£30 Head Hunter Freezeout Result

Confidentials 30 May 2012

MORE than fifty players snubbed the sun in favour of Confidential Poker’s May tournament on Saturday, as the new head hunter format spiced up the play.

52 entrants had filled the prize pool to £1,300 by the time tournament registration had closed, each player retaining £5 of the buy-in to act as a bounty to lure the card sharks.

As regulars and newcomers chatted together throughout Manchester235’s Poker Lounge, players were keen to protect their bounty’s during the first level.

Soon, play loosened up. I was enjoying an unusually steady start to a Confidential tournament, and when I managed to take down a handsome pot with AA just before the break, I had increased my starting stack from 10k to around 28k.

Meanwhile, over on table 6, Angela Houghton was busy snapping up a £40 Linen Restaurant voucher for the best hand of the day – her rather ugly 9,2 hole cards receiving a miracle makeover when all the remaining 9s landed on the board to make quads.

Refueled with complimentary sausage and mash and three-cheese pasta, my tournament was plodding along nicely. When cautious play from my opponents (holding KK and QQ) allowed me to make a flush on the river with 97 suited, I took my first bounty and was up to 38k.

Shortly after, things got even better after a crazy pot that saw four players with their cards on their backs before the flop.

Despite an early scare when an ace fell on the flop, I found a third 10 on the turn to match the two in my hand, taking out three players at once, and securing a place at the final table.

It was at the final table though, that I soon realised I was very much fish amongst a sea of sharks.

By the end of the first hand Ben Singh has already taken half my stack – taking full advantage of his pocket aces to double up at the expense of my AK.

Things were falling apart, and when I saw my A7 surrender and double up Andy McGuigan’s K10, my tournament was all but over, and I looked down at a mere 8k stack.

All that remained was the procedural abduction of my last few chips by final table chip leader Mick Crook.

I was out in eight, closely following early final table exits by Jessica Kevill and Phil Greenwood.

Andy McGuigan was next to fall. His excellent work steering a short stack through a prolonged bubble period was complete, and he finished the tournament in the money.

It was Grenville Harrop who was out in sixth when his pockets 2s were busted by pocket 4s – a third top six finish in a row at Confidential tournaments from the consistent Harrop.

As the final five began to scrap it out, Ritesh Mistry jumped into a sizeable lead after he won the biggest pot of the night – Mick Crook on the receiving end of a haul worth nearly 300k.

Crook quickly doubled up to keep his tournament alive, his AQ enough to hold off the challenge of Michel Fisher holding KQ, but the tournament was about to come to an abrupt end.

Mistry, chip leader by some distance, offered a five-way split to his surprised opponents, who were all too happy to call it a day.

All five were all-in blind the very next hand, and in a convenient moment of administrative efficiency, Misrty’s hand took the pot, and the last card had been dealt.

Congratulations to all that cashed at Confidential’s May £30 Head Hunter Poker Tournament.

Final Table Result: