My Six-Way Chop At The GSOP

After a strenuous two weeks looking after my little sister I decided to treat myself to a decent game of cards. After years of being a member of the Gutshot in Clerkenwell, and always wanting to participate in one of their Gutshot Series of Poker (GSOP) events, I thought I would buy myself in to the £200 No Limit Freezeout and try my luck! I even turned down several backers!

I had a terrible first level. With a starting chipstack of 6,000 and blinds at 25–50 I had to fold A-K on a King-high board when the river card brought a third diamond to the board. Always acting first I made him pay all the way but I still think he was fishing for that flush that he hit…! Board showed 8d-Qd-Ks-6c-2d. I only had one pair at the end of the day. This made me a short stack very early on with only 2,000 chips left.

My stack kept getting smaller and I finally moved all in with Q-9 off suit. With two callers and a Queen-high flop I was quickly back in the game! Shortly after my treble-up our table broke and I was moved upstairs away from the sweat box.

The next five hours were a bit of a blur, I wasn’t afraid to move all in, and kept getting called when I had the best hand. I managed to gradually build my stack and with only half the field remaining I had around treble the average chipstack. I was second chip leader on my table, the chip leader was a guy two to my left whom I didn’t recognise.

Blinds must have been 500–1000, I’m on the BB. Folded round to the chip leader on the button who makes a raise. He makes it about 3k. Small Blind folds. I look down and see 6d-8d. I’m a sucker for suited semi-connectors and call the bet. Flop comes an unbelievable 7-9-10 rainbow. Chip leader checks out of turn, which is ideal for me, as I make a pathetic 4k bet and make it look like I’m trying to steal the pot after seeing him check. It worked – he re-raised me to 14k. I instantly move all-in and he calls just as fast! Expecting him to turn over a high pair, he turns over K-8, with two cards to come and him drawing to a split I felt pretty confident! The turn and river came no help and I doubled-up becoming the new overall chip leader.

I remained amongst the chip leaders for a few hours and managed to stay out of trouble; picking up the blinds a few times helped me remain a healthy stack. Before I knew it and with fatigue setting in, we were down to 12 players. I managed to lose a third of my stack when I called Lawrence Brogan’s 30k all-in with pocket 10s against his 10-J. Of course, a Jack came on the river which meant me handing over 30k of my chips – I deserved some bad luck I suppose!

Before I knew it the final table was announced - I was over the moon, I had made it into the money! With £23,000 to be won – I felt a bit anxious. First hand and I’m all-in! Action folded round to the Small Blind, a young guy to my right whom I’ve never seen before. He’s a smaller stack with 40k in front of him. He makes a bet of 15k to me, I look down at A-J. I move all-in, I’m not going to flat call and miss and then fold to his instant push. He thinks about it for ages and makes the call showing K-2. First card out is the Ace, a massive sigh from me, until the next three cards come all diamonds and him with the deuce of diamonds. Luckily for me the river was a blank and I sent home the first finalist.

Sadly, I would be lying if I said it was a riveting final table. We made it down to six players and it must have been about 5.30am. We all sat there with anything from 85k to 110k and talk of an equal split arose. It worked out to be a tasty £3,488 each, I was definitely up for a split and was perfectly content with walking away with over £3,000 in my pocket. I had made a deal to swap 10% with a friend when we both had monster stacks in the last 20. Of course, he got knocked out but hey-ho! I was thrilled with the result and can't wait to get back to the Gutshot to take down another tourney soon.

Until next time,

Amy Trodd