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Three Coolers, Two Hero-Calls and a Wild Bluff: How I Almost Became the King Of Scotland
Close But No Battered Cigar
Close but no battered cigar, I came third in last week’s Partypoker UK Tour Glasgow. On the week that WPT Global announced their 3-year sponsorship of the International Poker Open in Dublin, it was great to support another Celtic grassroots festival in a city where the men go commando under their dresses, a kiss is a head-butt and the c-bomb is a term of endearment.
I arrived on Thursday evening, tired after a long flight and too late to register anything tempting. My room-mate for the weekend was my Chip Race co-host and fellow WPT Global ambassador Dara O’Kearney and after a lovely dinner with Partypoker ambassador Barry Carter and his wife Gina, the two of us decided to go to the movies. The Naked Gun proved to be the perfect distraction for two tired Irishmen looking to switch off their brains before a long weekend of live poker.
On Friday, after a tasty brunch, we turned up fashionably late to register the Main Event. I was sat to the direct right of Barry and proceeded to dust off my first bullet in jig time. I snap-rebought and immediately started to build a stack. I must admit that, from that point, it was a tournament characterised by steady upward progression punctuated by only minor setbacks. Nonetheless, there were still half a dozen spots of note which I’d like to break down now.
Hand 1 ~ Flopped Flush
At BB800, I was sitting with a 100K stack. I raised to 1700 with A♣️J♣️ in early position and was called in three spots, by the hijack, button and big blind.
The flop came the dreamy 8♣️7♣️3♣️, the big blind checked, I checked, the hijack checked and the button bet 2500 into a pot of 8000, the big blind folded and I decided to fast-play, raising to 9000. The hijack folded and the button called. I liked the check-raise option here versus the other 100K stack as it feels like the upside of winning a huge pot versus his strong hands outweighs the downside of eking out one more street versus his marginal ones.
The turn brought the K♥️ and my objective now was to set up a river pot shove. I bet 18,500 into 26,000 and my opponent called.
With 63,000 in the middle, the river came the 3♦️, an unwanted board-pairing card for two reasons. Firstly, I didn’t have the nuts anymore so I might actually lose the hand and secondly, the inferior flushes are now downgraded, losing to full houses and my nut flush. I think, in theory, I’m supposed to still shove but I decided to go the exploitative route.
I abandoned my plan of betting full pot and instead chose a size that would get a cry call from all flushes and would also allow me to fold to a shove. The danger of this line is that should a King or Queen high flush shove for value, I would get wrecked. Nonetheless, I bet 23000 and was shrug-snapped by K♣️6♣️.
Hand 2 ~ Pocket Fours
It was towards the end of Day 1 and I was chugging along nicely with a stack of 220,000 at BB2500. I looked down at 4♦️4♥️ in the Hijack and opened into mostly 50BB+ stacks. The button called and the Big Blind squeezed to 20,000 off a stack of 195,000. In my opinion, that size is too small from a player who will be out of position for the rest of the hand and the best way to punish him is to call with the most playable stuff in my range.
With pocket fours specifically, this was an attractive proposition because Big Blind 3bets tend to be legitimate and I actually wanted him to have a premium hand for when I hit. It’s also nice that when I call, it will often compel the button to play too, improving my odds and giving me a second villain to potentially cooler if I make a set. I made the call and the button called.
With 63,500 in the pot, the flop came Q♦️8♣️4♠️ and all I’m thinking about is Vegas and The Mirage. He bet 20,000, I call and the button calls.
With 123,000 in the middle, the turn delivered the J♠️. Queens and Jacks are both plausible for the Big Blind and pocket eights could be lurking behind me but I have made my bed. A little surprisingly, the Big Blind shoves for ~1.2x pot, a bet that immediately tells me that I am ahead of him. My only remaining job is to sell some discomfort to the button in the hope that he makes a bad call. I ask for a count and then take 20 seconds before calling.
The button folds and The Big Blind shows A♠️A♣️. The river comes the 7♣️ and I scoop a ~420,000 pot.
Hand 3 ~ A Queen-High Call?
I bagged 468K overnight, the second largest stack in the room. For the first half of Day 2, I bounced around between 350K and 650K, playing mostly small pots, winning as many as I lost. The craic was mighty at the tables with some hilarious local characters driving the action and the banter.
One such character and maybe the funniest Scottish man I’ve ever played against (and that’s high praise) was James MacAulay who had position on me for hours. One of the times when that wasn’t the case was right after a bust-out when I had the button to his lone big blind. At BB16000, I raised to 33,000 with Q♣️9♦️and off a stack of 19 big blinds, he made the call.
With a pot of 82,000, we headed to a flop of J♥️T♠️5♣️. He checked and I c-bet 24,000. He quickly called. At this stack depth, I thought he would raise to get in any Jack so I put him on a Ten, a Five or a draw.
The pot stood at 130,000 as the J♣️ landed on the turn. We both checked.
The J♦️ fell on the river and he bet 65,000. In most worlds this is a Ten-X hand but I took a moment to study my opponent. I can only explain what I saw as a man trying a little too hard to appear casual. Given his gregarious nature, this felt off.
It could have been a reverse-reverse tell, designed to oversell a degree of comfort but as he sat back in his chair, I determined it to be a reverse tell. I figured Ace-X or KQ would have shoved pre-flop down the only hand I was really worried about was K9. Having a nine in my own hand makes this an easy theoretical fold but I went with my gut and called. He showed the 9♥️8♠️.
Hand 4 ~ A Wild Bluff?
Not long after the preceding hand, UTG raised to 35,000 off a stack of 360,000 and Partypoker ambassador Jaime Staples called on the button. With a stack of 800,000, I called in the Small Blind with K♠️J♠️ and the Big Blind called, playing just 200,000.
There was 156,000 in the pot and it came J♣️T♦️6♥️. Everybody checked.
I checked again on the 6♠️, the Big Blind fired out a bet of 25K, picking up a call from the original raiser, getting a fold from Jaime and I decided to just call.
The pot was 231,000 and river came the A♦️. I checked, the Big Blind checked and the original raiser bet 115,000, a half pot bet and 37% of his stack. The wheels started spinning in my head as I attempted to range him. King-Queen was certainly possible but it felt like AK or AQ an awful lot. Even into three opponents, I thought pocket Jacks, pocket Tens, pocket Aces and Ace Jack might have bet the flop.
My value shoves here are the A♣️6♣️, the three combos of pocket tens that I would play passively pre-flop at some frequency and all the KQ combos, again at some frequency. This is a very under-bluffed spot (for good reason) so if I am to find bluffs they should come from my two Jack-Ten suited combos, my three King-Jack suited combos and my three Queen-Jack suited combos.
My opponent would only need to be good ~23% of the time, maybe a quarter of the time if you factor in some ICM. Theoretically, he would have to call with less than King-Queen and since I discounted Ace-Jack as played, that would mean he would have to claw calls from some of his Ace-King and Ace-Queen combos.
My hunch was he would not do that because he would think this a spot where I couldn’t find bluffs. In the moment, it just felt right and I decided to go for it. I shoved, the Big Blind folded and, to my relief, UTG snap-folded A♥️Q♦️.
Hand 5 ~ Aces Versus Kings
We re-drew tables with 16 left, right after which I sent the following text message to Dara:
Me: “16 left. One table of fish. One with all the best remaining players.”
Dara: “Bit harsh on your fellow table-mates!”
Right after, I went on a low key heater, chipping up from 1.1M to the 2.2M chip-lead via small to medium sized pots. The bust-outs came thick and fast and within an hour, we were down to ten left and, for balance’s sake, I was sent to the other table where the second biggest stack (1.9M) was two to my left.
I opened the button into his big blind to the tune of 65,000 with pocket Aces. The Small Blind called and The Big Blind squeezed to 280,000. I took a moment before 4-betting to 590,000. The Small Blind quickly folded, the Big Blind quickly shoved and I snap-called, tabling my hand. My opponent had pocket Kings, a cruel cooler in such a crucial spot. The board ran out clean and I bagged a monster stack for the final table.
Hand 6 ~ Sticky Lappin
Over the years, I have garnered a reputation as something of a calling station. That is not always a good thing but on this occasion, it worked out.
At BB100K, there were four is us left, all on roughly 3.3M, and I limp-called a bet of 280,000 from Kyl Scott with Q♣️9♦️.
On a flop of A♥️A♦️K♥️, I checked and Kyl bet 100,000 into a pot of 660,000. I called.
The turn brought the Q♦️. Once again, I checked and this time he sized up to 460,000 (53% of pot). I called.
Going to the river, the pot was bloated to 1.78M. It came the 6♣️ and I checked over to Kyl once more. In this spot he in uncapped with the far stronger range. It’s almost like a game of chicken because if he sends it here, most of my range is in the bin.
Fortunately for me, he knuckled it back with J♦️7♥️, deciding not to pull the trigger and likely thinking that his Jack-high had some showdown as I can show up with hands like T♥️9♥️ and T♥️8♥️.
3rd Place Finish
In the end, I was eliminated in 3rd place after three shallow stack all-in spots went the way of my opponents. It was a superb tournament, played in a great spirit and I look forward to attending the next UK Tour stop in Birmingham.
If anyone would like to watch the vlog that Dara and I made from our trip to Scotland:
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