I preregistered for this last night as I was staying Sunday night anyway, and tho even 1st place was only going to dent my losses for the trip, there was still a champion of champions seat to be won and the added equity that entailed.

As it turned out I was cursing my preregistration come the 6pm start time as I had been hitting snooze on my alarm for the previous 90 mins and really didnt want to get up.

There was a 25 pound bounty on each head (so only 75 into the prize pool) this meant that with a 5k starting stack each head was worth approx 1666 chips which maybe only 1 or 2 other poeple  in the tournament realised when making their equity calculations versus a SS push. And of course I became unpopular after a Q3o isolation.

Richard Trigg was two to my left and playing very actively, I tested him fairly early by making his 425 raise 1450 with 64o and he shipped 7k into my face .  Fair enough.  I was finding spots to chip up so without antes and a full table I settled back and let him run things.  I kept up the impression I was dying to play back at him so he’d pay me off when I got a real hand.  Eventually he ran into my AQ after shoving A9o over a raiser.  But before that come a hand I think I screwed up.

Im in BB with 77 at 400/800.  Utg limps, BB makes it2k.  I call.  utg calls.  Flop KK7 2 clubs.  I check, utg checks, raiser makes it 3k  I call.  I have 30k behind, raiser is similar, BB has 20k.  My intial thought on the call was that these players are tight and he would be capable of folding a K to my checkraise but by calling I give him a chance to checkraise and I can get it all in versus the utgs probable AK on the turn. Also if the turn comes K or A I can safely check-fold versus this player if he bets. utg folds.

Turn Tc.  Fuck. This is gonna slow him down.  I decide to lead 4k.  He calls.  River Jx. I bet 9k into the 20k pot and he thinks forever before calling with AK.

At the final table I start with 60k out of total 360k 9 handed, top 8 pay.  they want to take 100 off the top for 9th place and it’s left to me to be the table asshole who says no.

It takes us over 90 minutes to break the bubble as play is tight and careful and when they do get the money in the short stacks are doubling up.   It eventually being the guy who came into the table shortest and hadn’t stopped bitching since we started the FT about how I refuse to let money come off the top for 9th.

This has become one of my biggest pet peeves with live tournies.  The (usually) old guys who sit there for 10 hrs doing absolutely nothing come into the bubble position with no chips and then expect me to give up equity so they can get their buyins refunded.  Fuck them.  When he bubbled he let us know he hadn’t got any money back at all as he’d failed to pick up a single bounty.  I wasn’t surprised.

I lose AK vs KQ to stop me getting a dominant stack and have to grind it back out.  On the plus side the guy to my lelft seems very  tight on calling raises that knock him out so as the blinds creep up and effective stacks approach 10bb I know I have a ready source of equity.  At this table 12bb is enough to resteal with a good sucess rate.  I ship 52k over a 12k utg raise with KJo and he folds letting me pick up  18k for free.  This guy had previously taken ages to call with AQ when I shipped AQ versus him in an almost identical situation last round.  He had been liberally reraising the kid in seat 9 (the most active player at table since I knocked out Trigg) and had flatted me pre, raised me off a K hi flop early in FT.  He’d been tightish to open tho and hadn’t been put to the test on a call yet as seat 9 kept just raise/folding.

6handed.  At 2/4k I ship 55k with T9o into the 10 bb effective blinds.  The BB in seat 9 turns AQ face up after a few seconds folding.  I’m somewhat stunned but manage to stop myself from giggling.

Down to 5 handed.  SB ships for 20k total with blinds at 3/6k.  I see 84o and sigh.  With  the bounty included I’m getting almost 2-1.  His range is probably a little tighter than it should be tho.  If I call and lose I have 56k, if i pass I have 70k if I call and win I have 96k.  With my SB next I don’t think 70k is enough to resteal so I make the call.  With 80 behind I may pass.

He has T7o.  8 in the window.  flop finishes 9 6.  Sigh.

Payouts are 1830 for 1st, 1240 for 2nd, 780 for 3rd, 490 for 4th and 380 for 5th.  1st place also gets a champion of champions seat.

final 4 hands in a row.

Tight guy makes up SB with 30k behind.  I ship 94o from BB with 45k and he folds.  I ship Q3o from the SB.  Add another 8k.  I ship Q7cc from the button and add another 12k.

bb 68k, seat 2 42k, Hero 73k, btn, 40k, Sb (seat 9) 137k.  blinds 4k/8k 15 mins left, chip count at end of the next 6/12 level with the chip leader getting the champions seat.Nearly half the chips in play in the pot.  One time.  He has ATcc.   Board comes K8428.

There was shock at my hand but I’m pretty sure that’s just because they’re all awful.  Oh well.  380 for 5th and 175 in bounties.  But I’ve also broken my cherry for cashing in GUKPTs which may help in Walsall or London.

I’m still planning to play the GUKPT series but 10 hrs tonight, the time and expense of time away, the long hours, the opportunity cost of those hours, the burnout/tilt risk.  It all paints a picture of a misguided enterprise.  If Walsall and London don’t go well I’ll reexamine my reasons for playing live and see whether to quit/scale back/just play big events, etc.