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Aces and Agony - An APAT'ers blog of the highs and lows of poker ( and life!)
amcgrath1uk:
Suppose I better do a little update on this thing...
Tomorrow's job methinks!
amcgrath1uk:
Where to start? Difficult to say really, it's been an epic couple of weeks for me.
As people are probably aware, I've not been about much this season before the Worlds, just hitting Portsmouth, as work as kept me exceptionally busy for the last year. However, with the Worlds being in my "home" casino in Manchester, I made sure I had the finances to play and the time booked off work. My schedule was as follows:
8 game, Turbo, HORSE, ROE, Main 1b, PLO, PLO 8 and Crazy Pineapple.
These days I don't have the opportunity to play online often, but when I do it is in the mixed games, and feel comfortable playing any of them.
A midday start for the 8 game on Saturday was the wake up call for the 9 days ahead. It wasn't exactly an easy table to start with
Marcin Rejmak 4 1
Philip Henze 4 2
Asa Mcgrath 4 3
Vincent Eley 4 4
Rieuwert Fleer 4 5
Andrew Duncan 4 6
The first few hours were fairly unremarkable with the blinds being low in comparison to the starting stack. 50k starting, 51k at the first break, just 33k at the dinner break and when moved to the feature table, I'd gone up to 185k. I'll be honest and say I don't remember any specific hands at this point to get me there, barring one hand, where I re-jammed QJos blind on blind in NLHE and got there on the river vs AK. End of the day I have 370k and sitting comfortably 3/7.
Final table as follows:
Glenn Laming 1 1 173k
Ross Freeman 1 2 173k
Asa Mcgrath 1 3 370k
Michael Perry 1 4 699k
Nerchabouh Tachajian 1 5 301k
Warren Brooks 1 6 574k
Simon A Lawlor 1 7 79k
On day 2 we lose Simon, Glenn and Ross pretty quickly so are on the medal bubble. Pretty quickly Nino is short and I auto call his all in in NLHE with 67, Nino has J3 and holds. Next hand he ships again, this time I have 88 and beat his A7. So we're in the medals in the 1st event, and damn happy. One person I wouldn't choose to play 3 handed with in any game is Michael Perry as he is super aggressive and a damn good player. The other player, Warren, I found out that this was his first ever APAT game, so no doubt also a good player.
In PLO I lose a pretty big pot, betting heavily on the river where all the draws missed, to be called down by Warren's top pair which was good. 3 handed going in to Deuce - Seven triple draw, I had 180k, Michael had 850k and Warren 1.3m. Win the 1st hand against Michael to double up, manage to hold my own through the rest of 2-7, FLHE then manage to win 3/4 of the pot against Michael in Omaha Hi/low with virtually the same hand, my 2 pair just beating Michael's 2 pair, then win another 300k pot against Warren. Michael loses a similar pot against Warren to leave him short stacked.
Michael and myself then get it all in during Razz, end up having 7543A to beat Michael and be Heads up, both of us sitting on approx 1.2m each. We go through a full cycle of rounds not really doing much but swapping chips, but I manage to go on a run of hands to get a good chip lead, a K hi flush in 7 card stud by 5th street won a good few chips, and get Warren down to 700k by betting a board of 42A69 with 3 hearts, missed by straight draw but hit the flush on the river.
Final hand is in PLO, I raise with ad1 3h 6d 6c and Warren pots it. I call to see a flop of 2d 9s 7d. We get it it on that flop, to see to my amazement, the pair of 6s are ahead with Warren showing Ah 4c Qs Kh. Nothing changes on the 2c turn with the river being the right Queen, the Qd to hit the nut flush and win.
After watching the video, I'm aware that John Murray attempted to draw me out in an interview, it's fair to say I was completely in shock at winning and gave some very non descript answers.
There was a post on the Degens from last years winner of the 8 game, saying he couldn't make this year and wanted a Degen member to win it. I commented " will give it a go". Couldn't resist afterwards saying "gave it a go!".
Des:
Excellent post to return with, Asa!
:)
amcgrath1uk:
After the couple of hours of taking it easy, it was turbo time. Another nice, easy table to start with...
Mustak Alli 12 1
Gary Jackson 12 2
David Griffiths 12 3
Asa McGrath 12 4
Darren Sutton 12 5
Brian Beekers 12 6
Ronald Greenberg 12 7
I've come across David a number of times and we've had some battles where I usually lose. We're rapidly joined by Mark Lassman and Ben Burnhill as late entry ends. At the first break I'm on 28k from a start of 10k, with pretty much no recollection of how that happened. Literally float along paying no attention to what's going on, then we're down to 12, and I'm sitting on 30k at 800/1600. Manage to win a race to double up, steal a few blinds, and we're on the final table. Get there as the chip leader with 115k, no idea how. Table lined up as:
Glenn Laming 57500 1
Sebastian Mikolajczyk 14300 2
Steve Hollinshead 94000 3
Christian Garvin 23000 4
Neville Betty 90000 5
John Murray 30500 6
Mark Lassman 40000 7
Norbert Bobra 42500 8
Asa McGrath 115000 9
John Hanley 36000 10
Glenn's second final table of the day, Steve won the 6 max, Norbert finished 3rd in the Irish, Christian and Neville I knew from the G in Manchester, we all know Mark Lassman and John Murray.
Very quickly, Seb shoves, folded to me in the small blind, not folding Kd Jd in this situation, Seb has KQ and I flop the J to knock him out. An orbit later, I'm on the small blind again, folded round to me, I shove Ad 2d just to steal. John calls with K6, and I turn the flush. 4 or 5 hands later Glenn departs, then quickly Mark departs.
Double up Neville, who shoved for roughly 4bbs, any picture card is a call, I have Q6, run into KK to double him up. John Murray soon departs AK v KQ, Q on the river. When down to 5, Norbert shoves on me, I have Kd Jd again, Norbert 86os and he flops the 8 to double. Christian then busts in a cooler, A s Kd v 88 all in pre, with a flop 9s 10s Js and somehow doesn't hit to exit 5th. A few double ups for the shorter stacks, then Neville shoves, I'm priced in to call with 10s 7s, he had 55, and I turn and river 2 10s.
So we're playing for medals again, 3 handed with Norbert who finished 3rd in the Irish, Steven who won the 6 max and myself. Distinctly remember looking up at Tom Clark at this point thinking, how the hell has this happened??
Less than 5 mins later, Steve knocks Norbert out, and the 2 of us are HU to win 2 bracelets in a day. Utterly ridiculous.
Heads up was actually more passive and lasted longer than I expected. A whole 20 mins!
We eventually clash.. Steve shoves with Ks Js I call with 2d 2s
No idea how I held through this... Ac Qs 5d 6s 7c
After this hand I have 430k v 120k, fold the next small blind which was 72os, Steve shoves the next hand, K 7 is more than good enough to call with the structure, Steve flops the Q but I flopped the K and hold...
So I win 2 bracelets in a day. Gobsmacked is the understatement of the century...
amcgrath1uk:
Rolling forward to Wednesday, and it was HORSE time. Again, such a simple opening table..
Asa McGrath 12 1
David Griffiths 12 2
Gary Jackson 12 3
Jacob Andersen 12 4
Stuart Ward 12 5
Ricky Hale 12 6
Simon Brooke 12 7
What transpired was a good 5 hours of fun, but mainly abuse from David, Simon and Stuart, all good natured of course, but still fun :) Simon effectively steamrollers the table early on, getting to 25k at the first break, and I'm down at 3.5k. Basically have to get lucky a couple of times and grind away, make the 2nd break with 8k, the 3rd break with 12.4k, only 14 left but sitting 13/14. No fairy tales this time as I bust about 10 mins after the break.
ROE I was really looking forward to on the Thursday, table draw:
Mark Lassman 11 1
Santo Toscano 11 2
Ashley Whitfield 11 3
Simon Brooke 11 4
Steven Bradbury 11 5
Asa McGrath 11 6
Jonathan Seal 11 7
Jonathan Berry 11 8
Never got going in this, was out very early on ( before the end of level 2)
Main event on Friday, table draw
David Garden 6 1
Martin Gate 6 2
Asa McGrath 6 3
Jason Mcburnie 6 4
Joshua Thomas Jones 6 5
Linda Iwaniak 6 6
Santo Toscano 6 7
Again this didn't go too well, I lose about 6k early on, then raise out of my bb with a few limpers, and Linda calls. Flop is 965, I lead, Linda reraises, I shove, she says, I've put too much in to fold, and calls with 67. My KK is looking nice until the 6 turn, then the 7 river just to finish me off.
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