Frustrating Day - Newcastle UKPT Main Event

Yesterday was an extremely frustrating tournament in Newcastle, involving a tough table and tough laydowns. My table included two former UKPT winners (Jerome Bradpiece and Jeff Kimber) and last year’s UKPT Grand Final winner (Michael Ellis). Add to that two on-form locals, who had gone deep in the £200 side event the previous night, and it was clear there were not going to be many easy chips to be had. Key hands detailed below:

Hand1

This is a very early hand.
Button raises to 200 and I call in the BB with 5♣5♠
Flop 5d Jh 10d
I check, button bets 400 which I call
Turn As
I check, button bets 600 and I check raise to 2000 as the board has tons of draws now.
Button calls, so I put him on a draw and the river is the worst card in the deck: King of diamonds - all the straights and flush draws just got there. Opponent bets 2000 and my set is useless so I pass. He shows King Queen so he already had the straight, and in fact in river saved me a lot of chips. Still lost 2600 very early on though.

Hand2

I call a raise to 200 with AQ, 3 of us in the pot.
Flop K, 8, 2
Checked around
Turn Q - I bet 600 and win

I build stack back up to about 9k with small pot wins and then this hand happens:

Hand3

UTG raises to 300. Two other callers and I call with K♠Q♠
Flop 10sAd4h
Checked to UTG who bets 800. Everyone calls including me.
Turn As, giving me gutshot straight draw and royal flush draw.
UTG bets 2000. All fold to me. I consider using my draw to push over the top, as the pot is pretty large. The paired board troubles me though, as if he has a house I am drawing just to the Jack of spades. I pass after a lot of thought and he shows tens full. Phew!

However, down to 6.5k at the break

Hand3

I raise in early position to 500 with AQ and get 3 callers
Flop K, Q, 8
All check
Turn Q
I lead for 1000 and all pass

Hand4

Multi limps into my big blind and I check with 55
Flop: Ace, 5, Jack
I lead with my set for 500 but everyone passes. Unlucky none of the limpers caught a piece of that. Feeling more confident though.

Hand5

I limp 2nd to act with KK
2 callers and then Kimber puts it up to 600. One of the blinds calls and I re-raise to 2500 and everyone passes.
Stack reaches high point of about 11k.

Hand6

Bradpiece raises to 600 and I flat call with 10♦10♥ in the SB.
Flop 6♠ 3♠ 9♣
I lead out for 1500 and Bradpiece calls
Turn 8s
I don’t want Bradpiece to use the spades to check raise me, so I check as does he.
River is 4s.
Great.
I check (maybe a mistake) and opponent takes initiative and leads for 2k, and I pass. Not sure about this hand - seems pretty logical he has 2 high cards in his hand, and one is a spade, but equally he might just be using the board against me after I checked and have something like A♦K♦
Back down to 7.5k (I’d missed a few flops between hands 5 and 6)

Hand7

I raise UTG with QQ to 500 and get five callers.
Flop 9, 5, 2 with two clubs
I bet 2000 into the 2700 pot
Bradpiece min raises to 4000 and the next guy goes all in for 7000 Visions of Dublin fly back - must be a set right?
I pass
Wrong - Bradpiece has AK (?) and the other guy has A9 of clubs
Sigh - at least there is an Ace on the turn so I’d have been bust if I had called. Down to 5k and feeling tilty.

Hand8

I limp UTG with AK
It’s raised to 600 and there is one caller. Back to me, and I think about pushing, but my stack size is too big for it, but equally too small for a re-raise as I’ll be committed.
I call
Flop Q♦ 6♠ 5♣
Initial raiser bets 1200 and other guy passes back to me.
This could easily be a continuation bet, so I decide to commit fully to this pot. I want to look as strong as possible so I opt to flat call and push if there is a drawing card on the turn.
Turn is 6d so I decide to instapush, as I want him to think I am protecting against the flush.
He has a think for a little while and then calls with KQ (it’s 3k for him to call) I am drawing to an Ace - I miss and I’m gone.

This tournament never got going for me. Key pots went away, and I never really got on a roll. Hole cards were pretty poor for a 4 hour stretch - Kings once, Queens once, Tens once, AK once and AQ twice. I dunno, maybe that’s about average.

Back to London for a few weeks now and then off to Nevada.