Nick is a cash game player, content creator and part of 888poker’s Stream Team. Each week he shares his thoughts and experiences as a player dedicated to the daily grind. This week he recounts his experiences at the UKPL Leeds event in the UK, which started with hope and ended with ‘multiple slaps to the face’. Gotta love this game…
Over the last few weeks I’ve spoken about the hectic UK poker schedule and how I’d seen it as my opportunity to take advantage of how well I’d been playing and finally put together a deep run in an 888 live event. After a disappointing Manchester event at the tournament tables, UKPL Leeds provided a chance to bounce back immediately. It’s safe to say that, after two bullets in the £560 Main Event, and a torrid time in the live cash games, my propensity for positivity has effectively vanished.
As I said, while Manchester certainly didn’t go as I’d liked, there were redeeming features that I was converting into optimism for Leeds. I played really well, and battled my heart out against the regulars of the UK tournament circuit. I couldn’t convert it into MTT triumph, but my brief stint at the cash tables was reassuring and, more importantly, profitable.
My time in Leeds, however, had absolutely no redeeming features whatsoever.
On my first night I dabbled in the cash games, coming away with a small double digit victory. Nothing to write home about, but better than a slap in the face. Little was I to know that there were multiple, rather forceful, slaps in the face to come in the next few days.
A good start
I started out on Day 1B of the £560 UKPL Main Event in Leeds still hanging on to the words that I wrote just last week. I felt great, like I could beat anyone that would turn up. My first table was the stuff of dreams, recreationals galore and barely a reg in sight. It was time to capitalize.
I absolutely dominated for about 8 levels, barely putting a foot wrong as far as I could tell. I accumulated chips without good hands, picking my spots as they came and building what I could only assume was an early, yet largely meaningless, chip lead in the flight. I even won a preflop all-in blind vs blind for around 20bb with 
vs 
, which seems like a low bar and hardly noteworthy, but I can barely remember the last time I managed such a feat.
Things were going so well that I distinctly remember saying to myself that day 2 was almost guaranteed, it was just about how far I’d go. I had 130K at 600/1200 and I felt about as good as you can feel at the poker table. But as I’ve said before, this game has a funny way of bringing you back down to earth just as soon as you start to believe.
From hero to zero
A player on my right was on his 6th bullet, and two of the previous ones he had bust on my table - one of which he shoved every hand blind before heading back to the buy-in desk.
He was still in a splashy, 90% VPIP-style mood when he iso’d a limp while on the button, and I woke up with 
offsuit in the small blind. The limp was from a recreational player who was rather erratic, and I felt just flatting could lure him into an untimely shove, giving me an easy call should my bullet-happy friend fold. Unfortunately for me he just called as well, and the board brought a rainbow flop of 
.
I checked, and the recreational did what I’d hoped he would do preflop, which was shove his remaining 15K into the 10K pot. The button called which, having watched him play, didn’t frighten me too much. With another 50K in his stack, I popped him all-in, and got absolutely fist-pump called. I was still pretty confident of having the best hand, but alas was shown the worst possible news as the guy who played literally almost every hand had the best possible hand, aces. A few bricks left me down at around 60K, but still very much in the mix with 50bb.
The very next hand, the same player limped the cut-off and I raised with 
offsuit on the button to 5200. He called, as he always did, and the flop came rainbow, presenting a chance to claim some of those chips back from the last hand.
He checked, I bet around 5000, and he snap-jammed for my remaining 50K. Nothing to think about, I call, and he tosses offsuit face up into the middle for top two-pair. Two more bricks later, and in five minutes I had gone from probable chip lead - with a view to comfortably making day 2 - to out.
Reversion to the moan
I’ve gotten pretty used to busting these tournaments in my recent career, but this one completely took the wind out of my sails. I went back to my hotel room to regroup and process the devastation, before heading back to what I thought was my comfort zone on the £1/£2 cash tables. A boring, breakeven session was on the cards until the last hand of the night, when I ran KK into AA against a reg for over £1,000.
So yeah, I’m done with positivity. I’m going back to being customarily miserable and expecting nothing but the worst, because at least then I won’t be disappointed when the inevitable happens. And if something miraculous comes to pass and I actually cash one of these god-forsaken events, it’ll be an extremely pleasant, and very welcome, surprise.
Until then, it’s back to moaning.
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Images courtesy of 888LIVE
