TexasHoldemPoker-UK

[Andy]

Oxford Cup V - 30th April 2006

Last year 5th of 244 entrants, this year................

I get up at 7am ( ) and head off at 7.45am to be in Oxford by 10.15 to confirm my seat. Play is set to begin at 11 with players seated by 10.30. Oxford, as even you yanks know, is famous for its University and old buildings so the city council in their infinite wisdom have decreed that basically you cannot park within about half a mile of anywhere useful. They have also decreed that your wallet will be raped when parking for even the shortest amount of time. How dare you use a car there!

I pull into the car park at 9am and head to the parking tariffs board to see what the damage is in 2006 and find out that it is £17.30 to park for 8+ hours which is what I will no doubt be doing unless I bust out early. To put that in perspective for those of you that work in dollars, that is $31.56 at today's exchange rate. Obscene or what? Anyhow, I head to the venue and register fine. 10.30 comes and goes and lots of people are still arriving and registering so looks like it's gonna be delayed. 11.30 arrives and we are told it's gonna start soon with 335 players. Great, glad I got up early.........

Play kicks off at noon with 90mins of rebuys to follow and an add-on. Blinds are 25/50 in level one with a 2,000 starting stack and 30min levels all day. I am drawn on table 31 which is not in the main room which can only accommodate about 28 tables so just like last year, I am in a side room of 8 tables to start. The game begins and as usual I want to cry as this is a self-dealt student tourney and there are some seriously green players here. Misdeals are again rife and generally I'm getting annoyed pretty quick.

Tables are 10 handed but 3 of our table are absent. Add to that the fact that 3 of the players here are over 40, blatantly ringers and ALL know one another and it's not the best of places to start. They soft play each other to the point where it is getting ridiculous and chips really don't move about much. We lose a player after 30mins who arrived with £20 in his pocket (why come to a £20 rebuy with £20 total?!) and I go grab the tourney director begging for him to break our table or bring us 3 players. He obliges with 3 new players and we finally have a table going.

After the first 30mins, I've done very little really. I get myself all-in with ATo on a T high flop and double up on some guy calling with a gutshot so I have a few chips early on but I'm sitting on them to avoid the donks. Nearing the hour mark, this smug Cambridge University guy who was one of the 3 new guys gets crippled by the old lady ringer after making a donk play and then goes all-in for about 1/2 my stack. I look down at see Aces in MP and go over the top trying to exhibit a weak hand that I am protecting. No-one is buying it except Cambridge guy who proudly flips over his Queens and says "I'm ahead" before seeing my bullets. F*ck you Mr Clever

The third level is 75/150 and passes without much action from me. I top up at the break for 2000 and sit with about 5500 after the rebuys end. That is better than last year and I consider myself to be in pretty good shape given that our table did not rebuy very much. Best of all, I'm only in for the buy-in + add-on so it's a cheap day if it all goes wrong on the next hand.

I kill the 30min break wandering about Oxford (it's boring being at a tourney and knowing no-one) and then we hit the freezeout period. Fairly early on we lose a player and a new guy arrives who plays tight as a duck's arse from the off. Half way thru level 4 I pick up AQo in MP and raise it up pre-flop. Tight new guy calls and the maniac old lady ringer calls. I have the tight guy on AK here and the old lady on any two cards so my plan is to bet any flop and fold to any raise. The flop obliging comes with an ugly KT5 giving me nothing but Ace high and a gutshot. I am first to act and fire out 5xBB. The tight guy f*cks up a min raise effort and can only call to avoid string betting while the loose old lady just calls. I KNOW he has AK now and I just pray for the Jack on the turn. Turn is a 4 so of course I check. Tight guy checks and the old lady checks and the river is a lovely Jack giving me the nuts. I shove all-in after some acting and the tight guy makes the crying call for all his chips after much thought. The old lady folds and he does indeed show AK. Two lessons learnt there - how to never string bet again, and how to not get smart and slow play AK to try and get chips off me. I felt bad when I hit the J and busted him but the more I thought about it, it was his fault

Level 5 comes and half way thru our table is broken and I head into the main room. I sit with some much higher quality players now but knock out a guy with about 3/5 my stack when he calls my Aces with KT. It makes my stack quite nice which is just as well as I feel outclassed by a couple of the guys at this new table. Crazy sh*t happens in the next 10mins and suddenly our table is at 6 players and gets broken so I'm off again. This time I sit at a very mixed table with Alan Rutter 3 to my left. He is the pro guy who came 4th last year and busted me in 5th. I seek revenge................

I sit at this table for quite some time thru level 6 and then level 7 after another break. During level 7 a shorty goes all-in and I call with QJs in the BB for about 1/5 my stack. He shows 67o and bows out giving me a few more chips to play with. I'm hovering around the average or just above now.

At the end of level 7, I do a very stupid thing indeed. With 14,000 in chips, I am in the BB (1000) with 34o. UTG goes all-in for 3,300, a player with less in MP goes all-in and the SB calls. I make the call of course and there is about 4,000 in the side pot. The board shows 3678T so I muck knowing I am beaten. As it transpires, my 3 was good for the side pot but because I mucked prior to seeing anyone's cards, I cannot play it. 4,000 chips go another way instead of to me. What a donk. I regroup, ignore it and move along.

[EDIT - the more I think about this, I must be recalling it wrong. I only remember calling the UTG bet but somehow the girl in the SB to my right ended up with a side pot which should have gone to the UTG guy who showed a 9. I think they stitched him up and made me think I'd mucked a winning hand to her AQo. Either way, it doesn't matter]

Side note - Alan Rutter busted a few hands after my donkage when he called the table chip leader with 77 and lost to A5. Granted he took a beat but he made a really shitty move calling for no reason there and that was that.

Level 8 is 700/1500 and I have about 10,000 in chips so it's not looking too wonderful. I make a few small moves and our table is broken AGAIN. I head off to my 4th table, play 3 hands and it is broken also. At my 5th table, I hit some really big stacks and some seemingly good players. We get about 15mins of play in before a 30min break and with 13,500 chips, I'm in trouble as the blinds in level 9 will be 1000/2000. I head out for a break basically deciding that shoving is the way forward and the first decent hand is going in. I'm at a great table for it given that there are some huge stacks if the cards can just hold up............

30mins passes and we head back in. I am the 2,000 BB on hand #1 after the break and a player with about 15,000 shoves in MP. It folds round to me and I look down at AKo. I make the call figuring at worst it's a race and at best I have him dominated. He flips over AQo and I am looking good for the double thru to put me in a nice chip position going forward. The flop comes blank, blank, Queen and I get no more love. AK loses to AQ and I am out in about 85th place. God damnit

I head out on my trek to the car and an 'amusing' incident tops off my day nicely. Allow me to regale it:

I'm walking down the street when right in front of me, there is a tramp being given some change by two girls. As I walk past him (he is on foot) he starts begging to me. I'm pretty pissed at this point and in the middle of writing a text message so I tell him NO in no uncertain terms twice as I walk past at a faster pace. He quickens his pace to catch up with me and says "Street crime". I turn to him and say "What the f*ck did you just say to me?" to which he replies "It's what I have to resort to sometimes". As you can imagine, this is red rag to a bull so I tell him to go f*ck himself and get the hell away from me. He starts on about how I am mean so I turn to him and say (am I a genius or what?) "Get the f*ck away from me you disease ridden little c*nt" and walk off. I guess I'm lucky he didn't stab me at this point or take a swing but he was this ratty little bastard that even I could have taken on and frankly, he deserved what he got from me. Needless to say this did not lighten my mood from the AK incident and with paying £17.30 to get my car out the car park, I left Oxford in the sourest of places mentally. Here's to next year.............