Marathon for London

Jeez yesterday was a long day. I started playing poker at around 2pm multitabling single and double table tournaments trying to build my account up to take the entry fee into the London EPT satellite. 5 ITM with one win and three seconds saw me get just enough to take my shot.

Before that started I decided to have a go at the $50k Guaranteed on Paddy Power. Nearly 900 runners at $36 a pop and the prize pool jumped to over $70k with all the re-buys and add-ons. I did not get off to a good start and nearly didn't add-on. In the end I did and lost half my stack straight after the break when AK failed to draw...

I built back up with no spectacular hands before raisng with A10s. The flop came down 9 high and when it was checked to me the demons came out and I pushed. I was called by 88 but hit a ten on the river to double up. I think you need to get lucky at least once to go deep in a tournament and that turned out to my one piece of luck. I was able to consilidate from there when I picked up a few big hands, AA,QQ and AK that hit the flop. Very soon I was in the top ten chip stacks and that was where I stayed until the last 18 players remained.

By now blinds were high and any raise was pot committing. I lost 40k of my 270k trying to take out a short stack with A8, he had A9. I lost another 32k when I had to lay down to a re-raise. Eventually it came down to a race as I found 10 10 on the big blind and the pot was opened for a raise in early position. I was up against AJ and although I hit a ten on the flop he made a straight to the Jack and that was it. 14th and $1053 for my efforts.

The stars EPT qualifier started before that one finished and I got off to a good start when I got paid after flopping a set of queens. I was playing uber tight but still getting some action on my big hands and turned my starting stack of 2500 into 7500 by the second break. These qualifiers have 30 min levels so there is plenty of time to sit and wait.

I got up to 11k without showing a hand and stayed around that mark for an hour and a half just winning the blinds here and there. There were 226 runners and 12 seats being given away plus 13th-21st got their money back. For most of the tournament I was in the top 20. However as the money bubble approached my hands had dried up and I was in danger of missing out. After 5 hours of play the blinds were starting to catch up and I needed some chips. As in the Paddy Power torunament I got the A10 demons. I raised pre-flop and was called by the big blind. The flop came 9 9 7 and I held my breath and moved in. He folded pretty quickly. phew. Up to 18k now I was back at average.

From then on in it was a tense game of uncalled raises to keep myself level, the odd round I would getin two to make up for the ones where I got in none. The money bubble passed but it was still tight. Most people had more than 10x the blinds so there was no sign of anyone panicing yet. Eventually after 7 hours of play the blinds were having an effect. I was in 11th place of 13 on a table of  7. The two shorter stacks than me were on the other 6 handed table.  Most people on my table seemed content to let them blind out and most hands were folded to the blinds. I picked up AA & KK during this period and minimum raises took down pots that saw me go up to 30k+ and 8th position. It was now obvious that one of the two small stacks was going to fall but it took over 30 tense minutes for the 13th player to eventually get knocked out. London here I come, yeah baby!