Pud's Poker Progress / Matthew Pitt / 04 September 2008 / 2 Comments

I played the first of my three $55 WSOP Europe (more...) satellites last night and despite not winning a seat to the super satellite on September 7 (more...), I left with a ton of confidence. (writes Yorkshire Pud)

Starting with 2k in chips and 15 minute blinds led to a decent structure that allowed a decent amount of play. Sixty-seven runners meant that there was a 1:11 chance of claiming one of the six seats to the $550 game on Sunday.

My first table was table one, which meant that if I were to make it to the final table then I probably would not be moved seats during the whole tournament. Sometimes this is a great thing but other times, like Monday's game, it can be a massive hindrance.

Usually I like to get involved early with suited connectors and medium pairs but none of these came my way. One thing I noted from the off was there was a maniac in my BB, which meant I would have to be more selective in my starting hands when I wanted to steal. Quite quickly, there were two bust-outs, one when AA held against an OESD and another where AQ clashed with Q4 on an xQQxx board.

The hands dealt to me early doors were a load of tripe, 63o, T3o, T2o, K6s stuff like that. I did play QJo and rivered a straight which netted me a 780 chip pot. The next hand I played was TT, but when I raised, I got four callers including the maniac BB. Flop comes 457r and I c-bet and get two callers. Turn is a jack and I have already given up the hand and check. Crazy BB makes a huge overbet that puts the other caller all-in and he calls. River is a five and crazy BB shows J5 for a full house and the other guy 99! Unreal!

I folded, then folded and even folded some more due to unplayable hands and finally picked up KQ. I raise and steal the blinds! Very next hand I get QQ and again only take down the blinds. More folding ensues and I look down at AJo and decide this is the hand I am shoving my 12BB stack in with. After a raise in MP, I shove in the BB to find myself against 44. A board of 5T25J sees me double up and puts me on an average stack.

The next series of hands were so bad I wrote them down! With blinds 75/150 and me having around a 3.5k stack I was dealt the following: T5s, 64s, 84o, J3o, 83o, K2o, 93o, J4o, 73o, 85o, A3o, 32o, J7s, 75o, A7o, 97o, T7o, 92s, T7s, 96o, T3o! LMAO! I then see I have 77 in my hand and after folding the above rubbish holdings, it looks like a monster. A new player to the table raises UTG and I shove my stack in, hoping to take the dead money but the button has other ideas and calls with JJ. The board runs out 35696 and I bust out in 19th.

Finishing so far away from the top six was disappointing but with the hands I was dealt I think I did a good job. Having the crazy player in my BB did not help things and he really put me off my game. He was not a good player, just mental! My notes on him simply say "total f$%!ing fish!" My mate finished watching the game and with seven left (six paid) Crazy was second in chips and ended up fighting with the chip leader and winning a decent pot with the pair that was on the board. Best of luck to whomever he was, he is really terrible.

I will be playing my next game on Thursday night. The plan was to play on Wednesday night but I have been at the coast all day and feel totally shattered and not in a good frame of mind for playing my best poker. I hope that the Betfair RNG will be a little more kind to me this time around and keep me away from the crazy fishes!

As always, thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables!