Wow Part 2

I managed to win the £250 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo. So chuffed... i love tournaments again! :-)

I can't really remember that many hands.. well a few from the final mainly. Day 1 was a bit of a grind. Had a table full of tight players except for John Gale to my left who is was involved in alot of hands and he built up a healthy stack. Despite talking a good game (I'd had a few drinks), i think must have only raised about five hands the entire evening preflop. I just can't bring myself to raise with trash in Hi/Lo as you always get callers and i wasn't seeing many good cards.

I didn't rebuy and i can remember winning two big hands. First one, i ended up in a three way pot with A2T4 ds against Gryko and one other guy. All my chips in preflop as i was short. Me and Gryko had the nut straight with a card to come but i made the Ace flush to scoop. I think i had about 9000 when Richard Ashby aka Chufty raised or limped in early position and moved half my chips in with AAJ6. It flopped 24T. Hardly ideal, but i was committed. He had A3xx. Luckily the board paired and a high card on the river doubled me up. I managed to get up to 40000 at one point. However the blinds were 2000/4000 and i was soon back down to 20000 by the time we reached the final table.

Final table had Woody Deck who came second in the last one, Ian Turner the winner of the last one, John Gale, Greg Raymer, and Chandra who is one of my Vic boks, and a few others i don't know the names of. The blinds were 2000/4000 for day 2 so i had hardly any play with my 20000 chips (5 BB). I decided the first semi decent hand i would move in. I must have been all in about 15 times throughout the final table and survived, getting lucky twice. I was in huge trouble with seven left when i committed my last 28000 with KKT4 and faced AAxx, and i made Kings over on the turn.

I never amassed a big stack but whenever i moved in and i was called, my hand prevailed. I got very lucky against Woody once. I had KJT4 in the SB and called the big blind which was 6000. He raised 12000 and i called. Flop J23 rainbow. I hated my hand but as over a third of my chips were already in the pot i decided to gamble. He had AAxx and i made two pair and split the pot.

With four remaining me, Chandra, Woody and John Gale all had similar chips. Chandra then raged a path of destruction and outdrew Woody and John and we were heads up. I had 90000 and he had about 350000. My tactic was to try and play as many flops as possible. Blinds were 4000/8000.

I made up the SB on the button with QQ52. He raised. My hand is ok heads up so i call. Flop Q55. What a hit. He checked surprisingly and so did i. Turn a J. He checked. I put a small bet of 20000 out and he passed. Damn.

I won the blinds a few times when we got involved in a huge pot. I had 160000 by now to his 280000. I had 39JK ds. I limped again. He raised. I thought about passing but decided to see a flop. Flop AT2 all diamonds to give me the Jack flush. He bet 48000 and i moved in. He called. He had a an A and a low draw. Turn and river both high and i scooped a huge pot with my flush.

It wasn't long before it nearly ended. He raised on the button and i called with A3TQ with A flush draw in spades. He raised. I took a flop which was 9T3 two spades. I checked and he bet the pot and i moved in. He called with 9K25. So my two pair was in great shape. Turn 6 spades to give me the nut flush. River a low to split. I feared the tide had turned again.

I think it was the next hand i found my best starting hand of the whole tournament AA2K. I limped hoping he would raise the blinds as usual. He did. I put him all in and he called with KK94. Please no case King. He missed and i picked up the first prize and the trophy.

I probably have missed out loads of key hands but there were so many that its a bit of a haze. When i blogged here i said one of my main aims in the next six months was to win a ranking tournament. To have done it so quickly after setting the target feels very good, especially in PL Hi/Lo Omaha.

My tournament form hasn't been that great in the last few months so hopefully things will get better from here.