Ian Simpson: Poker in London - Winning at UKIPT Part 1

There was a little £110 turbo I decided to play after busting out of the UK & Ireland Poker Tour main event. I had gotten my money in good in the main event with 8-7 on a 8-7-6 flop. The other guy had A-A and the river was an ugly 6.

So I played the £110 side event. It got 174 runners and I managed to get first place for £4,400. My first win as Sole Survivor and I am over the moon. It may not be a main event, but getting first place in any competition is a fantastic feeling.

There were certainly some key hands on my road to victory.

I get K-K and a weak player limps under the gun (UTG) for 600 and another slightly more creative player calls too. I raise my pocket kings to 2,600, more than usual since UTG is a weak player who has shown the tendency to limp weak hands and call raises with them, they both call. The flop comes Q-7-4 two spades and both my opponents check. I bet 7,000 and the weak player makes it 14,000. I ship all in, for about 27,000 total and he calls with A-7. My hand holds up and I get myself up to over 60,000 which was x3 the average at the time, especially important since this was a turbo tournament and gave me some much needed breathing room for several levels.

A few hours later, with blinds 1,000/2,000/200 a bloke throws in a 5,000 chip UTG and afterwards announces raise. The dealer informs him that this stands as a call only. I limp with 4-3 suited a lady on the button calls and the big blind checks.

The flop came Q Q 7 and we all check to the button who bets 4,000. Everyone folds to me and I decide to get a bit fancy and represent a queen myself. There’s no way she has a queen so I’ve decided that this pot is mine. I call.

The turn is the 9. I check and she bets 6,000. I have a flush draw, but this plan was drawn out before I picked up 9 outs. I ship all in for 26,000 and after saving face and dwelling, she folds. Not a play I normally make, but I trusted my instincts that she was unable to call an all in bet and would believe my representation of a queen.

I lost a flip with 3-3 vs A-K. The button had raised x3 the blind to 6,000 and the small blind (SB) called. I looked down at my 3-3 and decided to squeeze. The A-K called and hit, but fortunately I was deep stacked and still had 60,000 to play with. The hand did cost me about 26,000, but I still like my squeeze push here as I felt that the SB was weak and of course a button raisers opening range is very wide.

After a very prolonged bubble where A-A held up at least 4 times across the two tables we make it to the money, and then quite quickly to the final table. I get dealt Ad Td and get all in against A T. The flop brought 2 diamonds and the turn rewarded me with the nut flush. Thank the gambling gods for small edges.

I later found myself on 550,000. It was eighthanded and I was the chip leader with the second biggest stack on my immediate right. He was on around 500,000 with the blinds being 12,000/24,000/3000 and he raised his small blind into my big blind for 60,000 I called the raise with Qh4h, playing my position more than anything else.

The flop came down A 3 2 and he bet 100,000. Now if he doesn’t have an ace I can profitably float here by calling and bluffing the turn if he checks. I didn’t give this guy the credit to perform a multi-street bluff so if he bets again I will happily surrender my gutshot straight draw. Of course I’m making this play with some outs to help make up for the times that I am wrong. The turn lands a magical 5.

My opponent bets 100,000 again so I’m sure he’s got an ace. I decide a flat call may look too strong. I was thinking that he was thinking that I would only be representing the straight because of the scare card, and since my reputation wasn’t exactly squeaky clean an all in bet might just get called. It did.

This put me up to over 1 million in chips, with about 2.7 million total chips in play.

To be continued…