Just finished playing a “Ladybrokes” freeroll – a free tournament open to the lady poker players of Ladbrokes
. Over 400 players joined the tournament and only the top ten were paid (stingy eh), with first place winning a position in the Irish Poker Festival and 2nd-10th winning Champney’s vouchers. And where did I come? 15th! Gutted. Luck was on my side too, or so I thought, with the Poker God (yes if there is a God, it’s got to be a poker God), saving my tush a couple of times. I ran into JJ with my 8s and hit trips, and my AK ran into AA – again, I hit trips. With the luck I was having I thought I was destined to make the final table. By this time it was down to the top 25, and I had around 61k with the blinds sitting at 1k/2k.
Now I know why so many players sit out with a decent chipstack just before the money. Soon after I was hitting a good run of hands such as AK and AQ, every time getting beat by a small pocket pair, bringing me down to 25k. I was then moved to another table and the blinds were at 2k/4k. The blind hit, and I had T6. Rubbish. Had 1 call from another player, and the flop came AA6. Hitting two pair, I bet 4k after being checked and after some time, was called. The turn brought a 10, which gave me a better two pair, and again I bet another 4k. I was then re-raised another 4k and immediately thought this person was slowplaying their trip Aces after being check-raised. I called, and a useless J came down on the river. I was then put all in, and after a considerable amount of time, folded. The player showed K2. AAARGGGHHH!!!! Usually at this stage in a tournament, with the blinds so high, it’s either an all in or fold situation pre-flop, with the occasional rag ace call, and my reasoning told me that this player had a rag ace. Wrong!
This left me with a measly 13k, managed to get myself back up to 20k but was quickly put out after my 6s were beat by Q10. Just as I was reaching the pearly gates of final table poker heaven, my luck was snatched away from me. Poker God hath spoken.
..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.
