Jeffrey | Poker Articles, Poker Tournament

Submitted by Dungbeetle, this article belongs to the Poker Tournament series

This tournament write-up needs a quick introduction from the editor (me, Mark) for all you readers not familiar with The International. The International is a private members club situated on 53-55 East Road London. And no, it’s neither a strip club or a religious sekt eventhough “private members club” has that sort of ring to it. The International is a club for chess, backgammon, bridge and poker club with its own Club Gaming Permit (in other words it’s legit). The following story is Dungbeetle’s first (correct me if I’m wrong Dungbeetle) encounter with The International:

I ventured over to Old Street last night to try out the new International Club. For those not familiar with London poker, it’s basically just the old Gutshot club moved to a new location, to get it in a new borough and thus end their war with their previous local council.

The Club gets a big thumbs up from me – nice decor, welcoming staff, good player traffic and a varied spread of nightly tournaments mean that I will be definitely going back. There was also an action packed £1/£2 Omaha game going on in the corner, which looked like it was destined to last all night. I couldn’t get on that game, but imagine I will play next time.

I entered the 8pm round of each tournament, along with the Baron, Deven, Honest Dave and Hass. The format was £30 + £30 giving you 7k in chips in total, and with 40 runners this generated a decent enough prize pool.

I made a mistake in that I started off playing too tight – I was hoping to catch someone for their whole stack, who would perhaps misjudge the power of one of their Omaha hands, but it didn’t really happen. I just didn’t get the hole cards, and whilst 7k in chips sounds substantial, the blinds escalated fairly quickly, which is particularly a problem in Omaha when hands get repotted pre-flop fairly regularly.

I decided to loosen my range in the third level and raised UTG to 500 with AT, but the BB moved all in so I had to pass. He showed 77 – so much for my tight table image.

The next hand cost me a big chunk of my stack. 5 limpers in an Omaha hand, and I make the mistake of checking in the BB with QJTT, my best hand of the evening.

We see a flop of A, 8, 8 – nothing for me. However it is checked around

The turn brings the King, so now I have 9 outs to Broadway (which admittedly might not be live outs), plus two tens for the house. Tom leads with a pot sized bet which I call, and we also get one other caller.

The river is another 8. I’ve missed my primary outs, but the other guys will need a bigger pair than my tens to get a bigger house. Once Tom leads again, for a smallish 1600 I’m not really sure what I am beating but make the crying call and get shown the quads Alas – down to 2500 chips.

I double up luckily one hand before the break. I am cornered into shoving UTG with Ah3h at 200/400 blinds, and get called by the SB with AJ, but I spike a 3 on the river to beat him and get a glimmer of hope back.

I play short stacked for the next hour or so after the break, desperately keeping my head above water. Meanwhile, Dave, The Baron, Dev and Hass have all been eliminated, The Baron losing a HUGE pot to the rather spewy lucky chip leader who called with a ten high flush draw, although Tom would admit he didn’t play his hand the best either.

Finally, I am put out of my misery in 14th place. Blinds are 300-600 and my 4.5k stack is looking desperate. I am in the BB, and when an early position raiser comes in for 1600, AQ is plenty big enough to move over the top of him. He calls with AK, and I fail to outdraw him.

This tournament is good fun, and I think I’ll give it another go next week. In addition, incredibly everything is half price on a Monday, including booze. Thus 3 bottles of beer and an orange juice came to £4.25

The rest of the guys were playing Omaha and Holdem on various cash tables, so I decided to put my name on the list for a quick game. After lending Tom some cash for the Omaha game, and paying Dave back a debt from my home game disaster, I only had £80 on me, so the £1/£1 pot limit holdem game it was then. I was happy to short stack, just to get a further feel for the club and more importantly the playing styles of some of the regulars.

I was on the same table as Deven, and the regulars were all competent, if sometimes straightforward. Generally they called when they had it, and passed if they didn’t. There were a couple of useful aggressive players who were happy to re-raise but all in all a fairly predictable table.

My £80 stack went on a roller coaster as follows:

1) I sit out an orbit to observe, and then 3 barrel deuce seven on a low board and eventually take it to get to £120
2) I raise pre-flop with QQ and keep firing on an Ace high flop. The other guy has an Ace but doesn’t re-raise me until I am pot committed and I get a spawny 4 card straight on the river to get to £200.
3) I raise pre-flop with AT and get called in a few spots. The Flop arrives J, T, 7 with a couple of spades and I lead for £15. Deven re-raises another £50. I think for while and then decide he’s full of shit so I shove for another £130ish. Dev makes the slightly debatable call with his double belly buster K9, and hits a King to scoop the £370 pot The rest of the table is slightly taken aback by far the most aggressively played pair of hands of the night – middle pair verses the non nut draw.
4) I treble back up to £90 getting all in with 44 against four overcards
5) I bust out raising AA pre-flop and then getting it all in on a flop of 2, 4, 7 only to be shown that someone has tagged along with 24off.

A fun night, amongst the Xmas period poker action desert, and I’ll definitely be going back.

PROFIT/(LOSS) USD 2008
Live Holdem Tournaments 2,875
Live Holdem Cash 737
Live Omaha (590)
Live “Professional” Tournaments (7,436)
Home Games (1,314)
Online Holdem Tournaments 54,939
Online Holdem Cash 16,552
Online Omaha (140)
Sundry 1210
Rake (5,639)

59,913

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