Sunday 5th in the Fitz.

DeVore

I swore I wasnt going to play the Freeroll but its like, you know, FREE 'n' ****! Again I did terribly, getting a largish stack and then blowing it in two 50-50 hands. So I spot Joe O'Neill wandering in and we fall to chatting. After a minute we decide to play heads up for a wager.

Now usually I hate heads up but its worth a tenner for the trashtalk and giggles that are to be had with Mr O'Neill, so we play. It goes back and forth a bit but I grind him down to 550 chips to my 1450 when out of nowhere he suggests we double the bet! I naturally accept. The very next hand we arrive at a situation where we have both played on the blind all in and I need a card higher then an 8 to take the pot, lower then an 8 to split it! Of course its lower then an 8 and we split the pot. A few hands later Joe is victorious.

This is all a precursor to the 20 game!
Now I've not had a final table appearance in my old favourite tournie for several weeks and its been p|ssing me off. I nearly wasnt going to play last night as I've had a string of inglorious blowouts for the last few times and its been costing me all of my winnings from SNGs!
I decided that I'd go for a pint with Joe and Anto and let the first level pass and so we merry few wandered back to be dumped on the same table along with Oscar (Bohsman). Let trash talk commence!

I did my usual busting of heads early on but this time I was determined NOT to just fling chips at my opponents in some sort of squid-like ink-squirt manouvre to effect my escape (aka exit from the tournie!)

Joe didnt do so well and was on his last rebuy. Anto was doing worse with a dreadful run of luck, getting rivered again and again and again! I've been needling Joe about what a jammy bastid he is and how he cant really play cards, only people etc etc (all boll0x but you've no friends around the table).
Suddenly Joe offers me a bet, 20 quid he'll last longer then me. I accept as he has about 1.5k and only the top up to come and I have 8K and havent had a single rebuy... Lets get it on!

Of course, thats the last thing I should have done. Now the competition has gone from something that was just keeping Joe from the bar, to something he wants to win for a reason. He tightens up and gets through to the top up and we are split onto tables 1 and 2. At this stage Oscar has also joined our little game with side bets between me and oscar, and oscar and Joe!

The three of us make it to the last two tables and are more interested in each others stacks then the game at hand! Joe absolutely rampages on the other table it seems (Samson was there so he might know more) but come final table Joe has just made a monster stack!
Back on my table we're playing proper poker and I'm doing quite well. I take out a number of players including an "inspired" call against LaFortezza with my 55 after some loose trashtalk gave me a hint he didnt have a higher pair.
Sorry Luke, but at least you cant say there is collusion between the SuitedAces lads heheh!

Two more players get consumed by my Godzillaesque stack and when final table is formed I'm pretty much tied for biggest stack. Oscar and I then see no cards for what seems like an age... I can survive that but its near fatal for Oscar who hasnt the stack to sit and wait. Despite some impressive ducking and weaving, Oscar runs into Joe who (for once) wasnt bluffing and departs sixth (?). Joe has just been the JAMMIEST bastard alive, has been in the thick of the action from the start of final table and has been doing the usual Joe-Show. I hate The Joe Show (it wrecks my game) but at least he's to my right!!
Joe wins with 52, Joe wins with 68, Joe gets his aces cracked!! The only legitimate hand I saw him play is the one that gets his stack decimated!
It gets down to three of us and I certainly wasnt thinking about the prize, I was thinking about outlasting Joe and hoping I could get some revenge headsup! Unfortunately Joe pushed his luck once too often and I caught him with A10 in the BB which (for once) held up.

Heads up didnt last long, AK for my opponent to my A5 (flop comes AJ5 but the turn brought a King ). My opponent wanted to make a deal but was offering me 500 to his 600 (he had 70K chips to my 58K). I would have accepted that but he only wanted to leave 25 for the dealers. I thought that was a bit scabby and suggested we leave 50. He basically said I could leave more if I wanted to but he wanted to have 600 in his hand, so for the first time ever I refused a deal (and then lost! DOH!). All the same, second place for ~€400 was nice! Roll on wednesday!


DeV.

Juan Pablo

Joe getting into that shouting match with Chinese Micheal was gas! Mind you, had he not hit that third club for his flush against Paddy he would have been gone. Which would have suited me because I was sitting to his right and caught a frozen run of cards on table 2, disappearing in 12th place.

DeVore

Yeah that was funny too. The pair of them shouting at each other! I thought the Chinese bloke was being a cnut to be honest and I've seen him be a wanker to the dealers before and they all just nod and say "yes, yes yes" and ignore him. Yeah Joe is loud but he wasnt last night except for that roar when he hit a club. I didnt see Micheal complaining when the cheers went up for the bad beat being won!

The sooner they split the tournies from the (sometimes arrogant) cash players the better imho (no offence to the cash players here). They are different crowds with different reasons for being there and having them mixed is a bad idea.

DeV.