Saturday 3rd December 2011

Venue - Rare Books Arena

Winner - GingaStinga
2nd - Bottleneck
3rd - The Raiser
4th - Megawatt
5th - Killawatt
6th - The Doctor
7th - Wee Rambo
Wooden Spoon - Liam

Apologies: Da Blouse (Still M.I.A.), The Damage (Stateside), The Professor (In the Lab?), Milroy (another hot date?).

Connoisseurs of Texas Hold'em were in a state of shock on Sunday morning when they woke up to the earth shattering news that Poker Behemoth, Killawatt, had trickled out of the game in only 5th place. Whilst his form x luck combo has been something of a cause for disgust amongst his fellow players this year, even He couldn't make a 2-3 suited into a winning hand in a 3-way battle (although he did make 4 cards of a straight flush before the river). Bottleneck (A-7) & The Raiser (K-J) were also in the hunt but the appearance of an A slid the pot in the direction of the host in a hand that effectively also sank The Raiser.

Between the exits of Killawatt & The Raiser, Megawatt took a right rear end invasion when he was raised all in blind by a resurgent GingaStinga who filled a Full Hoose, dumped the poor tripped up Megawatt out of the game and then of course apologised.

Earlier, Liam the Newbie had began well, getting involved and getting uninvolved at precocious moments. But one wrong move in this company can prove fatal and an escalation of pressure at an opportune moment accounted for his chips when The Raiser sniffed a chance.

Wee Rambo, who once upon a time looked like a contender before his form nosedived only just avoided the wooden spoon. It was one of those desperate nights where shi'ite cards took the blame, the Granny was still on when Liam crashed out and when the Granny was finally vanquished, it was via a split pot with a profit of 20 whole chips. Violins featured in the background as hand-after-hand he wailed about the 7-2 he'd folded that would have made a Full Hoose etc, but there is always next time.

6th might not please many people, but for the reigning champion it ranks as a bit of an improvement after recent showings and if The Doctor can finish tucked in behind Killawatt on a more frequent basis he might be able to refind the form that took him all the way to the Championship in 2010.

Last word is saved for Placings 1 & 2. While the Bottleneck still searches for the elusive Endgame, his Beginning and Middle are putting him in the right place more and more. It can only be a matter of time until he gets quite lucky to go with the quite good.

The pocketer of the £40 was the possessor of an impressive game seemingly refound after a few years of suicidal raisings and reraisings. From around half way through the match, his style and chips grew in strength allowing little room for middling play around the table on the way to securing a second victory of the year. Is it a blip, or a sign of things to come???