In From The Cold

“Go on Tony, it was only a small oversight”

“Peter - the interest on that loan you didn’t declare was £2,200 a month - I’m not sure the public will like it. You’ve only been gone from the Cabinet 10 months.”

“The Lord preaches forgiveness Tony”

“Alistair says I’m not allowed to do God”

“Who’s the higher power Tony? Alistair Campbell, God or Me?”

“You are Peter”

“So…”

“Ok - you can be Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Just don’t tell Gordon or Alistair until you pitch up at the next Cabinet meeting”

And so it came to pass in 1999 - the persuasive Peter Mandelson slide effortlessly back into the cabinet ,after 10 months out in the cold.

My London tournament form had given me feelings of being the forgotten man over the last 3 months. I had ONE cash in the whole period (althought that was a first place), after losing seemingly every race I got into. All that changed last night - some solid play combined with a few strokes of luck earned me 3rd place in the Better Poker £50 event, which was worth a payout of £500. Here is how it panned out:

Hand1
I raise to 150 on the button with A♣3♣ and get called by the SB. Flop comes down A♦ 3♠ 8♠. I raise his 300 lead to 1k and take it down. If he does have an Ace here, I really don’t want him hitting a disguised bigger 2 pair there, and costing me a bundle.

Hand2
I limp UTG with JJ for 100. I get 4 callers. Hmm - that wasn’t the plan. All is well though with a JQ5 flop.
I bet 600 and get one caller.
Turn bricks.
I bet 1200 and take it down.

Hand3
I try to steal from the cutoff with 4♣9♠ but get a caller and then a shove from the big blind. I go into the break on 5k from a 3.5k starting stack.

Hand4
I raise with A♣J♣ UTG to 600. Prowler calls in the BB.
Flop is K♠ J♦ 6♣
Prowler leads for 1k. He only has 1.7k behind so I foolishly put him in and he eventually calls with KQ.
I river a Jack to eliminate him. Up to about 9k now.

Hand5
I call a raise to 700 with AK on the button, and the SB calls behind. The BB shoves for 3k total, and after the initial raise drops out I pretty much have to call. The SB undercalls all in as well.
It’s AK(me), KQ(SB), KK(BB)
All of his Kings are gone, but he holds, and I am back down to 6k.

Hand6
Blinds now 200-400 and there is a raise to 1k - I call in the BB with J♦9♠ Flop is 9♦ 5♦ 4♦
My hand is pretty huge - top pair, decent kicker, decent flush draw so I check shove on him and he makes the call with A5 (no diamonds). I fade the meagre outs he has and am up to 10k.

Table move - I am now on a much harder table - contains lots of big stacks, and the owners of said stacks are The Baron, Sonny and Graeme Newman (Grazza = Ladbrokes World Online Poker Championship Main Event winner).

I get a few raises through to snuffle the blinds and then comes a key hand:

Hand7
The Baron limps for 1200, and Grazza makes it 5k. I push for 10k total with AQ. Grazza pretty much has to call, but it’s a disaster for him as he has Q4, and I hold to get up to 20k.

The bubble bursts and we are off to the final table - I am probably in about 5th spot of the 9 remaining runners.

Hand8
I am in in the BB with 18k, blinds are 1k/2k. Grazza raises to 6k from mid position. I remember from the Irish Open that he does like to raise his fair share of pots once the blinds kick in, so his range is pretty wide here. I shove with 9d10c and he eventually makes the odds call, with 7♠8♠. My hand holds, and Grazza is crippled, busting out soon after in 9th spot.

Hand9
I donk off 6k of my new wealth calling an all in with AJ sooted. Opponent has AQ - bad call.

Hand10
We are down to 7 players. There is an early raiser to 8k. With my stack at 25k and nowhere near the chip lead, I decide to (hopefully) take a race on and shove with 66. Early raiser calls with AJ and I hold, eliminating him and move into contention for the win for the first time.

Now 4 left

Hand11
I call an all-in for 8k holding A♥J♥ in the BB but get outdrawn by K♠J♣.

Now 3 players remaining

I shove a bit to keep up with the monster blinds but finally succumb pushing over the top of the button’s raise to 20k with KJ with blinds at 4k/8k and my stack is at 50k. He has Ace rag and it holds. 3rd place for me and £500 - a very pleasing performance.

Sonny wins the tournament to maintain his good form. He is off to Vegas tomorrow - good luck that man. I also play some 5/6 card Omaha and lose £150 of my winnings. Not a great fan of that game - seems to me you need to have pretty close to the nuts to get involved, particularly in the 6 card beast.

So, like good old Peter Mandelson, I am back in from the cold. The warm environment of the MTT London winners circle has finally embraced me again. Hopefully I can stay there over the coming months. Better not upset the apple cart by trying to facilitate passports for rich Indian businessmen I guess…