Stand clear, lemmings, I'm coming through!

Following on from my stunning success (not!) at Walsall on Wednesday, I opted to go to Star City instead of Stoke on Friday, because I noticed that their Friday rebuy had attracted large numbers the previous week and a huge prize pool. When I got there, I discovered why – the previous weekend they had been staging some big tournament for online players who had come as far as Sweden, and the ones who arrived early played the Friday night game, hence the boost in numbers and prizes. One London player apparently had 32 rebuys and needed to come 4th to break even. He didn’t make the money.

Only 65 on Friday, so never mind. Ended up on the same table as Jim “The Cod” Farrell, who I had done a chop with when we were three handed last time I played there about six months ago; no notable hands, KK during the first level of the rebuy period where I missed out on a few hundred extra chips – I raised on the bb after about 6 limpers, all fold to Jim, didn’t realise he was still in the hand and showed, so he kept back the 300 he was about to throw in lol. Silly me. Eventually bloody annoyed when I needed a double up and had my QQ called by 99, who hit his set, sigh. All fairly standard but pales into insignificance compared to what happened at the Broadway on Saturday.

Never really got going on Saturday, and at the break was bumping along with about 6.5k. (6k starting) Treading water for an age, card dead, making a few steals here and there but getting respect and taking the blinds. The guy on my right was a complete moron – been playing J2 off, K4 off all night, suffering big swings, down then up, pretty bad standard and obviously noted by the rest of the table. So with blinds at 300/600, and having bled down to about 5.4k chips, I made the mistake of just raising with KdQd UTG, instead of pushing. With an ‘M’ of only 6, my only move was a push really, and I thought about it, but felt sure I could get it through with a raise to 2400 as it looked like I wanted action, and probably wouldnt be in too bad a shape if I got it.

All fold to the genius, who asks how much it is for him to call – he’s only on about 7k at this stage so he cant afford to bleed chips any more than I can, but he elects to make the call. Flop is 334, one diamond, and he puts me all in – standard float bet, I gotta call for 3k into a 8.1k pot, but NO! He’s only called me preflop with 3 7 of diamonds, the muppet. And then spiked the 7 on the river just for good measure. First time I’ve ever risen from the table with an ill-tempered derogatory comment to my opponent. What a call preflop, I ask ya. A couple of others on the table asked him what he thought he was playing at with that call, but he was oblivious.

But muppet calls were the order of the day at Broadway – a friend of mine made the break with over 20k. How? He got dealt 9 2 off suit in the BB. Flop 8 9 10. All check to cutoff who bets 300. Matey “doesn’t believe he’s got it”, so reraises to 900. The other guy pushes – so he calls, saying aloud “I don’t believe you have it”. The guy flipped 10 7 for top pair and the up and down draw. My buddy hit another 9 on the river. Muppet!

Ran better online last night. DTD have moved from Crypto to Boss Media (IPN), and anyone who had an account and downloaded the new software could enter a freeroll last night for a seat in their £300 event at the Easter weekend. 514 runners I think, only one prize, and I came 26th. Might have done better if I hadnt been under pressure to go to bed, but the girlfriend had been away for 5 days, and was getting impatient watching me play online, so I just banged it all in with Ah 10h when the table luckbox had raised 4BB UTG – all fold to him and he made the call for another 17k with pocket 4’s, great call, I never hit and the 4 on the river was irrelevant. Still, felt OK on Boss again, I’ve been boycotting it/Virgin for at least eight months because I couldn’t win a sit’n’go on that network – the outdraws were so bad it felt rigged. And when someone calls a large raise on a cash table with 3 9 os only to flop a house you start wondering if they know what cards are coming. Still, may give it another go ..... stand clear, lemmings, I'm coming through.