32Red Poker Blog

Empire Casino, Main Event

I’ve been down in the big smoke this weekend, playing in the Main Event of the festival at the Empire Casino. It’s been a really fun couple of days, with the enjoyment of playing with familiar faces heightened by the fabulous structure and 15,000 starting stack.

Yesterday was an ambivalent day, as I played some decent poker aside from a couple of pots which I should have played differently. It always leaves me frustrated, wondering whether that dream of a faultless day is something that is achievable. However, I was quite happy to be coming back with 44,300, with a line-up that would produce a fun day. I had tried to play aggressively from the start, at a table that was weak apart from the short-stacked Karl Mahrenlohz.

It was with a little more than this stack that I entered this crucial pot. The table had been generously limpy, and a pot with four other limpers was the perfect set-up to finding kings in the big blind. I raised a sizeable 8,000 more, very hopeful that one of two particular characters would be eager to disbelieve me. The first limper made a big flat call, and I was just planning how to play the pot heads up as it came round to the second guy. He could not possibly have a hand. He had limped into a number of pots, but raised every time he had a hand; as the second limper, he had absolutely no story to tell.

However, he decided to make the least cunning all-in move I have ever witnessed, and I beat him into the pot with my kings. A 110k+ pot would rely on me holding up against the 87 of diamonds……..

No, of course I didn’t. A door card seven brought a sick feeling of inevitability, before the flop then cruelly twisted the story to bring some hope, as it came 997. However, I could not catch the miracle of runner-runner non-sevens. It came on the turn, and I was gone. I’ve become familiar with this couple of minutes of being exhausted with disappointment, but it does not make it any easier.

After a couple of minutes I had come round smiling, and as before I just thought “never mind.” I’m so lucky to be able to play these tournaments in good company, and there is just no point dwelling on good or bad luck for too long. Today, I just feel an energy more than ever before to learn from every experience, and improve as much as I can. When I think to the future, it is not more bad luck that scares me; it is getting good luck, and failing to take advantage of it.

Blog Freeroll

I’m really looking forward to taking part in the 32 Red’s blog freeroll this Thursday evening, at 9pm. 32 Red have put on an exciting tournament, and the element of the bounty will add to the excitement. Get yourself registered, and I’ll see you at the tables on Thursday.