We’ve just boarded our flight back to Madrid. There was a slight mix up when the cab driver took us to the wrong airport and didn’t seem that keen to drive all the way to Montevideo when he realised. But a few US$ seemed to cheer him up.

For future visitors to Uruguay, I would suggest not travelling by road if you are of a nervous disposition. Even the short journey to La Mantra from our hotel was more exciting than necessary. The Coach, a nervous passenger at the best of times, lost a few kilos sweating there and back twice a day!

During the last couple of days of our trip the talk was about the Chile Earthquake which apparently woke a few people up in the early hours of Thursday. It didn’t wake me up! In fact I’d only just gone to bed after making my first final table online for (it seems) months. I’d sparked up a few online tournaments on Pokerstars (our ubiquitous hosts in Uruguay) to try and “get off tilt”, or to cool off after getting knocked out of the main event! I managed two money finishes out of three and one final table, but of course I couldn’t win the inevitable massive pot against the 2nd chip leader (for 75% of the chips in play) with JJ vs AK – so I pocketed $900 for 5th instead of $5k for 1st.

It turned out to be an omen. The next day the three musketeers went off to play the $1,000 “repechage” tournament. As The Coach and Neil went out early again, I was struggling. Until I hit a vein of sudden and unexpected form that is! I made a set of fours on the button and played it as slow as can be to triple up my original stack of 8k to over 20k. Soon after I turned K7 hearts into the nut flush on the river (also had two pairs on the turn?!) and was up to 40k and flying. Before you could say “Withnail’s Poker School” my 40k was nearly 80k with the average only 25k. I hadn’t felt like this since day 2 in Amsterdam.

It was almost a relief to return to normality when my AJ on a J high board lost to a straight on the river, AK lost to AQ and AQ lost to A4.

Another downer saw me moved from my easy table (despite the badbeats) to a much tougher one with lots of bigger stacks and scarier looking players. So it proved, as I was eventually all in with KJ hearts against A8 (a brave call from the big blind). A beautiful J on the flop saved my bacon and I was back up to nearly average!

Before I knew it I was on the bubble (one off the money). I’d already been notching it up a bit as we approached the money and a few players were looking a bit nervous. I wanted to get stealing with one to go but unfortunately the German kid on my right was getting in the way. HE was raising every hand (which was my intention). I had to make do with three betting him from time to time to increase my stack to give myself a chance when we came back for Day 2. Once in the money and on my way home for some much needed sleep, I shared a taxi with my new German friend Jorg. He was a thoroughly entertaining chap, despite his youthful 21 years. For some reason he found himself dropped out of college and living in Buenos Aires. I’d been warned to watch out for secretive Germans who had moved down to these parts but he was too young to be a World War II criminal.

The next day was the most enjoyable of the trip, but also the most frustrating. I played pretty well to reach the final, as well as getting lucky in a big pot against a super-aggressive Norwegian with A7 diamonds against AA (I flopped a flush). Without any real cards I managed to get up to 150k from my start-of-day 65k. But down to eight players I didn’t see another hand or another opportunity to get involved. It was frustrating. First was $31,000 and 8th was only $3,500. I needed to get busy! The first opportunity I got was 88 in second position. The blinds were big and my stack was short so folding to the re-raise wasn’t an option. The AK he turned over was not a surprise. You can guess the rest! So I pocketed $5k instead of $31k...could be worse I suppose.

We finished our stay in Punte del Este with a memorable meal in what we were told was the best steak house in town (although that was by a friend of the owner). We’d gone there the previous day to try and get some dinner but discovered it didn’t even open until 8pm! We sat down for dinner about 10pm and the place was busy. By the time we left (half midnight or so) there was an hour’s queue for a table!

Back home for Cheltenham and next stop Bellagios!

Withnail