The Biggie – Part 2

Day 2 arrives and to be honest I was tired. I elected to drive home (75 minutes) rather than stay over and I really didn’t sleep that well but I’m cooking on adrenaline now and I aint going to let a little thing like sleep deprivation get me down.

I arrive at the casino early again and decide to get some food. I sit having breakfast with Justin Turner from Luton who is still in but low stacked and Garry Bush, who I didn’t really know at the time but was very friendly nonetheless – this settles me down a little but I was starting to feel the nervous anticipation of a long days poker.

38 players soon become 30 and we are down to 3 tables (the last 2 get paid). The play significantly tightened up now as we approached the bubble and I really haven’t made much ground and I can feel the need to make a move. I try a late position raise and get re-raised by John Shipley (he is a GREAT player who I’m sure can smell fear and weakness like a hungry lion) – I get the message, act like the pray that i am and fold. The very next round, I try again but this time I have a hand (A-J), I raise and he pushes all-in… grrrrrr! Again, I fold and he gives me that “don’t you ever learn” look. I am now really starting to feel like I am being out-played by these guys and decide that next time that Shipley fella comes for me I aint backing off.

About 30 minutes passes and I have took a few pots down uncontested and have built my stack back up to quite healthy, the confidence is back and I switch to ‘auto-steal’. Its Shipley’s blind again now and look down and see J-9. I make a smallish raise and it folds round to my nemesis. He gives that stare again but I decide to fix the stare back – he re-raises me about a third of his stack but this time I aint backing down! – The best way to deal with a bully is hit him right between the eyes, so I quickly wave my arms forward and say “I’m all-in”. I couldn’t quite believe what I just said, it was like it wasn’t me, it was like I had been possessed. I almost felt like apologising, taking my chips back and admit I was bluffing, but it was done now –I had moved all my chips in with J-9 on a pre-flop re-re-raise! – I just had to fix my stare and convince him I had a hand. He gave me that look that you see serial killers fixing their prison wardens with in the movies and I swear for just one moment, he was going to call. He thought for what seemed like an eternity and eventually he passed! – I think my huge sigh coupled with a reach for my water gave it away that I had nothing but he mucked, I had the chips and I felt like a Roman gladiator astride a dead lion, spear aloft with the crowd baying for more blood. – I had the taste for it, I could feel a gear change and the crowd weren’t going to leave disappointed.