Joined: May '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 38 (M)
Posts: 2064
So this weekend saw my first ever major live event - the UKIPT Series at the Hippodrome in London. Here is a play by play description of how it all went....
I arrived in London at around 8am on Saturday morning - giving me a full 6 hours to find the casino, find my hotel and to take in the sites (despite only living ~100 miles away, I'd never been to London before).
At around 11am, I found the casino, and my what a site! It was stunning from the outside - and inside.... it was even more stunning. I immediately thought - this is where I want to play my poker.. in places like this - not grotty little backstreet pubs and casinos the likes of which can be found in Wolverhampton - this was the real deal.
I got my tournament ticket and all registration issues sorted by midday, then I had 2 hours to kill before action got underway... 1 hour and 45 minutes and 5 unnecessary walked miles later, I had found my hotel, checked in, and made it back to the casino. A strange and totally new mix of excitement and trepidation that you just don't get with an online tournament was fast washing over me - luckily the excitement being the overwhelming feeling.
Just before 2pm, I was handed my seat draw and found my place on the top floor, table 20, seat 3. A quick glance around the table revealed a serious looking bunch - but all totally unknown to me.
Cards in the air... starting stack 20,000
Level 1 - blinds 25/50
First hand I am in the SB... 5 limpers before me, then I look down at AJ suited. I complete the blind before seeing a flop of 8 2 3 - no chance of a flush and a button bet later and my first hand has passed by without a hitch, or a hit.
The blinds come around again, with nothing playable - raises in my BB & SB mean I can't see a flop.
My first good hand came on the button - folded around to me, I look down to see two jacks. I make it 150 to go, and blinds folded giving me my first win.
The remainder of level 1 passes without interest, and I'm sitting just below my 20k starting stack.
Level 2 - blinds 50/100
An uneventful start to level 2 was soon interrupted by this hand... With me in the BB, UTG raises to 350.. Button calls the raise before I look down to see two aces. I raise it up to 1200, and both players, after a long time staring me down, muck their hands.
The next hand, in the SB again I face a raise and a call before looking down at AQ suited. again I reraise up to 1200 but this time both players call. A flop of 7 2 A looks safe enough to me - and my follow up bet and subsequent folds confirms that feeling.
Next hand I'm on the button - and face an early position raise, looking down at my cards I see pocket kings - nice run of cards I think to myself, before raising up to 1200 again. The player calls me before fixing his gaze firmly on me and not on the flop at all. I return his stare and catch a flop of 2 3 6 out the corner of my eye. Without looking away, I fire out a 2/3 bet and he promptly folds.
Next hand, folded round to me I look down to see A 10 suited. I raise it up to 300 but facing a 3-bet from the big blind, I decide not to push my luck and fold my hand.
Good level for me, and I'm up to around 25k with the average a little over 20k
Level 3 - blinds 100/200 ante 25
A few hands in I look down UTG to see pocket 6s.. with the ante now in, I feel it's a good idea to raise any playable hands, so I make it 700 to go. The player next to act calls my bet, and everyone else folds. The flop of 10 J 3 looks ugly to me, but I fire out a 1,000 bet none-the-less. Opponent calls, and I know I'm either behind, or facing a QK straight draw - either way, I'm not happy with my hand... until that is, the turn comes down a 6... now I'm sure I'm in front at this point, so fire out a 2/3 bet. After a quick staredown, my opponent raise that making this my first big pot. All the possibilities running through my head now - and the one that I believe the most is that he is holding 10 J... All in I say, hoping for a short pause before a call. There was a short pause before he says "I guess my jacks are no good" and folds.
The rest of the level is uneventful and my stack is around 35k with the average around 24k
Level 4 - blinds 150/300 ante 25
No hands at all in level 4, and my stack slips a couple of thousand to 33k, average up to around 27k, so I'm still ahead of the game.
Level 5 - blinds 200/400 ante 50
Another uneventful level leaves me sitting just above the average with 30k
Level 6 - blinds 300/600 ante 50
A slow start to this level too, until this hand - early raiser makes it 2,100 - the button calls before I look down at pocket 9s in the SB. The early raiser has around 10k back and the button has slightly less than me. I know this already - and I'd happily set the early raiser all in, but with the extra caller - I ask the first raiser how many chips he has back (just so they both know I have a genuine hand) before flat calling the 2.1k. First to act, I see the flop of 9 K 2 - rainbow... perfect I think. Now just hope I'm up against an AK, or an optimistic KQ. I check, original raiser checks before the button fires out a rather large bet... after a lot of deliberation, I decide raising here and now is better than the slow play, so I raise his bet. Without pause he announces All In.. and with even less pause, I call and turn over my 99... he turns over 22 for a set of 2s and in a flash, I'm up to ~70k with the average around 35k
Levels 7 & 8 whizz by in a flash, with no major incident - I'm still feeling good and sitting comfortably above the the 44k average with ~65k
Level 9 starts with blinds of 600/1200 with an ante of 100, and I promptly moved tables for the first time. 3 hands later, and I'm moved again down to the first floor, and table 3. First hand on table 3 and I pick up JJ - A raise and a call precludes a flop of 3 9 J... I follow up bet a small amount before the lady to my left (who I later find out qualified through the same tourney as me) folds.
Levels 10, 11 & 12 are totally card dead for me, and with the raising blinds and antes, the average is getting closer and closer each hand. By the time I look down again at JJ on the button early in level 13, my stack is down to 57k and I'm facing an all-in push of 24k... I repush all in to isolate - before they flip over pocket 6s. The first card I see on the flop is a 6... and no jack leaves me down to 33k with the average now over 45k
A few hands later, the blinds now 800/1600 with the ante at 200, I again look down at JJ on the button. Folded around to me - I raise to 6000 with my two new found friends in the blinds, I'm sure I'll get a walk and pick up the pot for a nice boost. SB folds before the BB looks at me, almost apologetically before reraising to 25k.... I know he has me crushed - I announce fold before showing my jacks, and he shows KK and take the pot. Now I'm in trouble and need a hand soon...
level 14 is the last of the day and blinds are 1000/2000 with the ante at 300. My stack of ~25k is half the average and leaves little room to play.
I get nothing at all, and soon only 6 hands remain of the day. By the time the last one rolls up, I have 22k, 2nd to act... the average is 54k and I desperately need a double up. UTG raises to 5k, and I look down to see AK... I shove my stack (or what's left of it) into the middle... it's folded around to the initial raiser who promptly calls and turns over JJ... Those Jacks again - I just knew they would knock me out, and a low flop, low turn and low river proved me right - and I was out last hand of the day... I wish everyone luck for day 2, before walking away - more disappointed at being knocked out of a tourney than ever before. I finished 76th of the 223 entries on day 2, meaning I finished around 130th overall out of ~430, with 58 getting paid.
Looking back on it now, the experience was a great one, and has really gave me a taste for the big tourneys - I want more of this, and I intend to play a lot more from now on. I was very happy with how I played - playing through 8 hours - I never once made an incorrect decision, and wasn't outplayed at any point. I felt totally at home sitting with these guys - and I know if I played these events regularly, my first big score wouldn't be too far away...
I'm hungry for more - so now it's time to step up my game, so I can play these things more.
I hope my thread "My 2nd major live event" has a happier ending
Joined: Nov '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 747
glad you enjoyed the experience, i play live games quite often but never been in a decent tour yet or played anything over £30
thinking of trying to satalite into the nottingham DTD UKIPT later in the year though, or if they announce a manchester tournament (the schedules looking pretty thin at the moment). ive been paying quite a lot of sats to big touneys recently and am getting quite good at them now. also thinking about saving all my points on ipoker and PKR till the sats start for the wsop next year, as i supose thats the dream all pokerpro wannabees aspire to.
Joined: May '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 38 (M)
Posts: 2064
Yeah - that's true mate. I'd do anything to play the WSOP....
With the satellites, you've gotta try and play as many of the freeroll ones as you can. It's exceptionally difficult to qualify through them, but the more you play, the better your chances become.
With regards to a Manchester tourney... the girl I sat next to on my last table at the UKIPT was from Manchester, and was talking to me about the fact that there are no major tournies planned for there... which is really a shame.
I'm planning to really step up my game, both online (higher buy ins, more tournies) and irl... so maybe I'll see you at an event soon
Joined: Nov '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 67 (M)
Posts: 3361
well yout by the sound of it you played well but just got unlucky when it mattered. a good try for your first major,i don't think it will be long untill you get to another as you seem to be a decent player and hopefully you will reach the money then after that onwards and upwards
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
Still a great story mate and enjoyed theread. Seems like you have learned a great deal besides gaining some great experience, fun and memories for a lifetime. At least you can say you play at the big boy tables and it's a great site those casinos. You'll win in time! Good Luck All!
Joined: Feb '13
Location: Netherlands
Age: 51 (M)
Posts: 508
Nice one Yout,
Great experience for a first mayor live tournament. Think U did well there, as if U didnt had that badbeat of the sixes against ur jacks , u would have run even a lot deeper in to the tournament.
I prefer playing these live tournaments myself as U get so much more information, just by seeing ur oponent. As the buy inn is a lot higher then the ususal games u play online, the game itself seems completly diffrent to .... U wont see comp-lete tables going all in on the first hand as I 've seen many times on stars ( and not only in freerolls).
So congratz on ur experience , I hope many more of these will follow.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 1646
Really enjoyed reading this thread. Was busting to get to the bottom and see a happy ending Still, must of been an incredable experience and it sounds like you played really well.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
What a great experience you had in London, although the tourney didn't ended the best way, leaving you more time to look for what the capital had to offer, being first time there! I guess that when you saw yourself above avarage stack you may have thought too good about your game. That surely helped you playing for the first time under those conditions, but there's one particular hand you'll pass looking different to it each time you get it: JJ. It marked all your experience over there. But you've had a great experience and that's what counts the most!!!
Just a guess, the other opponent that said "i guess my jacks aren't enough" when you had triple 6's, did he showed his hand when he folded or he just said that without showing the cards?
Joined: Feb '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 46
Yout well played glad you enjoyed the event. I couldn't get up there but I followed the updates but alas you never got a mention. I looked for you in the day 2 chip counts so figured you had gone out but wasn't expecting it to be on the very last hand, how cruel.
Joined: May '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 38 (M)
Posts: 2064
Yeah stimp - I was reading the updates myself too, hoping to be mentioned at some point... but it seems, not being a PokerStars pro, or a television presenter, or cute girl... I wasn't worth mentioning... despite being up with the chip leaders throughout and getting knocked out on the very last hand of day 1... seems I should have been worth a mention, but still.
Charlotte Van Brabander (who was on my table) got plenty of photos taken... and got interviewed when she busted (by my new friend Raygon Egan)... but then, she's young, relatively famous, and hot - I guess that's what matters
I only played one live event in my life 4 years ago 100 players 50 buyin at a local bowling ally was drinking beer and playing poker the best combo made the final table had pocket Aces twice on the final table shoved both times but no callers went out in 8th place for 100 reading your thread AkvsJJ was a coin flip yu played well but playing in a casino is where yu want too play good luck in your future events
Joined: May '12
Location: Belgium
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 275
Posted by yout85: Yeah stimp - I was reading the updates myself too, hoping to be mentioned at some point... but it seems, not being a PokerStars pro, or a television presenter, or cute girl... I wasn't worth mentioning... despite being up with the chip leaders throughout and getting knocked out on the very last hand of day 1... seems I should have been worth a mention, but still.
Charlotte Van Brabander (who was on my table) got plenty of photos taken... and got interviewed when she busted (by my new friend Raygon Egan)... but then, she's young, relatively famous, and hot - I guess that's what matters
And Belgian . Have to agree she is hot. Maybe I'll get to play with her too on one of the Belgian Poker Championships.
Anyhow I realy liked reading this mate, it seems like u had a blast and enjoyed it - that is the most important part of the game (along with winning). I'm sure u will get more than a second shot on a live tournament and maybe then the ending will be extra happy. If I was eliminated from the tourney, I would take the number of this young lady Charlotte and explore the city with her
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
hey yout- really enjoyed the sum op. you do have an author sitting in you very well written, felt like i was there. even though u didn't make it to the money- it still was a great experience & i wish you more luck in the future live events- i'm sure there will be many more to come. cheers
Joined: Feb '11
Location: Romania
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 478
nice to hear that man ,jsut keep have more confident in u and u re game ,i m shure u ll hit final table at less oance .From u re ''story'' that i have read it all ;saw that u played safe and fair but...... for shure with more confident u ll get in a nice mood with an nice mojo ,for next time act like u have a lot of experience (even if u don t ) in live i mean ,bluff when u see the licght and use u re poker face ,now is live so u can
heheeeeeeee.....
. Have to agree she is hot. Maybe I'll get to play with her too on one of the Belgian 
) in live i mean ,bluff when u see the licght and use u re 
