three rocks, and one total, total donk.
Early on, one of the decent players to my right got into a pot with four players and stuck in a big flop raise. The total donk called him and the others folded making it HU between them. The decent player fired again on the turn and the donk just called. He fired again on the river and the donk called him down with third pair to win. Sick, but at least the donk had a chip stack we could all attack.
On about level 3, I got hurt in a set vs set situation with the Poker Soc president. I had limped with 44 and got into a pot with 5 seeing a flop of AJ4. The Poker Soc pres who was UTG bet out and I put in a big raise which he called leaving us HU. The turn was a blank and UTG thought for some time before putting a 1500 bet into a pot of about 3500. From the read I had on him so far, I knew he was a good player and I knew he had raised that amount to try and make me call. I thought for quite a while and laid it down saying "I know you want me to call that, you have JJ". Sure enough, he turned over JJ and I made a great laydown.
On level 4, the moment I had been waiting for arrived. I picked up KK and raised from MP. It folded round to the donk who called from the button and the blinds folded. Flop was 579 rainbow and I bet out. The donk flat called (as always which meant he had part of the flop) and the turn was a K. At this point, I figured that the K was not that useful unless he had two pair which was hard to believe because although he was a donk, I couldn't see him being in with anything other than A9, A7 or A5 at this point. I thought for a while and then pushed all-in for a little over the pot. He called pretty quickly and turned over Q9. Seriously, Q9. The river was a 9 which made that K on the turn vital and I doubled through to about 13,000 chips. All you had to do with this guy was pick up a big hand, get him HU and pray he'd hit the flop somewhere. Once he had done that, he was incapable of folding.
We got to level 7 which was 300/600 and I still had about 11,000 chips. Standard pre-flop raise was going in at about 2,000 and I raised to this with AJs in late position. The BB who had about 7,000 chips raised all-in and it folded round to me. I hate calling with AJs in any situation and it was way too much of my stack to risk it so I folded. The fool turned over KQo 
A few hands later I picked up TT on the button and raised to 2,000. This time the SB went all-in for about 7,000 chips and again I had to fold. He flipped over QQ and my sh*tty timing continued leaving me on about 6,500 chips. Doh.
The tourney chip leader arrived at our table with over 50,000 chips and I figured it was time to double up and he was the man to do it. I raised with AJs in LP and he was the only caller. Flop was A22 and I moved all-in. He called and flipped over A8. Turn was a Q leaving me only 3 jacks to not split the pot but one didn't come and instead of doubling we chopped the blinds. Balls.
Level 8 arrived at 400/800 and with 7,400 at the start of the level, things were looking ugly. I had 6 free hands coming and I decided that one of them was going in figuring that raising a strong hand would look fishy in front of the decent players that were left at my table and they'd know to fold. I prayed I'd find a premium hand, go all-in and get called looking like I was playing a hand like 99 and A8 as a short stack. Unfortunately, I was dealt crap until I was UTG when with A8s I decided to take a stab. The chip leader called me with 44 and I didn't improve.
I finished 23rd but got 5hrs of decent quality poker for £20 so I was pretty happy with the way I played. I made some decent lay downs and didn't ever donk off any chips to people. I also made some really good contacts with some decent players which are hard to find in my area so it was a worthwhile trip.
Next event is a 3 day series on March 16-18th which has a two-day deep stacks main event which I will definitely play
Posted Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:17 pm GMT by misterjokerboy
Sounds good, I wouldn't mind going along if I can make sure I'm in the area with work at the same time
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