Blackpool Main Event

Well, didn't trouble the live updates much in Blackpool.
I was on a table with James Ackenhead, Barry Neville, Richard Ashby and Willie Tann.

Not many hands of note to report.

I was reraised off AK pretty early by James Ackenhead after he had limped and I had raised from the button.

I had shown down one hand with 9 10 after a similar button raise and I had raised a couple of times from the button with genuine hands that were not shown so he may not have been that strong.

I don't think he would have limped with AA or KK so might have been better reraising again.

At the time I felt he most likely had a medium pair and folded.

Another hand of note involved a local who bet with JT5 board which I flat called hoding J7.
After a blank on the turn he bet half the pot and I called then when a T came on the river I bet the pot representing the ten to which he folded pretty quickly.

Then came the hand of death.

The blinds were 75/150 and I find AhKh on the big blind after 2 limps and raise to 750. Three to the flop of Qs8h9h. So I check planning on the check raise all in (I had 7000 left).

However the local bets 4000 and then Barry Neville reraises all in (about 8000).

Now I know I'm obviously behind but any heart gives me the nut flush and I have 2 over cards and I stand to win 15000 if the initial raiser folds, 18000 if he calls.

So I'm getting pretty good pot odds here but it is for my tournament life which I'm not too keen on.

Anyway, as I'm thinking Barry Neville calls the clock on me.

The dealer says nothing and after another minute someone says that time is up and I say to the dealer that he hadn't told me he was putting me on the clock.

So the dealer - who didn't know what to do told me that he that the minute starts and Barry Neville complains that he should have put me on the clock and I should have had to throw my cards in by now.

So now I know Barry doesn't want me to call.

Since I think there's a chance the initial raiser will fold I reckon I'm getting the right odds and I know that Barry wants me to fold so I decided to do what he didn't want me to do and I called.

The initial raiser reluctantly called and shows a set of 9's to Barry's set of 8's and I need a heart.

Turn and river are both blanks to leave Barry and me felted.

Thinking about it now I didn't feel that things were going well and I wasn't happy with my table image. If I call and win I've got a healthy stack so I'm happy I tool the gamble.

Especially since I went down to Leo's and came third to bag £1000 and but for a lucky Q for Q9 on a T95 flop I would have been in with a great chance of winning the 1st place £2650.

Mike.