Big Chief Poker News

Here is what happened earlier in the week.

I was sitting pretty as 2nd chip leader with Ace, Jack of clubs. The flop came Jack of hearts, 7 of clubs and the 2 of clubs.

The short stack made a raise all-in from the button. I thought that he maybe trying to steal the blinds and decided to call because he had been playing erratically all day and I had top pair with about 15 outs to come with any Jack, Ace or club, even if he had a hand. He showed Q,Q. Unfortunately they held up and he reduced my stack to half of it’s former glory.

The very next hand I looked down at King, King.

I shoved all in and said I was on tilt to try to encourage a call.

Another guy called immediately with Queen, Queen. Naturally a Queen came on the turn and I was left leaving the arena with my tail between my legs.

Consolation prize. I explained the situation to Chris Ferguson (Jesus) later and he said he would have played both hands the exact same way.

The annoying thing was that I could have walked away from the table and just waited to hit the money stage but then return to a tiny amount of chips. I was after the gold bracelet and $680,000 prize money.

Later, I am going to show you the winning entry ticket of this years World Series of Poker tournament as I got mine yesterday.

After having made the worst mistake possible a few days ago, I took a couple of days off and focused on other things. I worked hard and had great sleeps.

Today was a little different to say the least. I knew my friends from England were coming so I decided to collect them from the airport. That was fun and they were surprised!

Anyway, the point is that I thought, ‘I am only a couple of miles from the Rio and I need to register for tomorrow’s event’.

Once there, I decided to play in a single table knockout tournament for $175 per person. I managed to win that in just under two hours and was able to pocket a cool $1,620 in prize money.

I just wish I could do as well in the main tournaments where, it has to be said, there are just too many young Internet idiots getting lucky with the most outrageous hands. For example, I saw one chap go all in with 9, 3 unsuited because he said it was his favorite hand. Maybe he knew something different to me as the flop came 9, 9, 3! He managed to take two people out with that and they were flabbergasted.

Perhaps he should buy a lottery ticket next week.

Play resumes at 8pm Monday evening (UK Time).

Well it has taken me more than 24 hours to admit what happened in the tournament yesterday as I made the worst mistake I could possibly make.

Here it is…

I was less than 10 minutes into the event and was feeling really confident. I had lots of sleep the night before and no alcoholic drinks for 4 days. I just knew I was going to do well and that I would get good cards. Sometimes all you need is a positive outlook.

I looked down and saw the Ace, King of Diamonds and a guy made a small raise and I called as I have seen this good starting hand lose so many times in the past. There were only two of us in the hand when the flop came down Queen of diamonds, 9 of diamonds and the 2 of diamonds. I had made the nut flush!

The guy raised and I called. The turn came down the 4 of clubs.

He checked and so did I. When the river came 6 of hearts I knew I was home and dry. The best he could do was have pocket queens and he checked. I raised and he re-raised all in. My dreams were coming true as I knew he could not win. What a GREAT start to a tournament this was going to be.

He showed pocket queens and I said I had the nut flush and turned over my cards.

ARRGGGHHH! I had misread the King. IT WAS THE KING OF HEARTS, not diamonds! I left the arena with my tail between my legs and just could not believe what I had done. A misread is a basic error and I admit I did it.

I am not looking forward to reading your comments on this one

So far so good as I am well up on my initial investment.

Having said that, now is the day where I need to win a large amount of money and today’s event should enable me to do just that, cards and run permitting.

This is a three day event with approximately 4,000 runners so making final table would be a GREAT payoff. Anyway, too early to think that far ahead and just have to knuckle down and get on with the work in hand.

Had a good sleep last night and am up for a challenge. Although I am not superstitious I am going in plain clothes today and reward my self with the Indian outfit once I am in the money. That way, people will only remember the Indian for being a winner and not a loser. It also gives e an extra reason to hit the money goal.

Thanks for the comments guys. Keep them coming in as I need all the support I can get.

Was in the Shootout tournament today.

There were 2,000 entrants and for those of you who don’t know what a shootout tournament is, it is when you have to win against all the other 10 players at your own table and then it becomes a normal tournament with the winner from each table playing each other. They are automatically in the money stage.

I had a fantastic start and became the whole tournament leader within the first two hours.

Then my card drought began.

I was still OK with three player sleft on the table but one chap had a huge stack after having two lucky beats against much stronger hands. Then I looked down at my least favorite hand King Queen suited. I was small blind so I raised with only him to act. I knew it would have to be a significant raise as otherwise he wouldn’t feel threatened so I put in a third of my stack. He thought about it and called.

When the flop came down King, 9, 4, I shoved all in.

He immediately called and showed me his pocket Aces.

Day off tomorrow, so I will be doing some work.

Thanks to everyone for taking an interest and following my posts.

Today was amazing.

Just went along in disguise (Normal clothes) and entered a small satellite competition for the main event. The entry fee was $330 and the prize for 1st and 2nd was a main event $10,200 seat!

No cards were coming my way but I managed to hang on in there. If anything, it was to practice for tomorrow’s large shootout event.

Anyway, it ended up with me as one of the shorter stacks on the final table after 5 hours of play. Luckily I managed to get a good read of all the players and after another hour I became the chip leader with 4 of us left. 50/50 chance therefore of winning a MAIN EVENT seat.

Finally my patience and tactics paid dividends and I looked down at pocket kings against the short stack. He raised and I tried to act as though I had nothing but raised anyway. He re-raised and I called immediately. To say he was gutted was an understatement. I stole his chips and just three of us were left in the tournament. Me, Duane and Ralph – See picture above (Duane left & Ralph right).

I now had a massive chip lead with 49% of the total chips in play.

Somebody mentioned doing a deal and I agreed as long as I took $9,200 and they were to figure out their 2nd and 3rd prize pool. After some discussion we shook hands and I was declared the winner.

I have to say that it was an absolute pleasure to play with Duane and Ralph and Had Duane and I knew that Ralph had to go straight to the airport, maybe we would not have done a deal as he would have been on tilt.

Anyway, job done and Main event – Here I Come!

Hello dad.

Happy fathers day and sorry  cannot be with you today.

Here is a message from the best barman in the USA, ‘Stop dithering and get your sorry ass over here – you son needs your support and I need my buddy back’.

Anyway, going down today just to see what’s on and will post relevant news soon.

Love ‘The Chief’ x

Pondering

OK. I am not sure if anyone is reading this but it helps me get things off my chest.

Today was a weird one because I had no sleep at all last night (still on UK time) and therefore did my best to give the players and the cards the respect they deserved.

The problem that all you poker players know though, is that when you don’t get the cards, you have to take a few risks.

After 5 hours of tension, concentration and interviews I felt like I had been sat at the table for a week. Not only that, but I hadn’t had a great hand all day.

Having held my own for quite some time I saw people around me make crazy moves and often get away with things that frankly should have put them out of the tournament.

Soon huge chip stacks started to appear all around me and I had to make a move before I was swallowed by the ever increasing blinds.

I was on the button and had King, Jack suited.

I raised about 5 times the big blind so I could cover the antes as well, and the big blind raised over the top of me. (He was also short-stacked but just had me covered).

I thought about the situation and to avoid being blinded out decided to call even though I had half an idea that he was making a move. I was right.; he had Ace 3 unsuited.

I felt good about this but slowly felt doomed when a colourless flop hit the table. two cards later, I realised his Ace had held up. On balance, I still think I made the right move and am proud to say that I didn’t put a foot wrong all day. Anyway. another day – another dollar! Or less in this case.

Posts will continue soon.

Well, here I am again and although I say so myself, I have already made an impression. Not having been here for more than 10 minutes, I was asked to sign autographs – weird!

My first event is the $1,000 No Limit event which could run to four days. I am keeping my strategy on this one a closely guarded secret as there are too many top players sniffing out any information they can find.

All I can say for the moment is that I am prepared, focused and wish all you Torquay boys were here to share in the fun. I shall try to update this as often as I can and will implement a live Twitter feed in the next few days so I can post directly to the site from the table. Need to get my head around that one!

Anyway, as promised, here is a picture you can al smile about of the Manager of the card room in the Mint Casino in Torquay.

Matt, do I really look that handsome in my outfit? LOL

Tournament Donkey