Huh... What a trip. I finally have the energy to think about my trip to the PartyPoker.com European III Qualifying Heat that was held on 6th of December in the Maidstone Studios, Kent, UK.
First of all. I had been sick since the last weekend and had to visit a doctor on monday. The doctor or nurse or whatever gave me couple of days off from work not that I really had a chance to stay home feeling sick since I had to leave to London on tuesday afternoon.
I went to the airport early since I figured there might be quite a lot of people on the eve of Indepence Day but it was actually quite the opposite. So... What happens when you are early on the airport? The plane is almost an hour late. Of course. I already had a quite a tight schedule after I get to London even if the plane would be on time but now it was almost 2 hours late. **it! I still had to take a train (which was late) to London Centre and then take an underground to Victoria train station and then another train to Maidstone. Phew... Somehow I managed to get to Maidstone and some football fans even gave me a ride to my hotel so I was ready to go to bed at about 3:00 finnish time which was 1:00 am in UK. That means that it actually took me 12 hours to get there... What a trip...
One thing was good though. I was so tired that I really didn't have any problems getting to sleep ;) And after a good night sleep and a 'English breakfast' that makes even heart disease scream mercy (I just wonder that how long could you actually live with that crap without popping a vain) I was ready to go to the studio.
When I got to the studios we went to the green room with other players to wait for the tournament to start. First I (and all other players) had a little interview about what I like about poker and what do I think about
John Magill (one of the other players in my qualifying heat) and I managed to studder something nearby the issues they were asking about.
After all the hazzle we were ready to start the tournament. I was sitting on the first seat and the very entertaining
Mr. Barry Hearn was on the second seat. A pro player called Jonny Greek was sitting on the third place followed by the famous Irish poker pro John Magill. The fifth player was Mr. Dave Garbacz and on seat six was another online qualifier Mr. Ian Cleary.
The game was ready to start. I was on Small Blind and the blinds started at 1000/2000 and the starting stack was 100 000. Shuffle up and deal! Yes! Finally! Jonny Greek called from UTG position and everybody else folded. It was my turn and I checked my cards AJ. G'Damn... I hate it when I get good cards on the first hand! Well... I decided to raise to 6000 anyway and noticed even myself that my hand was shaking. I knew that nobody in their right mind would call that unless they really have some good cards. And that was what happened. Yes! I won the first pot and didn't even have to show my cards! Barry figured that I had AQ and I really didn't want to correct him on that ;)
My plan was to play it very safe and collect pots whenever possible without risking too much. My goal was to get to Heads-Up game and then start to take more risks. And I have to say that I managed to do just that. Only problem was that John Magill managed to take few quite big pots early on and was in a really big chip lead from the start.
The game was actually more aggressive from the beginning than I though it would be. I think one reason for that was John Magills aggressive play and the fact that there was more pocket rockets in the game than any other cards. There was even a situation where Jonny Greek and Ian Cleary went to battle and ended up going both all-in with AA. Now that doesn't happen everyday! They ended up splitting the pot but it got to be quite entertaining since Ian got a flush draw from the turn. Wow. What a game!
The next time Jonny went all in was when John Magill had the aces against his pocket queens so Jonny Greek ended up being the first one out of the heat. Barry Hearn had the pocket rockets also couple of deals later but that time he didn't get any action. After a while Barry was the next one leaving the table when he went all in with A9 or something like that against Dave's AK. I did manage to take couple of pots from him before that though ;)
Before Barry left the table I had a situation where I had to figure out if I should go all in with my AJ after Ian went all in from the UTG position with a bit less than 40k. I decided not to take the risk that someone after me would call with some AK or pair. After everybody else folded I had to kick my own ass a bit mentally. I should've gone all in. ...I think.
After one and a half hour of playing we had the first break. The chip counts were checked during the break and John Magill was quite strongly on first position with a bit over 300k and I was on second place with a bit over 100k. Dave Garbacz was 3rd with something like 60k and Ian Cleary was on respirator with about 35k if I remember at all correctly.
When we continued the blinds were 5000/10000. After couple of hands Dave went all in with A something after John Magill had raised to 20k from the small blind. After some consideration John called and managed to drop Dave out with QJ after getting a pair from the board.
Good. My plan was going on strong and the next stop was to play Ian Cleary out and get to play against John Magill in heads up. I finally got what I was hoping for - KK - I stalled a bit and just called 10k from UTG hoping that at least another one of them would raise so that I could push all chips in the middle. John folded and Ian raised to 30k and had something like 18k left after that. I took a short moment to think even though that was exactly what I was hoping he'd do. I went all in and Ian quickly called.
Guess what? Once again he had AA in the pocket so no wonder he was eager to go all in. Damned! Now I really needed to get lucky to be able to drop him. He got a set from the flop so it was looking even worse for me. I did have a running nut flush draw though and got my hopes up after the turn was a fourth spade. Now it was all up to the river... And... I didn't get lucky this time. Sigh!
Now I was short stack (about 50k or so) and on Big Blind the next round. I had some crappy hands and had to give up the blinds but I managed to get them back straight away after going all in with A9 from UTG. Next hand I had J9s in Big Blind and John raised to 30k so that if I would call I would have to go basically all in. I figured that he had some middle pair but I decided to fold and hoped to get some Ax or pair during the next couple of hands.
I got what I hoped for - 22 - except that I was hoping to get a bit BIGGER pair to start with. Nex time I'll be more specific ;) Anyway. I went all in from UTG and John folded but Ian decided to call with A3. Dough! I guess I would've called that too with A. The flop was 6 6 A. Sigh! I was screwed. I had to get a 2 and avoid A or 6 on the turn & river. I didn't :( The turn was A so I was out!
It was a bit disappointing but I have to say that I really enjoyed it. I really wanted to get to Heads Up though. Well... I'll get there next time then ;)
