I came home the other night and helped put the kids to bed. After that I was really in the mood for a game of poker.
So with about 5 minutes to spare I registered for the PL Sporting Odds October League game. The game started and I looked down at poket rockets first hand. A great start to a great night I thought. Only one caller to my decent raise (absolutely perfect I thought). That was until the flop came down with 2 kings. A check from my opponent gave me hope until he called my large bet. When he went all in after the river I had no choice but to fold and live to fight another day.
Fate then teased me by giving me decent, but not exceptional cards such as A9 (my bogey hand), A7, KQ & 55, in the next four hands. Fortunately I wasn't even close to getting frustrated from hand 1 so I managed to steer clear of any serious play with any of these hands. After that a run of pathetic cards meant I had a quiet 30 minutes or so.
To be honest I don't remember many of the hands that took me from nearly last to being chip leader. For a while I had twice as many chips as the second place person so I must have had some good cards and played well, but none of the hands stand out.
The game had started with 64 players and we were down to the last 3 tables. I was chip leader and in a late position. The table folded round to me and I had KQs. I put in a larger than normal bet as I didn't really want any callers. The table continued to fold to Lou Saban in the BB. She called.
The flop only showed one spade and also an Ace so, I was pretty confident of being behind and was preparing to fold my hand to her raise. Raise she did, but not by enough. Now I admit I know the principles of pot odds but I don't fully understand the mathematics. What I did understand was that, whilst I was fishing, i had the chips to fish. There was runner, runner, flush and straight draws out there.
The turn came down with another spade and again I would have folded to a large bet but again the bet was 'callable' because of the chip stack size. The river shows another spade and I do feel sorry for Lou as my king high flush hits and I win the pot.
The other strange thing from the evening is that I remember more the hands I folded than the hands I played. I've felt this before when I've done well in tournaments. When I've had to make a decision pre flop with a good hand and folded it, it turns out often to be the right decision. That's not always the case. An example from the final table - Pocket Lady pushes all in in early position with a decent size chip stack and I'm holding 77. After a long think I fold, as does the rest of the table. She shows pocket 5's and I'm left to contemplate what could have been.
The story of the game has to been Valiant's return from the dead on the final table. Having seen him go all in and get called with the famous 72o hand and win it we should have known what was going to happen. But when, as the last 'Westie' standing he had less than 1000 chips it only a matter of hands before he left the 4 'Easties' to it.
But no, it seemed like he won 5 all in hands in a row (including a few where we checked it down so there were more people in the final show) and he went from nearly out to chip leader.
The final table had taken a long time to get down to the last 5 Philossfy, The Croc, Valiant, Pocket Lady and myself, but we went from 5 down to 2 in a matter of hands. I felt sorry for the croc as I was sat to his right. Every time it was his BB I seemed to have a decent hand. He must really think I was just out blind stealing.
Anyway the heads up ended up between Valiant and I, although I started with the larger chip stack.
It didn't last as long as I expected. We traded a few chips over the first 10 hands or so and then a jack high flop came down. I was holding QJ, Valiant was holding J7. After the all in no further cards came down to help either of us and the game ended.
This has been said so many times before but the spirt and quality of Punters Lounge games far exceed any poker compettion I've ever played before. And to win a PL league game is a far greater achievement in my eyes than other competition victories I've had where I've won more cash or beaten more people.
Thanks for the game guys.
On the downside - having won the first league game in a set of 4, I now cannot watch next week's England game in the pub as I have to be playing in the league again!! However after seeing England's performance at the weekend that might not be such down side.
