Originally I had planned to play at The Fox in their £25k g'td Main Event on 4th August, but due to Olympic events they chose to move that to the 11th August. Unfortunately I just couldn't make that date as my wife was in Scotland and more importantly I had tickets to the Olympic Men's football finals with my son. And I have to say there were an awful lot of disgruntled Brazilians there whose Green Wigs definately didn't run good for them as they lost 2:1 to Mexico. But great atmosphere and we stayed for teh medal ceremony (pic below) which was good to see.
Anyway, after lots of searching for tournaments, I decided that I would try my luck at Mint Casino in South Kensington in their £500 high roller event, which Rodders was also playing at. Seems that most entrants had qualified online and had travelled from as far away as Poland & Ireland (okay, not so far) to play. The smallest casino & poker room I've been in yet, with space for seven tables max, although when a spectator sat on one and it fell apart that took the table count down, so lucky it wasn't full capacity! Thanks again to Jalvinator who again turned up to show his support...another grassrooter for life!!
Turns out the infamous Sam Holden was playing too, although from teh pictures below you'll see a slightly different persona being portrayed between us. Note to self: DO NOT look so bloomin miserable!! Blame it on a recent run of naff cards!! Though doesn't teh T-shirt look good?
Started off slowly as always but increased chip stack and then had one of those 'what if hands'early position with Ks9s, which is one of my favoured hands I know I shouldn't play but often do. Anyway I folded as was early position, but, if I had played...well, I won't go into detail, but so think the extra 20k+ chips would have helped!
And then card dead...for seemingly ever!! Nothing higher than a Q, no connected cards, no high or medium mid pairs and only small 44 highest pair and always in earliest position...and with tables playing loose i didn't fancy trying a bluff as everything was getting called bar an all in.
So play continued...my stack being killed by the naff cards/position, the blinds (600/1200) and antes (150) then fold, fold, fold through from early to small blind who raised me on Big Blind. Now teh small blind was playing and hitting everything...literally and had a whole heap of chips. So I thanked my lucky starts when I looked down to see AA!! Double up time I was thinking and back in teh game! Anyway, I shove all in and teh SB calls, barely making a visible dent in his stack. Heads up and I sling over my two Aces and teh SB turns over 44. Encouragement from other players at the table looking to see me take some of teh chip leaders chips away from him. Even then, with his recent form of hitting everything, I still thought 'double up time'. But NOOOOOOO...IT HAPPENS LIVE TOO!! 4 on teh flop, groans from the other players at the table, big sheepish grin from teh SB and with no Ace on the turn or river that was that! Tournament over for me!!
Just goes to show that those bad beats happen in live play too and not just online, when the poker host gets slated by the digruntled player...it is NOt the site or teh software...it is just the way the cards are dealt...not that that is any comfort at all!
While I was at the Olympic Football Final 3 other playes were trying their luck at The Fox, but none ran good and all failed to cash. So that just leaves Ian/ElJudge to play, with teh state of play as follows:
| Grassroots Qualifiers | Stage 3 Qualifiers | Profile | Blog | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lifeisalaugh | £1,600.00 | Profile | Blog |
| 2 | TheSwede1970 | £0.00 | Profile | Blog |
| 3 | palser | £0.00 | Profile | Blog |
| 4 | _Baby_Face_ | £0.00 | Profile | Blog |
| 5 | NZ_donkey | £0.00 | Profile | Blog |
| 6 | rodders77 | £0.00 | Profile | Blog |
| 7 | _Mr_G_ | £0.00 | Profile | Blog |
| 8 | ElJudge | TBC | Profile | Blog |
So congrats to Al/Lifeisalaugh who is through to teh final for sure!
If ElJudge cashes that will make teh Wildcard choices even more difficult with only two places up for grabs, so it is with anticipation that we wait to see how he does and then the baited breath as Ladbrokes debate and consider who is worthy of the wildcard places...be that two or three of them.
Just hoping that my regular blogging, tweeting, facebook updates, and these three published articles:
are enough to warrant a wildcard...
Civil Service Sports Association - for their 130,000+ members - article link HERE.
Rake the Rake online poker promotion website - article link HERE.
And this one which was also published online as well as in local Sussex press:
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