Dave Colclough says the world may have been watching Italia ‘90, but back home in Luton, it was all kicking off
After arriving in Manchester under a cloud of uncertainty for the fourth leg of the GUKPT, Dave Colclough reflects on how his victorious performance may have been shaped by two heavyweights of the British poker scene
Surinder Sunar was the first poker god I came across. He was my icon; the master of many poker disciplines and a constant winner in the biggest cash games in Europe. The pinnacle of his career came with victory at the Paris WPT in 2004, where he saw off a final table that included myself and a trash-talking Tony G.
However, I first came across ‘The Cobra’ when I was chip leader in one of the early Vic festivals. I got moved to his table and noticed he was the only other player in the remaining 40- or-so with a similar stack size to mine. I wanted to avoid confrontation with him, which was the current thinking in poker literature in those days. So on the very first hand against him, I picked up A-J and made the mistake of smooth-calling.
We had a Jack-high board and I check-called. The turn delivered more rubbish and I checked again. Surinder bet, which I followed up with a call. The river didn’t change anything, and I expected a check/ check. However, Surinder now moved all-in for a huge overbet. Needless to say, I bottled it.
Lessons learnt
He flips over 8-4 no pair, but the cards were irrelevant in this hand; all Surinder needed was the chip stack. In a way this hand taught me many things about tournament poker: 1) You are much better off being the aggressor; 2) Don’t believe everything you read; 3) Attack the other big stacks. However, the most important lesson I learnt from this was: you have two weapons at your disposal – the cards you are dealt and the chips that you hold.
Today, this sort of stuff is instinct to the standard 18-year old, but back then it just didn’t seem so obvious. As the years have gone by, I have tried to keep an open mind and re-tune my game appropriately.
So in late April, I arrived in sunny Manchester at what can only be described as a pivotal point in my life; maybe even a mid-life crisis. As a result, getting back to thinking about poker was just a doddle.
If Surinder was the best way back then, it is Roland de Wolfe who is perhaps the top dog of the present. He has a much more aggressive style than I adopt nowadays, but I promised myself I was going to take a leaf from his book in Manchester – as well as taking on board the lessons learnt from the past master, Surinder. It has to be said I was also fully refreshed from four relaxing days in the Mallorcan sun with my wife, Rhowena, which I guess we saw as our swan song. I think this may have been a significant contributing factor to my demeanour as well.
Now I would love to tell you that I played brilliantly for three days, but the truth is the deck just hit me in the face. I picked up Aces three times – and three times my opponents lost their whole stack.
I established a chip lead early on day two and instead of employing my usual ‘sit on it’ strategy, I gave it the full ‘Roland’ treatment and ended up clear of the field. Matt Tyler will remember catching me stealing his blinds with J-6 for a long time. His pocket Kings were of no use when the flop came J-J-6. Like I said, I still have the bruises from where the deck hit me.
Despite my chip lead, Barry Neville – the great Iron Man of Sheffield – remained hot on my tail; we arrived at the final table with 60% of the chips between us.
Final lap
Barry and I ended up heads-up just before midnight. Jonathan Rabb, the tournament director, wanted to make sure we didn’t make any deal that would ruin the TV program. But three hours later a lot of the TV crew were probably hoping we would do just that.
The marathon tussle was eventually concluded on a 9-8-2 flop with two clubs. I held 9♣-10♣ and check-raised, setting up Barry for the all-in. He called and I was shocked to find him with J-9. Fortunately the J♣ arrived on the river and I was the Manchester GUKPT Champion….all thanks to Roland, Rhowena, Surinder and a mid-life crisis.
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