As our players settled down for the evening's first game of poker at 20:43, Barry told us of what we hoped would be a prophetic dream, in which he was knocked out in a bad beat by Dan. The remaining players found themselves in the unusual position of hoping Barry's dreams came true, which would be a double nightmare for Baz: a bad beat and the potential loss of the top spot, which he has kept dominated since who knows when.
In the first major hand of the night, 7 8 10 10 J with 4 spades on the table, IJ raised £3 and was swiftly re-raised £5 by Jude. Dan then re-raised all in, which sent IJ scurrying. Jude thought about it but ultimately couldn't lay her nut flush down. The bad news for Jude was that Dan was holding a dreamy straight flush, and doubled up.
The surreal atmosphere continued producing four weird hands in a row:
Baz got KK then QQ.
Jude was then dealt AA, and Dan followed with his own AA.
All of them raised before the flop, and everyone else folded meaning they only won the blinds. How very strange...
Jude was the first casualty of the evening. Holding K9, she went all in when a K came on the flop. Charlie called with a spade flush draw, which hit to knock Jude out (8th).
Barry went all in with QK, which his nighttime nemesis Dan called with AQ. The dream came true for all (except Baz) when Dan's hand held up, knocking Baz out (7th). Baz insisted that this was not the hand from his dream, and retreated to the lounge to contemplate his potential drop to 3rd in the table, should Lee & Dan both share the evening's top spots.
Showing he was not messing around before bedtime, Charlie made a series of aggressive pre-flop raises and within a few hands became a massive chip leader, without seeing a flop.
Lee went all in, with 7 8 10 on the flop. Both JJ and Shaz called. With the turn bringing a 9, Shaz went all in and shook off JJ. She had hit a straight, knocking Lee out (6th), spoiling the opportunity of pushing Barry into 3rd.
JJ went all in, raising a fierce £1.25. Both Sharon and Dan called, but once again Sharon asserted herself, re-raising to scare Dan off and kick out JJ, who was holding 6 7, (5th).
JJ cursed his crummy luck, but given his position as a revered past league winner, perhaps he has had all his luck for the time being and is destined to be an also ran for the next 10 years?
Charlie then knocked IJ out (4th). IJ had gone all in with Q8 which Charlie had called with deuces, which hit a 2 to make trips.
In a decisive hand, Shaz, holding A8, raised £16 after the flop had brought 22A. Dan, who in his own wet dream, was holding 2 7, called. The turn brought a 4 and in her usual aggressive manner, Sharon raised another £16. Dan went all in and when the river brought a Q his trip 2s doubled him up very nicely, and sent Sharon to bed (3rd).
Charlie went into heads up ahead, and set about the business of slowly giving his chips to Dan, who managed to claw his way into a good position. All players (except Barry) were backing Dan, as only a win from him would stand a chance of waking Barry & jolting him off the top spot. But it was not to be a dreamlike finish for Dan or our table. In the only memorable hand, Charlie raised 2 piles of chips, with JQ spades. Dan re-raised all in with A9 and chancer Charlie called. The flop brought KJ6, the turn a Q giving Chas 2 pair. The river finished the job, bringing an extra J to give Charlie a full house and victory at 22:50.
Well done Charlie!
Game 2 – 6 players - (1st Baz, 2nd Dan, 3rd JJ)
The second game started at 23:00 with the countdown to midnight causing great trepidation among the players, as that was the hour that Barry's dream losing hand took place. We were conveniently overlooking the fact that the chimerical poker game took place at the Jaysons, focusing instead on the knowledge that it had seemed so real to Barry that he had woken up fucked off about the bad beat.
As Lee commented: Barry's obviously on a bad run if he can't even win in his dreams. The stats seemed to bear this out: Barry had not won since July 23rd and that was his only win since 18th June. Could it be all over for Barry???
In one of the most momentous hands of the night, producing arguably the best hand our game has ever seen, IJ hit a straight flush, 9 to K hearts. JJ raised healthily after the flop, the presence of a Q of hearts on the board and KJ hearts in his hand gave IJ an outside sniff at the Royal Flush pot and led him to call the raise, despite holding fuck all.
A 9 hearts on the turn, dashed IJ's hopes of the £300 jackpot but the 10 hearts on the river was a superb consolation prize. Unsure of what raise to put in to capture JJ's curiosity without frightening him off, IJ raised £10.50, hoping the obscure figure would entice the J. Barry laughed, saying "You've got KJ hearts!" IJ looked at his cards & smiled nervously.
Eventually JJ called declaring "I'm bi-curious" a particularly costly proclivity on this occasion.
In no way influenced by this defeat and not on tilt at all, J went all in with 8 10 clubs. Charlie called and Dan went all with Js, which Charlie also called with AQ diamonds. Miles behind his opponent, JJ managed to hit trips on the flop, winning the pot to triple up. He denied it was a reckless move, as he had a feeling. But how can you have a feeling that you are going to hit trip 10s??? Providing some consolation for Dan, his Js beat Charlie, who exited (6th).
At 12:02 the moment everyone had been waiting for arrived. 3 3 9 was on the table, a very similar hand at a very similar time to the dream, but Barry got scared and folded, not trusting his skillful play to defy his dream. This was very irritating for IJ, who had hit trip 3s.
A few hands later a top of the table clash developed. Dan re-raised Baz all in, which Baz considered for a long while, before folding, declaring that it was either the greatest ever lay down or a total fuck up that could cost him the title.
He fumed for a while, but then took his chances with A5, going all in. JJ called with A3, an unusually good hand for reckless J. Despite everyone hoping for a JJ win, they both hit 2 pair, giving Baz the double up he needed.
The game progressed slowly, with the top of the table at stake and the top placed 5 players all still in, no one was in a hurry to go to dreamland, despite the late hour.
"Fuck me!" Dan cried out as the tension mounted in the suite.
"You won't get any takers round here Dan. Not even JJ is that bi-curious" Barry disappointed him.
IJ cracked first, re-raising JJ all in with 7s. JJ called with A10 and hit a 10 knocking IJ out (5th).
Lee followed out (4th) in the next hand or so but the details are hazy.
Barry continues the saga:
At this point me and dan were equally short stacked with JJ a huge monster.
We were just waiting for the other to get beat by JJ so we could get 2nd !
But in 2 hands I won the blinds (max) and then next hand went all in vs JJ with a A5 which he called with A3 (an A and a 5 and 3 hit) and I was now huge chip leader.
A few hands later I took JJ out in 3rd with low K vs low Q.
Heads up with Dan didn’t last long and at 1.05am Dan went all in with K10, which I called with A10 - a King hit on the flop but an ace on the turn gave me first win since July 23rd !!!
Sweet.
So well done Baz - you took an enormous amount of flack last week & your position as our table leader faced it's first serious threat in a long time, but you didn't crumble. Fantastic result!
2008 Poker Rankings Table:
So Barry is still our table leader, stretching his 5 point lead into a 9 point one. He can still be caught, but it is looking like he might have at least a week's grace.
Dan has taken back 3rd place from Lee, but since the 2 of them have been sharing the 2nd & 3rd spot for as long as anyone can remember, there is nothing to see there folks.
Only other movement is Charlie, who's 1st game win propels him ahead of Scott & Jude, and 2 points away from Dean.
Conversation topics of the week:
Charlie's iphone enjoyed a very short spell as our guest ipod, but after we waited patiently for a single tune we recognised and could hum along too, it was binned & Lee's returned to its rightful place.
Dan informed us of how he lifted 4000 songs from his mate at work's ipod, and only gave him the Pogues in return. Sounds like a fair swap...
Other chat centred on the prospect of Baz losing the top spot. While ultimately pointless, we did enjoy pondering over the possibility of whether Barry was destined to only be a Best Supporting Actor rather than a Best Actor type of poker player? or perhaps he is more of a pace setter? Goes out ahead to set the pace of the tournament but ducks out towards the end....
In the interests of balance, I should say that Barry pointed out that I have never been anywhere near the top of the table all year....
Congratulations of the week:
To Lee on the occasion of both his birthday & his appointment as Head of Legal, meaning he no longer has to act. Fantastic news, but don't think that means you can continue to play with your BlackBerry & get away with it... Thanks also to Lee for informing us of the greatest job title going:
Total Head of Lubricant
News & Jokes of the week:
Thanks to JJ for this random offering:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080923/tod-australia-pig-offbeat-37b0eca.html
that's all folks!
ij
