A key hand from the UK Poker Tour

Congratulations to Neil Channing, MD of BlackBeltPoker.com, who has won the Luton leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour for £64,000. What solid results he has on that tour for 2010. He and I have both played two legs (Luton and London); we both made the final in London, and he won Luton outright. I, meanwhile, was waving a cheery goodbye to Luton by the fourth level of day one. Anyway, here is a key hand from Channing's visit. With blinds at 400-800, an aggressive young Vietnamese player raises to 2,300 and gets a caller. Channing, in the big blind with K♠ 8♠, decides to join them. On the right flop, he reasons, he might get all the chips off someone overplaying a better starting hand. Sure enough, the flop comes AK8 rainbow. Channing checks, the original raiser bets 4,800 and the third player folds. Channing flat calls. He knows that a bad player might call a check-raise with any ace, but this Vietnamese fellow is not a bad player. Channing doesn't want to lose him. He wants to move all-in when the pot invites a call rather than a fold. The turn is a 10. This could be dangerous, but Channing isn't passing; how many times will he flop a strong hand against an aggressive opponent? When the opponent bets 8,500, Channing moves in as planned. Unlucky, Channing! The opponent has A 10. Unlucky, opponent! The river is an 8. Some people reacted as though Channing had fallen into a tub of butter. Not at all. It is a standard "suck and re-suck". I will say what I always say: you can't control the cards. You can only control your bets, making sure there is a sound logic to all of them, and Channing did that here. victoriacoren.com Victoria Coren is a sponsored player for PokerStars.com