PokerPlayer UK Tour: The Story

The PokerPlayer UK Tour is up and running! Thanks to all those who made their way to Bristol last weekend, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. As a special treat, we’ve got a first person account from fourth place finisher and MyCasino.co.uk blogger Peter Drakes. Enjoy…

Peter’s Journey

For those of you who weren’t there, couldn’t make it or were wondering how on earth I managed to get to the final table (and finish 4th) from 124… Here is the abbreviated version of my PokerPlayer UK Tour Journey in Bristol…

So I started off playing very tight, making a few rookie errors with string bets – it isn’t just putting the right amount in, you have to put them in, in one go (whereas I was dropping them in from my hand, in two parts). I wasn’t too bothered as about 80% of players had qualified from online and hadn’t played much live poker either.

There were a few stalwarts of the local club who insisted on trying to dominate proceedings and pick on the ‘rookie’ players and I was targeted a few times, but I was quite happy for them to mark me down as a fish, it meant they would be more likely to call or aggressively raise against me. I doubt I will have that advantage in Edinburgh, but one can hope!

One of these aforementioned local players, kept making big raises and was doing a lot of talking. I like to think my chips did all my table talk, as I re-raised all-in behind him. He was trying to get a read on me, making out like he had a hand, so I just turned and said, if you want to know what I got, throw your chips in or just do us all a favour and shut the hell up, followed by a cheeky wink and a smile. I noticed smirks and a few nods from around the table which made me feel a bit better.

No time for complacency as the very next hand saw me dealt an AA, with someone this time re-raising all-in with a 77. The board saw nothing to help either of us and I took another 7k. I was still as nervous as hell, but it was then time for a break.

Speculate to accumulate

From after the first break, I was amongst the top in terms of chips, not always chip leader, but in the top 5 and then top 3 as the tournament progressed. That enabled me to be a bit more speculative in the middle stages.

At one point someone went all-in with 5-5 and I called the extra 4k from the big blind as I was the only player left to speak – my 67s failed to impress, but as I was sitting at that time on close to 70k – average 33k – I wasn’t too bothered. Some of the shorter stacks were playing bingo with their cards which is why I was quite happy to call with weak holdings.

Word of advice

One of the sponsored players, Mark English, gave some cracking advice as I was heading into the later stages:

‘Don’t pick on the big stacks, they will probably call or re-raise you – because they can, they will be testing you just as you are testing them – don’t pick on the weak stacks, they will push all-in with anything – pick on the medium stacks, they won’t want to risk their whole stack on anything but a certainty.’

That advice was worth its weight in chips as I picked up a few thousand more easy chips, still playing fairly tight, but picking on the medium stacks with varied raises between 2/3 times the big blind, depending on their stack size.

The bet had to be big enough that if they called they were already pot committed. After a few times one of the players looked at me, smiled and went all-in. I mentally counted to 100, offered a wry smile and folded. A few hands later though, he pushed a big raise when I was sitting on QQ in small blind. I re-raised all-in, he called with J10 and somewhat deservedly took the walk of shame.

Deal or no deal?

There was a lot of talk from the shorter stacks as we got down to the last 20-ish players. The blinds had gone up to 3-6k and everyone was getting worried. My old nemesis with the mouth from earlier on was hanging in by the skin of his teeth and one of the most vociferous in his argument to get people to accept a deal.

Most players were understandably happy to alter the structure, but I refused to see this guy in the money, so I went out for a cigarette and a coffee after my big blind and chatted to a few of the other players who had already been knocked out and were waiting for the S&G’s to start.

As it happened he wasn’t there when I got back, so I withdrew my objection to the deal. I think it is better that the money is weighted slightly more evenly, at least with the top 5 finishers.

In the middle of the night

It has to be said, around 1am I was getting very tired. Poker is a mental game and I am not yet good enough to instinctively know or memorise all of the odds and percentages required in any given scenario. I have to work hard at it in most cases. So after a 7am start, a three hour drive, and at this point after about 12 solid hours of poker, I was getting a little weary!

My first error was to tangle with Brian. I knew he was trouble when we sat down together earlier in the afternoon. He made his standard raise and I called him with K-J suited, knowing he would be on a reasonable decent hand. No rags for this man. The flop came up K-9-J and he went all-in. I won’t bore you with my logic but I knew then he had A-A, A-K, a top, top hand, but I had everything apart from J-J or K-K beat, so I called.

He revealed KK and I mentally smacked myself for being so stupid.

Costly mistakes

Getting close to 2am, Red Bull and coffee didn’t really help and saw me getting a little frazzled. Some awful logic (he is fairly tight, but getting short-stacked, so may have a low pair or medium connectors) saw me call against a KQ – with a K6… What should have seen my exit in 7th place actually delivered me a straight, and it has to be said that whilst I welcomed the chips, the cold stony silence around the room did make me feel a tad uncomfortable.

Ali was playing great poker all evening, and went all-in with another K-Q as it turns out. He was short-stacked at the time and for some reason that now I couldn’t even tell you, I called him with a 2-5… He took a hefty chunk of my chips in stunned disbelief and set himself up nicely on the road to the heads-up.

Easy come, easy go… What little respect I had earned from these guys over the last 16 hours was rapidly evaporating. I was on tilt and had no experience to draw on…

Exit strategy

A round or so later saw me with J-J and raise; re-raised all-in by Ali, who must have been sure he was onto a good thing. In what was becoming a rather tiresome nemesis of a hand I saw K-Q off opposite me and the flop revealed a King. I stood up and prepared to walk away as the turn came up nothing and the river a Queen.

I had something like 10k left so two hands later I was small blind and all-in. I don’t even remember what I had – 74 I think – whatever it was,  it saw me almost gratefully stand and shake hands with some truly excellent people and great poker players, with whom it was my pleasure to meet.

Here’s how the final table finished up:

1. Ben Pennick (Swindon) £2,570
2. Ali Elmorssy (Bristol) £2,070
3. Brian Yates (Wednesbury)  £1,820
4. Peter Drakes (Northampton)  £2,020
5. Simon Griffin (Gloucester)  £1,100
6. Michael Hart (Birmingham)  £400
7. John Stritch (Bristol)  £400
8. Mark Morris (Westbury)  £400
9. Gary Smolinski (Cardiff) £400
10. Philip Watts (Braunton)  £400

TOTAL PRIZEPOOL: £12,400

I think kudos and a virtual round of applause needs to go out to the gentlemen from PokerPlayer Magazine and to Jon Baker, the Tournament Director and his team, as well as the Bristol venue for excellent card room staff headed by Scott Preston: not forgetting of course all those who played on the day and/or supported from the rails.

For Peter’s full blog, head on over the MyCasino.co.uk