The last installment of my trip report from the recent €300 2-day No Limit Hold’em side event tournament at the JP Poker Masters festival in Dublin. I had made it to the final table and heading towards the big payouts…
Another hand I remember, with about 7 left it was folded to me on the small blind and I completed with 
(blinds were 3000/6000/500 I think), the big blind raised another 15k to 21k total, he was fairly active and I felt certain if I hit (and didn’t get into trouble!) I’d win a nice pot from him – it felt right at the time to call but I really wonder, I didn’t think about it enough. Anyhow, the flop was 
rainbow, I checked, he bet 40k, I pushed my remaining 110k in and he instantly called with 
…interesting. I hadn’t made any big moves without the goods really since getting to the final table, most of the rest would never have called me in that spot with his hole cards. Anyhow, the gutshot missed (only a K would have taken the pot away from me, or a more improbable runner-runner) and I jump to having one of the biggest stacks of the remaining players.
Again, I played fairly passively with the big stack, when I raised the others folded generally, once I raised in late position with , a limper in mid position called , the flop missed me but was all low cards and I had him on broadway cards or a weak ace, I bet ½ pot, he flat called, another brick fell and I knew he again had none of it, fired another bullet and he folded. I think betting with nothing in the knowledge your opponent is going to fold is the most satisfying play to make in poker, more so than making your opponent lay down a better hand. I am not sure why I like this so much!
When we got down to four the big stack didn’t want to do a deal to flatten the payouts so we’d all get €4000, he had about 420k in chips, I had 250k, the Chopper had 330k and the shortstack had just over 200k. I thought this was madness, he wasn’t THAT far ahead! Anyhow, the very next hand I raised on the button with 
, Ricky folded on the small blind, the big stack re-raised on the big blind, I thought about it for a moment or two, decided I was probably still ahead but only flat called (this is a mistake).
The flop was 
, he checked and I checked behind (I know I’m most likely ahead here, I should have bet / pushed and taken it down), the turn was a 
, he bets out again, I flat call (I really felt I was still ahead, I had a good read on him), the river is a 
, we both check, he shows 
and I take down a 100k+ pot. Suddenly he is happy to make that deal! 4th €4000, 3rd €5000, 2nd €6500 and 1st €8000.
Soon after the Chopper knocks out the shortstack, we break for lunch, Ricky and I discuss how much each of us would like to win the tournament, get back a bit late, play for 30 minutes before deciding to chop 3-ways as our stacks were so close. €6500 each, the same as 2nd was going to get. I wonder did the other player decide to deal because he felt a bit of ‘2 against 1′ was on the cards (it wasn’t, of course) as myself and Ricky had been chatting so much and had lunch together during the break. Anyhow he took the nice trophy in the blind hand we played for it and myself and the Chopper had to make do with just the cash!
Hopefully I’ll have another tournament report with a similar outcome from my live or online play sometime over the summer! Please leave a comment if you find this interesting (or boring), we read all comments and will act on them; we’re eager to please here at paddypowerpoker.com 
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