The Celtic
Tour Final is one of my favourite games of the year. With 80% of the field
having won entry over the year at regional games and an average age demographic
twenty years older then the norm for similar buy ins. Playing this tournament
is a little like stepping back in time to 2005.
I did spot
a few heroes in the room. You’d have to consider yourself a tad unlucky if your
starting table at a CPT game included Internet phenomena’s Jude ‘j.thaddeus’
Ainsworth or Nelius ‘danceofddead’ Foley.
Thankfully
I avoided both and had a lovely table, only one good player and I don’t think
my bigblind was raised more then twice in the first four levels. I had almost
doubled my starting stack by the first break and commented to Derek Murray, “I
couldn’t see how I was going to lose any chips on this table”. This was such a
silly thing to say as I managed to lose 100 blinds in the first two hands after
that break.
I managed
to get these chips back when I flopped the nut flush in an unraised multiway
pot, but then made the fatal fancy play error. I made a big check raise bluff
when a flush hit the turn in a hand I shouldn’t have been in and then pumped
the river when a forth club fell. JJ called me with the jack of clubs.
Cathal Shine
a top player who had joined the table said I had played the hand perfectly and
he couldn’t understand how my opponent found the call. This made me feel a
little better, although I really shouldn’t of been running big bluffs on this
table, big value bet yes. Again I was back to the 20k starting stack and with
the blinds rising and table toughening I had severely restricted myself.
My exit
came in the ninth level in a standard enough spot. Blinds 400-800 and playing
25k I find the Kings with a raise and 3-bet before me to act, I’m up against AK
and the Ace flops. I must admit to being a bit gutted on the drive home. With a
hold and 50k entering the last two levels of play of the day I’d of fancied my
chances of accumulating a stack.
