I won a seat to the Palm Beach Big Game final Sat for £25 which I played on Thursday Night, came 2nd winning £400. Decided last minute to put it towards buying myself into the English Deepstack Championship in Luton. Played the same event in Slovenia, great structure and thought I’d give it another go.
First day went well, new table of fresh male faces enabling me to take advantage of the whole “I’m a girl, I play tight passive” for the 1st few levels. Managed to win every hand I was involved in bar one in the first few levels. Got my stack up to the high 80ks. Lost fairly biggish hand when I opened in the HiJack with AA, both button and BB called. Flop came 8 9 T Rainbow. Checked to me, I bet and BB went all in. At the point it was a fairly big call with well over 100BB in the middle. He had flopped a straight with his 67 suited. Against any other player on the table I would of folded but he was going on about how he was a cash player and how he was there to gamble, I should of laid it down regardless, even if it were against 1 pair and a draw I probably didn’t need to get involved.
My luck improved from there when I somehow got a guy to all call my all in with a set of Kings against my Ad8d on KdQd7h board…I got there obv. Towards the end I turned in to the ultimate card rack, just before the end of the day I was dealt Aces back to back and got paid off the second time against the chip leader who had kings. I finished the day with 430k as overall chip leader with 100k more than more than 2nd place.
Day 2 didn’t start well when my stack was cut down to a 3rd when I hit top set against a guy who rivered the straight. Even though I was left with the average stack it just felt like it was all over. Could imagine the updates; ‘Can you believe it we’ve lost our chipleader after massive blow up’. Day 2 was a bit of a grind, I managed to double my stack when I was on the BB with J2 off on a JT3 rainbow board v KQ. I wouldn’t usually be involved with J2 off and I made a mistake, I thought it was a minraise instead of x3 and Pat Murray was also involved directly to my left. When the raiser with KQ bet out on the flop of 85k, and Pat smoothed called, I thought I’d hope my Jack was good and get what was in the middle with an all-in push of 400k (about 30bbish at the time). I was called by the up and down straight draw. Luckily the Jack on the turn, cut down his outs and when the river bricked I was back in the game.
Interview Late during day 2
When we got down to 20ish players I thought I’d take advantage of the bubble and my stack size (25bb – 30bb) and get in to 3 bet shove mode. I successfully managed this and got it through at least 5 times, picking up blinds, antes and more. I finished the day with 875k, fourth in chips with only 10 players to get through.
Game plan was to play similarly to how I played the money bubble, take advantage of people holding out for the final table. Thankfully it wasn’t even necessary as we lost 2 players with in the first 20 mins into the level.
I was one of the lower chip counts to start off with, the blinds and antes were eating up my stack and I dropped down to just half a million when the blinds were 20,000/40,000. I found pkt 8s UTG and went all-in with it to then be snapped called by Aces, I hit a miracle flop of Q 8 Q and with no ace or queen on the turn and river and I had doubled up to over a million but still needed to be aggressive to give myself a chance. A few hands later I was in the SB with A9 off and the hijack opened to 85,000. He had played fairly tight aggressive and knew I could push him off with any marginal hand that he didn’t want to gamble with. It took him a while to call with AK. Once again the Poker Gods were on my side and I hit one of my 3 outs to double up to over 2 million.
Next time I was UTG and dealt QQ, guy directly to my left moved all in and had me slightly covered. We had sat next to each other the day before and every time he went over the top of me he showed me a massive hand. Despite this, I can’t fold like a nit, QQ short handed with only 30BB is pretty mega and reluctantly called. He had KK. I got up off my seat for the 3rd time, bag on shoulder. Flop came 5h 7c 9c Turn 6c River 8c. Couldn’t believe my luck, I thought I was lucky to split, it was then pointed out to me that I had the Qc and had won with a flush, result! I’m not usually that slow but this time I thought my luck had really run out.
We were down to four and had I had about 2.5 million. I raised to x2.5 UTG with AK, folded round to my soon to be heads up opponent in the Big Blind, who had me just covered and he announces (or screams) allin. I’m four handed and I have AK and I’m thinking about folding… His style of play is pretty unorthodox, Karl had played with him on Day 2 and said he was very passive and would bet if he had the goods. Only a round before I had seen him 3bet big from the BB with A4 against a btn raise and a call from the SB. I gave him credit for this hand and he played it well but this was a completely different situation, he’s putting me all-in, 2nd in chips which would leave him crippled. I was so close to folding but luckily I put it in to perspective, I’m here to win and I have AK suited 4 handed, I eventually made the call. I know people think it was a slow roll but it’s easy to say that when watching from afar. He had A5, it wasn’t long till my AK was a massive underdog when a 5 hit the turn. I turned my back to the table and looked at Karl and knew it was karma for all the luck I got earlier. Still with my back turned I heard a mixture of groans and cheers and looked back to see the King on the river. I couldn’t believe it, I slumped back on my chair in disbelief.
Four handed and I have over a 5 million chips, which is over half the chips in play. The guy who came 4th got very unlucky against my Italian bezzie when his AK was beaten by KQ. I knocked out the guy who finished in 3rd when he limped on the btn Aces, I checked my BB with 7 T off, hit a T high flop, he bet 150k in to 180kish pot. I just called. A ten on the turn all the chips went in and he walked.
We were heads up, it had come round very quickly and I had a 2:1 chip lead. Like many tournament players I’m not very confident with my heads up play as unfortunately it doesn’t happen often enough. We took a break and I talked through my heads up game plan. If I could pick anyone to play heads up against it would be Pino, I was feeling pretty confident I’d win and was more worried how I would react if I won and getting my photo taken. He plays passively and only bets when he has it and usually it’s all in. My game plan was to min-raise most hands and only play back if I had a hand. Early on in to heads up play I raised from the SB and he moved all in. I had A8 offsuit, a very strong hand heads up, it took a while but I decided not to get involved and I could find a better spot, he told me he had Queens, whether he did or not...
I thought that better spot had arrived when I found 88s on the SB. I min-raised, he 3 bet and I moved all in.
Nightmare - 88 v 99
The flop brought two spades giving me runner runner opportunities which I politely asked the dealer for.
Turn 4s
The Poker Gods were with me till the bitter end and the final spade delivered on the river. I am now the English Deepstack Champ with a big trophy and £25,000 richer. I looked at Pino who told me what a lucky girl I was. I was indeed but I knew it was always mine. He had better go home and tell his mother-in-law that he was beaten by a girl, which he told me was not going to happen.
I’m absolutely over the moon with the result, I had planned to be in Vegas for 2 – 3 weeks this Summer and now I can fund it. Of course I would of preferred not to have luck boxed my way to victory BUT I’m happy with the way I played, I only regret 2 hands over the 3 days and you can’t rely on pure luck to get your through a 3 day deepstack event. I’m very proud. After Luton, I went straight over to my parents who were waiting for me with a bottle of Champagne after railing me on the live feed all day. My Dad was very excited and kept saying ‘How exciting was it when you had bullet eights!’, my mum in the other ear was asking me why I wasn’t wearing a dress at the final table. Sigh.
Just wanted to say thank you to Mike Lacey and everyone from D4 events for putting on an awesome event, I will be playing more (especially now I’m at the top of the leaderboard). Thanks to Dena and everyone else at Luton Casino. Thanks to Caroline Cove and Tighty for the updates which kept me highly amused over the 3 days. They’re absolutely quality updaters, if you haven’t read them then you must - see link below. Massive thanks to my boyfriend, Karl, for railing me and helping me improve my game over the last year.
Not sure when I’ll be playing next, can’t even think about it just yet, you can follow me on twitter @Amy_T to find out what I’m up to
Photo credit to D4 Events
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