So, yeah yesterday.
We turned up at The Heroes, our home venue to contest the Southern Inter-League Challenge Cup. Two teams pulled out the very day before, which left us (Waterlooville), Portsmouth, Southampton, Fareham, Gosport, Chichester, Bognor and a Duffs invitaional team. All my team were there ready to play, but some people didnt show, meaning last minte replacements and whatnot.
The first part of the tournament was STTs, with every players position earning points towards their teams final table chipstack. As there were less teams than expected, there was now no walk of shame for any teams, as all wold make the final table. As a result of the last minute team reshuffle, I ended up with a mch softer table then I had originally been lined up with.
Early play saw no-one taking a dominating chip lead, but I managed to accumulate a good number of chips by the first break turning 6k into 8k, but no eliminations. After the break it kicked off, with K-K and then J-J getting me up to 12k and the chip lead. It all looked fantastic, until one ginger player who has knocked me out of an area final before started his usual bot of card-rackery. Firstly he called a raise when I had A-A. A board of 4-6-10 with two hearts saw him call my raise, only for another 10 to hit on the turn. I bet small, and he called, and the final card the 3 hearts completing a potential flush as well. I had to fold. Bah.
After a couple of hands a board of Q-10-4-K-6 left me terminal after he called a big bet on the flop, beating my Q-10 with K-10. I was so annoyed that my chips had left me in 6th out of 6th, with perhaps a 5th possible at best, especially after having the chip lead. But some silly all ins from other players left me and one other playing vying for third against two massive stacks. After a marathon, I finally eliminated her, and in fact miraclos snatched 2nd. It wold have been first, if hadnt been for a cruel A-A < A-K all in which saw two kings roll out on the board for trips. The final hand to put me back at evens heads up was A-8 vs K-4 - only to see a turned 4 end my chances of a captains victory. Still second had been enough to win a good chip bonus for my team. Elsewhere, Mike and Adam had secured wins, whilst Jamie had managed a second as well. We also had a 4th, 5th, 6th and a 7th from star player Mark Barrow, who has recently been on the run of his poker life.
These results put us in second by only 1pt, so we had the second largest chip stack on the final table, 14,000 with starting blinds 100/200.
We were changing players every 25 minutes, and the first for guys Mike, Bob, Leigh and Mark ground our stack up to 28,000, remarkably WITHOUT having called an all-in. At this point we knew we had a chance. It also helped that we had position on our main rivals Portsmouth.
After I had played seventh, a unconfident Dave played his socks off to regain the chip lead with three teams left, Portsmouth, Fareham and Waterlooville. Then up stepped Woody to play for Portsmouth. Bob was due to go in, but instead I made a last minute decision to play Mark, as Woody has been recently knocked out a lot by him. Sure enough aggressive short stack play was snap called by us, with 9-9 dominating an off suit 9-8 with the board offering no help.
We were heads up, with our best heads up player in the seat (I'm the second best
) with 60% of the chips. Some aggresive raises got us up to 70% before the crucial hand.
Mark had raised with K-2 o/s, only to see 'Fish' call the raise. A board of K-5-3 saw 'Fish' bet out big. Quickly, Mark re-raised to 17,000, which left 'Fish' with only the one move. He duly after tanking went all in, and Mark looked at us, and showed us the K-2 and called for 9k more. Losing would have left us down to about 20% and probably dead.
Remarkably, Mark had him pegged, and 'Fish' can only table 5-8 o/s. Turn a 4, and a rivered Jack won us the Southern Challenge Cup sending the team into raptures! Every single player played really well, with players playing better later on if they had a poor first table and vice versa. It was a great day, and we didn't really put a major foot wrong all day!
\o/
It feels SO good to have won something like this, and to have had the respect of my team, and congratulations for having been a great captain, many people suggesting that jamming Mark at the end was a masterstroke.
Anyway, heres some pics!
Leigh, Adam, myself, Dave, Jamie, Mark and Bob (Mike had to leave early)