Pub Champion

I found out that one of the local pubs is signed up for Poker In The Pub so I decided to give it a go last Friday. Sixteen of us started out on 2 tables, with a 2000 chip stack and starting blinds of 25/50. The blinds increased every time somebody was knocked out and after the first person went out, they seemed to rocket up in no time at all.

I played it nice and safe early on, waiting for a good spot which came when I looked down at AKs. I re-raised the pot up nice and high and 3 of us ended up waiting for the flop. A rainbow flop of AK2 was a nice sight and I somehow managed to not smirk and I kept my best poker face in tact. Putting my opponents on Ace-rag (most people seemed happy to play that) I made a pot sized bet which was duly called after some pondering. The turn brought an 8 and I pot it again, which was duly called. The river was a 6 and with no straights or flushes on the board it was checked to my. My spider senses kicked in and I decided to check behind, which was fortunate for me as one opponent had Ace-rag and the other guy had 22 for a set of 2s, which scooped him the pot.

Luckily a few hands later on my deal, I got KK (no fiddling....honest guv) and tripled up thanks to two players chasing an ace. From then on I never looked back and myself and the missus safely made the final table. A combination of a succession of decent cards (AA, QQ, AQs) and ridiculous sized blinds saw me storm into the chip lead with around 65% of the chips in play with 5 players left. The missus went out in 4th place after pushing allin with KJs and being beaten by a pair of 8s. It was soon heads-up and I won it on the second hand thanks to making a low straight on a Ace-high board - my oppo of course had Ace-rag and victory was mine.

Everybody had paid £1.50 to enter and my grand prize for winning was - fuck all - not even a pint. You get points towards the leaderboard online. Basically, top two from each pub qualify for the Regional finals, then the qualifiers from that go to the National finals, then the qualifiers from that get an all expenses paid trip to Las Vegas.

There's not long left in this current season, but the new one starts at the end of April, so I might very well give it a go.