Played online on Friday for the first time in ages and Claire and I played in this tournament together, as she now has her own Ladbrokes acount.
I started card dead and wasn't really interested in the tournament after about 40 mins of not playing any hands and just getting blinded away but then I picked up AKo and re-raised all in and got 2 callers. The ace hit in the flop and I managed to almost triple up on that one hand.
From there it went from strength to strength as I kept picking my moments to steal and the good hands held up. About half-way into the tournament I'd aready made enough chips to get to the final table so I only played the best starting hands and eventually got to the final table with about 360k. Over twice as much as the 2nd place player.
I then hit a tricky period as with 6 players left I picked up KQ and a short stack went all in with around 27k. I called as did the player to my left. The flop came giving me top pair and the player to my left 2nd pair. I bet the flop and he called and a deuce came on the turn. He then made a defensive bet and I realised that I was ahead and he wanted to see the river cheaply. I therefore went all in which meant that he would have to commit the rest of his 170k chips to his draw if he wanted to see the river.
I thought he would fold but he proved me wrong by calling and then hitting two pair on the river to beat me. A shockingly bad call in my eyes and this crippled me into 5th position with 70k chips but I managed to bully the next couple of hands with the blinds at 10k/20k and within 10 hands I was the chip leader again and had knocked out the guy that had outdrawn me only a few hands before.
Once we got to three-handed I knew I would win as the short stack was trying to get into 2nd by not playing any hands and it was easy to steal his blinds. As we got to heads up play I had about 800k chips and a 4-1 chip lead. I seemed to be able to read my opponent well to steal his big blind while avoiding his good hands until the final hand came.
My opponent picked up pocket kings and raised to 60k. I called with 46o, hoping to catch two pairs or a big draw, and picked up a pair of fours on the flop. I checked and he checked too, hoping to set a trap for later on and double up. The turn arrived to give me trip fours and again I checked. He checked behind me and the river came up a jack. At this point all I knew was that he had a big hand before the flop and I was pretty sure that I was ahead with all the cards out. I put in a pot sized bet which would look weak because it didn't put my opponent all-in and I had been firing bets in to steal pots in the past. He went all-in! He was just waiting to get another bet out of me before going over the top and winning the pot (in his mind). I called....... well I had to didn't I and the tournament was over. 5.5 hours for $284.96. Not bad I'd say.
This brings me back into the black in online play and nearly £400 up overall when you count live play as well. The pick of the results since April has been a 3rd place finish at the Maxims Casino in Reading where I won £210. We also played a home game for Drew's birthday where 16 people played and the winner would get £100. I managed to win that game too!
