Oxford to Newquay

The last 5 days have been fantastic and have literally flown by. When you consider that I've spent all my time playing poker, drinking and prating about on the beach its easy to see why its been so good.
Oxford was a lot of fun and very interesting as far as poker goes. On arrival i quickly ran into flash, JD and Tomo who all looked as tired as i did; i was also informed that my hero and teacher Jambon would not be present and a tear was shed. In my last post i said that i didn't want a table full of nits during the rebuy and thankfully a 3 way all in on the first hand dispelled this concern. The rebuy went well for me and i managed to end up on 9.7K thanks to very little skill and some serious luck (its hard to fold 10 3 off when your almost getting 2 to 1). As far as opponnents go i had the usual mix of muff stations and fellow enthusiasts with the odd player that actually knew what he was doing thrown in. The bad news was the chap 2 to my left looked familiar for the wrong reasons but i've never been scared of good players and i was really looking forward to starting the 'real' poker.
Unfortunately this excitement turned to bordem over the next 2 hours as i was dealt utter crap. In general the table was very slow and the only thing keeping me interested was dealing the table and watching my opponents. I managed to succeed in stealing a few small pots but regrettably the only big hand i played in this session saw me lose nearly 3000 chips.
At the end of the 100/200 level i was dealt QQ in early and made it 550 total. The CO calls and we go heads up to the flop (he has been playing to many hands pre and seemed to be quite weak so i'm a happy bunny). We see a 9 8 3 board and before i get a chance to act he insta checks!? After the table quickly explains that its me to act first for some reason i check in front and we see a blank 2 on the turn. Once again he checks!! FFS! What the hell is wrong with this kid the rules are pretty simple and he's playing a £20 rebuy not a £2 freezeout!! I can't get over how excited he looked to be checking out of position at the speed of light but i go ahead and bet 800 in an attempt to make some sense of this situation (also to try and win some chips), did u guess it? of course he announces raise!! i mean come on wtf? he's insta checked out of position twice and now he's putting my 800 and 1300 more into the middle. Of course i give him my confused do you know who i am look and the rest of the table is in a similar sense of confusion. At this point i have no idea at all if i'm miles ahead or miles behind so i do what most players do in this spot, give it some big talk and call. I eventually get my chance to act first on the river and make a pretty standard check when a 7 hits. He moves in for 4100ish and after a lot of time i muck. Thankfully for me he was out 10 minutes later and he was kind enough to tell me he had 99 for top set, sir you are my hero.
By the break i was down to 7000 with blinds going to 250/500, oh dear. I was lucky enough however to get into the mind of a poker genius at this point and go over to the cash game to watch Mr James Saunders get it all in pre playing 10p/20p for 250 big blinds with 8 7 sooooooooooooooooooted; how the other guy called with AK off i will never know.
Back to the tourney and soon after the break i was informed the table was being broken (bit disappointed i hadn't got a chance to push with filth and get my outdraw double up) but i would have to wait for another spot. The next table was one of the best and funniest i have ever had the pleasure of playing on. Two to my right was Mr Scott O'Riley (poker pro and 54th in the 2006 wsop main event), to my immediate right Mr David Lu (2 time wpt player and warwick poker soc pres 2005/06), finally two to my left Mr Thomas Grundy (1 EPT cash and warwick poker soc pres 2006/2007). Lucky for me the rest of the table wasn't quite as stong, the two guys on Scott's right were both very odd looking and the classic thing was they looked exactly the same. The 'chuckle brothers' were getting a lot of banter from our side of the table and they certainly took my mind off my dwindling stack.
Lucky for me the table change brought a change in luck and i pushed twice with QQ and 10 10 to pick up some much needed chips. I also stole a few blinds with weak hands and got the better of Dave and the rude chap on my left to take down some small but crucial pots. It was at this point that Dave played a very interesting hand with chuckle brother #1 (emo chuckle or ec for short). Ec limped in middle with the blinds at 350/700 and Dave completed from the sb i check and we see a 8 7 x board, Dave checks i miss check and ec checks as well. When the ace hits the turn and Dave checks i think about a stab but feel that could of hit the limper and check as well, to my surprise the limper makes a weak check and a 9 hits the river. Once again we check over to our funny looking friend who looks to be making some kind of value bet/bluff of 1200. Mr Lu then moves in for what i think was around 7K total!! At this point i automatically think BLUFF, Dave knows the kid is weak and is trying to make him fold, also if he had a bare 9 then he would just flat call. After 3-4 mins Ec calls (with a 10/9 - k/9) and dave flips 10 6 for the straight, vwp indeed sir.
After a re-steal all in on Scott with blinds at 500/1000 (had to get that in) i hit my peak chip stack of 17,200. After another break we're down to 42 and blinds of 700/1500. I had 17K still and felt like i was playing well and still having a lot of fun with Dave, flash and Scott (the paedophile banter was classic!). Que the nightmare: blinds 700/1500 and ec makes it 8000 in early, he quickly explains that he didn't mean to bet that much and was trying to bet 4, what a moron!! Stinking of weakness ec has left himself 10K back when Scott moves in for 25K ish on the Co. I look down at 99 from the sb and do not like it 1 bit. I'm 100% sure i have ec beat but i know he's not folding and i know that Scott knows that and has a hand. My problem was that with that muck weakness shown i know Scott is gonna move in with AK and AQ and even maybe AJ, i knew that i could be a 4/1 dog but could he have 88 or 77 here? with 11.5 bb i move in ec hates it but calls off with J 10 off and Scott flips KK arghhhhhhhhhhhh!!
The worst part is the moron makes quads on the turn when a third jack hits to bust me and leave Scott crippled.
Overall i'm very disappointed with the call but i went with my gut at the time and don't regret that part of the hand. I played a good tourney with very little help from the deck but i'll put my hand up and say i dropped the ball on that 1. Well done to Flash for taking the tourney down he was short for most of the day but stayed focused and must have played well to win.
I then played some cash that i'll blog later cause had 2 interesting hands; 1 in 10p/20p nl holdem and the other playing 25p/50p OHL (big mistake by me).
On another note Newquay was awesome!!!!!!!!! The beach in the day was a good laugh and 4 heavy nights in a row were a good way to say goodbye to Reading Uni (a degree would be a better way lol). I'm gonna play some serious poker over the next 3 nights and hope to get a big result cause i need it sooooooooo bad.
Bankroll:$4,100