British Poker Open Report

Having spent £12 to qualify for a token to the final of the GetMinted/Virgin Games satellite for the British Poker Open, I was well chuffed with myself when I qualified and won the satellite outright.

About two weeks before the event I found out that the Devilfish, Gus Hanson and Roy 'the Boy' Brindley were going to be in my heat. The table from hell! Yet a great experience.

All the guys and gals from the Slough Palace were behind me 100% to take on the table, and in my heart I knew I could give them all a run for their money, regardless of who they are and how much they've all won.

Talking to Josh at Virgin Games and sponsor of my heat, I was saying that as I'm the only woman so far in the tournament, I felt it was unfair for the men to get walked into the arena with dolly birds, and could I have a fireman to walk me in. Mission accomplished and hey presto, Virgin thought it was a great idea.

I got to Riverside Studios where my heat was filmed at about 3pm to do interviews and met up with Natalie the presenter, and Carlo Citrone, the co-presenter. Josh, Jo, Ross, Oscar and all the Virgin team made me feel completely relaxed and ready to attack the heat. Anthony, the poker room manager turned up to cheer me on as well.

I was quite surprised with the questions from the Poker Channel in my pre-match interview. Such as which player do I fear the most? None of them! They should fear me. Which player is the most dangerous? It's got to be Devilfish and Gus as they'll play any two cards, etc, etc.

Virgin Games with the dolly girls

After the interview I sat down and relaxed with a couple of redbulls and some food. Natalie and Carlo chatted to me for ages (both lovely people) until they were needed in rehearsals for opening the show. Barry Mundee, the tournament director came over and as I knew him from the Vic he quizzed me about my poker career to date and what I've won so far, to put the content in the program. I can honestly say that when there was thirty minutes to go before the show starts, I wasn't nervous at all.

With ten minutes to go and just rehearsing the walk on. The security realise that I've not been checked before going into the studio and also the microphone and heart monitor need to be fitted, so off I trot.

We all enter the studio and stand in a big line waiting to be seated. Commentators at the ready .. Jesse and Gary get ready for carnage about to happen.

My plan of action was to wait for big cards and re-raise with them to show I'm not afraid and to show a tight table image. I could've waited for about an hour without a hand without really damaging my stack.

About hand 10 or so, I find AJ unsuited, Gus Hanson on my right makes it 6k to play (3x BB) I come over top and raise 15k which thinking about it is a bit too much, but did I really want him to call? After watching the video I found out he had 4/7, the thieving tyrant. I won the pot and woohoo! I felt much more confident.

Gary and Jesse gave me praise for re-raising Gus Hanson, I mean come on! About ten hands later I again found AJ but suited this time. Devilfish raises and I flat call. Flop lands A94. Devilfish bets I call, however at this point I should have raised him, oops. The turn is a Jack, giving me two pairs. I check and Devilfish also checks. Damn could have trapped myself there! Luckily for me the river is a 4. I realise that Devilfish had an open ended straight draw but after watching the tape back I put him on a busted flush draw, so I came out betting and won the pot. My stack was now up to about 128k and I was chip leader for the moment. Woohoo!

Nothing then really happens until Gus and Devilfish tangle, and Devilfish gets knocked out by a vicious outdraw. Devilfish with QQ and Gus with 57 spades to spike 2 pairs and send Devilfish on the long walk back. Gus is so damn lucky! I now know how he's won $2.5million by being the luckiest person around and to outdraw people.

Blinds now go to 2/4k and nothing exciting happens. Blinds now up to 3/6k , and Gus is on a raising streak, funnily enough! And Roy the Boy still hasn't played a hand. About five hands later I found AQ in the blinds and Roy the Boy on the button raised to 6k. I flat call, flop comes down with an ace, we both check, turn is a blank, I bet Roy folds. As it happened, he had a smaller ace.

Action hand..I had QQ, Martin 'regholdsworth' raised to 18k, I re-raised 40k more and Martin thinks and thinks and thinks, eventually a clock is put on him. He folded and I turn up my QQ and he tells me later that he had AK but thought I had minimum of Queens so he didn't want to take a 50/50 at that stage.

I couldn't believe my heart rate was at 165, off the scale. Talking to all our players after the match they said with AK all of them would have shoved their chips in, but I guess if you don't feel comfortable then folding was the best option. I was now up to about 152k and chip leader.

The blinds now go up to 5/10k and ouch, this is where it gets expensive. Roy the Boy now starting to make some moves. Martin made a move all in, Roy the boy folds, Gus immediately calls with AK. Martin had K2 , and I actually folded K2 so it was not looking too good for Martin, and Martin is out in 5 th

The Magician for Virgin Games

About three hands later Roy the Boy makes a move. Gus raises to 25k to play and Roy flat calls. The flop comes down AK7, and Roy immediately moves all in. Gus said unless you have a set of 7's you're in trouble as Gus had AK, a genuine hand for a change. Roy turns over Q8, turn card is a Q then strange thing is that Roy asks for an 8 which wouldn't have helped, I say no you need a Queen. The river actually was an 8. Roy hit two pair, Gus hit a bigger two pair and Roy the Boy is out in 4 th place .

That leaves Gus Hansen, Matt Born and I to tangle. Everybody is rooting for me and Natalie and Carlo in the interview room say can Mel do this? I know that I can, just need to get Gus in heads up so I can go into attack mode. Gary , Jesse and Devilfish in the commentary team say I need cards to do anything. Little did they know about my power play when three handed!

After a long 5 minute commercial break we are now three handed and blinds are 5/10k still. Gus makes it 26k to play. I pretend I hadn't looked at my cards, and then give Gus a funny look as though to say what are you doing that for. I dwell for a moment, announce raise, play with my chips for a minute, before announcing raise 40k more (with 2 6 offsuit). Gus looks down at his cards thinks for about 10 seconds and folds.

I heard the bar erupt with cheer from our studio and listening to the tape afterwards make all the commentary team eat humble pie, as this girl doesn't need cards to make moves! Devilfish now says 'from Lofthouse to Penthouse' and people are cheering me on even more. I found out that Gus had Q6, which was completely dominating my hand. Good fold Gussy boy!

Two hands later I get A5, and once again Gus raises and I announce all-in, this time I'm not messing around. If he's going to call he's going to have to pay and I have 160k + in chips so it's a lot of chips for him to call. Gus says to me you're ahead but I'm calling, which I thought was pretty strange. He turned over Q9 offsuit. I turn over A5 offsuit

I said to Amanda the dealer, land me an ace on the flop to sort it out. Flop comes down 9 4 x x x and ouch I'm out in 3rd place to an outrageous call from Gus "outrageous caller" Hanson.

In walking from the table to the bar area where the interview will be, as soon as I walk out I get 1000's of hugs and pats on the back from people watching the game and cheers so loud I nearly well up. Typical female! Carlo and Natalie are absolutely gutted for me as they were cheering me on wanting me to win, as was I. Carlo was saying how if Gus goes onto win it would he say to him how terrible he played to win it, and I know quite how he means. He made some terrible plays, outrageous calls, and basically outdrew people which I know is the way he plays but its awful to go out when you're ahead and know how Devilfish must have felt when he went out with queens.

At the end of the day they saw I played absolutely tremendously and should have gone on to win it but you can't beat luck. It was such a fantastic experience playing in the event and I know that I've played some big events recently but would have really loved to go further.

Vodka and redbull was needed so off to bar I pop and to the green room to collect my stuff from security. The TV is on showing the heads up between Matt and Gus and saw they were level in chips, so must have missed a few hands. Matt has AQ clubs, Gus Q8 offsuit, Gus raises, Matt goes all in, Gus dwells for a minute then calls and says calling as we have same amount of chips??? Huh!! Matt is the winner.

Natalie and Carlo try to interview Gus but don't really get any sense out of him at all, he says that he was calling the all in as they had identical same amount of chips. I've really no idea what all that is about. Heads up play should have gone on for at least an hour but seems like Gus was jetlagged and delirious. I was so pleased that Matt won it, as I know if I was in Matt's situation it would have been me winning it, but there's always next year!!

I would like to say a big thank you to everybody who was supporting me, texting me, phoning me with words of support before and after the tournament and a very big thank you to Virgin Games for looking after me when I was there. A great event, and for 2006 I'm going to have it!