A Step Closer to The GUKPT Main Event.

Had a good night tonight (Saturday 17th) all things considered at the G Coventry. Played the "Invitational" tourney at 6.30 pm. For those who haven't read recent post's you have to make a final table of any of the normal tourneys throughout the week and you get an invite to it and 7.5k starting stack plus and extra 5k if you make 2 finals etc.

I started with 17.5k as I've been practically living in the Ricoh since this "invitational" promotion started and made 3 Final Tables this week.

It's running for 6 weeks in total and in each of the 6 weeks 2 players book their seat in the Grand Final. There is just 1 prize in the Final but it's a £1,070 seat in the GUKPT main event which starts on 14th October.

I had a tough 1st table as I had Dave Goody to my immediate left and he had won this invitational the 1st 2 weeks. This means he had 20k starting stack guaranteed for the Final (its 10k chips for the final if you win a weekly and 5k for 2nd) This put him in a very strong position as he could apply maximum pressure as he is already more or less guaranteed to be the CL when the Final starts. (the max number of chips you can have in the Final is capped at 25k)

With "Frenchy" ( a very active player) on our table as well, virtually every pot was being opened by one of us and lots were being 3 bet.

I was quite pleased with how I adapted to the structure as it's pretty savage IMO at 10 minute blind levels. For a live event that's about as bad as it gets. Some levels during the later stages we played 2 hands a level with people tanking on decisions for their tournament life.

I almost bust Frenchy when I had KK in the BB @ 200/400 after a limper he made it 1,400 to go and I 3bet to 2,800. He flatted. The flop came Q high and I wanted to bet something that looked weak to induce the shove so made it 3,100. He thought for a while and I could see he was sooooooo close to pulling the trigger but he folded.

I was on about 26k when they broke our table and I was then moved to a much easier one. I was doing well on this table and got to 60k. Dave Goody had by this time joined us on the Final table and was 1 to my right. He was soon on my immediate right as the player in between us busted.

Then disaster as I lost some big pot's, some in races and one big bvb pot with Dave when I fired on the river with air having missed yet another flush. When I lost a another huge pot and went back to 14k I thought I was done for as the blinds were by this time 800/1600 and we were down to 10 players.

I shipped in with 55 v A,9 and got up and put my jacket on when the Ace hit the flop, but I turned trips and doubled up.

The blinds were daft by this stage and I just kept my foot on the gas and didn't shy away from taking a flip as only the top 2 make it through.

This was pleasing for me as it's not my normal style to play big pot poker as I usually just want to keep the pots small and play post flop but it was never going to happen with this structure.

Eventually I get to HU versus Dave and I have about 110k versus Dave's 185k. Blinds are 5k/10k.

I win the first pot to close the gap a little and then Dave makes it 25k from the button. I look down at KJo. I fancy this is ahead as Dave had been super aggressive all night as he was freerolling anyway. I 3 bet shove expecting him to fold but he calls saying correctly that he's probably 40/60.

His 5,6 off-suit gets there and I'm out in 2nd spot.

I can't complain, I had a bit of luck earlier when I spiked the 5 and I also won with A,6 v A,J. Dave asked me not to write anything bad about him for the 5,6 hand! (He reads my blog regularly).

In fairness it's a quite remarkable achievement that he has won the invitational event 3 weeks running. It only gets about 30 runners but even so there are obviously some of the best tournament players in the casino playing it and though he must have gotten very lucky a few times in the 3 weeks he has also played well.

You certainly need a good push/fold strategy to win with this structure!

After the Invitational ended I played the normal 8.30pm comp (joining late) and lasted 10 minutes. I flopped top pair and a flush draw versus the most aggro player in the casino who had flopped 2nd pair. He turned 2 pair and even though the turn also gave me the straight draw I missed it all.

After that I somehow ended up playing a 3 handed £1/2 cash game. They offered to let it be rake free for the first hour to get it started and though we never had more than 5 players at any point it was a good game (for me anyway).

The two big highlights were firstly:

3 handed I make a £4 straddle from the button. The sb folds the bb makes it £12. I look and just flat with AA as i want all his chips. (I know he has something as he's a rock I've played before).

The flop comes K high and he bets, I raise, he ships and I call. I take £100 off him as his AK doesn't improve.

Second big hand: (Versus a player who'd drunk more beer than he should whilst playing poker)

I raise under the gun to £7 (with AK) and 2 players call, (UTG+1 and the button). The flop comes 10,J,Q (2 spades) I lead for £12 thinking someone has caught some of that for sure.

UTG+1 calls as does the button. Turn is the beautiful 2c and I check. UTG+1 bets £24, button folds. When he just bets £24 I'm 95% sure there is no river card that can beat me as after playing him for an hour I know he's betting much bigger with two pair/trips or even a big flush draw. He tended to telegraph his big hands throughout the night then moan when no one called him!

So I make it £48 to get more money in the pot. I really think any competent player is folding here but he calls.

The river is the 3d. (Happy Days)

I bet £55 and he tank calls saying "I know your bluffing" He has J,9 (no spades) for just a pair of Jacks. You've got to admire his optimism.

Eventually the game got down to 2 players, me and the drunk but he didn't want to play "Heads Up" so I cashed in. Good win by my standards these days as I won just less than first prize in the main evening comp in an hour and a half.

Summary

So I am through to the Grand Final where there is 1 main event seat up for grabs and only 11 players ( as Dave has won twice ) and I've got a seat in the £150 Super Satellite where 1/7 get a main event seat.

I shall try and make some FT's again this week so I can play the invitational again next Saturday. It would be great if I could win one as that would reduce the Final by another player and I'd get another 10k chips for the final. The worry is that by winning one of these Turbo structures I would be using up a lot of run good.

I may need that to challenge Mr Goody in the Final!