Gentlemans club

Wednesday February 20th
Casino 36
Stockport
£50 rebuy - 3000 starting chips
61 runners.

I decided that it was about time I tried out the new casino in Stockport that apparently caters for the rich stockbroker belt.

So off I went and I wasn't to be disappointed.

The casino is set in what looks very much like a gentleman's club.

All the walls were wood panelled, free drinks for everyone playing in the tournament including red bull and possibly alcohol although I'm not certain of that as I don't drink when I'm playing.

Anyway, the tournament started quite slowly for me with not many hands of note.

I got to the end of the rebuy period having had one rebuy and taking the add on.

So I've got 7000 chips and the blinds are 200/400 and I've not played many hands as the general play is quite loose and I tend to find that playing tight in those circumstances plays well in the long run as I don't need many rebuys and there is usually a good prize pool at the end.

Anyway, after all this great image building I get moved tables and as I am bemoaning my luck under my breath I am approaching my table when the dealer is starting to deal. The tournament director tells the dealer to deal me in and I just get to my seat in time to see a pair of aces staring at me. So I raise to 1100 and am called in two spots.

The flop comes down K high with 2 spades, I continuation bet 2000 and get raised all in which is called y the other person too I call and triple up!

Next hand and the table is broken and I walk back to my original seat with 3 times as many chips, much to everyone's surprise!

Not much of interest happens until I get to the final table.

Here I am sat in a slightly difficult situation since the two players to my left are loose fish who will call with a wide range especially if they are in the blinds so there is no point in trying to steal, I just need to wait for hands.

Unfortunately no told the dealer this.

Anyway, my exit hand involved me making a mistake.

It was folded to me on the button with A6o when the blinds were 2000 4000 and I had 26000

Now in any usual situation I would raise a standard 3 times the big blind in this spot but because I know I'm going to get called in this situation regardless I decided to raise the minimum so that I would be indicating that I had a hand but to minimise the amount I put in in case I missed and he hit as he would still call any continuation bet if he hits even bottom pair.

So the big blind called and the flop came 763 he checked and I bet 6000, he reraises to put me all in for another 11000.

And this is where I made the call thinking that if he had hit the 7 he would have bet out and so thinking that he either had a 6 with a lower kicker or a lower pair I called to see his 72o and I was out for £420, a profit of 250 when you consider the £20 we each gave to the bubble.

I did notice that the way he bet was quite exaggerated and I had seen him do that once before with KK and so at least I now have a baseline for him and I'm pretty sure that is a sign that he thinks he is ahead which will be useful given his propensity to be involved in a lot of pots and bluff regularly.

Anyway, I'm actually writing this from my sickbed since I injured one of the disks in my back on Saturday, so I've got plenty of time to catch up on my reading with this month's pokerplayer and inside poker magazines plus 2 thirds of TJ Cloutier's book still to read although what I read today from Cloutier didn't totally convince me but more of that later in the week.

Until then...