Side Event 1

Ladbrokes Cruise
$500 f/o
January 28 2008

When I sat at my table for this event the first thing I notice is that it looks pretty tame, other than James Akenhead in seat 4 to my seat 2. In fact, according to the seating allocation outside the room I should have been in seat 6, giving me position on James, however, for some reason the dealer’s sheet had me in seat 2, so I sat down without argument.

Now I played against James in the Blackpool main event and noticed that he is prepared to call raises with speculative hands, prepared to take the pot away after the flop by playing the player.

This was to stand me in good stead a bit later on.

I started off really well in this event, climbing from 5000 to 7500 in the first level after picking up a few hands or hitting the flop hard including one hand where I limped for 25 and called a raise to 75 with T8. The flop came down 884 and I lead out after the other two players checked and was raised by a Scandi UTG. After I flat called the reraise he bet out on the turn and I raised again to which he folded. I only won about 1500 in that hand but when the board is straightening or flushing I always get burned slow playing this sort of hand and I don’t think I would have got much more off him playing it slower on the turn.

A little bit later I was dealt Kings which I raised a standard 3 times the blind which James flat called in position. The flop came down 889 and I bet out ¾ pot to which James raised pretty quickly (which I was half expecting and had already decided I was going to call a raise from him if he did it) the turn was a blank which we both checked and the river was another 8 making me pretty sure he didn’t have the other 8 so I checked hoping he would make another bluff attempt and when he checked, I sighed which obviously told James that I was waiting for the bet and he mucked almost without waiting for me to show my cards.

A while later with the blinds at 50/100 (I’m not sure if there was a 25 ante too) I limped with a pair of twos which James raised to 350, I was the only caller. When the flop came down 23K rainbow I bet out 800 which James immediately raised some 6000 odd putting me all in. I insta-called and his 63 bluff failed to improve although a 4 on the turn did give me a slight scare.

So now I was up to 8000 odd chips.

I then proceeded to lose a lot of chips when I failed to call a river bluff in the flowing hand:

The blinds were about 75/150 with a 25 ante and I limped in late position with JQ and when the flop came JT7 the big blind lead out for 800 which I raised to 1800 and after some deliberation he called. He check called my 2000 ish bet on the 8 turn and then bet 2000 into the pot of 7500 ish (I only had 3100 left) when the river was an offsuit 7.
I have got to admit now that I am not the best reader of other people’s hands through their betting when I am playing. It is something I need to improve. Whenever I read a magazine article or daily hand quiz I can often get the right answer but I don’t have the skills that I have seen in players like Roberto Romanello.

If I had been playing on the internet I would probably have called his bet but one factor that stopped me was not wanting to look stupid calling that bet with just a pair of jacks on a board like that.

At the time the player told me he had J6 and I saw him later at dinner and he confirmed it again which I believe, so well played him.

I survived a bit longer as a short stack getting it all in about 5 times in 2 orbits and when I did finally get called I had my best hand but my pair of nines ran into Jacks and even though a jack flopped I did have a straight draw on the turn but nothing o the river and I was out.

I did pick up a nice $800 in an hour playing in a crazy cash game where a guy lost $2000 with some crazy bluffs and calls including calling my all in reraise with an obvious straight on an 8TQ board with 8T. Anyway off for some Dinner now and then it’s Julie’s turn to see if her training from Michael Greco yesterday will help in her Ladies freeroll tournament. There is a $10,000 prize pool for this one and I think the top three will qualify for the Ladbrokes Ladies tournament that is being screened on Sky Sports later in the year so my turn to cheer on from the sidelines.

Fingers crossed that beginners luck works out tonight.