Willie Tann the Man?

Hey

Decided to travel up to the Grosvenor Victoria casino London to try my hand at the £330 NLHE freezeout with 100ish runners. Found myself seated at a table with 2 familiar faces and one other that i knew as Willie Tann. His record speaks for itself and he is a great player but boy does he get hands at the right time!

Started my onslaught when Tann raises from mid position to 300 (blinds 50/100, 6000 starting stacks) i get QQ in the Cut off and re pop to 800, folds round to him and he calls.

Flop A Q 9 two hearts, one spade

He checks to me and into the pot of 1750 i bet 400, to emit weakness, of which he re pops to 1500, and i flat call to try and induce a bet out from Tann on the Turn.

Turn - 8 Spades

He checks to me and i bet 2000 into him scared of the possible 10 or J river or perhaps a possible flush. In hindsight i probably should have checked behind because betting 2000 here is just showing raw strength, but at the time i was so scared of the 6 outer 4 to a straight coming on the river that i felt obliged to bet at it. If the turn brought a 2 i would have checked behind all day long. 8 spades was one of the worst cards i could have seen imo, that or the 8 of hearts, but others cards could have scared me like a K J or a 10 which could have made him a straight. He folds to the 2000 raise. This ends the first of three meetings with the Tann-Meister.

Soon after this hand i get AJ os in mid position and raise to 1000 with a stack of about 9000, blinds at 200/400 with a running ante of 50 i believe. Folds all the way round to the BB who pushes all in for around 5000 total. I dwell and make the hero call in the knowledge that i saw the same guy bet all in with K9 when he was short stacked from the dealer button into the blinds when he had 15 big blinds remaining. Gave me the impression that he was an impatient mofo. One that would perhaps get the same impatience when one attacks his blind with a seemingly weak bet of 2.5 bbs. i believed his range included A7-AK, 66-JJ, with QQ-AA i would think he would get slightly more tricky. anyways with the edge in my mind tht there is enough value in the call as i believe i could be a 70-30 against an ace with a lower kicker, i call and he has A10. I take the pot and his chips. Willie Tann comments on what an exceptional call it was and by his expression and everybody elses at the table they wouldn't have had the balls/stupidity to make the same call. I was slightly taken aback by this from Tann, to have impressed a wiley pro like him i must be doing summin right. He would soon teach me a lesson anyway.

Soon after i misplayed AQ by flatting a raise pre, where i should have taken the initiative by re raising or folding.

Soon after tht i find willie tann raising 3 x BB in mid pos, i have AJ on the dealer button and flat his call, everyone else folds. Flop

10 5 5 Two Hearts

I think he has missed and he checks to me, i check behind thinking my Ace high Jack kicker is good. Turn

7 Hearts

He half pot bets me and still thinking i am in the lead i flat call. River

2 hearts

4 to a straight out there and he tank checks to me and knowing now hes unlikey to have a high heart if any i steal the pot away from him with a 3/4 pot size raise.

Change tables soon after and find my first hand is JJ. UTG+1 raises 3x BB i re raise to 1200 blinds at 300/600, i re raise to 4100 with a stack of about 17000 and it folds around to the dealer button who goes all in for 13000. UTG +1 folds and i go into the tank. He must have QQ KK AA here right if he so confidently put all his chips in after a raise and a re raise? But i eventually call and gobsmacked but equally relieved he hasn't got me crushed by holding KQ. He misses when the community cards fall and i get a comfortable stack.

The next hour and a bit involved me stealing pre flop uncontested now and again getting re raised once when i open raised with A7, the guy was a rock so an easy fold to his all in. Eventually i have around 23000 blinds at 1000/2000 ante of 200.

I have QKsuited on the dealer button everyone folds around to me and i make a standard 5500 raise to hopefully take the blinds uncontested. I am immediately met with Wille Tann in the small blind pushing all in for his last 20000. Now before this spot i had see Tann go all in pre holding JJ JJ 1010 AK. And nothing less than those bad boys. But for some reason i felt that he can't always be blessed with premium hands and this does look slightly suspect that he is re raising a dealer button raise, which he can rightly presume is relatively weak so could, in essence be re raising with a lot less than QK suited. But it wasn't to be. For some reason i felt inclined to call 14500 to win a pot of 10000 to leave me with a little over 2000 if i lost the pot. If i decided not to call i would have had around 8 bbs and a decent enough stack to get fold equity pre flop if i wanted to open shove with any two to receive the blinds and antes.

He has AK suited hearts i have KQ suited spades and the board comes A J 3 5 7 was hoping a 10 would come to save the day but wasn't to be.

I utterly misplayed this hand but it taught me a valuable lesson to take a breather and properly evaluate tough decisions in live and online poker, and to take my time to avoid spazzy calls like this, and not to let my aggro side reign, the one that allowed me to call with QK suited becos "i am just not gonna take that sorta shit from Willie Tann" you know. It was a definate call against this player as he exhibited tight as fuck poker in terms of re raising so strong pre flop and i think he was raising equally as strong open raising, because the deck was hitting the man in the face!

Oh well i am happy with my performance. I think i did very well except for three glaring mistakes that i can remember that will now be mended for the next time i play a high limit live tourney. Really enjoyed it despite the fact i played 5 hours to get 16th, when top 10 pays and first was a cool £10000+. In many ways i am happy i didn't win the money because invaluable lessons were learnt tonight by me losing my chips, but ofc i would like to have thought that i was gonna learn those lessons even if i took down the £10000 but it wasn't meant to be!

Now it is to the online grind and to make some real money so i can hit the live circuit with a vengence properly bankrolled. Loving life at the moment and loving the way i am reacting to a mistake that could have effectively cost me £10000, well one thing is for sure anyway it cost me the £330 buy in!

Big respect for the Tann meister as well, he was getting it in good constantly tonight and hunted me down as if i was a fishy gasping for air. Gl to him tonight. Hope he doesn't win it though, give it to someone less rich than him!

Gl at the tables.