DUBLIN BELLYBUSTERS

Sunday, October 4th, 2009: The Full Tilt Espana Series - Barcelona Event, Day 3 (Afternoon)
The Tournament Director asked us to get to the Casino an hour early on the Sunday so that we could be filmed, photographed and provide some biographical information to enrich the broadcast. I obliged of course and on arrival to the Casino, I was ushered into a private nightclub which had, on one side, been kitted out as a mini-studio with a small stage, cameras and a full lighting rig. As soon as all of the players were there, we were asked to fill out some questionnaires and then, one at a time, go up to the stage to be photographed and filmed while turning on a podium (doing 360 degree turns obviously increases one’s coolness factor by a factor of 10).

Play commenced a little late at 3.20pm but when it finally did, it was fast and furious. There seemed to be an all-in every two hands. I only played one hand in the first hour, taking down a set of blinds but in that time, we were already down to 13 players. In the second hour, I played one big hand of note.

Hand 8 - Day 3, Blinds 5000/10000/1000, 430K
6-Handed, the UTG player went all-in for 140K. I was in the Cut-Off and looked down at AK offsuit. Feeling there was no other play, I announced all-in and everyone else folded. My opponent flipped up A10 and I had myself a 70/30. Neither of us hit a pair and my AK (Clearly my lucky hand this tourney!) high took it down, taking me up to a comfortable 575K.

By the end of the 2nd hour we were down to 9 and the unofficial final table. The cameras were all over us but we would not take our seats on the proper televised table until we were down to 8. That took about three hands as one of the remaining Spaniards re-shipped 32 big blinds from the Big Blind to a 2.5x button raise from Sebastian Berres, the third member of the German trio. Sebastian insta-called with JJ and the Big Blind showed KJ. No King meant we were on a one hour break and when we resumed, it would be lights, cameras, action!