Another decent cash and a boot in the nuts.

I should really be delighted after getting my 3rd cash in the last 3 tournaments:

I finished a respectable fourth from about 75 runners for a decent payout of £350.
I,ve already made nearly all the money I need for this years Vegas trip.
I also won another seat for a promotional £110 game in April.

Not bad right?... but no poker journey is ever complete without the bad beat story, poker does get under your skin a bit, and I left a bit steamed after getting launched out of the tourney at 5am after a weird turn of events .

To summarise the essentials:

It was the same tournament that I won last week, same structure, similar size of field.

Buy in £10 (+£3) optional £20 + £20. (Vegas players reading this must not believe "the juice" the casino takes, yep thats £3 on a £50 entry fee and they add £500 to the pot!)

There are 3 levels, then the break, then no more buy ins or add ons.
 I went on a bit of heater from the start and got a load of chips early, knocking out quite a few players so that come the break, I didn,t need to take either the add-on or the top up, so much cheapness for me.
The night went on and the field thinned down gradually from the 75 or so players, until we got down to 13 players. The paid places were 1-8, the final table is when we,re down to 9, so we were getting nearish to the bubble, but not that near.
The game went on and on and on, it must have taken about 3 or 4 hours at 20 min increasing blind levels to get from the 13 down to 9, it was an absolute grind, the short stacks just kept doubling up time and time again, so it was a relief when the final table bubble finally burst at a pretty unheard of time of about 3 in the morning.
The casino shuts at 6am during the week, but poker tournaments are scheduled to finish at 5am. If a deal isn,t done it goes down to a chip count.
Final table started, blinds were a 10,000,/5,000/500, average chips were about 120k, stacks were fairly even, and the high blind levels mean,t there wasn,t much space for maneuvre. So the table thinned out relatively quickly until we were down to 5 players.
The guy on my right (the villain) was the most aggressive at the table, and he was proving a bit of a handful, but I managed to hang on, and although initially he had the big stack, he was taking enough hits from time to time to keep him back in the pack, and as the clock went nearer to 4:30, the card room supervisor, announces 15 minutes then its 3 last hands - then chipcount.

The villain raises my BB again, I jammed the lot in with my A7off, he folded, and suddenly for the first time I have a decent stack, all the stacks are fairly even considering the blind levels - apart from one guy who was getting seriously short.
So we all start talking about a chop, theres about £3200 up for grabs I suggest £600 each and play for the rest / chip count the rest - a few other suggestions get tossed in but the chip leader who is now only marginal chip leader is holding out for a better cut of the money. Considering how winning the blinds now make a huge difference to the chip counts its madness to agree to this. We go to and fro for a bit but we can,t agree and we play on.

The game starts to go a bit mad, the short stack gets blown out so we,re down to 4, everyone is now just going all in to get the chips up - we are 5 hands away from the chip count.
Next hands I pick up J 2 off, get jammed on, I muck.
Next hand, its 5, K suited, better, but I get jammed on again, I muck.
I pick up 10 5 off in the SB its folded to me, I jam, the BB whose wearing mirrored sunglasses procrastinates for an eternity before mucking his pocket 2,s face up.
Shortly thereafter..3 hands to play and I,m UTG and I,m praying for something decent, first ones a face, 2nd ones a face, I,m looking at the 2 smiling faces of the pocket Jacks! Perfect timing.

I look as weak as I can, grab a load of chips as if to put in a huge raise, put some back down and put a raise in of 70,000 - blinds are at 30 theres a quick fold / fold / ALL IN! Chip leader comes over the top and jams all his chips in, I instacall and the chip leader tables pocket 4's - beautiful.

The table looks on abit in disbelief - the implosion of the chip leader who will be left with little more than a bit of shrapnel. A chip count would have averaged around £600 each, with him near enough out, we would all jump up the pay scale around £750 each, but with me having most of his chips I,m going to be chipping up nearer to the £900 mark! Not bad.
The guy with the sunglasses is analysing the scene and deriding the guys move, as a forgettable rainbow flop comes down, it doesn,t help anyone, no scary draws, or flushes, all looking good, dealer flips over the turn, the guy with the sunglasses  pauses mid sentence - "thats so sick" as the 4 comes down on the turn, and the river bricks.
That,ll be £350 for finishing 4th rather than £900 for winning then.

As fellow blogger Mr Stump once said  "I,m ready to curb stomp some kittens".