30th March 2005
So this was it - the final game at Birch Towers, Wokingham. As usual we'd
agreed on a 19:30 kick-off. I arrived just before 19:30, at exactly the same
time as Andy. I casually mentioned that there were no other cars around,
which seemed strange. We strolled up to the door and rang the bell. Some
puzzled-looking bloke answered and said "Yeah, what? Who are you?". Classic
moment of "Uh-oh, are we at the wrong venue?" Anyway, while I discovered
that this was the new tenant and that he did know about the poker night
after all, Andy got on the phone to Graham to give him a load of abuse for
not being there. That proved unnecessary though, as from what I could make
out he was already getting an ear-bashing from Lindz while they argued about
whose fault it was that they were going to be late, while simultaneously
trying to break the Reading to Wokingham landspeed record.
Andy and I switched on the footy while waiting for the rest to turn up. At
about 19:45 we decided we may as well set up the table, so I went out to my
car to get the ever-present folding chairs (maybe it should be Dave "Two
Chairs" Sparrow) while Andy went out to his to fetch the poker table-top. At
this point we discovered Adam and Steve parked in the Jag in the driveway,
chatting away and looking like a scene from Minder, except not quite as
classy of course. Normality resumed shortly as Marty, Graham, Lindz and
Pete all turned up. We eventually got going at about 20:10.
Enough rambling; what about the poker? Eight players, one table. Usual ?5
rebuy format. Off we go.
Only my fourth TCP game, but it was soon obvious that something was
different. There was definitely less aggressive play early on, which had
always seemed to trigger Steve's "all-in" response (with everyone duly
following the trend), but this time he had nothing to spark things off and
in general the game trundled along far more slowly than in the past. I must
admit I did lose track of progress early on as I only played one hand in
about 45 minutes. Graham had exactly the same problem. As others built up
their stacks it was very difficult not to jump in just for the hell of it. I
even resorted to watching the footy after folding each hand, but gave up as
that was even more tedious than my poker hands.
At some point during my bout of depression I finally had something to smile
about. Adam picked up his cards immediately after the deal and said "Er, not
sure what to do about this, um, er...". While I tried to work out what the
hell he was on about, I picked mine up and spotted the problem. We had both
been dealt one duff card - one of those extra cards you get in the box in
addition to the jokers. We all agreed on a misdeal at which point Andy
turned the air blue as he showed pocket rockets! Having thought about this
a bit more today, I now realise that this was all my fault, as I had opened
the box, chucked the jokers and done the first shuffle before most people
turned up. I must have completely forgotten to check for any extra cards. If
it wasn't so bloody funny I'd apologise :)
Despite managing to expend his entire vocabulary of obscenities in about 30
seconds, Andy was actually doing OK and was chip leader about 70% of the way
through the rebuy stage. Graham and I were still struggling trying to play
with poor cards, and there had only been a couple of rebuys. Suddenly Adam
came to life and started chucking his chips into the pot in a carefree
style. Needless to say, sometimes you win and sometimes you don't - Adam
made about 5 rebuys in 15 minutes! This livened things up a bit and soon
there were large swings in stack size all over the place - back to the usual
TCP style.
About 10 minutes before the freezeout I finally hit a decent hand - two red
Aces. Marty got lured in and wiped out. This was great - I finally had some
chips to play with and a few hands to go before the freeze-out - maybe I
wasn't going to finish last after all. The very next hand Marty looked like
he was on tilt after his rebuy, and I had something decent so I called his
all-in. He turns over the same two Aces! Ooops, back to reality. Somewhere
round this point Graham's patience finally ran out and he went all-in with
something like 8 5 only to end up winning with a straight!
At the start of the freezeout, Andy was well in front with about 15k and
hadn't rebought at all. Lindz and Pete had a reasonable stack. Steve was a
bit behind them, then everyone else was pretty much level but well down at
around the 2k-3k mark. We counted the pot during the regulation fag-break
and settled on ?100, ?40, ?20 as the prizes, although about 5 minutes later
we discovered an extra ?10 from somewhere which we decided to add to the
first place prize. We all agreed that we ought to have an agreed payout
percentage structure in future that we try to stick to, as it's different
every week at the moment.
Without any real fireworks, players began to drop out: Lindz and Steve were
first. Not even the Chew-Chip could save Lindz at the end, although there
was a noticeable lack of the use of Woo that evening which couldn't have
helped. Pete followed shortly afterwards. Adam tarted to take down a number
of small pots with all-in raises. In a hand with just him and Marty, he
suddenly announced all-in in a slightly different way than usual. Graham,
Andy and I all caught each others' eye, but Marty had spotted it too and
called him. Adam had absolutely nothing and Marty took him out.
Graham and I were both desperate not to go out on the bubble having had such
a poor start but still managing to survive in the game - this led to a fair
bit of cagey play with lots of small bets and early folding. The exception
was Marty, who was putting in large raises after the flop and consistently
forcing other people to fold. Graham couldn't believe it - every time he had
something worth sticking with Marty priced him out of the hand. I was lucky
enough to finally pick up a few pots during all of this, but Graham's poor
bubble luck came back to haunt him yet again and he was out.
Three players left. Andy was way out in front with about 70% of the chips. I
had about 20% and Marty had the other 10%. The game was taking quite a while
to move forward with Marty and I not willing to commit and Andy wanting to
preserve his lead. Eventually I had 4 4 and decided I had to go all-in with
it. Marty had come to a similar conclusion that a move had to be made and
not surprisingly showed two good overcards on the call. Luckily for me the
fours held up and we were down to the last two players.
Due to the slower than normal drop-out rate, we had got as far as 800/1600
blinds by this stage, and we decided to cut the blind times down to help
speed things up a little as it was getting late. I managed to steal a few
pots with a couple of bluffs and also had a few genuine hands but Andy
couldn't seem to hit anything - I eventually caught him up as we hit the
1000/2000 stage.
The final hand came down to Andy holding A 6 and me holding 9 7. The big
blind was just called. I think the flop came 4 8 9. I was worried about Andy
slow-playing a big pair as he'd been slow-playing a fair bit during the
evening, so although he checked and I had top pair, I checked also. The turn
was a 6, making the board 4 8 9 6 Andy went all-in. At this point I thought
he may have had that big pair after all, or maybe two overcards. I had top
pair on the board though and an open-ended straight draw. I called and he
could only show the pair of sixes. The river didn't help anyone and my pair
of nines won the day!
My first TCP win and after a desperately slow start I really enjoyed the
evening. I can't help wondering about what would have happened with Andy's
pocket rocket hand though :)
agreed on a 19:30 kick-off. I arrived just before 19:30, at exactly the same
time as Andy. I casually mentioned that there were no other cars around,
which seemed strange. We strolled up to the door and rang the bell. Some
puzzled-looking bloke answered and said "Yeah, what? Who are you?". Classic
moment of "Uh-oh, are we at the wrong venue?" Anyway, while I discovered
that this was the new tenant and that he did know about the poker night
after all, Andy got on the phone to Graham to give him a load of abuse for
not being there. That proved unnecessary though, as from what I could make
out he was already getting an ear-bashing from Lindz while they argued about
whose fault it was that they were going to be late, while simultaneously
trying to break the Reading to Wokingham landspeed record.
Andy and I switched on the footy while waiting for the rest to turn up. At
about 19:45 we decided we may as well set up the table, so I went out to my
car to get the ever-present folding chairs (maybe it should be Dave "Two
Chairs" Sparrow) while Andy went out to his to fetch the poker table-top. At
this point we discovered Adam and Steve parked in the Jag in the driveway,
chatting away and looking like a scene from Minder, except not quite as
classy of course. Normality resumed shortly as Marty, Graham, Lindz and
Pete all turned up. We eventually got going at about 20:10.
Enough rambling; what about the poker? Eight players, one table. Usual ?5
rebuy format. Off we go.
Only my fourth TCP game, but it was soon obvious that something was
different. There was definitely less aggressive play early on, which had
always seemed to trigger Steve's "all-in" response (with everyone duly
following the trend), but this time he had nothing to spark things off and
in general the game trundled along far more slowly than in the past. I must
admit I did lose track of progress early on as I only played one hand in
about 45 minutes. Graham had exactly the same problem. As others built up
their stacks it was very difficult not to jump in just for the hell of it. I
even resorted to watching the footy after folding each hand, but gave up as
that was even more tedious than my poker hands.
At some point during my bout of depression I finally had something to smile
about. Adam picked up his cards immediately after the deal and said "Er, not
sure what to do about this, um, er...". While I tried to work out what the
hell he was on about, I picked mine up and spotted the problem. We had both
been dealt one duff card - one of those extra cards you get in the box in
addition to the jokers. We all agreed on a misdeal at which point Andy
turned the air blue as he showed pocket rockets! Having thought about this
a bit more today, I now realise that this was all my fault, as I had opened
the box, chucked the jokers and done the first shuffle before most people
turned up. I must have completely forgotten to check for any extra cards. If
it wasn't so bloody funny I'd apologise :)
Despite managing to expend his entire vocabulary of obscenities in about 30
seconds, Andy was actually doing OK and was chip leader about 70% of the way
through the rebuy stage. Graham and I were still struggling trying to play
with poor cards, and there had only been a couple of rebuys. Suddenly Adam
came to life and started chucking his chips into the pot in a carefree
style. Needless to say, sometimes you win and sometimes you don't - Adam
made about 5 rebuys in 15 minutes! This livened things up a bit and soon
there were large swings in stack size all over the place - back to the usual
TCP style.
About 10 minutes before the freezeout I finally hit a decent hand - two red
Aces. Marty got lured in and wiped out. This was great - I finally had some
chips to play with and a few hands to go before the freeze-out - maybe I
wasn't going to finish last after all. The very next hand Marty looked like
he was on tilt after his rebuy, and I had something decent so I called his
all-in. He turns over the same two Aces! Ooops, back to reality. Somewhere
round this point Graham's patience finally ran out and he went all-in with
something like 8 5 only to end up winning with a straight!
At the start of the freezeout, Andy was well in front with about 15k and
hadn't rebought at all. Lindz and Pete had a reasonable stack. Steve was a
bit behind them, then everyone else was pretty much level but well down at
around the 2k-3k mark. We counted the pot during the regulation fag-break
and settled on ?100, ?40, ?20 as the prizes, although about 5 minutes later
we discovered an extra ?10 from somewhere which we decided to add to the
first place prize. We all agreed that we ought to have an agreed payout
percentage structure in future that we try to stick to, as it's different
every week at the moment.
Without any real fireworks, players began to drop out: Lindz and Steve were
first. Not even the Chew-Chip could save Lindz at the end, although there
was a noticeable lack of the use of Woo that evening which couldn't have
helped. Pete followed shortly afterwards. Adam tarted to take down a number
of small pots with all-in raises. In a hand with just him and Marty, he
suddenly announced all-in in a slightly different way than usual. Graham,
Andy and I all caught each others' eye, but Marty had spotted it too and
called him. Adam had absolutely nothing and Marty took him out.
Graham and I were both desperate not to go out on the bubble having had such
a poor start but still managing to survive in the game - this led to a fair
bit of cagey play with lots of small bets and early folding. The exception
was Marty, who was putting in large raises after the flop and consistently
forcing other people to fold. Graham couldn't believe it - every time he had
something worth sticking with Marty priced him out of the hand. I was lucky
enough to finally pick up a few pots during all of this, but Graham's poor
bubble luck came back to haunt him yet again and he was out.
Three players left. Andy was way out in front with about 70% of the chips. I
had about 20% and Marty had the other 10%. The game was taking quite a while
to move forward with Marty and I not willing to commit and Andy wanting to
preserve his lead. Eventually I had 4 4 and decided I had to go all-in with
it. Marty had come to a similar conclusion that a move had to be made and
not surprisingly showed two good overcards on the call. Luckily for me the
fours held up and we were down to the last two players.
Due to the slower than normal drop-out rate, we had got as far as 800/1600
blinds by this stage, and we decided to cut the blind times down to help
speed things up a little as it was getting late. I managed to steal a few
pots with a couple of bluffs and also had a few genuine hands but Andy
couldn't seem to hit anything - I eventually caught him up as we hit the
1000/2000 stage.
The final hand came down to Andy holding A 6 and me holding 9 7. The big
blind was just called. I think the flop came 4 8 9. I was worried about Andy
slow-playing a big pair as he'd been slow-playing a fair bit during the
evening, so although he checked and I had top pair, I checked also. The turn
was a 6, making the board 4 8 9 6 Andy went all-in. At this point I thought
he may have had that big pair after all, or maybe two overcards. I had top
pair on the board though and an open-ended straight draw. I called and he
could only show the pair of sixes. The river didn't help anyone and my pair
of nines won the day!
My first TCP win and after a desperately slow start I really enjoyed the
evening. I can't help wondering about what would have happened with Andy's
pocket rocket hand though :)
By Dave 'Slow Play' Sparrow
bravenet.com