Fast Track to Fred

So I think it's fair to say, I'm back.

With nothing better to do I decided to have a last training run before Saturday's BFLPT appearance. I loaded up PKR but there were no sizeable tournaments starting for ages so I was drawn to downloading the BetFred software and having a look around there. What should I happen upon? Only a 10 quid rebuy satellite to the Maidenhead (or any other) live event.

I figured it would be rude not to play and see what I'd be possibly up against, so I deposited 15 quid first, then immediately realised if I was going to do it properly, I would need at least 20 and possibly 30 so plopped some more in there and scuttled off to a practice table to get used to the set up of the screen, where the various key buttons were, and what prompts there were, so I didn't make a stupid move in the real thing.

I sat down on a half-full table with my 2k starting stack and decided to come out aggressive and see how I did, knowing there was unlimited re-buy in the first hour and a top up after that - and made some decent headway and started to think it was easy.

Then everyone else started playing properly and I ended up making a very stubborn and silly call for all my 4-5k stack half way through that first hour, when I had convinced myself my 2-3 2-pair was good on a board of 2-3-4-8-9, only she had a set of 4's. I can be so thick sometimes.

Then right before the add-on break my K-Q ran into KK on a A-K-6-2-A board. At least I had sussed out he didn't have an A, but was still pretty tricky to get away from, especially at that stage in the tourny.

So another re-buy and top up 1 hand later and I re-started in the bottom 3/4, with 4k. I think the chipleader had 12k or so at this point.

During freezeout, I tended to hover between 7th-12th, not doing anything spectacular, but keeping within touching distance. The big hand was my J-10 in a 4-way hand with all 4 limping. I was delighted to flop a straight with a 9-Q-K board (thank God this was an online tournament, my eyes might as well have popped out of my head). I cooly checked first to act and was met with a min bet, call and call. I raised 4 times and had a fold, fold, all in behind. I thought long enough to say to myself (out loud) 'I'm not folding that' and called. She (although 'she' had a 'he' avatar) showed Aces. I think another K came on the turn but the river was a blank and I was propelled up the rankings.

Antes appeared not long after and I was happily able to play half decent Ks and Qs and bet at the flop (I was hitting most of them) and mopping up up to 2k a time, making it even easier to push people around.
By the final table, I was 2nd and someway ahead of 3rd, way ahead of the rest. I'll admit I wimped out of calling an all in for just under a third of my stack with pocket 6s. Thankfully someone else did and she hit her jack, to vindicate me and get rid of another one.

I managed to hit the front and although swapped around from 1st to 3rd for a while after that, there was no way I was giving them up. The ladies seemed to mostly know each other by first name and were nattering away in the chat box to each other, which at the start concerned me that I had gatecrashed someone else's party and I was in above my head, then annoyed me that it was so clique-y. But then they started asking who I was, and were very politely enquiring as to whether I was going to be playing on Saturday and saying they looked forward to meeting me. I tried to be my charming self (and made sure I showed my big hands when I raised pre-flop and took the pot), in case they were taking notes (I am so blatantly flattering myself aren't I?!).

Anyway, I ended up with 40k, 10k ahead of 2nd when the tickets were all awarded. I did my obligatory midnight dance around the living room in my nightie and txtd Leigh to let him know.
It was a tiny tourny, I know, it was against all girls, I know, but those girls clearly play alot on 'the circuit' and I have just competed with them. Better than that, I was beating them when they switched the tournament off (and I have saved myself 70 quid on the buy in, which will cover the train and hotel bed, if I need one).

How nice would it be for a repeat of that tomorrow?