Well done to the winner Mark Trett.
I think it was half way through level three before Mark played his first hand.
Myself, Loopy and Mark (seats 6 7 &
had no cards so to speak for at least the first hour of the comp (except when loopy said “call” to a 300 bet and chucked in 3000) while Chris Brammer must have thought that Chris “The Cub” who was dealing had been sent from Carlsburg.
Chris failing to miss after Tom MacDonald had flopped two pair, Chris called his bet on the flop to turn top two against Tom (who was first to fall) leaving the young lad with just 600 chips and a long journey home to Newcastle although it would have been a comfortable journey as he was wing’ing it back in Matt Perrin’s New Lamborghini, even though they had a quick exit it was followed by a quick return as Matt left his number plate behind (been stuck on with sticky tape) when they took off from AWOP HQ.
Jim O’Connell was next to fall, being quite chipped up (approx 14k) and having played a solid game to this point he raises UTG to 1800 with the blinds at 200/400 folds round to Chris who is on the bb, Chris tanks for about a minute checking out Jim’s remaining chips and then decides to push all in over the top of Jim, Chris has Jim covered by around 4k, Jim sits back in his chair and obviously has a decision to make for his tournament, he eventually makes the call and flips over QQ whilst Chris turns over AK, The board comes x x x x A!!! to send Jim on a long journey back to Scotland, I was a little disappointed with the table banging on the river from Chris and the fist pumping from Chris’s dad who was in the room with us – this is just my opinion and I’ve said many times on the AWOP forum how I think it’s uncalled for when you’ve just got lucky and knocked someone out!!!
I had been card dead since the start, twice asking Alistair if I could change the dealer on the button as nothing was going my way, I missed out on one pot that would have put me up to around 24k had Richard just put a small raise in when there had been a raise to 500 from Chris with the blinds at 100/200 Tom moved his last 500 in and Rich went all in for around 13k, I was sat on the bb with As2s (8.5k) and John was on the sb (11k) with TT both me and John and Chris folded and Richard turned over pocket aces with the board running out xs xs Ts which would have had both myself and John all over it “If only”
I was next to fall, on my bb with the blinds at 300/600, folds round to the button Richard Lewis (11k) who limps in, John Gardner (9k) in the sb then makes it 1600 to go, I think about shoving the rest of my 6100 over the line at this point but decide to peel off the flop for the extra 1k as I’ve got QdTd in the hole, Richard calls and the flop comes T64 rainbow, sb checks so I make it 1600 and Richard goes over the top and puts me all in – I’m hoping that he’s limped in with 9/T or T/J unless of course he’s hit he’s set, I eventually call and Richard flips 64 for the bottom two pair, I miss my outs and make my way to the rail (if I’d have pushed pre then Richard folds his 64 and John calls me with his AQ and I get a double up putting me up to 14400 – “If only”).
I’m in the Kitchen talking to Mark O’Donnell from Gala/Coral when Claire my daughter (who doesn’t know to much about poker) comes over to me and give me a hug – then she says “Well done anyway dad” I say “well done – well done on what?” and she says “well done on coming 6th – at least you didn’t come last” I almost *bleep* my self and it brought a smile back to my gloomy face – bless her x
Richard Lewis was next to depart after doubling up Mark Trett with AQ v TJ with the board running out x x J T J to give Mark a much needed double up and leaving himself crippled.
Me and Claire left to make the journey home at this point when there was a break and at this point I think Chris was the chip leader on around 34k Mark had 32k John had about 6k and Loopy (John Littler) had around 8k
Loopy was next to bust out in 4th spot
John was making another fantastic come back as he had done in Bristol and when Chris departed in 3rd place John had done enough to give himself a chip lead of over 13k
Heads up counts:
John Gardner...46.5k
Mark Trett....33.5k
Johns luck ran out though and was unlucky to depart in second place after such a valiant effort.
Mark had the best of it heads up and came out the eventual winner taking home the £10,000 sponsorship package for next year.
Well done to everyone who took part – after all, we were all winners to get there in the first place.
I’m sure this win for Mark is the start of many and I for one would like to wish him all the best for next year
