The starting stack for the tournament was 6000, with blinds beginning at 10/20 and increasing at regular intervals. Jon's new chips were impressive, an array of colours with my own personal highlights being orange, yellow and purple. The pots remained fairly small early on with several skirmishes resulting in relatively small fluctuations. Jon, Josh and Cam developed early chip leads, with Ted being unable to get things started and me losing several medium-sized pots to Josh. My personal lowest point was just over 4200.
Things got better for me after this phase though, the same cannot be said for Ted however. After pre-flop and post-flop action and a check-check turn, a third diamond on board invited me to throw out a value bet of 600. With little hesitation, Ted made a valuey-looking raise to 1400. I snap-called, Ted announced flush, 10 high and tabled the 10d8d for second pair on the flop and a showdown hand of a 10 high flush. He was left disappointed though as my QdXd regained its pre-flop superiority on the river. Still with a very much playable stack, Ted found another spot that seemed unlikely due to the nature of his ethnicity. Perhaps Kosher finally caught up with Ted when in a fairly large pot, Jon made a suspicious looking bet on the end, for a large proportion of the pot after a checked turn and substantial earlier action. Ted snap called and showed down his rivered top pair. He was again left wanting at showdown as Jon showed a disguised straight that he was allowed to make by way of a gutshot through a check-check turn.
At this point, Ted was short, with approximately just under 2000 chips. Cam opened for a standard raise, only for Ted to put his stack on the line. Cam then went into the tank for approximately five minutes before he made the reluctant, confusing, unorthodox, brave, gutsy, hopeful, courageous, optimistic, bewildering call with 9x9x. Ted made a predictably outrageous sound when the call was announced and he showed the King of Swaziland and the King of Lesotho for pocket Kings. The flop offered little hope for Cam and the open-ended straight draw that the turn offered was not even considered a threat for Ted who had the nut Jew re-draw, effectively meaning that Cam was drawing dead. It would have taken a great turn up for the books for Cam to hit is not unimportant eight outs, greater than the effort I put into researching that the aforementioned Kings actually exist. The King of Swaziland rules in an absolute monarchy, whereas the King of Lesotho rules in a constitutional monarchy. Mswati III and Letsie III survived the minor uprising that the turn brought though, with Ted ruling supreme. Cam was left fairly short with just over 2000 himself now. Ted continued his streak of royalty, providing ridiculous, inappropriate impressions of the Prince of Poker, Scotty Nguyen (baby). Cam, who did well not to cause a sucession crisis, reacted commendably well to the news, amazingly deciding not to leave in the face of Ted's behaviour.
At this point, Josh had grinded his way to a fairly imposing chip lead. In what was most definitely his most impressive appearance so far, the rising star took down 317514 (to the nearest 317514) pots that I had open-raised pre-flop with. When it eventually did reach showdown, Josh had the best of it more than half the time, against every player of the table. This dominating play was a product of Josh mixing his newfound aggression along with his more favoured checking and calling. Not afraid to check-call with nothing and bet the goods, Josh looked nailed on for a deep run today.
Jon's stack was fluctuating fairly aggressively, though with a general upward trend. Despite having to surrender position to Ted, he won a fair few pots, including one exceptional call when not offered the best of odds, holding only AK high, which was just about good to scoop the pot. At this stage, I was playing relatively few hands and trying to stay out of the paths of Jon and Josh who were clearly playing very well. With Cam unwilling to play large pots with me out of position, I was able to take down a lot of pots both pre and post-flop, allowing to remain relatively comfortable with roughly 7000 before the following hand.
Shorter than after doubling Ted up, Cam open shoved for the second successive hand. Ted and I both spent several moments considering the call, before Josh insta-called. The pocket nines that haunted him in the war against two of the smallest states in Africa were slammed onto the table by Josh, leaving Cam ambivalent about being in a race with his AxQx unsuited. Unfortunately for him, Ted and I had both laid down smaller aces. Ted also mucked one of the two remaining nines, offering the slightest of silver linings for Cam. The board ran with little drama, allowing Cam to make a swift exit following lots of sentences that included the word, "Baby" from Ted. This gave Josh a flipping large chip lead, with over a third of the chips in play.
Josh continued his fine play, taking down pots of various sizes on various streets against various opponents with various starting hands.
Drama shortly followed, amazingly resulting in two players being all in and the third (Josh) having the majority of his chips in the middle. Ted made one of the most impressive all ins of FPL history, when Juninho got hungry with Kx4x. Josh made the call and after considering both folding and re-shoving, Jon also made the call.
The flop came 6x-4x-Biggerthana6x, allowing Jon to move all in. After a count, Josh made a reluctant but hopeful call with AxQx, knowing that winning the side-pot alone would give him a huge lead. All three players showed down their hands, Ted's pair of fours were second best to Jon's pair of sixes, both susceptible to Josh's AQ high that could also pick up a counterfeit draw on the turn. Both Ted and Josh were drawing dead by the turn though, as the sound of a 6x slapping the table echoed around the room. The irrelevant river was dealt, giving Jon a fair chip lead over me, Josh with around the starting stack and Ted eliminated in 4th place. The Judaism wasn't flowing as well as Ted would have liked, though the deadliness of his needles towards Cam left him with some consolation.
Three handed play continued for a good time after the bubble had burst, with all three players guaranteed at least the consolation return of £2. I realised I would to chip up if I was to make the final two. I looked to play pots in position and after some impressive play from Jonah that further increased his lead, I was able to snatch it back. A very large pot emerged between Josh and I. He called a strong value bet on the river, reading my weakness well. Unfortunately, I wasn't weak enough. A flopped pair of deuces was good for one of the biggest pots of the day so far, against Josh's Ace high.
In the hand before lunch, another large pot took place between Jon and I. After action on every street, 938 cards to a straight on the board and at least 6 minutes of tanking, I finally made the call for 2000 chips, with my top pair no kicker good. The pot totalled well over 12000, almost half of the total chips in play. This gave me a clear chip and went some way to equalling Josh's and Jon's stacks.
Lunch was belatedly taken, with my appetite remaining intact when I discovered I had won the last hand. Many thanks must go to Jon's Mum for a very enjoyable burger and chips meal.
As play continued, the chips continued to move away from Jonah, mainly in my direction but also in the way of Josh. After losing several small pots back to Jon, Jon had regained the chip lead and found himself covering Josh when the two of them amazing got the chips in the middle with straight flush draws! Josh's was for a higher straight flush, though any club would give him the win against Jon's made straight. No blame can be attached to Josh, who I believe also had a straight draw. His overcards may have been live also and with a wide range of outs, it was unlucky that the turn and the river provided small help. Josh took down third place, walking away with his first cash of £2, first podium but most importantly: a great performance. The best player at the table for long stretches of play, it was hard to picture him losing earlier on. Stack's boner was increased impressively as a result, though still a large underdog in terms of chips going into the heads up battle.
After a short pause, the blinds were agreed to be increased to 60/120 until the game became tedious. The battle did not start well for everyone's favourite erection nicknamed friend called Jon. I won the first four hands, cementing the chip lead and wittling Jon down to about 5000. It must be said that I ran well during this period, winning most of the pots and only losing three big blinds maximum in the hands that I did lose. Jon's play cannot be to blame for this, he played the short stack extremely well, making several all in moves that left me tanking like a Thomas engine. My conclusion was the same the first three or so times, much to the dismay of Ted, I declined to call with 7x2x off-suit. After running the board it would be fair to say that I could have won the event right there.
Eventually, having won a few more relatively large pots, I open shoved against Jon, putting him at risk for his remain 1500 or so. Knowing that he was most likely utterly live, he made the call with JsTs against my 5d5h. Suffice to say, Jon won the flip after making Jacks up.
Several more fluctuations later, Jon was fought back down to around 2500. On a flop of 2x-2x-7x, Jon open shoved on the flop. I spent several minutes contemplating the call after sensing that Jon was strong, leading me to believe I could be up against an over pair or even a third deuce. I reluctantly show down Ac7h to discover I have Jon's with his 7x8x outkicked. No drama on the turn or river completed a day of underwhelming showdowns, not that I was complaining as I took down my second FPL event of the season and the £15 prize. A well earned and arguably unlucky second place yielded £8 after a rock solid performance from the rampant boner.
All in all, a great day. A day of firsts. The debut of Jon's bright chips, the first cash and first podium for Josh. The first games without a podium finish for both Cam and Judaism. And amazingly I haven't mentioned it before now but also the first appearance of Jon's ridiculously aggressive Jewish mask and a humourous piece of headware that will keep the head of the boner dry, however wet the adjacent area to him his.
Play of the day: Jon's call with AK high in a big pot against Ted's inferior A high.
The points distribution for todays game are as below. Jon's got an updated league table to come in the next post.
Adam: 145
Jon: 108
Josh: 69
Ted: 40
Cam: 20
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