Cardiff £100+£10 Shootout

A bit tired from the drive up but played this tournament as a warm up. 4000 chips 72 players and 8 tables of 9 with the winner from each going through to the final table of 8 (£150 for 8th rising to £2700 for 1st)

4000 chips, a 30 minute clock and not too bad a structure. Played tight early just seeing flops where i felt any implied odds warranted it etc. First key hand came at blinds of 100,200:

Limped with AA utg and a fairly aggressive guy raised me to 600. I contemplated a reraise but wanted him to hit and go for a double or bust really so just flat called. Also i was already aware of how ridiculously some players overbet there hands so i felt no need to reraise. Flop of K,J,10 and i check. True to form this guy (who has 12k cos he has knocked out 2 players with his overbets so far) just moves straight allin. I immediately call for my remaining 3600 chips (yes its only a 1500 pot on the flop !!! but this was a total no brainer) and he shows QQ. I hold and remain around 8k until we are 4 handed. After losing a couple of pot odds calls i finally knock out the blind out rock to my left A9 vs AQ and we are 3 handed.

Same guy (QQ vs my AA) raises my 400 blind to 1200 and i have him covered. I dont put him on a great hand so am quite happy to take a flop with 10,7std the way he overplays hands. A lot of allins had gone before this raise and this was first raised flop for while. Flop is 10,8,5 and i check. True to form this time he moves allin about 6k (yes the pot was only 2800 this time !!!). I call confident im ahead and he shows A5 and doesnt improve.

So i go heads up 22k vs 16k. I get a few hands near the start without action AK,AQ and it appears the guy is quite tight. I then got KK and decided to limp as he just wasnt calling any actions. I actually lost a couple thousand on that hand as he had 37off and the board came A6546. I then lost more trying a play when he raised which in hindsight was daft as he was a rock and i should have just kept agressing the button etc. Anyway went down to 12k then again lost some more when he reraised me preflop when i was at it. I then agressed post flop big time and got back to 12k with 1 or 2 big gambles.

What i havent mentioned is just before, but basically when i went heads up the earache ive had all week kicked in big time. I felt dizzy and disorientated and felt like i would fall over if i stood up. Basically like you feel if you are on a boat on rough seas. Anyway realising it was not a good option for me to hang around an hour then play a shootout final for 2-3hours till 4 or 5 am i offered a deal for the local chap to play (as he was playing ok) and for me just to get 33% of his takings. A good deal for him given the chip equity but i just wanted to sort myself out for tommorrows game and would have taken nothing the way my head felt. Anyway the next day i found he finished a respectful 4th/8 for £700 so i was up £120 from my investment. Also the paracetamol and much needed sleep worked and i felt great all day for the main event (see next post)