Lucky 7

Monday December 17th
Leos - £10 rebuy
83 runners

I started off quickly again and picked up a nice big pot after raising the serial limpers with AJ, went to the flop with about 6 players but an A on the turn won me a lovely 5000+ chips.

I slowly built up a very healthy stack during the first hour and a half to the point where my starting 1000 chips were up to 25000.

By this point (blinds of 100/200) those without chips are generally happy to get all their chips in with a wide variety of hands and sometimes even blind.

Having a large stack like that can be very useful to isolate these players.

One interesting hand that I won involved a mate, Andy Booth, who had around 3500 chips.

I had raised to 1600 with 99 pre flop after a few limpers and he was the only caller.

The pot was now something like 4000 and when the flop came KQ5 I was resigned to folding to his inevitable bet or checking expecting to be behind when he said something about having to call if I bet, virtually telling me that he had missed (he had A7).

Any bet and I would have folded!

Anyway, I got to the break with 21000 chips.

Now, before I played on Monday I had to move our old sofa ready for collection on Tuesday.

As I was moving it I heard all the money that had fallen down the back so I decided to fish it out.
Anyway, ignoring the slummy, I fished out £7 in pound coins and so I said that I would put it on number 7 on the roulette when I get to the casino - I never play any of the house games normally.

Anyway, I put the money on in the break and, you guessed it, number 7 was a winner giving me £245 from the back of the settee!!!!!

Someone did say to me that it was a shame I never found £20 but I did tell them that would have been no good because I would have lost as number 20 never came in!!!!

Anyway, more of this later.

So, back to the tournament.

I got moved to a new table and a couple of hands in I am up against a player who limped and then called my button raise with AT.

There was about 6000 in the pot and when the flop came QT5 rainbow he went all in for 12000!
I actually said to him that if he had bet 4000 it would be an easy fold.

After a bit of deliberating I folded doubting that he had a strong hand, showing my ten.

He later told me that he did have me beat but I couldn't be sure one way or another.

Then a few hands later with the blinds at 400/800 came a hand where I am almost certain I folded the winning hand.

I had Ks8h on the big blind and my earlier foe, who I had seen limping into quite a few pots, was involved against me and the small blind, a loose calling station beginner who only bet or raised when he had a good hand - the small blind that is and not me!!!!

The flop came Js6s3s

Having the Ks I decided to see if I could take the pot there and then and bet about 1100 into the 2400.

This was called by both players.

The turn was an 8d.

This was checked by the small blind and now I had a feeling I was ahead as I was sure my foe would have raised my bet with anything better than a pair of 9s on the flop.

So I bet 2400.

My foe thought about it for ages and eventually called as did the small blind.

Now I was almost certain that my foe had the Ace of spades.

The river was a 6d putting a potential full house on the board.

The small blind checked and I decided that the only way to get chips off my foe if I was ahead is if he bluffs, so I check too.

My foe then spent ages playing with his chips and he looks like he is trying to summon up the courage to bluff.

After an age he says all in (about 11000 chips into the pot of 11000)

When he said all in he made a slightly different movement with his head to the one he made in the previous hand.

The small blind folds and I am sure I am ahead.

But he has gone all in on a board with a potential full house and flush.

So I told him that I was about to make a call that would look either absolutely fantastic, or really stupid.

His reaction to this was "go on then"

But his smile had elements of a certain smile that some people do when they are bluffing but it was not completely the same.

So what should I do?

I've got to say that I was 90% of the way to making that call and there were 3 things that stopped me.

1. I was sat on the left of him, the small blind from the same hand and another player who I know that makes a certain action when he bluffs that I know for certain is a bluff so I felt that there were a lot of chips on offer.

2. There was a small chance that my foe had the As and a 6 giving him an unexpected set of sixes.

3. I still had 15000 chips which was above average and there were 40 players left.

So I folded showing him the 8 and told him that I was pretty certain that I was ahead.

After the hand I asked him if I was ahead and he said that he had the flush but when I asked him what with, he said "a seven or something" and again I was pretty sure that he wasn't telling the truth.

Unfortunately we broke tables a short while later but I asked him again and this time he said that he only had the ace of spades.

I'm still not sure and someone else I asked about this hand actually said that even if the call would have been right it wouldn't have been a good call because of the flush and full house possibilities.

I'm not sure now myself but I wish I could find out!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I got moved soon after and played one pot in the big blind with A3 after the button had limped.

The flop came down A45 and I checked expecting to be ahead and the button bet 3000 into the 4800 pot. I raised another 4000 expecting him to fold but he went all in.

I folded to what I reckon must have been 2 pair or maybe a set.

So I was now down to 9000 chips with the blinds of 1000/2000.

Time to make a move soon.

It was when I was telling someone on the table about my roulette win with the £7 on no 7 when someone made it 7700 to go pre flop.

So I said to the raiser that if I had 77 in my hand I'm all in!

Anyway, I didn't have 77 and folded but he was called by 1 player.

The flop came down J77 and the raiser had……………………… 77!

A couple of hands later and I got 72.

Now I like to vary my game a little occasionally by playing if I have 52 for example and the bet is the same (ie 2 with 5)

So I'm sat there with 72 and the blinds are 2000 and I have an extra 7000 chips and, needing to make a move soon, I thought, why not?

I'd hardly played a hand on this table I should be credited for having a good hand and I shipped in the 9000.

Everyone folded as per the plan until the big blind woke up with TT.

The 7 on the turn gave me hope but a blank river saw me going home £223 up on the night, unfortunately none of it due to poker!

The cash game was full so I just went home.

If anyone reading this has any opinions on my play I'm happy to listen as I want this to be a part of the learning curve.

Anyway, thanks for reading.