Sunday 1 November 2009

Oneway Poker


Went to Junction 10 last night for the Oneway Poker tournament held to promote the Romanello family's new online poker site, as well as (theoretically) to celebrate the Walsall card room's 10th anniversary.

Great competition, £150 + £15 buyin, 10,000 chips, 45 minute clock, so plenty of scope for play, and it was supposed to be capped at 140 runners. They managed to squeeze a few more in for a capacity crowd, and with alternates the final total was 168 runners.

My table was pretty tight for a few hours, with the possible exception of Pete "The Bandit" Evans, sat on my immediate right, who featured on the original series of Late Night Poker, coming second to Devilfish. He claimed one pot last night showing 58 off suit, and eventually exited (shortly after me) when he disbelievingly ran pocket 6s into AA.

Not being quite so inventive as Pete, and with nothing much to play with, the only notable hand for me was when a Chinese lad lad raised UTG preflop, one caller in mid position, and I flatted with pocket Jacks. The flop was an attractive J 5 5, and the original raiser led out for 600, mid position folds, and I flat call. The turn is an Ace and matey leads out for another 900, which I repop to 2500, hoping he has hit his Ace, but he folds. I never got higher than about 12k in chips as I couldnt get going. Lots of nice playable late-position hands - but in early position, which had to be mucked, by and large, and the one time I got AA I was in the small blind - all fold to me, I min-raise hoping that he will fight back and he folds.

My worst spot came when the table "talker" raised in mid-position with what was essentially a bag of spanners, I called with AJ, hit the J on a seemingly innocuous flop, he bet 2800, I reraised to 5600, he called, and turned a straight. I slowed down after his call and he was trapping so it didnt prove fatal, but it was somewhat crippling. From going nice and steady I was down to 1675 chips and then had to go on a pushfest - four times in about six hands, luckily with decent cards but as it turned out, mostly behind, and sucking out - within 10 minutes I had AQ against a disbelieving AJ in the blinds and was back up to 8100 - a workable stack but still well below average as the numbers were falling as rapidly as a £5 rebuy.

After that little burst I went card dead again and tried a few things that didnt come off, so found myself down on 4500 and needing a couple of double ups with blinds now at 300/600. One of the pros at the table, Steve Jelinek, limped under the gun and all folded to me. I looked down at AsJs. Paused momentarily and pushed. Steve lazily started counting out his chips and made the call with pocket 4s. Two spades on the board gave me hopes of a flush but none of my outs came and I departed in about 67th spot I think. Good comp though, I enjoyed it. Dont know whether a raise and a bet on the flop might have been a better strategy in that last hand, but with an M of only 5 I was definitely in push or fold territory. He obviously knew he was flipping but had the chips to call.

Had a good chat with Antoni Romanello afterwards and spoke about an affiliate deal for the Oneway site, so hopefully will have a special deal available by the end of the week. Watch this space.

No comments: