Exeter Poker Society welcomed myself, WideDeck creator John Haynes, to Streatham Campus, and they quickly demonstrated how the new generation can take this game to a new level.
A table of 6 entered the 2 hour rebuy period, 1 'Pro' , Gideon, along with 5 players:
First year marketing student Will, Chris, a part time lecturer and pure maths specialist,
Ian studying accounting, Tom a law student in his final year and last but not least, Society President Miles Rees, in his third year of computer science.
As I dealt, it was clear Chris and Gideon were the 'thinkers', taking their time with their decisions, whilst Miles and Tom acted more instinctively. Ian wanted to see most flops,
and was prepared to outmaneuver his opponent on the turn or river, with or without the cards.
He was the first to rebuy, Chris believing he was getting out of line on a K78 board.
A raise, re-raise, and all-in saw the maths lecturer call with the inferior hand, T8 of sapphires a big dog against the 77 of Ian. One sapphire on the board gave Chris 6 outs
to a 4-flush, and it came on the turn. Ian still had a redraw to a full-house but the board did not pair.
Will 3-bet pre-flop with a suited King-Queen (Sapphires) but hit nothing he needed to lose a large pot early, otherwise he mostly had bad starting hands which he rightfully folded.
Entering tournament mode after the break, all 6 players remained, Ian and Will were eliminated to leave 4 players. Tom had been very active, surviving some all-ins when very short on his first life, and getting in many run-ins with Miles who was seated to his right. Gideon and Chris ignited a huge hand, where trips on the JTT flop for both saw the pot swell. A seemingly harmless bronze turn saw another bet and call. A third bronze on the river gave the possibility of a 4-flush. Chris pushed all-in for a massive overbet.
Gideon activated his time bank but couldn't call with no full house, his 10 of rubies
shrivelling up under the pressure of the huge bet.
I asked to see Chris's hand, and he showed KT of bronze for the 5-Flush.
The final 3 left were WideDeck Pro Gideon, President Rees and mathematician Chris.
Blinds were getting larger and there was no backing down when Miles had AK suited (Emeralds), and Gideon had AQ with the Ace of Rubies (57% favourite)
Miles hit his King, and shortly after we were down to heads-up.
The final hand saw Miles raise with 99, Chris go all-in, and getting a call.
He'd pushed with A7 suited (Rubies) and unfortunately, for him, was up against a pocket pair (60% equity)
The board rolled off KTJKT, giving Miles two pairs and the victory. (KKJ99)
Although the board shows two pairs Chris has to play both his cards (KKJA7)
for just one pair.
We played with experienced players and they grasped the fundamentals of the game extremely quickly. I expect new players could learn after a few short sessions.
If you have a Poker club or Society please contact the site and I'll be happy to offer a free pack to get you started.
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