There was concern back at HQ; the Black Belt Poker treasury was starting to become too spacious, and morale was rock bottom as the team sought a non-Ashby cash. Razavi had defected to Newcastle, Jerome had come close but no cigar, and messieurs Channing and Meredith were running worse than a snail in treacle. We needed a saviour, someone to oil the cogs and set the ball back in motion.
Enter Adam Latimer and Andy Miles into the fray. Validating the popular bus theory, the two Blue Belts delivered overdue in-the-money finishes within the space of two days, thus, hopefully, sparking a resurgence in the team's form and serving up a much-needed momentum burst.
Adam's score came in Event 32's $1,500 freezeout. Although Neil busted an hour before the end of the opening day, Adam survived to return with 86,000 with the average at just 33,000. 362 remained; 297 would get paid.
Day 2 commenced in similar fashion as Adam sailed into the money without so little as a murmur. His stack then started to inflate at rapid speed, even propelling him into a joint chip-lead with 250,000 when he eliminated Amit Makhija with 8-8 versus A-K.
Unfortunately, the ascent wouldn't last. He first lost a mammoth pot with J-J versus A-9 (blind on blind; ace-high flop), and although he doubled up with A-9 versus A-7, he bit dust soon after when he open-shoved 2-2 into Q-Q. The result? A near miss, but a consolation of $12,675 for 39th.
In the neighbouring Pavillion room, meanwhile, Andy Miles was busy mounting a stack in Event 34's $1,000 No Limit Hold'em Freezeout. As Jerome and Neil fell by the wayside, Andy managed to "grind" his way into Day 2 with 26,000, and just a couple of thousand below the average. Amazingly, just surviving the day meant that he'd already made the money.
Day 2 was a roller coaster; first, he dropped all the way down to seven big blinds, before moving back up to 15,000. Then came a crucial hand: moving all in with A-4, the action folded around to the big blind who turned over A-9 to garner a reaction. He then made the call, but Andy requested a ruling, suspecting the hand could be dead. It wasn't, but the player did receive a one round penalty. To make matters worse for him, Andy spiked his four kicker to see his stack increase two-fold.
The good fortune wouldn't last, though: blinds were 1,000 and 2,000 and Andy open-shoved 10 to 15 big blinds with A-Q but came unstuck against two callers: A-K and T-T. It would have been a massive treble-up if he could have spiked, but it wasn't to be and he walked away in 120th place for $2,942.
Adam and Andy were left with a what-could-have-been taste in their mouth, but the bottom line was simple: after somewhat of a drought, BBP were back in business, with two welcome notches on the poker bedpost. Today, Neil and Ben are taking a stab at the $2,500 No Limit Hold'em event; can they continue the momentum and add two more notches? Watch this space...
Vegas 11 Stats:
Cashes: 4
Winnings: $320,829
Schedule/Results page...
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