Winding up 2009 (and others)

Played the Fitz EOM on St. Stephen's Day. About as uneventful as tournaments get personally: noodled gradually up to about 13K by the start of the racing section. Then did nearly half my stack when I called a late position shortie ship with AT. There was a time I'd never call in those spots where you're rarely very far ahead and overall not that far ahead of the range but have recently come to the conclusion that in fast structure events late on you have to just grin and bear it. I was ahead (of KQ) but a K on the turn put an end to that. That left me short and eventually I shipped AKs from mid pos, got snap called by one of the local geniuses on the button who decided that A4o was a monster against my shipping range, and was duly rewarded with a 4 on the river. I wasn't best pleased by the call at the time but of course it's those type of drooler calls that make that tournament such value so I shouldn't really complain. Well done to Graham "Gentle Giant" Masters who continued a great year in poker bhopping it 4 ways.

Next day it was off to Longford for the IPR Last Longer thing. Travelled down with Big Iain and Chris from Bruce who is a very sound guy doing a great job for Bruce I think. We were there early so I played a sit n go. Got headsup with Iain who was doing a brilliant impersonation of the worst player in Ireland, quality donkey stuff like cracking aces with 89o calling off 20% pre, another 30% with bottom pair on the flop, and the rest on the turn with a pair and a gutshot against the aces. *to the tune of Jingle bells* Calling bells, calling bells, calling all the way. In fairness to the lad, he did win all of the chips several times over, and as he points out it's now 2-0 for him in live stts against me (not counting the 5 where I outlasted him obviously).

In the tournament itself I delivered a trademark Slow Doke performance, nursing my stack through lean periods taking as few risks as possible until absolutely necessary before changing gears to hit the final table with almost half the chips in play. In the car on the way down I'd listened with a certain wry amusement to Iain's assessment of my unwillingness to gamble early in tournaments to get a big stack as a major flaw but was unmoved on the need to change my game.

In the end I was fifth, a bit of a disappointment having hit the final table with half the chips, but by then it was push/fold for everyone and always going to come down to judgements of shipping ranges. Two big hands swung it against me. First I raised A6s on the button, as you do, and the BB decided to defend for a third of his stack with 89o, as live Irish players do. We got the rest in on an 864 flop. Then David Gill shoved from the cutoff for less than 9 bigs, I decided TT was ahead of his range so I called from the blinds, he had QQ, and there was no suckout.

We flattened the payout structure just before my exit so at least I took a grand out of it. With 5 final tables from my last 7 outing this year (and 10 from my last 12), I have to be happy with my form at present.

Fun tournament with lots of great characters and some great players. After my exit, the chipleader was Jordy, a young Nordy kid I've played with a few times now who never fails to impress. Superstar in the making I reckon.

QUICK UPDATE: Won a UKIPT package to Manchester tonight. Ship. Congrats to Big Mick G who did likewise.

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