UKIPT London & GUKPT Manchester

In my last blog I joked about wanting to write and tell you all about taking home another trophy. No one can say I didn’t try hard.

My past two main events both ended in final table runs. I managed an 8th place finish for £5,500 at GUKPT Manchester, although I went into the final table with the chip lead and made an error or two to lose it. Then, I managed to come 2nd at the UKIPT Main Event in London. Me and Robbie Bull, this years UKIPT Champion, made a deal heads up and I walked away with £106,875 for my efforts.

So, no trophy’s for the mantle piece, but nevertheless I am really pleased with my efforts this past month.

Both tournaments were especially fun ones. With very few exceptions the table banter was lively and the sportsmanship between the players top class. Regardless of the fantastic payday I’ve really had two amazing trips.

So, how did I manage to perform so well in two big tournaments?

Honestly I did have some golden situations on route to my final tables. One such situation was when two players whose games I respected, Matthew Davenport and Lee Taylor got involved in a pot with me. I held A10 and the flop came 10105. Matthew led out and I smooth called and I was surprised to see Lee also call behind me. The turn was a beautiful ace, giving my 10’s full and Matthew went all in. I dwelled for a moment and made the call, only for Lee to re-ship all in! Matthew held Q10 and Lee 55. It’s the kind of hand you dream about the night before a tournament. This catapulted me into having a monster stack, eliminated two tough opponents and brought the tournament down to just 12 players.

Aside from some sick pots and situations, I’ve been studying hard. I’ve heard of people who get a big tournament win, squander their money in games they can’t afford and then disappear soon after. I’m determined to avoid this blunder and keep improving my game. I know I have leaks, we all do, and I keep reading and analysing in between tournaments to streamline my game.

One leak I have, that can have disastrous consequences, is making sure I eat well during the tournament. It may sound silly but on day 2 and 3 we didn’t get a break longer than 20 minutes so I hadn’t eaten properly. On top of that we were on the feature table and the bright lights were just adding to my low-blood-sugar-induced headache. The blinds were 15,000/30,000 and the standard raise had been to around 60,000. Karl Mahrenholz went all in for approximately 500,000 and I calculated this as less than 10x the big blind… I’m typing this still disbelieving of my blunder. I didn’t have my sunglasses for those damn final table lights and I hadn’t eaten properly and so I divided 500,000 by 60,000 and called his all in with KQs. His QQ held up and I was reduced to a 1.5 million stack whilst simultaneously doubling up a dangerous opponent. Cue an immediate trip to Subway.

If you keep a close eye on my blog I will post some hand analyses of the critical hands that I played over the course of these two tournaments.

In the mean time I’d like to say big congratulations for Sunny Chattha and Jeff Kimber who placed 1st and 2nd respectfully at GUKPT Manchester, as well as everyone else who managed the final table run. Same goes to Robbie Bull for beating me heads up at UKIPT London as well as the other competitors who managed to final table the 747 strong field. Robbie, just 21 years old, has had an amazing start to his live poker career and his sportsmanship throughout the tournament was first-rate. I’m sure this won’t be the last time we see him making a big score. ♠

After spending a year sponsored by Paddy Power Poker through their Sole Survivor promotion, Ian Simpson went on to win the 2013 Irish Poker Open to take home €265,000 euros. He currently plans on doing some work in schools in between travelling the tournament circuit and writing for Card Player Magazine. You can find him on twitter @IanSimpsonPoker