Lynne Beaumont’s blog

 

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GUKPT, Brighton, January 2009

 

Well this is the first festival I have used Betfred sponsorship for and while it was a reasonably successful week, it could have been a great week!

 

We travelled down on a Sunday and that evening I played the £50 re-buy satellite for a £1,060 seat into the main event, which obviously Betfred were paying me into, but I like satellites and the strategy of playing them, so thought I would try to earn some extra poker tokens! No good though – I had to have the add-on but didn’t really get going, so £105.50 down.

 

On the Monday afternoon was another £50 re-buy satellite - turbo this time - which again I had a go at and while I was only in for my buy-in of £55.50, again I missed my seat. I played very well in the early stages and didn’t need a re-buy/add-on, but I think I got a bit carried away towards the middle and wasted my chips.

 

On the Monday evening was the two-day £200+20 side event. I ended the first day with well above average chips and so returned on the Tuesday afternoon thinking this may be a good start to the sponsorship! However, the phrase ‘card dead’ was so apt for me that I hardly played a hand for about three hours.

 

The first time I raised I got re-raised all in by someone, so folded. The second time I picked up the blinds. That was it until we were down to only 15 players out of 145 and just 13 prizes. I picked up AKo in the big blind but I was now under pressure having only about 28k in chips and the blinds about to go up to 2k/4k with a 300 ante. One of the huge stacks raised, a ‘lively’ player went all in and I decided to call – I’d rather be the one raising all in with AK, but you can’t always be choosy. The big stack got out of the way and I found myself up against QQs, which held. So I got close to the money but not close enough!

 

On the same evening was the £300+30 two-day and I was out in time to enter!  Unfortunately, while I almost made it to the end of the first day, I was knocked out at the last level, running my all-in with 44s into 66s and AKo.

 

On Wednesday was the PLO tourney. While I play a bit of cash, I’ve only had a go at a couple of tourneys so my partner James Browning and I decided to go down the road to the Rendezvous where they put on a £100 freezeout.  I played like an idiot and completely blew my stack pretty early. I left James still battling and went BACK to the Grosvenor in time to join another £50 re-buy satellite for the main event. This time I got heads up and so got one of three cash prizes of £330, again missing the seat – but the £330 helped!

 

James was playing the main event at 2pm on the Thursday so I had a lie-in and went down to the casino at 8pm for the £100+10 side event. It attracted 86 runners and I concentrated hard and got to heads up…losing as usual! However, we had done a deal whereby we shared first and second prizemoney and just played on for the seat to the Champion of Champions in November. So I won about £2,200 – not bad. 

However, that’s the good news. Friday brought me the £1,000+60 main event second starting day. You get an hour clock and 10k chips – plenty of time…

 

But I managed to run middle trips into top trips on the flop within that first hour and went out! Brilliant…all my excitement about having a good run was out of the window.

 

I spoke to quite a few people about the situation and most agreed they would have lost their chips too. The flop was 7, 9, 10 with two clubs, so was quite scary with straights and flush draws out there, so I just wanted to get my chips in ASAP…which pleased the trip 10s no end! I thought I could fold trip 77s there but decided against my middle trips.

 

Paul Parker and Mickey Wernick both felt they wouldn’t have gone out of the tourney there but most players, including Dave Colclough and Tony Phillips (though he said he would have got them in on the turn if the board did not get worse) backed my decision.

 

So, wounded, I played that night’s £100+10 but didn’t get too deep. However, a deal was made four-handed and Shana Casalleto, a lady from Brighton, went on to win the Champ of Champs seat!

 

Saturday saw another two-day event - £250+25. It was here that I realised it really wasn’t my week when, having got down to 20 from 102 starters, I had 19k in chips. The average was around 38k, but the blinds were still only 600/1200 with an ante of 100, so I still had quite a bit of time. It was nearly the end of day one and I rashly thought I would, barring any disasters, be back for day two. And then it happened…someone new to the table raised on the button into my big blind for 4k. I had the dreaded AKo and moved all in for 19k. Somehow he made the call with K10o and had me covered in chips. The flop came out spade, spade, spade. I looked at his cards and he had the 10 of spades… then I saw I had the ace of spades!! Thank God! The turn was a spade, giving me the nut flush and I thought I was home and dry…when next thing he hit his one-outer for a straight flush on the river to the 10!

 

Aaaaarrrrgggghhhhhhhh…    

 

The good news for the ladies, however, is that Shana took this down too! Again there was a deal made four-handed for the money but she went on to win it. Good results for the ladies when you think how we are massively outnumbered by the men.

 

Oh well, overall I think I played really well and got deep in most of the tourneys and came second in one. It bodes well for the season ahead but it was disappointing to have a couple of situations that stopped me from getting in the money in more side events, and of course the main event.

 

I’m trying to sort out my house in Swindon to sell (a great time, I know!) so I’ve been playing a bit at the Gala in Bristol over the last couple of weeks with a few results. I got a four-way share for £550 in the £50 with one re-buy, £450 in a four-way share in a £30+30 and came fifth in the £20+20 for another £170, so all in all it hasn’t been a bad start to the year and I’m really excited about what’s to come in the next few months.

 

The next event Betfred are putting me into is the European Deep Stack Tournament in Dublin, together with a couple of side events. In the main event you get 50k in chips with an hour clock! Amazing… I can’t wait!

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