Just a quick news to let you know that I'm still in! After a catastrophic start, where I ran into Aces, a full house and a flush, my stack went down to 40,000. Knowing the excellent structure would allow me to play still, I closed shop and played very tight for a while. Within a couple hours I doubled up with AK against Lee Nelson's 66 (the author of Kill Phill). I then found a pair of Kings that held up against Dave "El Blondie" Coclough and his pock queens. Once the dust settled, I had a nice stack of 25,000
During the bubble everything went like a dream. I took on the table captain role, since the chip leader didn't want it! I increased my stack to 200,000 using all the classic tricks and some less known ones to maximise fold equity postflop (a fancy formula for "bluffing").
But one hand did not go well. I was stealing from Kenny Tran a lot and I probably did it one too many time. The hand is very interesting and I will detail it in a future article. In a nutshell he check raised me on the river, and at this point 2/3rd of his chips where in the pot. I really wanted to put him all in with just 8 high. After three minutes of motionless reflextion and analysys of the risk/reward, I concluded that I wasn't sure of my read enough to screw my entire tournament on this one (a missed bluff would have left me one of the short stacks in the bubble) and I mucked.
Kenny Tran turned over ten high. NH sir. I am very frustrated because I missed on a big pot and the resteal of my career in front of the cameras...
Then the bubble burst and I went card dead for a while and my stack of 145,000 slowly went down to 100,000 as I watched every pot get raised and reraised.
Tomorrow will be anothr day... I believe I proved that I could play the shortstack and switch gear with success, so who knows? I have half the average: anything is possible. I will earn at least £27,000 and if I make it to the final table, up to £1 Million!
