After last week’s heartbreak in the UKPL in Coventry, things swiftly moved on to 888poker LIVE and the £500,000 guaranteed Main Event. While my dreams were crushed in brutal fashion just five days prior, there was nothing left to do but pick myself up, dust myself off, and give this massive tournament my all. This was the showpiece event of the year, with a cool £125,000 and a beautiful trophy for the winner. Given my recent form and growing confidence, I was recharged and ready to battle my way to the top.
Of course, there’s only so much you can control in a one-off poker tournament, and just playing well wasn’t going to be enough to get me to Day 2. I needed to find myself some good fortune to help me along the way, and it honestly seemed I might have found exactly that in the early stages. I flopped a straight with against a short stack’s aces, and managed to get kings all-in preflop against and hold—both scenarios being very out of character for me.
With Friends Like These…
As I was assembling the last of the chips from the latter of these hands, I looked up to the rather unpleasant sight of my 888poker teammate Ian Simpson taking his seat on my table. While a small amount of this displeasure stems from Ian’s competence, I do back myself to hold my own in most situations at these stack depths. The vast majority of my unhappiness at his appearance was due to just how sickeningly good this guy runs against me. Seriously, he’s knocked me out of three main events in the past in preflop all-ins where I’ve mostly been the favorite, and I am yet to return the favor.
But maybe today could be the day, as I was sitting around 100 big blinds with Ian much shorter, and my concentration levels were peaking. And so, inevitably, the battles began in one of the most memorable hands I’ve ever played.
An Almighty Hero Call
I opened the cutoff with and both the small blind and Ian in the big blind called. Both players checked to me on and I bet small, with just Ian tagging along for the turn. After we both tapped the table, the river brought the , and Ian bet out for around 40% of the pot. With only jack high, folding at first seemed prudent, but I strongly felt this spot merited further ponderance. I felt Ian would bet larger with a 7 and have a lot of checks with his Ax, but more importantly, this struck me as a spot where he would have a very hard time regulating his bluffs.
Being the big blind, Ian would arrive at this river with almost all his offsuit , , and , all of which I’m fairly confident he wouldn’t be able to resist bluffing with. That is a lot of combos. Given I’d already discounted the value region, and I only need to win around 20% of the time to be profitable, I decided to go for an almighty hero call with just jack high. There’s not likely to be many better moments in my career than when Ian flipped over offsuit on that river, giving me the glorious opportunity to table my monster hand and take the pot, much to Ian’s disbelief.
Another Tangle with Simpson
If I was feeling confident before, I was practically bouncing off the walls at this point. So when Ian 3-bet my hijack open from the small blind, I was happy to take a flop in position with pocket 7s. I was even more thrilled with the flop, although all those hearts did curb my enthusiasm somewhat.
After Ian’s c-bet, I raised around 3x, and Ian called. This was now a significant pot, but the turn quickly erased all previous glee. We both checked, and the on the river changed nothing before Ian shoved his remaining stack. Unlike the last hand, I felt it was very unlikely he would arrive at this river with strong bluffing candidates, and extremely likely he would have the ace of hearts in his hand. After some deliberation, I let it go, and he later revealed he had . Standard.
Running into Aces
Still, I was very much in the game with around 30bb, and when Ian flatted an early position open and the small blind called as well, there was enough in the middle to give me a mandatory shove from the big blind with . I was ready to rake in the dead money after the initial raiser folded, but Ian instantly stuck his chips in, and calmly rolled over two of the remaining aces. I was in disbelief, and instantly on earth-shattering tilt. A king on the flop was of no use in the end, and just like that I was gone, vanquished by the same complete and utter luckbox.
The Aftermath
It’s safe to say that this one really riled me up, and if it sounds like I’m still not over it, it’s because I’m not. I managed to get the better of Ian with one of the better calls I think I’ve ever made, but this game is nothing if not cruel, and this one-two punch was an absolute sickener to say the least.
Ian, despite dusting off his Main Event by bluffing it all off on the bubble, went on to win two side events at 888LIVE, which I am forced to doff my cap to. The truth is, the guy may be unbelievably good at all-ins, but he certainly knows how to wield a stack too. Well played.
I really felt I was in the right condition to compete at the latter stages of this one, and unfortunately, I’ll now have to wait until 2025 to chase that elusive final table. I’m getting closer, but I’m probably going to need to avoid Ian if I want that to happen any time soon.
Unless I’ve got jack high, of course.
