HEADS-UP CHAMPIONSHIPS - FRIDAY 7PM

I am really looking forward to Friday's Heads-up Tournament.

If 24 or more register to take part, there will be three elimination rounds, where only ONE player progresses to the next round from each match. During the elimination rounds (Round One, Round Two and the Quarter Finals) a single match will determine who progresses.

In the semi finals, the two winners will go through to the finals to play a 'best of 3' match to decide upon first and second place and the two runners-up from the semis will play a 'best of 3' match to decide 3rd and 4th place!

As we potentially have 16 matches in round one, we will be kicking off at 7PM SHARP! So be there as soon as possible as we are taking a MAXIMUM of 32 players.

The Buy-in is £75 + £5

In each round, starting stacks will be 10,000 chips.

There will be four, 20 minute blind levels.

50/100
100/200
250/500
500/1000

Upon registration, you will draw your seat and if less than 32 players register, up to 8 players could receive a bye for round one, but EVERY player will face an opponent in round 2 and in the quarter finals.

Most players will need to get past 3 opponents to hit the money... easy, right?

We shall see!

See you at CLUB 72 on Friday from 6:20PM for registration!

Sunday's Freezeout is £75 + £5 with cards in the air at 5PM SHARP!

As always, cash games will be running as soon as enough players are ready.

jT

THE 2008 PPPO BRACELET WINNER IS...

Sweeney Todd - AKA Dave Elliott 

Despite a disappointing turn-out for the inaugural Planet Pool Freezeout, we had a day of fantastic poker with the obligatory bad beats, monster hands, bluffs, gaffs and fuckwittery.

Dave played a blinder in a back and forth heads-up against Phil Da Silva, who hit the final table with a massive chip lead after his pocket 10s became a set, cracking pocket Kings and pocket Aces no less (unlucky Scotty, who was holding the Rockets!)

Dave finally won the lion's share of the prizepool (should cover the crimbo presents easily!) the sparkly Poker Championship bracelet and earned 5 points on the FHP Leaderboard (Dave shoots-up to 2nd Place after this win behind myself and Craig Hartley).

The 5 players to hit the cash were as follows:

1ST - Dave Elliott

2ND - Phil Da Silva

3RD - Will Picot

4TH - Soxy

5TH - Charles Butler

In case you are wondering, I hit the final table but left the tournament in 10th place when I am crippled by The Gay Blade when his Queens are tripped with the first card on the flop, thus making my Ace, Queen look pretty washed-up!

Phil then takes me out when I push my tiny stack with 8, 9 suited. He called with 10, 9. I am looking good on the flop with a straight and flush draw but manage to miss EVERYTHING!

Big thank you to Dan for flying over from Guernsey for his first live tournament and he should be proud of himself hitting the final table.

Look out for the Freezeout Schedule at Planet Pool in 2009, we will be running regular tournaments on Saturday afternoons and early evenings.

jT...

GO DAVE!!!

Ante Virus Reports on the Inaugural FHP Online Tourney @ Uncover Poker

I'd been looking forward to seeing this come to fruition since my first meeting with Soxy when we talked about the possibility of running an FHP tournament online at Uncover Poker. We all play online and we all know what it's like to play against a field of over a thousand, faceless names trying their best to felt us.

But the premise of this tournament was something new altogether... playing against people we see in live games every week either down the Pomme or at the Tipsy Toad FHP tournaments in Jersey.

39 players registered and the virtual cards were in the air at 8pm on the dot. We'd set the format at 8 players per table and it was great trying to work out who was who. Of course we all hopped to the other tables in-between hands to wish everyone luck and hurl abuse at Rocky, the plum... but it was all good fun and the banter was what made it such a great night.

I had to wait 10 minutes before being dealt a playable hand, and I call a small raise from the small blind with Ace, 7. I flop a 7, which is top pair and bet the pot. Everyone folds.

I'm card dead for 15 minutes and more out of boredom than any real optimism, I call a raise with King, 10. We all play like gimps, checking the flop and turn. A 10 hits the river and Shaker007 pops a bet of 500. I call and beat his Queen, 10.

About half-way through the Re-buy period, I know it's Christmas when I catch pocket Aces. I raise it-up to three times the blind and get re-raised by Shaker007. Oh happy days. Shaker is all-in for about a third of my chips and Ash also calls, who has a few thousand left behind, so I raise him all-in. He calls. Ash is sitting on Ace, 9 suited and Shaker007 is on Queens and he flops a set... BASTARD! But at least I limit my loss by taking the rest of Ash's chips. I'm a few hundred down.

Two hands later, I get pocket Kings, raise it up and Feigos calls me. The flop is 2d, 10d, Ah and Feigos pops a big bet and I know I have to walk away from the Cowboys. I'm beginning to dislike playing pre-flop big pairs!

That is until I get another pair of Aces in the hole! I pop the pot and get two callers. I don't like the two 9s on the flop, but fire again and they both fold. 

I think we only lost a couple of players before the first break, and after the Re-buys and all the Add-ons, the pot had swelled from $780 to over $1500!

Post Re-buys, the play tightened up and as people got eliminated, players were moved around and again, it was great fun working out who you were playing against and throwing some 'tude as necessary... obviously giving Rocky a hard time too, wherever he was sitting.

For two hours or so, we jostle for position and a couple of monster chip stacks emerge in the form of HubOfLogic, Cat Thrasher and Leigos. Unfortunately for me, I'm sat with two of them... I river a Queen high flush and call a big bet from Hub, who flips over the King high flush, taking a quarter of my chip stack to add to his substantial lead!

As more players are eliminated, we find ourselves 5 handed, and I am sat with Rocky and three of the chip leaders. Meanwhile, Soxy (DizzzyRascal) had gone from the short stack to climb the ranks like King Kong up the Empire State Building to sit in the top ten chip leaders!

The hand that takes us to the final table is a monster showdown between two of the chip leaders, HubOfLogic and Feigos. Feigos is in the small blind and limps in. The flop comes 8, 8, King and Hub pushes all his chips in. Feigos insta-calls with pocket 10s and Hub's Ace, Queen bluff sends him to the rail.

And so we have our final table! 

Yours truly (AnteHerojT) 

Rocky

Feigos

Cat Thrasher

Slowman

DizzzyRascal (FIX!!!)

Doughel

MikeOxbigg81

Guess who goes out first? Yep, this muppet. I'm in push or fold mode anyway as one of the short stacks and wake-up with pocket 10s. Great timing for Slowman to get Kings! I leave in a huff, insult Rocky one more time and then head to the FHP cash table, keeping a keen eye on how the rest of the final table plays out.

The order of the next few eliminations may be a bit ropey as Beast was playing all aggressive on the cash table.

Rocky is unlucky when his Ace, King (in the short stack) is called by Mike (with the chip lead) holding Ace, Jack and spikes a Jack on the turn.

The chips are starting to spread out evenly and it looks like we could be in for a long game. I can't remember who bubbles, although I know it was Leigos or Mike, but anyway, we are soon down to the final four with DizzzyRascal, doughel, Slowman and Cat Thrasher. Mike is busted when he catches a pocket pair, only for Slowman to catch a better pair and if that wasn't bad enough, he flops a set just to show off!

Dizzzy pushes with Ace, Jack and is called by doughel with King, Jack. It's looking good for Soxy until a King comes out on the flop.

Three-handed.  Almost immediately, Cat Thrasher is all-in with Cowboys, alas doughel (turns out to be the hel rather than the doug - Helen that is) has the rockets.

Slowman flops bottom pair with four to a Queen high flush, but Helen's luck is running good... she flopped the nut flush. Slowman makes the semi-bluff by pushing them all-in and Helen licks her lips and flips over the winning hand.

HELEN IS THE CHAMP!!!

The FHP Cash Table ran on until the wee hours and I think it is safe to say that a great night was had by all.

My unreserved thanks to all of you who tuned-in (yes I know you don't tune a laptop, but you know what I mean), to Soxy for all the effort he put into promoting and setting-up the game, and to Uncover Poker for hosting a fantastic night and for coping with a flood of new users.

SAME TIME NEXT WEEK FOLKS... for the first heat in the new online league... structure and VERY interesting prizes to be confirmed soon... Soxy's brain is whirling away as I type to make the first place prize for the top of the leaderboard a cracker... think all expenses trip to a UK £1000 live tournament!

CHECK OUT the screenshots from the last few hands in the posts below...

jT

Planet Pool Poker Open 2008

SATURDAY 13 DECEMBER 2008 - 12pm

PLANET POOL POKER OPEN (PPPO)

A very exciting bracelet event for tournament poker players in Jersey.

£200 + £10 Buy-In

FREEZEOUT

1 HOUR BLIND LEVELS (Starting level 50/100)

STARTING STACKS - 20,000 CHIPS

STRICTLY LIMITED TO 40 PLAYERS

DAY ONE - PLAY DOWN TO THE FINAL TABLE (9 PLAYERS)
DAY TWO - FINALISTS PLAY FOR THE £8000 AND THE PPPO BRACELET

REGISTRATION: 12PM SATURDAY 13 DECEMBER
FINAL TABLE: 12PM SUNDAY 14 DECEMBER

BAR AND BAR FOOD AVAILABLE ON BOTH DAYS

RUN BY FHP IN ASSOCIATION WITH LEIGH RUDERHAM & SPONSORED BY PLANET POOL

EMAIL ME TO RESERVE YOUR PLACE...

jT

BOUNTY HUNTER TOURNAMENT

Click on the banner below:

Are you good enough?

November 28 - 7PM SHARP!!!

Another Uncover Poker final table... and IT'S NEARLY HERE!!!

I still haven't beaten a 3rd place finish at UP, but last night I managed to scoop just over $400 for 6th place in a $10,000 Re-Buy tournament. I was chip leader for the bulk of the latter stages when I got pocket Aces three times during one blind level and they paid twice and stole the blinds the other time! I then got really lucky with pocket Kings and was sat on about 25% of the chips in play as we hit the final table. 

I then saw the eventual winner win a MASSIVE pot with his own Cowboys to sit on over a million chips! 

I got unlucky as the final table battled it out, losing a couple of races where I was ahead. 

Below is my final hand and I can't complain, I was behind going in but when I hit my King the guy was dead to an Ace, and yep, the frickin' river!!! I will be buying one of our 'F***in River' FHP t-shirts and wearing it proudly!

So, I push my 65K into the middle and the chip leader isolates me by raising and flips over Ace, Queen. I hit my King on the Flop... I don't like the 10 on the turn as a Jack will give me two pair but will fill his Straight so I'm chanting 'No Ace, No Jack' and BAM... on the River. Out with $420.

I WILL WIN one of these things this month...

FRIDAY 28 NOVEMBER

Yesssss... it's the £1000 final table of the FHP Autumn Series, but what will the rest of us do whilst the ten finalists battle it out?

The FHP BOUNTY HUNTER that's what...

£0 Buy-in... You pay the player who busts you £25. You can then re-load for £5 during the first 90 minutes.

Starting stacks 2000 chips.

AWESOME!!!

FHP BOUNTY HUNTER TOURNEY... COMING SOON!!!

HEAT ONE - TOMORROW NIGHT!!!

Tomorrow night is the first heat in the FHP Autumn Series... I can't wait!

Over 30 players have registered and I'm keen to see how the adapted structure works - optional £10 add-on at the end of the re-buy period.

We also agreed an Xmas special for a Saturday or Sunday in December.

The game will be a 'Bounty Tournament' - this means there is no buy-in, that's right, £0 to enter - you simply pay the player who eliminates you £25.

You can then re-buy for £5 (which goes into the pot) and of course, hope you don't have to pay another £25 for getting felted, although half the fun is collecting some bounties yourself.

This promises to be an insane tournament and I love it!

The ultimate winner will take down 60% of the re-buy pot in addition to collected bounties.