Last night I came 11th in one of the new poker tournaments that Ladbrokes have introduced. It was put in place of the $1 $500 guaranteed high stack, and is now a €1 high stack, with 20 minute blinds – was it really necessary to slap on another 5 minutes to an already tediously long tournament, add an extra 1000 chips to each stack.. and for what… €70 top prize??! Which genius at ladbrokes thought of that? Surely if you were going to extend the blinds and add on extra chips.. there would at least be a decent payout worth playing for? This tournament started at 5.15pm and by the time I was put out it was 12.30am, €2 richer. Woohooo drinks are on me. I wouldn’t have been so bothered if I was put out 20th, as this would have saved me 2 hours and still would have received the same payout. Or even if the blinds were reduced, makes no sense to make the tournament longer, when the prize money has been dropped. The old tournament was one of my favourites, being a skint student bum it’s all I can afford to play every night with a decent (ish) payout, with any winnings being banked and a wee bit left over to buy into the bigger tourneys. Looks like I may have to get my poker fix elsewhere.
After coming 12th in the usual $1 Ladbrokes
beat the poker manager tournament (I got muffed, don’t ask), and ogling the 150k guarantee Sunday Rebuy – $37,500 first prize, OOOOOOOH – I decided to join a satellite tournament for the 150k the following Sunday. And won a seat for £6. Just as I was celebrating in my seat (ok, bed) and squealing with excitement, Neil said:
“Wait a minute, aren’t you going away next Sunday?”
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! As a birthday present, my mum booked me and her a nights stay at Cameron House Hotel. If I had to choose? It would be poker (sorry mum). But think of all the nights we could stay there if I won! ..Just checked the prices, not many, not even a year. I’d spend the money on much more important things anyway.. a girl can never have too many shoes, right?! And a ticket to the World Series of Poker. If I had a list of 100 things to do before I die, participating in the WSOP would be number 1. Imagine arriving at your table only to find that you’re sitting next to the likes of Doyle Brunson. I’d probably get whooped but at least I could say I played with one of the best poker players. Actually, i’d probably be pissed off to have lost 10k to a player that clearly doesn’t need any more money. Honestly, if I won the 150k guarantee i’d probably keep the moolah for the rest of my years at uni and driving lessons. No pressure Neil!
Speaking of the WSOP, i’ve been receiving updates from Ladbrokes about their two sponsored players that are participating in the main event – Jon “Skalie” Kalmer and Nebuchad. Good luck to them both, wonder if Skalie will be able to beat the 5th place he secured back in 2007?
..Ok maybe not. Just got myself knocked out of a new “Survivor” Ladbrokes Pokertournament – they’re a bit like turbos, with 5 minute blinds however if you are below a certain level of chips, you are in danger of being eliminated from the tournament after the blind levels have moved up. The table will alert you with several warnings to let you know where you stand in the tournament – Safe, Warning and Danger. So if you find yourself at the danger level, you are below the required threshold amount and need to make a move quick before you are given the boot. If you squint at the wee screenshot below you can see where I stand in the tournament.
Unfortunately, although I was sitting safe throughout most of the tournament, I was knocked out in 22nd place. I was sitting at around 9k when I was dealt AK. The blinds were at 300, I raised to 900 and some guy sitting at the danger level with 4k chips pushed all in with KK. Hate running into those hands with AK, or Anna Kournikova as they like to call it – looks pretty but never wins. I was then left with about 5k and pushed all in after a couple of blinds had swallowed most of my stack with A2, there was only 1 minute left till elimination time so had to make a move quick. And I walked into the big stack with JJ. It was only a $2 buy in (there’s a couple of higher ones too), with a $232 prize pool that was split equally with the top 10% of players. 12 players ended up getting paid and received around $19 each. I don’t usually like turbos, as I always end up getting muffed or my stack is gobbled up by the blinds, but this is quite a fun wee tournament and only takes around an hour to finish (unlike the high stacks I usually play, which can take up to 5-7 hours to complete).
They also hold a 10pm 17.5K guarantee tournament for a $20 buy in – have only played it once and got soooo close to the money. I was sitting with a safe-ish stack of 20k and the blinds had just increased to 1k, when somebody pushed all in two seats to the right of me. I was sitting with QQ. This received a call from the guy sitting next to me, and after a while I decided to call, putting them both on AK. After two all ins and a call, I thought everybody else was bound to fold – but the guy sitting to the left of me, hit his time bank and typed in the chat – “You’ll never guess what I have!” – yeah OK, you have AA, get on with it. The two guys sitting next to me ended up having AK and J10, and surprisingly, the aces held up.
On a good note, I managed to secure 3 final tables over the past week, came third in a $10 1.5k guarantee winning £150, and £70 from the $1 high stacks.
Just finished playing a Ladbrokesbeat the poker manager tournament and came in first place – my first win against 400 other players. Met the poker manager along the way (if you take him out you win an extra $100, and for those who find my site after googling who is the ladbrokes poker manager?!? – there’s several managers, but all names begin with MGR), who was muffed royally. His AA was beat by J3 and left him with 5k chips – not even enough for the small blind. So when the blind hit, the J3 muffer went back all in with his 200k to try and take him out and win the $100, of course the small stack of the table went all in with his 10k to try and secure the prize with 37 suited. And won with a flush on the river. I was glad though, the other muffpot did not deserve to win. I was sitting OK with around 50k or so by that point and didn’t want to risk my stack to try and beat the manager, even though I was sitting below average.
By the time it came to heads up I was sitting at 200k, and the chip leader had a healthy 1.2mil. Not a bad tournaround, for a £150 win. Got a uni exam at 2pm tomorrow, glad i decided not to take the night off poker, just hope I have as much luck in my exams as I seem to have in poker.
After spending many boring nights watching Neil play poker, I decided to take up the game myself so that I could play alongside him. I usually play Ladbrokesonline (my alias is HannahBanana), and have come second place in the multi tournaments don’t know how many times! No big wins as of yet, think the most i’ve won from a tournament is £70. Still not bad for a student bum. I have won a pub tourney though but unfortunately there was no prize at the end of it. Still enjoyed beating all the guys though. And i’ve just completed a $4 high stack on Ladbrokes, came third winning £33, not worth the five hour play if you ask me. Just joined another 1k high stack with the winnings, with the way my luck is going maybe this will be my first online win?