Live at the Stanley

This week I got my first chance to visit the Stanley "Mint" casino in Glasgow and take part in one of their tournaments. I've wanted to go to the Stanley for simply ages, but never seemed to get around to it. That all changed this week when i tagged along with a few of my local poker buddies to the Thursday night £25 Freezeout.

A couple of the lads I was with play there reasonably regularly and are pretty good players. I wasn't sure how I would fair. I guess I was reasonably confident that I would hold my own and not look like a complete donk, but more than that... I wasn't sure.

I'm delighted to say the evening was a great successs with me taking down 4th place for £110 from a field of 43 players. I picked up a couple of small pots early on but concentrated on playing tight and trying to get a feel for the game and style of my opponents. For the first hour of the game I hardly saw a single face card. When I finally did, I lost a a chunk of chips in two different hands, just before the break. So I went into the break a little unsure if I would last until the next break.

The second session started and my chips continued to dwindle as the blinds increased. Every time I picked up a hand or was going to target a players blind it would be raised before me and I'd have to abandon the hand. I picked up Jacks in late position but there was a raise and a re-raise before it got to me, so into the muck they went. It turns out I was up against pocket Kings and Ace-Queen on a board showing a second Ace, sigh of relief. The blinds were now starting to catch me and it was time to start moving. Luckily I picked up a couple of hands, shoved, got called both times and won both races. So I was back out of the danger zone and back to average stack level.

Then the defining hand came along. I was sitting in the big blind and I picked up 9-5 offsuit. One player limped in from mid position and the Small Blind limped too. I was wathcing the Small Blind as the flop came down, he was a relatively new arrival at the table, had just lost a couple of pots, and was now a bit below average in chips. I knew he was getting ready to make a move and sure enough, shove. I turned to look at the flop and couldn't believe my luck when I spotted a 9-5-X. Could my opponent have trips? Hang on a moment... look at the flop more closely 9-5-9, I've flopped a full house, the high side of it no less. Rock'n'Roll. I pretend to deliberate for another moment then calmly call the Small Blinds 9,100 all-in fully expecting the reamining player to fold.

The reamining player takes another glance at his cards then looks at his below average chipstack, counts off his chips and sticks them in the middle too, leaving himself with just one $100 chip. The turn comes down, it's inconsequential. I hold a single $100 chip, smile at the boy and chuck it in, he smiles back and chucks in his $100 chip. Card on there backs and he has A-J suited and the small blind had a 5 in his hand and had made two pair on the flop. Both were drawing dead and I was now in possession of a very respectable ~30,000 chips. Happy Days.

I've got to rush out now, errands to do, so I need to try and wrap this up.. Suffice to say. I made the final table, lasted longer than my buddies. Made some awesome laydowns and dodged some potentially terminal encounters. Got reads on a couple of guys and managed to use one of them to take a lad out.

I took out a couple of folk at the final table and was marginal chip leader. But as we got short-handed I started playing like a pussy and didn't use my stack to take control the way I normally would in that position. My buddies had left and I would have to get a taxi home, so I REALLY didn't want to buuble. So I played like a complete woos and made it through the bubble. By that time the blinds were getting enormous and it was time to hussle. A guy I recognised from CinCin's, who it turns out posts ion Blonde as BobaFett was sitting to my right he made a pre flop raise on my blind. I was pretty sure he probably had a bit of something but decided to shove my A-5 anyway. He flipped over A-10 and proceeded to crush my already dominated hand by hitting a 10.

OK, I know I played like a pussy when we got short-handed, and it's my own fault, but none the less I am quite pleased with the result.

I've now played 5 proper live games, I don't count the pub league and home games as I treat them more socially, but more on that another time. Anyway, Played at the Gutshot, cashed. Visited CinCin's three times, cashed once. Visited the Stanley and cashed first time. I 'm shocked and stunned 3 out of 5 cashes is very respectable. Maybe there's hope for me yet :-)