LUTON SPRING FEST – DAY 1 - £200 NLH F/O

Well, I’ve woken up in a right grouchy mood this morning. Not only did last night’s £200 Freezout go the shape of the pear, but there’s also a couple of big fellas banging away in the bathroom, which is right next-door to my bedroom. Taking out the windows or something, not sure, I daren’t ask. I’m more interested in the clock that reads 8.30 am and signifies just 4 hours sleep. Hmph, not a great way of gearing myself up for tonight’s event.

Back to last night though, there isn’t much to say. I played a relatively standard game before exiting at the hands of Mick Jones. Interesting hand really. After losing a big pot to his neighbour the hand before, Mick made what could have been construed as a tilty preflop raise of 800, I reraised to 2.5k with A-K (biggest hand I’ve seen), and Dave Penley moved all-in for several thousand after limping under the gun. Mick called for virtually all his stack pretty quickly. This is where my heart sank, but I only had 1.2k left and had to follow through, the pot odds were too favourable. Could have been worse though as Mick flipped QQ and Dave showed AK. Question is, could Mick have folded the QQ? If it hadn’t been Dave, then I would say yes, but I think he made the correct call. I was shortstacked, and could easily be making a move on Mick who was ‘seemingly’ on tilt. Also, the blinds had reached such a level that gambling became a much more viable option for the shorter stacks. With 5k chips, there’s not nearly as much room to manoeuvre as you’d think. Bizarrely, if he’d made the fold, which some may have done, then I would have split the pot with Dave and still been in the comp. Bizarrely again, if Dave had folded, which some may have done too as he only had 200 invested, then I would have felt much better about exiting on what I would have deemed to be a coinflip. As it happens, I was a dog by some way and felt worse as a result. Hmm, odd.

I tend to bash and overanalyse my own play way too often, and I don’t think it always does me any good, especially with my next comps being so close. I don’t want to go into them thinking about the comp before, it’s not good preparation. Therefore, I won’t mention any other hands from last night. The bottom line is that I played okay, went out early with a decent hand, and ‘that’s poker’. Bring on the next one.

Speaking of ‘the next one’, last night, after hearing of the 10,000 starting chips (wow), I decided to buy into the £500 Pot Limit Freezout Event. I’m not a big pot limit fan, and it really doesn’t suit my game, but 10,000 starting chips does. I like to play hands at the start and sometimes, when I get caught out, I find myself clinging way earlier than I should. However, with 10k to back me up, I can be a lot more relaxed with the hands I play and not worry about having to rock up if I lose one hand.

On a side note, I think I’ve been too caught up recently in what other people think of my play, I’m sure I’m not the only one who suffers with this. I know certain players who think I’m crap (some close friends, but would never say), and others who think I’m actually quite good at the game. I suppose everyone sees different things, but why should I care, if a mate thinks you’re rubbish, then so what, show them that you’re not by taking down an event. Results speak for themselves I guess. It also made me reconsider my views on others though. Everyone has their off days, so jumping to conclusions on an opponent’s skills after just a game or two is naïve and could knock you out of a comp one day.

Well, I guess I’m always learning. Good luck me tonight, I’m undecided on my strategy. I know hat if I get some chips early on, I’ve got a massive chance of finalling. It’s just getting those chips which is the tricky bit…