I GOT BIG DREAMS....

After Nottingham, Kev and myself decided we had to get our grind on. Marc and Tim were flying straight from the UKIPT to Berlin for the EPT. We wanted that to be us, we didn’t see any reason why it couldn’t be. We just had to actually start grinding. But..... The Champions League semi-final between Chelsea and Barcelona was on.  So we decided to take the Thursday off, and enjoy the game up in mine with my Dad. At half-time, I decided to late-reg the big 11. Instantly regretted it, and tried to punt the shit out of it. I even posted one hand for lols in the MTTc chat where I 4b/c 108 suited and asked for strategy advice.  Some of the dolts actually thought I was been serious. I obviously got there vs KK by the way.

Anyway, before I knew it I’d got down to the last 100 players, and there was close to 13k for the win. I decided I should really try and win this. I mean one table a big to victory? Who lives like this? Chelsea had just defeated Barcelona with 10 men and Torres had scored. Anything could happen.  I was talking to Parker on facebook with about 70 to go, and he made me agree that I’d fly to Berlin in the morning if I won it. Snap agreed of course.

Pretty much coasted down to the last two tables, thanks to no skill at all and my attempts to punt I had gathered quite a stack. Parker and Marc were railing from their hotel room in Berlin, even though they were going to play Day 3 of a 5k the next day. Then with about 18 to go, I got it in with AQcc vs KJcc for all the gold. KJxcc flop. I had this. Was running to good to miss. Brick. Brick. Igh. Down to 7bbs and I’d kept Marc and Parker up railing me to fail. Then I received a txt from my buddy Taz. Simple read, ‘Everyone loves a come back story’. Shipped A4o from the c/o and was snapped by the big blinds A10. 4 on the flop. Ezzzz game. I chipped up slightly, and had around 22 bigs when the biggest hand of the tournament happened. The guy on my left had been jamming over me a tonne. I opened QQ from the cut-off and he minned it back on the button. Straight away alarms went off in my head, and I felt sick. Then the big-blind insta jams all-in. My first instinct was snap fold, but given the positions and how aggro I’d been, plus the fact folding QQ with 20 biebers is usually not great. I put it in. BAM, over-called straight. AA vs KK vs QQ. ‘Fucccck’.. Threw my mouse away, I was so pissed off with myself for not going with my first instinct. Turn away in disgust. And alls I hear from Kev is ‘Omg, hold... Hold...’ Qxx flop. Blank. Blank. Was time to win this tournament.

I had so much fun leading up to the final table. I was literally opening any two cards, and 3-betting every single open. Trying to apply as much pressure as possible. Then on the FT bubble vs the biggest fish left, I lost a huge pot where I had to fold AA on the turn, even though I had about two-thirds of my stack in the middle. Think I puked a little in my mouth at the moment. Didn’t matter though, because the run good continued when we made the FT  and I got 1010 in vs 99 for heaps with 9 to go. However, the roller-coaster was to continue, losing a huge flip with AK to JJ with 7 to go. At this point I was almost accepting defeat. Parker even threw in a new condition, if I were to make top 3 I had to fly to Berlin. I accepted thinking, seriously I have like 2 bigblinds. What are the odds.

Couple of hours later I got second for just under 10k. I punted heads up pretty bad, bluffed raised all in on the river vs the biggest station ever. It was still my biggest score to date, really wish I had of broken the 5 figure barrier however. So then I realised. I actually had to go to Berlin now. I got the man who knows all about last minute flights, Jono Crute to find the cheapest possible flights for me. 180e return, and I would have to go Viva Switzerland and the flight was leaving in 5 hours. I convinced Kev to come with me. I put what clean clothes I could find in a bag and off down to Kevs we were for his Mam to drive to the airport. It was the middle of the night, so obviously I didn’t want to wake my Dad. So I left this note behind for him.

I will finish this trip report over the weekend, got Dublin UKIPT in the morning. And would love to have this up to date. Hopefully will have a final table to write about (sun)