Level 7 & 8

New table had gone ok so far, busted a short stack AA vs 84off and stole a couple of pots uncontested as well as winning a nice smallish safe pot off Barny Boatman in an unraised pot.

First key pot was 56std. I was only in about 3rd position but the table seemed fairly tight was i was quite happy to speculate with this hand and raised it to about 1400 (200,400). Just the big blind flat called and on a flop on 6,5,3 (2 diamonds) he moved straight allin for 6000. I call expecting to see a draw or pp or some part of the board but no he has AxQx and is drawing totally to runner runner luck cards which he misses thankfully. I hit my peak stack there of 25,000 but it wasnt all gonna be roses from there on.

Another huge key pot was my bb of 400 when ive called a 675 raise from utg who is quite tight with 9,10off. flop is J8x rainbow and i check call a big bet of 2000 thinking he has either buying the pot by overbetting with a big ace or obviously he will follow up on the turn if he has hit or a has monster pp. The turn is 9h making 2 hearts on board and we check check. At this point im convinced im ahead and probably looking to check call the river, unless i hit in which case i may fire. River is 3h and i check, i didnt fancy placing a stopper bet as some of the nutters were raising big river bets with nothing and besides i actually thought in this case the bigger this guy bets the weaker it is. He actually bets 4100 which i didnt like as obviously he could have caught runner hearts or i could have been worng with my read of the pot so far. Its my toughest decision of the day by a mile by i decide to call after a long time thinking as i know how crucial it could be. He shows AhJh for he nut flush. OMG i go into instant rage and sling my cards into the muck (saying **** it under my breath) before racing off the the loos. The rage is with myself for making bad decisions but i know im gutted i didnt hit too when this guy is checking and giving me a free river on what a huge pot relative to his stack. I had 10 outs (about 22% shot) to have made for free and when i look back i would have got paid too :(

One more twist to this pot, when i return from the bogs i go to the bar for a coke and the tournament director approaches me and introduces himself. Ooops im thinking shit my swearing must have not been as under my breath as i thought. Anyway he tells me his supervisor saw me throw cards at the dealer and giving me a gentle warning. I obviously apologise as i didnt even realise i had done this (honestly yes !!!) , maybe one flicked up i dunno, but the only person i was mad with was myself when i stormed off from that table. I returned to the table and had calmed down shortly after, a change of dealer while i was away probably made it a lot less awkward LOL.

I didnt take a flop with 97std in the bb when at 200,400 a raise and call from big stacks of 1650 felt a bit too much at the time. 1200-1400 i call i think. Anyway the flop was Jc7c7x and the raiser bet huge on flop and turn both called by other guy. River of a Kc and the raiser check called what was an obvious flush (ridiculously chased) with what must have been a big overpair. Now the chaser has 9c,10c so i couldnt decide if i would have got him off the pot had i taken a flop. I guess from the way he chased the whole pot down he wouldnt have laid that hand down even if i led out and the raiser reraised. The other way being if i checked then check raised allin on the flop after the other 2 bets. It wouldnt have been a bad way to have bust and obviously i might have got a good 10-12k uncalled or more if the raiser shut out the chaser but again i dont think he would have done that either. Im convinced the more i think about it i would have bust and be moaning about a welsh calling station (believe me there plenty of that variety around) bad beat.

Another pot i stole with was in the cut-off when it folded to me on 300,600. I had been meaning to make this play all day if i got chips spare and raised to 2200 without looking at my cards (no one else was aware of this obviously). Clothey, a guy i know from the CPC 2005 stared me down from the sb before folding saying i had his QKstd well beaten after the bb folded. I couldnt resist a peak and 83off was the outcome :)

Another interesting pot was when the dummy calling station monster stack (the one above)raised my bb (600) to 3000. He had been very agressive shortly before and i was seriously considering an allin 15k over the top to resteal with KJoff (counting chips etc taking time) when he asked me if i had said allin. As he said it i realised he had just said call before that (thinking i had moved in verbally). I had not said a word and i know he would never have had the intelligence to make up this verbal stupidity on purpose so promptly mucked shortly after.

Anyway i finished that level on 18,200 with one more level left for the day.