Saturday 17 January 2009

APAT Qualification for UK National Championship

So with three satellites on Blue Square, and the ensuing "Clickfest" (online purchase lottery that manages to clear out 150 tickets in 120 seconds), I would surely be able to bag myself a ticket for Walsall in Feb09.

My preparation for the series of satellites was to spend much time reading Gus Hansen's book, and with my new found concept of loose aggressive play Hansen stsyle, I hit the Blue Square tables. After playing gadzillions of hands early on, I was with the chip leaders after 20 minutes in the first satellite..... but out before the first break. Ho hum - let's try Tuesday........ once again, up near the top early on, but gone before the break. Gus Hansen approach almost working - just a couple of imperfections to iron out - like recognising that sometimes rag hands can lose!

On to the third and final satellite - a $5 rebuy. I hate rebuys!! I'll say that again - I hate rebuys!!!! I had no chance in this game, and decided to have fun and be uber aggressive (more than usual) from the first hand. 54o was good enough for an opening raise, but the re-raise didn't look too nice, especially when it attracted 2 other callers - however I couldn't now fold my 540 as the odds were far too attractive. When the flop came 23Q, I knew my double buy in was going to end up in the middle. Fortunately, even with 4 people looking at the flop, it checked around for a free turn card.... which was a blank. At that point it went crazy with everyone moving in.... I fished, and the beautiful 6 came on the river. After a couple more crazy hands, I had 39k, whilst average stack was only 4.5k, and second place had 16k. Easy ride from here on in?...... not! Ended up clinging on as the shortest stack when the bubble came, and with a bit of bad luck elsewhere, managed to scrape through. Whew!!

Thank God I avoided the lottery that is Clickfest - I don't think my nerves or fingernails could stand two nights in a row.

So, on to Walsall in Feb - can't wait.

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