WCP 2005: England Qualifier #1

WCP 2005.

The first 50 FPP England Team qualifier kicked off today with 171 playes taking part in the heads up shootout for a place on the team.

Because of the "odd" number of entrants a couple of people got byes into round 2. I was one of them, but I don't think it was that big of an advantage since a there were a few auto players about in round 1.

I went through the players who entered to see if I recognised anyone, and sure enough noticed a few Bugsys Club players. Noticeably Clay Knight and Fads. Had a feeling I would get Clay Knight as my first opponent. I was close - got Fads instead!

Since my player name is different on PokerStars I had the advantage of knowing him to be a pretty solid player (so I decided to keep him in the dark about my real identity lol). I don't think he knew what hit him at the start as I won pot after pot - I suspect he probably underestimated his opponent. Hehe.

Anyway, we had a great match. I had it under control for the most part, apart from a few dodgy all ins/calls after somebody was shouting in my ear, "All-in!!", "He's Bluffing!" and "Call Him!!". These resulted in a few respites for poor little Fads ;)

Soon, I wore him back down to a short stack. Around this time, Clay Knight comes to the table to wish Fads good luck and it is here that I decide to tell them that I am DaMatrix! Shortly after, when Fads went all-in (with 66) preflop I decided to call with A8s, two hearts on the flop but no further improvement saw Fads double up once again.

The match was now evenly balanced with that piece of information I decided to disclose. Fads started playing more confidently and for the first time wore my stack down, with the blinds now higher - I was pretty sure I was dead meat!

Made a stand to double up and got lucky for the first time this year. Won a few more chips and I was right back in it when I flopped a straight and Fads two pair.

The key hand occured when the chip distribution was about 55% to Fads and 45% to me. Fads raised preflop and I reraised all in. It was the first time I had shown this much strength preflop so was very surprised that Fads decided to call with K9o. I turned over TT and the board turned over a King! lol.

Oh well, my bad luck continues when it matters...

Fads easily won Round 3 with pocket Aces but came unstuck against the mighty(?) "whitehot" (who seems to have a drawing of Vicky Coren as their image) in Round 4 who was spurred on by Purr of Aces (England's captain). Whitehot was subsequently knocked out by spikel.

Quarter Finals

nighthawk39 v Honeymonster
kenedy v stevestar
g@v 999 v slick_dunc
spikel v BumDeal

Semi-Finals

spikel v kenedy

nighthawk39 v slick_dunc

Final

kenedy v nighthawk39

After over 7 hours, the winner is kenedy!!!