Live Session #6: 2nd Place Baby! (Part 1)

Last night, at about 4:15AM, I rolled home after a long poker session at The Fox. I took £400 into town with me and arrived at The Fox at about 6:15PM. I paid the £38 entrance for the 7PM freezeout and, while waiting for that to start, paid £300 at the cage for chips to play the £1/£2 cash game that had just opened. The dealer actually informed me that the maximum was £500 which is definitely something to bear in mind for the future. Interestingly, I was surprised to see so many players buy in for a very short £50 stack. Anyway, after about 40 minutes I got up from the table with a small £20 profit. Not a bad start I thought, at least that was half the entry fee for the MTT paid for.

The tournament itself was a great success and I battled away nicely to earn a place on the final table. The most notable key hand, I would say, occurred in the mid to late stages when I went all-in with 10 10 and got called by JJ. The turn served me up the magical 10 and I practically doubled-up at a good moment and was well on my way. At the final table, after a few players got knocked out but with my stack dwindling, I found AA at just the right time and got paid off by the BB. I also got paid off by the BB again when I went all-in with K7 in the cut-off and he called with 10 6!!

My last "get-out-jail-free" card came when there were 5 players left. A fairly small-stacked SB went all-in against me when I was on the BB. Without looking at my cards, I saw that my stack could withstand a small set-back and I said I would call him if I held an ace or a king. I regretted saying this when I peeked at K5! True to my word, but reluctantly, I called and he flipped over A6. Bosh - we both missed right up until I spiked a 5 on the river - bosh. After the 4th place player got knocked out (JJ v. KK) we were down to three but with fairly equal stacks and about 10 minutes to go to closing time things were a bit cagey and no one really wanted to commit.

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---Part 2 To Follow---