UKIPT Bristol

Day 1:

So I have been looking forward to this leg of the tour for a few weeks now and my target for the trip was to secure a few more tournament leader board points I was currently 3rd going into this leg, after bricking all of Newcastle I was really focussed to gain points here. My plan was to play every No Limit Holdem side event (bar the high roller). For this trip I decided to go on the train as it was pretty far way to go and there is usually no need for a car at any of these stops, So me and Joel Beverley (jbeverley) set off from Scarborough around midday Wednesday 7th November hoping to be there in time for dinner before the first side event the £110 6 max. We arrived on time and went for a all u can eat buffet, however this was not a good idea as we all ate too much and not the best idea before your due to start the live poker grind. Anyway  we regged the 6 max at the Gala Casino, my table draw was pretty good had a lot of live and local regs the field looked fairly soft tbh usually the 6 max sides attracts younger players. Cant really remember much about the early stages of the tournament just know that I didn't have any issues chipping up and the table was pretty tight passive (for a 6 max). As we were approaching the money people really started to tighten up one guy 3 bet folds AKs for around 20 bbs (lol). I was hovering around 30 bbs when utg opens (same stack size) I had 66 on the bb and decided to purely set mine as I didnt want to 3 bet fold or call so the flop came 678ss which I decided to lead as my image was pretty laggy and people dint want to believe me much also on that board I don't really want him to check behind that often, so I lead and he flatted the turn brought a nice 6 to give me quads I decided to bet again pretty small this time for value and also to get him to spaz jam his draws and bluffs and also value hands, which is what he did with 1010. So now very close to the money I have a stack weeeeee :) pretty standard stuff from then on hovering around the 30 bbs mark. The Final table was played 7 handed to stop one table from having to play 3 handed. A few orbits have passed and the table in general was playing very conservative until this hand; some old nit guy who was utg decided to open shove for 23 bbs I wake up with QQ and ship it in he has 22 and a window Q sealed his fate my rail loled hard and I was now pretty big chip leader. I managed to get to 4 handed with about half the chips in play when my friend Shane Gregory 3 bets shoves a btn open I have 77 re jam and I loose a flip :( this put me short around the 20 bb mark and didn't recover my busto hand was pretty funny I shove 13 bbs with k6 suited from the button and the small blind (decent player) isolates with around 22 bbs and the bb goes into the tank he has us both covered and of course I cant play a tournament without calling the clock on someone, so I called time and the player folded ako!! both me and the sb were glad as he had a7 same suit as me and a window ace sealed my fate of 4th place and £1,100 and 32.5 tlbs :)

4th in the £110 6 max 

Day 2: Main event day 1a

So I decide to reg for day 1a of the main event which looking from the list of names that were playing day 1b it was a good idea. There were still off lots of big names playing that day but luckily I avoided anyone tough on my starting table. This being said the first hand I 4 bet folded ako pre flop! I am pretty convinced the guy had AA or KK as for the next 2 hours he raised maybe once lol. I stayed at the same table for around 3/4 levels then moved to another table lost a few hand then moved again I managed to spin 5k into 30k in one level with a bit of run good and some questionable play from other opponents. There were no interesting hands on this table bar my exit hand where I regret my play totally, at blinds 200/400/50 a pretty bad player opens to 850  UTG +1 I have AKo on the small blind with around 30k (he has me covered) I 3 bet to 2250 he calls with clear signs of weakness (he was clearly a novice from previous table play I have seen) so flop AQx hhh I have no heart so I cbet around 2900 he thinks for a while ( with signs he wanted to raise) the turn brought a heart making me sigh inside I decide to check he then fires out around about 5k with massive nervous tells and he even says "I'll show you if you fold" I kind of knew what he had which is never the K of hearts and he just wanted to try and take the pot down now on the turn and most likely had the J/10 hearts So for some insane reason I decide to pile it all in his face! dont ask me why I hate my line and of course he calls saying "have you got the king of hearts, I have to call I have the J" leaving me drawing dead, I gave this player too much credit for being able to make a tough fold even though I rep so little hand this should have been a fold and I put it down to being tired. 

I also played the £110 turbo in which I busted pretty early with no interesting hands. 

Day 3: 

So today was the £165 knockout Bounty at 9.30pm which brought in around 140 runners these tournaments are always fun as people overrate the bounty and play terrible just to try and bust someone in the early stages of the tournament. This been said after about 4/5 levels I managed to get two KO's when I Isolate with AJo a 13 bb open with one caller who both decide to call and manage to beat AK and JJ with a 4 card flush. This then got me a stack to play with in a pretty weak field with people playing this format terribly, As the bubble began to approach I was gifted with this hand A shirt stack moves all in for around 8 bbs the chip leader on the table moves all in I have around 25bbs and call off with AK and beat A10 and 78s. Rest of the play was pretty standard to the last 2 tables where I was joined by online reg Martin Mulsow (moertelmu) which was fun as we were both trying to take each others bounty and hate life when either one of us shoved the others blind and had to fold!! At least it gave me someone to talk to and have table banter with for a change. We both made the FT and I got what I wanted most his bounty after he shoved 86s utg with 5 bbs and I wake up with 77 and hold gg Martin and thanks for your £50. After this hand I had one big suck out which gave me the chip lead, I shoved KQo for about 6/7 bbs and get two callers AJ and AQ instant and turn service K K. I loled hard when a guy at the table said " I knew you were shoving light" I had 6 bbs in a turbo!! lol. I pretty much sailed the rest of the FT getting to HU as slight CL and winning flips helps as the last hand my KJo beat 77 aip for the title, 40 tlb's and £4,400 with 10 bounties @ £50 each. 

3 handed in the £165 KOT

£165 Turbo Bounty win

Day 4:

This was the day of the £330 2 day side event I was going into this pretty confident after winning the knockout the night before and had a good table draw again (I ran pretty well on table draws in Bristol) however there were too decent players on both my left and right which took away a lot of my opens but apart from that there was lots of dead money with one guy who was 7-10x ing his full opening range (he didnt last long). I think my peak in chips in this tournament was around 30k from the initial 10k starting stack in which I had on my exit hand where I 4 bet educed with AQo against my friend Kev Asquith (asquith31) who 5 bet shoved on me with 77 and quads were good. Still think he should of folded as i 4 bet nearly half my stack pre flop and AQo is like the bottom of my range there bar the times I have air there which I don't think is often. 

Day 5: 

Last day of UKIPT Bristol events and I had kind of wanted to reg the £220 PLO side but didnt manage to get up in time so then it was the last side of the trip the £165 turbo deepstack. This is a very fun tournament with 15k starting chips however not so fun when you get it all in pre with AA against AK and AQ and AK gets there for failry large pot oh well cant win the all. 

So a recap of UKIPT Bristol was around £4895 profit from the sides and I managed to gain 82.5 leaderboard points which I think will put me on top now by a fair few points with 3 stops left. I would really like to do something in one of the mains in the next 3 stops and maybe let someone else win the sides :). Looking forward to the next stop which is in Edinburgh in January hope to see some of you there. 

Just saw that the UKIPT website have updated the leader board since Bristol and I am currently top by a nice margin!! Tom Hall (Jabracada) close by in 3rd.