Christina v The Ricoh Arena Part II (Taking on the Goliath)

26 Aug

So anyway, it came to me re-raising all-in for around 20,000 with the big blind at around 1600, with Ace/King. This guy then calls with Ace/Jack – much weaker than I’d anticipated. He didn’t have more than around 45,000 himself, so a pretty loose call, I thought. Of course, he hits his jack on the river, and I storm out of the room. I had had 3 buy-ins and had failed to make it to Day 2. Christina, fair play to her, had managed it with just 1 attempt!

I contacted Chris again – fortunately her phone was back in action today. She was keen to have a go at the cash tables on her day off from the tournament. She was just about to get a bus, but I ended up picking her up. We each made a small amount that evening, and then retired for a relatively early night, with a big day in store for Christina. This time, we did push the boat out a little, and got room service, which came in the form of a pizza and a Thai green curry. Neither was exceptional, but nonetheless, tasty, and they both filled gaps. A little more cider, and I think we finally hit the hay at around 1am.

The next morning was a little complicated as we had only booked 3 nights at the Ibis. We weren’t sufficiently impressed by it to book any more nights, so I’d booked a different hotel, but of course, unfortunately, this meant having to pack and check out. We did a small amount of packing, I got Christina to the Ricoh by midday, when Day 2 was to start, then raced back to finish the packing and get out, not too long after the official check out time, which was also midday.

I got to the new hotel, which seemed nice enough, to find a wedding taking place there! It was a slightly more old fashioned hotel this one, with old fashioned fittings, but in quite a scenic location. My phone wasn’t charged, so I left it to charge for a couple of minutes while I got the rest of the stuff, only to find that the socket it was plugged into didn’t work! So I missed a few of Chris’s texts updating me with her progress.

I think I was in the car as I was driving back, with the phone plugged into the car charger, when she let me know she’d gone for a walk to Tesco, which I think she’d done as it was getting close to the money stage. I got to the stadium, and waited in the car for a couple of minutes – the battery was literally close to zero. I think I then got a text saying “pop!” meaning she must have got back to the tournament, and the money bubble must have burst! It was frustrating to say the least that I hadn’t made it in on time, but I straight away went in, picked up my third (and different coloured) wristband – I was not ashamed to have been part of this event for 3 days and not progressed! – went straight to the bar, got myself a Guinness and a double whisky for my high flying team partner!

Christina at Table 9, Seat 2!I really was over the moon about Chris making the money. We had a celebration fag, and I learned that she now had over 500,000 chips – every time I spoke to her, she seemed to have about double the amount of last time! She was moved to a different table at one point, and found herself at Table 9, Seat 2, which was especially appropriate as her birthday is 9/2/92! The only slightly annoying thing about this is that she has a tendency to overplay 9/2, which most poker players would of course regard as a terrible hand, so I have to admit, I secretly hoped she wouldn’t get 9/2 too often while at this table!

Me in Goliath ChairAs it was a Saturday, I was able to chill out and watch a bit of the football – the Arsenal game was on tv. This was definitely the life. I had a photo taken of me in the gigantic Goliath chair in the hope of winning a 60” TV (Chris had vowed not to have her photo taken in the chair unless she won the tournament!).

I got the Goliath’s resident magician, Sean Heydon, to show me a couple of card tricks. He had been sweeping the room, showing off his skills for the last couple of days, and I wanted to see what he could do. I have to be honest, I was genuinely amazed. I’ve only ever had a passing interest in magic tricks, but this bloke left me completely speechless. Apparently what he does is “slight of hand”, but I was left in doubt that he was in fact a time traveller, travelling back and forth in time in split seconds, altering reality in the process. Just a couple of minutes watching him make cards appear from thin air really changed the way I thought about magic tricks – I’ve always been sceptical of magic on TV, assuming it’s all done by cameras, but there was no camera trickery here, and I’ve been watching magic on TV since with renewed interest.

After that, I went to try out my own poker skills again. I sat down at another cash table, and happened to sit next to the “bubble boy” from the Goliath (ie. the last to go out before making the money). He had a pretty horrendous story to go with it. Kind of a bad beat story, but not quite in the classical sense. He had had 600,000 chips just before the bubble, so in fact, was one of the bigger stacks, but had been reduced to just 2000 chips in one hand!

He had had 3 or 4 people call him, in the big blind, with jack/seven. The flop had come J/7/3, giving him 2 pair. He had led for, I think, around 80,000, and had got one caller. The turn card was a 2, I believe (it may have been the 2 and 3 were the other way around, but it made no difference). The turn, I think he played a bit strangely, but not weak. He checked it. The other guy then bet, I think, 125,000. Well the guy then makes a very strong play by raising to 400,000! You would think (especially if you knew his hand), that the other guy simply has to fold now, especially as he was on a similar stack. Well, the other guy called. The river was an 8. Not quite sure how the betting went on the river, but I think they were then both all-in. The other guy had jack/8, so rivered a bigger two pair! An horrendous situation at any stage, but especially sick on the bubble. Heard all kinds of stories throughout our time there – I must have heard of aces v aces beaten by a flush at least 3 times! – but for me, this one was the worst because of the circumstances.

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