Pocket Queens and pocket queens.

It was good to reach another final table last night, after a pretty long session, as results haven't been great lately.

 The field was about 80 players. £3000 in the pot.

I,d been playing pretty solid for a few  hours and I was gradually increasing my stack till I hit the key hand:

There was an early position raise to 2200 from a pretty loose guy - blinds were 800/400 - the button calls and I look down at pocket queens on the big blind.
I,m out of position, so no point mucking about, I raise it to 7200, the LAG mucks pretty quick and the button whose a pretty weak player eventually calls - he's basically all in with a couple of hundred behind..
He turns over Ace Four - I show my queens - Ace Ball on the flop and I,ve dusted about half of my chips.

I then built it up gradually again to about 20BB over the next hour or two - then bluffed off half of it on a flop with 2 aces on it. I lost my balls on the river and folded my 7 high.

With 11 players left, the chip leader was in the BB with a mountain of chips and I was SB with 4BB - about 15,000 chips at 4k/2k/200. It got folded round to us and we both agreed to play the hand blind - I went all in and he called.
We ran out the cards and he turns over 7-2 off and I,ve got A 2 - sweet - Ace high is good and I double up.

82%  - "One Time"

I ducked and dived, for a few hours just managing to stay around the 6-12 bb level, and when the final table bubble burst we were down to 9 with 7 places paid.

FINAL TABLE

I was one of the 3 short stacks with about 35k with 6000/3000/500.
1st hand and a fellow shortstack busts out, he jams with suited J , 9 guy calls with A Q and we,re one place from the money.

Next hand I,m dealt junk and fold.

Next hand, I,m UTG +1 and I look down at pocket queens - not bad - after a bit of tough soul searching  I push the remainder of my modest stack into the middle...
 CALL!
I,m snapped off by an Italian player, he flips over pocket jacks.

Perfect - 82% favourite - finally some chips to play with - in the money etc...

Ah, you know the rest, jack on the flop and the money bubble boy is toast. Bah.

Sent to the rail by 5 3 offsuit.

40 players made it through to Day 2 in total. I was about 36th in chips so it was always going to be a bit of a struggle, it started off brightly enough, I got a few chips early on to give me a bit of time, but the blinds and ante,s starting catching up, I was at under 10BB when I shipped a low pocket pair on the button and got it through to get up to about 20k.
Next hand I picked up A 10h, I raised to 8,000 with blinds at 2000,1000,200, only the big blind calls. Flop comes down J 6 3. BB checks, I shove, he calls and shows 5 3 off for bottom pair 5 kicker, no redemption on turn or river and I,m ash. Hmmm.
27th place from 120 odd. Not quite how I,d planned it.

Simon Appleby took down about £10k for first place.

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 .

Good run continues.

I managed another decent result in last nights tournament. I got 3rd place out of about 70 players.

I got a real help about half way through the tournament with 1 big hand where I raised with pocket 4's.
The board came down jj8, I c-bet the flop and got 2 callers. turn card was a 4 so I bet again, one of the guys calls again and the other guy reraises.

 I flat his raise to keep the other guy in and then the last guy shoves all in, as does player 2 and I call as well. one guy turns over AJ and the other KJ!! River bricks and I,ve got a decent stack.

I got to the final table, as one of the short stacks-as usual, and basically ground my way through until we got down to the last 3. The chip leader who I had been picking off quite nicely for most of the night, limped in the SB to me and I picked up AQ. I put a decent raise in up to about 60k blinds were 12000/6000/500 and had about 140k so I was pretty much commiting myself anyway. He calls, the flop comes down 9, 10, j. He checks, I c-bet, he shoves all in and I call the bet.
He turns over 10, 8 of hearts so we,ve both got the same straight draw buts he,s already hit. Turn and river bricks and I,m busto in 3rd.
Its been a good week - I,ve got another £430 towards the Vegas battle fund! Thats about £1400 this week, This is accumulating quicker than I had envisaged! I also picked up another free seat for a promotional £100 game in April so I,ll get to sell one of them as well.