Saturday was the 7th night of our hols and it seemed to be a bit of a waste to be stuck inside a card room all day. The tournament was about to start when a familiar face appears and sits down to my left. ‘Hi Teachi’, what are the chances of that with a hundred and forty four runners? (I expect an answer in the next 15 minutes Enigma).

The tournament begins and I have Donna’s voice inside my head on one side saying ‘don’t let your ego play for you’ and my ego on the other saying ‘go on let me’. My ego had taken over on day two in Newcastle to devastating effect.

I try my best to let Donna’s voice win by remembering general tournament concepts and making my decisions using logic and not ego. This happens for the best part of day one other than a failed play with 72o.

I also have Daniel Negranu’s voice in my head after reading an article by him which reminded me of a few of the leaks in my game, plugging these most definitely helped my game.

The atmosphere in the card room was great and I had a friendly table, so much so that I didn’t feel the need to listen to my I-pod, (I just wore the headphones round my neck as a fashion accessory).

I don’t really want to go into detail with a lot of hands (mainly because I can’t remember the details) though I will say that I managed my stack well on day one by finding opportunities to win chips, at times being creative and pouncing on weakness. My tournament life had only been at stake once, a little bit of luck goes a long way in poker and I certainly had some of that too, (reference Teachi’s posts for more details).

Day two arrived and I was really relaxed, as I knew that I was on my game. I started the day in 6th out of 29 though I only knew I had a larger than average stack at the time. My strategy once again was just to play solid poker up until reaching the final table.

That goal was easily achieved. Now it was time to change gears as 4th to 9th were all paid the same. I did not know how much as I had asked Donna not to tell me as I wanted to solely concentrate on the win and not the money.

The gears were changed as I opened up my raising and calling ranges willing to gamble my way to a big stack. This worked well and we were soon down to three players.

With three players left one held around 50% of the chips. He is a very good player and put pressure on both myself and the other player left who had around the same stack as I did. This coincided with me being dealt absolute rags. I know three handed this isn’t as important however when the big blind can re raise you a third of your stack as an information bet you know you are in trouble.

I decided my best ploy was to re raise any raise myself with any medium to strong hand, thus putting the pressure back on them. This worked well a few times, especially when I re shoved over the top of a re raise from the chip leader to win 98k, (I had Aks).

It soon became obvious that the other shorter stack was playing for 2nd when he asked what the prize money was for 2nd and 3rd after I had shoved over the top of his 50k raise with 9Ts.

This strategy ultimately was my downfall when the chip leader raised and I shoved with A9o, he dwelled before calling the extra 257k with 88, they held and I was out in third.

I was happy that I played to win and not for 2nd and another £1,000 and will continue to do so no matter how much money is at stake.

I would like to thank you all for your support, as my game would be absolutely nowhere without being involved in the forum. Also thanks to Des and everyone involved with APAT for running such a great event.

I am considering playing in the Coral sponsored poker tour in June with a £500 buy in, as I think I have the game to do well and it would be a good experience. If I do then I will be asking for stakes as even after this win £500 on one tournament is out of my bankroll. Look out for a post in the next few days.

Thanks once again,
Richard.