I played the £100 freezeout at the International Club (doesn't that just sound like some sort of "gentleman's club"?) last night. 57 runners got going at 7pm and the format was 8,000 chips for £100+£10 and an "optional" extra 2,000 chips for £5 which went to the dealers. Apparently this is common in Vegas and seems to be catching on over here. Generally my view is dealers work hard for low basic wages so I don't mind tipping them to top it up.

I had a £50 last-longer bet with Howard and Jim, who was using this as a warm-up event before our trip to Vegas in June. It was only his third live event, and since Howard is as likely to come first as bust out first I liked my chances! I didn't really get many hands for the first few levels and got up to 18k by the break, with Jim on around 14k and Howard at nearer 20k. Hands of note on my table was some quality "table talk" to induce a call from someone holding a straight-flush, and fair play he managed to get a call from 2nd pair on a pretty scary board. The play in general reminded me of something Vital Myth said in one of his videos on live play that people were "looking for a story", with many examples of people check-shoving the river and then showing a bluff.

After the break Howard was unfortunately the first out, opening 55 and getting shoved on by the most active player at the table with AJ. He said he had planned to bet/call so, apart from the villain showing up with 44 this was about as good as it gets, until he hit an overcard. I meanwhile was down to around 15bb but then got a nice run of cards enabling me to shove over the more active openers without too much concern and more than doubled up without ever getting to a showdown, and then doubling up with 99 vs. AQ to be on around average chips. Jim was next to go when his AQ couldn't beat 77 all-in pre-flop despite flopping an ace. That meant I had won the last-longer so was pretty much freerolling with 22 players left. It all bogged down a bit as we approached the final table, until I got a nice run in with QQ vs 77, TT vs AJ and AK vs 66 all holding and knocking out some short stacks. When we drew seats for the final table I had 60k in chips and was lying 4th, although most people were pretty tightly bunched with the chip leader only having 80k and the short stack still on 31k.

The final table was 10 handed with 9 getting paid (why not just have a 9 handed final table?) and it wasn't too long until we had our first casualty when the short stack's QQ couldn't stand up to 55 which made quads (the third quads of the tournament - you don't get that on-line....). The payouts were very shallow from 9th - 4th so I wasn't too concerned about clawing my way up the ladder - much rather get a chance at a win! My demise probably took that a bit too far...

Blinds were 3,000/1,500/300 and I was on the big blind when a middle position player with roughly the same stack as me opened for just over a min-raise. I had KsJs so I can't really fold, and raising gives him near perfect stack size to re-shove (which he had done to me once before), and open-shoving seems a bit gross for 20bb. Anyway, to nullify his positional advantage I called and checked-dark, a move not open to on-line play but which can be useful live. The flop came Kd8s3c and he checked behind. I thought the 6s turn was a great card for me giving me top pair and a flush draw, but he insta-shoved over my bet of 10k. Hmmmmm.

Pot is now around 71k and it's 34k for me to call. Honestly I think I'm behind here a lot, but I have outs and he could be making a move with the nut flush draw or some other combo, so I called to be shown K6. I have 34% equity but there was no spade, Jack or 8 and I was out in a slightly disappointing 9th for £210.

By now it was gone 1am but Howard was having a good run in the cash so we agreed we'd leave at 3am and I sat in a pretty fishy 1-1 NLHE game. I think it's fair to say the fishyness increased significantly when I sat down and I managed to donk off £250 quite quickly! By the time 3am came around I was back to "only" £110 down in the cash game, so I left booking a modest £85 win.

Actually, by the time you account for food and drinks I was only £60 up, but I'm not counting that in my poker P&L so that's another $135 to add to my Vegas trip bankroll!