{"id":3,"date":"2006-07-25T22:14:49","date_gmt":"2006-07-25T21:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.weeklywhinge.com\/?p=3"},"modified":"2006-07-26T15:41:39","modified_gmt":"2006-07-26T14:41:39","slug":"gala-leicester-%c2%a310-freezout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.weeklywhinge.com\/?p=3","title":{"rendered":"Gala Leicester, \u00c2\u00a310 freezout"},"content":{"rendered":"

So with Chris<\/a> playing in the $1500 no-limit WSOP tonight and the local Gala casino having a \u00c2\u00a310 freezeout starting at exactly the same time, I thought I’d play and hope the coincidence brought me luck.<\/p>\n

Now the Leicester Gala is a bit strange – the card room is quite small but friendly and the tables are only 7-strong when full. I’ve played there a few times and done ok – made one final table and got down to the last 20 or so a couple of times.<\/p>\n

This time, I sat down at the table with a mix of players who seemed alternately friendly and quiet. The guy to my right told us he’d been playing til 3 the night before, clearly meant to intimidate. Bah.<\/p>\n

I start off in the BB, never particularly happy about that, but it’s only 50\/100 and the stacks are 3000, so I can afford to be a bit conservative at the start. 3 callers and I’ve got 7-2 offsuit. Flop goes nowhere, there’s a 2x raise and everyone folds.<\/p>\n

Next hand is equally useless and it’s folded around to the blinds – I call the 100 and completely miss the flop. This early I’m not going to go stealing (it’s a \u00c2\u00a310 game so people tend to call with one overcard) so the hand’s checked down.<\/p>\n

I spend the next 5 hands following Harrington’s (which was recommended to me) “conservative” hand set and watched as the first bet stole each pot. OK, thinks I, this table is worth the odd steal.<\/p>\n

Next hand, the guy to my right makes a small raise post-flop (2xBB) and I go over the top with 5x. He calls. Arse. I’m set to do the same thing again but he raises all in when the third spade comes on the turn. I can’t possibly call – I think I have 10 high or something – so I’m now down to 1900 after one round.<\/p>\n

The next steal attempt is a bit more complex – a nothing flop comes and is checked around, then a jack comes on the turn and I go for my chips, then check – a clear trapping tell, or so I thought. Everyone checks. River is a nothing so I bet 300, get called by the guy to my left who hasn’t said a word. He shows ace-jack – so much for my fake tell – he didn’t care.<\/p>\n

So now I have like 1600 left so I play nothing until I’m in the BB again. I get T4 and hit nothing and simply can’t do anything, so fold.<\/p>\n

Then the call comes “lowest stack on this table” and I jump up, happy to get away from this insane table where an AJ doesn’t mean a raise in middle position against tight opponents, only to find I’ve been moved straight into the big blind position on my new table. I’m not happy.<\/p>\n

Next hand I try to make something and get called down – and the dealer shows my complete bluff after<\/em> I muck it, which as far as I’m concerned is just bad form.<\/p>\n

Next hand I pick up A9c and figure I need to get going – I only have 1200 or so left. Raise preflop gets four callers (???), the flop comes 8TJ with two clubs. I now have a nut flush draw and an up-and-down straight draw, so I bet 200. Not enough, everyone calls.<\/p>\n

Flop is ace of spades – as far as I’m concerned that’s my perfect card – I now have a nut flush draw, up and down straight draw and top pair. I throw in my final 800 and finally get some folds – but the one who calls has QK and has just hit the nut straight. I don’t hit my miracle club on the river and that’s me, out in 22 minutes and not quite knowing what happened.<\/p>\n

Analysing afterwards I know I should not have tried to raise the guy to my right in the first place – what was working for everyone else was a single bet, with a reraise I needed to have something (to risk 1\/6 of my chips, at least!). After that I was on the back foot, behind someone with a lot of chips (thanks to my idiocy) and who was happy and good enough to bully me (the small stack) and in front of a guy who won’t raise AJ. I don’t feel too unhappy about the last hand – while I should definitely have gone all-in after the flop, I did get more money in the pot and chances are I might have got a call anyway from the girl who did win with her higher up-and-down draw.<\/p>\n

Bah. I just hope Chris is having more luck than I.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So with Chris playing in the $1500 no-limit WSOP tonight and the local Gala casino having a \u00c2\u00a310 freezeout starting at exactly the same time, I thought I’d play and hope the coincidence brought me luck. Now the Leicester Gala is a bit strange – the card room is quite small but friendly and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weeklywhinge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weeklywhinge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weeklywhinge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weeklywhinge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weeklywhinge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weeklywhinge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weeklywhinge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weeklywhinge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weeklywhinge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}