3-Bet/Folding AQs – Permissible?

Ugh just dropped 7.7K. I was actually up 2.2K at one stage so really I just went on a one hour 10K downswing. I looked over the times I got stacked (six in all) and I don’t think any of them were that bad. Four of them were completely standard in my opinion – set under set for $1000, AK < JJ for $1000, QQ < KK for $1500 (admittedly a lot of bb’s but I was in the big blind facing a button open from a 54/23/1.5 fish), and QQ v 99 in a 3-bet pot on a 953r flop blind versus blind for $1000. The fifth involved me value-towning myself for another $1000 versus the same 54/23/1.5 fish, shoving KJ on the river on a J44T5 board after the fish limp/called preflop and then check/called every street postflop. The river bet is definitely a little thin but I’ve asked a few people and they’ve all agreed that it’s a fairly easy value bet against this particular player. Just another case of right play, bad result I guess. The sixth and last time I got stacked (I quit immediately after) was a lot closer. A 21/16 losing regular (down something like $30,000 in my database, quite extraordinary for someone with such normal stats) opened in the cutoff and I 3-bet AQs from the small blind. He 4-bet to $680 and I jammed for $2100 total. I got snapped off and failed to catch up to his kings. Now, the hand itself isn’t very interesting, but it’s actually a preflop spot where I’ve been having a lot of difficulty trying to work out what the best play is.

A big part of my preflop philosophy is that I hate 3-bet/folding hands with a lot of postflop value. Thus, whereas a lot of regulars automatically 3-bet hands like KQs, TT and AQs, I prefer just flatting with these hands and 3-betting with a more polarised range. Of course, against some opponents 3-betting and then 5-bet jamming will be super profitable, so against them I’ll continue to 3-bet/5-bet jam a hand like TT or AQs, but wherever I’m uncomfortable 5-betting all-in I won’t 3-bet in the first place, even if the 3-bet itself in isolation is +EV. The problem I’ve been having however is whether I can maintain this philosophy from the small blind.

There are several disadvantages with just flatting from the small blind. First, and most obviously, you are guaranteed to be out of position postflop. Now, this could be said for the big blind as well, but I don’t mind flatting from the big blind nearly as much as at least from there I know I’ll be closing the action and seeing a flop heads-up. This brings us to the other major problem with flatting from the small blind – you aren’t closing the action! If you just flat, you let the big blind squeeze or see a cheap flop. Neither option is particularly desirable. If he flats, you’re now playing a multi-way pot out of position to two opponents. If he squeezes, you face an ugly spot with a hand like 88 or AQs or even KQs; all are ahead of his range if he is a competent squeezer but at the same time you don’t really want to commit your whole stack (by re-shoving) to find out if he is squeezing this particular time. Calling isn’t really a viable option in this spot either so we’re now forced to fold our 88 or AQs – how gross is that! The third disadvantage of just flatting is that you’re letting your opponent dictate the action and allowing them to remain within their comfort zone. There is nothing a perpetual stealer hates more than being constantly 3-bet, yet nothing they love more than being constantly flatted. They know that in position they hold all the aces – they can value bet thin, they can bluff effectively, they can win big pots and only lose small ones. In short, you’re playing into their hands. And the final disadvantage of just flatting from the small blind (that I can think of at least) is that you fail to isolate the big blind’s dead money. This is obviously a much smaller consideration than the others, but a consideration nonetheless.

Anyway, what I’ve been experimenting with is mixing up 3-betting and flatting from the big blind but 3-betting my entire range from the small blind. This has worked pretty well so far but I’ve been getting really lost in those spots where I face a 4-bet with those TT/AQs type hands against relatively nitty opponents – the last hand for today’s session being a case in point. It seems blasphemous to 3-bet/fold them yet equally gross to 3-bet/5-bet jam them. At this stage I’m not sure what the answer is, but it might be that the small blind is an exception to the general rule – a position where, due to the various considerations that I mentioned above, 3-bet/folding a hand like AQs or TT is not only a viable option, but also the best one. I guess only time will tell.

Won the Turbo Hundo!

I can’t believe how hot I’m running in online MTTs at the moment! I only played one today – the $109 Turbo Hundo on FTP - and managed to take it down for $7100.

This makes it three wins from my last fifteen or so tournaments, quite incredible when you consider that I’ve never won a non-PartyPoker tournament before (and even then I hadn’t won a PartyPoker tournament in over a year)!

What’s also remarkable is that, like the other day when I won those two MTTs, it was completely by chance that I was playing in the first place today. I was actually intending to play a live tournament tonight but decided against it in the last minute after seeing the terrible structure. Even then, when I logged onto Full Tilt I was fully intending to play cash games and tournaments were the last thing on my mind. It was only after seeing that the Turbo Hundo was starting in four minutes that I realised that I wasn’t really in the mood for grinding cash and so registered for the tournament instead. Talk about running good!

Speaking of cash though, I’ve played a tick over nine hours since I got back from Melbourne and things are going great. I’m up $8700 already and have only played 3300 hands. This means that all in all I’ve probably had my best four days of poker ever; +$20,000 in tournaments and +$8700 in cash. Not a bad start to the (online) year!

WSOP - Here I Come?

The 2009 WSOP schedule was released today and after glancing at it briefly I quickly realised one rather important thing: the Main Event doesn’t clash with my uni exams! Woohoo! Now I’m not saying that I’m definitely going, heck I hadn’t even considered it until today, but I’m definitely going to look into it. I don’t know my exam timetable yet obviously but the last day of exams is the 26th of June (USA time) so if I leave relatively soon after that I can play both the $5000 Six-Handed Event on the 30th and the $10000 Main Event on the 3rd of July (though I’d probably try to play Day 1B or Day 1C instead, on the 4th and 5th respectively). I wasn’t old enough to go last year so it’d be absolutely sick if I could go this year on my first opportunity.

In other news, I played my first six-max cash session in over a month (and my first for 2009) yesterday. I felt really rusty and out of sorts but nevertheless managed to book a 2.4K win thanks to a couple of standard spots going my way. Hopefully the good run continues and I can get to 10K for the month before January ends.

Won 2 Tournaments Today! SHIP!

I managed to take down not one but two tournaments within half an hour of each other today! The first was the $109 6-Max $30,000 Guarantee on Full Tilt for $8070 (339 players) and the second was the $50R $20,000 Guarantee (163 players), also on Full Tilt, for $5700.

What’s particularly lucky about these cashes is that I didn’t intend to play those tournaments at all. I actually intended to play the last NLHE event of the Aussie Millions today but I couldn’t as I didn’t have enough cash on me. My ATM card got demagnetised by my room keycard (silly me for putting them next to each other in my wallet) and I forgot that banks were closed on weekends so when I rocked up to the bank yesterday to take out some money I was greeted by an empty building.

I tried (read: felt compelled) to do some sightseeing yesterday but quickly realised that there wasn’t all that much to do. I didn’t feel like going to the tennis by myself and I didn’t see the point of going to some random aquarium, zoo or museum just for the sake of it. I mean, I never go to them in Sydney, so why the hell would I go to them here? In the end I just went up to the top of the Rialto Towers to the 360 Degree Melbourne Observation Deck and took some pictures of the city. It reminded me of my exchange in Paris when I took infinite pictures from the top of every landmark and ignored the fact that they all looked the same. Anyhow, it felt really touristy so that was nice. I might upload a picture or two when I get back home.

Anyway, I better start packing because it’s off to the airport early tomorrow morning for me. Good luck at the tables, Happy Australia Day, and Happy Chinese New Year!

Aussie Millions - Event 14 $2200 6 Handed NLHE

Man I can’t win a damn race. With 38 players left in the six-max today (266 started, 24 paid) I was sitting pretty comfortably with 43bb’s (average about 55bb’s) and boom I lose two races in back to back hands and I’m out. In the first Marlon Goonawardana opened the button 3x with 32bb’s and I decided to 3-bet/call with 88 from the small blind. It was a bit uncharacteristic of the way I’d been playing throughout the tournament to be honest as I’d been playing small ball the whole way through but I decided to go with it as

a) I was getting tired so I probably didn’t think it through too much,
b) Marlon had opened all three buttons he had been at the table,
c) I didn’t want to just flat from the small blind and let the big blind in with such a vulnerable but strong hand out of position and,
d) I was at a tough table with four very good players so ‘waiting for a better spot’ really wasn’t an option at all (if it even ever is one).

Anyway Marlon showed AJs and won the race after flopping top two. The very next hand with about 12.5bb’s I jammed over James Obst’s (Andy Mcleod’s) MP open with A6s on the button. He called with 44 and I lost that race too.

Awesome, knocked out of back to back tournaments by losing back to back races.

I have one tournament left in my schedule (the turbo) and to be honest I don’t think I could be bothered to play it. I was feeling really good about the six-max today (and even better after I doubled up within ten hands with a set versus aces) but after being knocked out of it now in such annoying fashion I’m so over tournaments again.

It’s actually been a really tiring month on the road for me so I’m really looking forward to just returning home and doing nothing day in day out again. I have a couple of days off now before I return to Sydney so I think I’ll just try to spend those days relaxing and seeing the two or three things that Melbourne has to offer.

Peace.

Aussie Millions - Event 13 $1100 Mixed Hold'em

No luck in the mixed event today either. The structure was very fast and pretty damn stupid. Your stack oscillated between crippled and decent depending on what game you were playing. One orbit before my exit I was sitting with 3000 in chips with the blinds at 50/100 no limit. With 30bbs, I wasn’t in great shape but I certainly wasn’t desperate either. The blinds then turned to 100/200 limit (meaning the big bet was 400) and suddenly I was deep trouble, basically forced to commit myself with whatever hand I played next.

Tomorrow is the $2200 six-max event which, as you might expect, is the event I’ve been looking forward to the most. I wouldn’t say that I’m super confident of being able to put up a good showing, but I’ll certainly be disappointed if I don’t. Let’s just hope that I can run well and win a race or two.

Aussie Millions Main Event - Day 2

I didn’t last very long today, getting knocked out a few minutes into the second level.

The first significant hand I played a middle-aged player shoved 9050 from the hijack with the blinds at 400/800/100. It folded to me in the big blind and I looked down at QJs. It would cost me 8250 to call and if I called and lost I would have 30K and change. After thinking for about three minutes I figured that he should have enough pairs in his range that I had the requisite equity (43%) and made the call. He tabled AJo and I flopped broadway and got berated by everyone at the table. “That is such a terrible, terrible call”, “I guess it was suited mate eh?” and “you must’ve had a premonition (about the flop)” were some of the highlights.

Anyway that put me at 49K and I was feeling good. About two orbits later another old guy opened under the gun and I looked down at two red queens in middle position. He only had about 30 big blinds so it was a pretty standard 3-bet/call situation I thought so I went ahead and 3-bet and called when he shoved. He flipped over AK and I lost the race, falling back to 25K.
Fast forward to after the break and I’m sitting with 27K when I pick up AKo UTG with the blinds at 500/1000/100. I’d just raised and won the last two pots uncontested so I was really looking to get paid off here. I raised to 2400 and it folded to the player who cracked my QQ with AK and he 3-bet all-in for 29K. I called and flipped over my AK and we were off to the races again as he turned over JJ. The door card was a king but alas the next card on the flop was a jack and I was sent packing.

I’m pretty disappointed to be honest as the field was ridiculously soft compared to PCA and it’s so frustrating to see old men with no clue go deep. The guy who won both races against me is now like top five in chips despite starting the day with only 23K. After winning those two 50K races versus me he proceeded to get KK in preflop against AKs and QQ and hold for a 150K pot. Meanwhile another middle-aged guy that sat to my right had 100K when I was eliminated despite having his torso out the door and a poker mind to rival Jennifer Tilly’s. He 3-bet the cutoff with JJ on the button, was completely lost as to what to do when he got 4-bet, talked so much that his hand was patently jacks or queens, and then nevertheless made the call. The flop came K62 and both players checked. The preflop 4-bettor then led the 2 turn and said retard then sighed and said ‘that was a bad card for me’, referring to the king. Jeez mate I wonder what you have? He then realises he isn’t good enough to fold a pretty looking picture pair regardless and shoves the rest of his stack in with JJ. He’s snapped off by Aces and of course a jack binks on the river to win him a 115k pot. If that’ s not enough, a few orbits later he opens the button to 2000 and gets shoved on by the big blind for 25000 total. He tanks for about five minutes and then folds queens. GTFO.

I planned to do a full event report but now that nothing came of it I don’t think I will. For the most part nothing really interesting happened so there’s not much to recount anyway. The most interesting hand that took place was probably the first hand of day 1 where I ran that ill-fated bluff against Tony Hachem. I raised one before the hijack with J9c and Tony was the only caller from the small blind. The flop came T84hh and I bet 400 into 650 when he checked to me. He check-raised to 1150 and I called. The turn brought a 3 and put two flush draws on the board and he checked. At this point his hand is pretty face-up as either a pair of tens or a flush draw which doesn’t want to double barrel. Two pair or better would certainly bet for protection on this wet a board. I decide to check back and take my free card but unfortunately the river bricks an offsuit 2. Tony then leads out 1000 and I’m pretty sure at this point that he has a pair of tens making one of those ‘my hand is probably good, so I bet’ bets. I don’t think he even considered check/calling for pot control and to induce from busted draws which I think is by far the best line. Anyway, knowing that this is the very first hand and that he probably won’t want to tangle for too big a pot this early on with such a marginal holding, I decide to raise to 2800, making it pretty small to make it look like a value-raise (and to save myself some chips should he fail to find a fold button). Tony thinks for about ten minutes and then finally calls with KT. I muck my hand and he gleefully explains to the table how he thought I had a busted flush, AK or AQ. It’s fascinating how live players confuse the words ‘thought’ and ‘hoped’ on such a frequent basis, not to mention how AK or AQ is always sufficiently in someone’s range to justify a river call, no matter what the action up to that point was. How the heck I can have AK or AQ there, I don’t know, but props to him for making the call I guess.

Anyway, now that I’m out of the main event, I can confirm that I’ll be playing the $1100 mixed hold’em event, the $2200 six-max event, and the $1100 turbo hold’em event. Let’s hope I can rack up at least one decent score in those before I leave Melbourne. Otherwise, I’ll have a 20K hole in my pocket thanks to the Aussie Millions!

Aussie Millions Main Event - Day 1C

I played day 1C of the main event today and finished the day with 35,850 in chips. It’s a little below average but with the blinds starting at 400/800/100 tomorrow and the levels being two hours long I still have plenty of room to manoeuvre.

The day got off to an inauspicious start when I lost 4,000 on the very first hand. I thought Tony Hachem might, just might, be good enough to fold a face-up pair of tens on a ten high board to heavy action but apparently not. I was down to as low as 13,000 at one point but with a very slow structure I was never really worried and managed to rebuild to and hover around 20,000 for most of the day.

For the last level and a bit I was moved to the feature table which contained Michael Binger, Joe Cassidy and Clonie Gowen. Unlike at my first table, the players here actually had a fold button so I was able to chip up nicely with some steals preflop and some continuation bets postflop.

Tables will be redrawn tomorrow so hopefully I get a nice table draw and can continue to build my stack without too much risk. Until then, I better catch some shut eye. Night.

Aussie Millions 2009 - 17th January

Well that couldn’t have gone any worse. Not only did I bust out of the $1150 Super Satellite pretty early on but I also donked off $5000 in the cash games.

The satellite field seemed ridiculously soft with three to four limpers in most pots and I even saw someone limp behind four people with AK on the button. I got off to a pretty good start and had built up my 5000 starting stack to 5700 by the end of the first 30 minute level. I then got moved to a new table and had to bet/fold top pair for a pretty decent sized pot; I opened one before the hijack with QTs to 250 and got three callers to a T75r flop. The big blind checked, I bet 675, and it folded around to the big blind who check-raised to 1675. I thought for a bit before folding.

A few hands later I flatted against the same opponent with AQo on the button. The big blind came along too and the A83cc flop was checked to me. I bet 600 into 1000 and was surprised to see both players call. The turn brought a T and the preflop raiser this time bet 1400 when the big blind checked. I had 3200 at this point and pretty much had to decide whether to shove or fold. The raiser’s line obviously looks ridiculously strong but I couldn’t see myself continually folding in these spots so I decided to shove. The raiser snapped and showed AT and I bricked. My shove probably isn’t the best but I think there’s a pretty huge difference between folding here and leaving myself with just 30 big blinds (soon to be 15 big blinds) and folding the QTs before which still left me in decent shape with 47 big blinds.

Anyway after I busted out I jumped into a 5/10 game and literally lost $1500 on my first hand. I had posted in the cutoff and the live straddle to 20 was called in three spots before it got to me. I looked down and happily saw two jacks and raised to $130. The button flatted and the small blind, an American girl in her mid-twenties with $1500, squeezed to $450. I’d played with her the day I arrived and she seemed pretty decent; she was a full time pro and I knew she was capable of making big postflop bluffs, and although I hadn’t yet seen her do a preflop one, one would have to assume that someone who can bluff postflop can also do it preflop. I jammed when it got back to me and she snapped with AA after the button folded. A standard spot if you ask me, but everyone else assumed I had KK so maybe my 75bb live all-in preflop range ought to be KK+ or something.

The rest of the day didn’t go too much better and I ended up quitting at about 11PM (I had a couple of hours off for dinner but other than that pretty much played straight through). It was simply one of those days where every time you try to run a bluff or make a thin value bet you somehow run into the top of their range. Or maybe live player’s ranges are the third nuts+. I’ll have to work that out sometime soon before I bust my Aussie Millions bankroll!

To finish, I thought I’d share my random anecdote of the day. When I went to the cashier to buy into the 5/10 game I tossed them a $5K chip and they gave me $2K in reds, greens and blacks to play with and $3K in $1K chips. Anyway as I try to put the $1K chips away in my wallet I fumble one of them and it bounces off the cashier onto the floor. When I look down to pick it up it’s gone! After frantically searching everywhere to no avail the cashier rang video surveillance to see where the chip had gone. I stood there for a good two minutes in disbelief – who the fuck drops and loses $1000??? During this time Andrew Robl had arrived for the $100,000 event and was just standing around next to me while one of the casino staff was doing something for him. He looked at me talking to myself in a mad panic and either a) recognised me from PCA (unlikely) or b) thought I was off my bat (much more likely). I really wanted to introduce myself and say hi but was simply too worried about the chip to do so. It also crossed my mind that this was probably one of the few people in the casino who would not see the gravity of losing a $1K chip. Anyway eventually I put both my hands into my jean pockets, waiting for surveillance to get back to me, when suddenly I felt the chip in my left pocket! Unbelievable! Somehow, the chip had bounced off the cashier desk and fallen right into my pocket. I don’t think I could do that deliberately as a party trick if I tried! Needless to say, I was much relieved and rather sheepish when I told the casino staff what had happened. They merely laughed and I have to say I was really impressed with how well they handled the whole matter. Props to them.

I have a couple of days off now which probably isn’t too bad a thing after today’s results. I tried to sign up to day 1A of the main event (which is tomorrow) but apparently you need to register 24 hours beforehand if you wish to pay using credit card. I could play on day 1B but I want to play the Sunday majors then so I’ve decided to play day 1C on Tuesday instead. Hopefully my luck returns by then to how it was the day I arrived. Poker is a lot easier when you flop the nuts versus the second and fourth nuts respectively!

Aussie Millions - Event 7 $1650 NLHE Bounties

I just busted out in 63rd in the $1650 bounty event. There were 450 starters and 40 people would be paid so I got relatively close to making the money but I was never really in the hunt to be honest. I was in really bad shape at the first break (20 big blinds), recovered to be in pretty awesome shape at the second (60+ big blinds), but fell back to average by the third (25 big blinds). In the end I ended up busting with 25 big blinds. It was folded to me in the small blind with the blinds at 400/800/75 and I opened to 2400 with J7o. I’d been at this table for less than two orbits and had only played one hand thus far so I thought my image was unknown enough to make this steal really profitable. The big blind, an absolute cardrack who had picked up AA twice during the time I had been there (and had stacked KK with one of them), called after asking for my stack size. The flop came J42 all diamonds and I had the 7d. With 5400 in the pot and about 18500 behind the stacks were pretty perfect for a check-raise all-in so I checked and shoved when he bet. He snapped and turned over JJ for top set. The turn came the Qc and the river brought the so-close-yet-so-far Qd.

I’m currently deciding whether to play cash games or the $1150 Super Satellite to the Aussie Millions Main Event tomorrow. I hate wasting money on satellites (and believe me I’ve wasted a lot on PCA and AM satellites already this year) but the tournament should be pretty juicy as it’s basically the feature event for tomorrow (the only other one on is the $100,000 event which obviously isn’t open to the majority of us commoners). It’s also on a Saturday, starts at the rather friendly time of 1230PM, and is on the day before the first Day 1 flight of the main event. This means that there should be more random people who are trying their hand at glory and the field should be softer as a result. Yes, I know I’m basically trying to talk myself into playing it, but at least I have good, sound, logical reasons right?!

Anyway, I think I’ll sleep on it and decide when I wake up. Night.

Aussie Millions 2009 - 15th January

I touched down in Melbourne this afternoon and after checking into my hotel and withdrawing some money from the bank I pretty much headed straight down to the casino. I’ve never been to Crown before so on first impressions I’d have to say that the complex as a whole is pretty darn sweet. I don’t particularly like the poker room itself though; it sprawls all over the place and despite being divided into loosely-cordoned off sections it really is very messy on the eye. Some might call it a hive of activity, but I think it’s just cramped and chaotic.

Anyway, I played 5/10 for about five hours and finished up $2990. I pretty much owe it all to one big hand in which I massively coolered two people - I had 68c in a raised pot and the flop came 579cc. One opponent had 99 (although she only had about $400) and another had 55 (he had my full 200bb buy-in well covered) and I got it in on the flop against both and held.

On the whole the standard of play was absolutely atrocious; people were opening 8x, check-calling huge bets with gutshots and ace high, and betting three times the pot on the flop. It definitely bodes well for me and I’m looking forward to having a good week at the cash game tables.

Tomorrow is the first tournament on my schedule; the $1650 no limit hold’em bounty feature event. Each bounty is worth a ridiculous $1000 so if I knock out just two people I’ll be up for the tournament even if I don’t cash! Awesome! I’m really hoping to get off to a good start tomorrow and place well to set the tone for the rest of the series. Wish me luck.

PCA, Atlantis Resort and Casino, Bahamas - Trip Report Part 2

Day 2

I looked up my table draw about an hour before the start of play and was pretty happy with what I saw. No notable pros, no notable online MTT players (I don’t think so anyway), and no annoying shortstacks! I was the chipleader on my table and the players on it came from all parts of the globe, from Hungary to Bermuda to the UK. This is usually a pretty good sign as non-US players are generally much weaker.

There were about 390 players remaining at this point out of the 1467 player starting field and 199 were to be paid. With an above average chipstack, I was pretty confident at being able to outlast half the remaining field and make the money.

I got to the table pretty early and had time to chat with the young UK player. He turned out to be a Party 2+2 reg whose name I knew pretty well and we’d played together online a few times before, though I didn’t have many reads on him as I played 3/6 to 5/10 with a bit of 10/20 while he played 5/10 but predominantly 10/20 and 25/50.

For the entire day I was ridiculously card dead and literally only played about two hands per level. I’ve never seen so many 73o, 62o and jack-rags in my life! I remember getting Jx three times in a row at one stage and each time the first card I saw was the jack. I remember chanting “please this time be jacks” but it was never to any avail.

I was down as low as 65,000 at one stage but managed to recover a fair bit towards the end of level 2 when I opened AJs from the small blind to 6000 and got shoved on by the big blind with KQo for about 25,000 more. The board ran AJxQx and my hand held to put me back to about 100,000. A little while later I opened from the small blind again to 6000 with KQh and got 3-bet to 17,000. It was a little disconcerting that he didn’t just shove as my plan was to raise/call if he did. He had about 52,000 to start the hand and after a little thought I decided to just go with my original plan and stick the rest in (now with the added boon of a little fold equity if he’s one of those weird players who 3-bet/folds a third of their stack). He quickly called and turned over J9o. I don’t mind his line as once he decides to go with the hand it’s certainly better to 3-bet/call or 3-bet and shove any flop than it is to simply 3-bet shove (the former looks way stronger than merely shoving and the latter folds out better hands if I somehow decide to see a flop with something like ATo and miss). The board bricked and I took down a pretty huge pot with king high.

That was to be my peak for the day and I hit the break with 155,000 in chips with the average at 139,000.

I played very few hands for the rest of the day and then got my stack whittled down to 100,000 when I got bluffed twice by the same player. I had seen him check-raise-fold once up till then and was pretty sure he had air then but couldn’t be certain. Anyway in the first hand he opened the button and I decided to flat 77 from the small blind. The big blind folded and I led a 962 flop. He quickly called and I check/folded the 3 turn when he quickly bet. I didn’t have enough information on him at this point to believe he was capable of floating in this spot with air and we were both pretty deep so I didn’t particularly want to face a huge river bet either. He turned over JQo or something similar.

The second hand was more interesting. A player raised in EP and the player from the previous hand and I both defended our blinds. I had 79s and the flop came KKT with two hearts. The flop checked through and the turn brought an offsuit 7. The small blind led for about 1/3 pot (I remember thinking how small his bet was) and I called and the preflop raiser folded. The turn brought arguably the worst card in the deck, the Jh, and my opponent fired 13K into 29K. Every conceivable hand got there, from the QJ straight draw to the AJ/AQ gutshot and overcard to the five high flush draw. And of course I could be beat by a king or ten already.

However something didn’t feel right. I didn’t think I could profitably call though as my hand loses to a lot of his value-come-blocking bets. My other option was to shove, and this was what I thought about doing for ages. It’s a really tough spot I think and I had a load of considerations to run through my head. First, I realised that I couldn’t really represent anything as there’s pretty much no way I can turn up with a full house here except with maybe JJ. I didn’t think he could really hand read though so that wasn’t too much of an issue for me. The second consideration was that, having just bluffed me out of a pot, I wasn’t sure whether he was the type to be more or less likely to bluff again. Most people tend to bluff less, especially when up against the same opponent, so that was another issue for me to weigh up. The most important consideration for me though, just as it was in the AQh v Ac4x hand, was that I simply didn’t know how he’d react to a shove. Was he capable of folding trips or a flush or even two pair here to a river shove? I simply had no idea. It would look incredibly stupid if I shove and he snaps off QJ for kings and jacks or something similar. In the end I let it go and he showed A5d for a complete bluff. Oh well.

A little while later with 204 players left on the scoreboard the tournament officials stopped the clock to do a headcount and begin hand for hand play. After a ten minute wait it turned out that the bubble had already burst as there were only 198 players left! What an anti-climax! To be honest though, I was pretty relieved not to have to play hand for hand and even more relieved to make the money. I wasn’t really rolled a month ago when I bought in directly for $10,000 and had pretty much resigned myself to losing it, so to get my money back was definitely a nice bonus.

Anyway, I didn’t really play any other significant pots until my bust-out hand. I had 94000 with the blinds at 2500/5000 with a 500 ante. With 12000 in dead money I decided to open ship 99 from utg+1. It’s definitely a bit of an overbet and it’s probably correct to raise to a normal amount instead but I really didn’t want to get flatted and play a difficult flop out of position. In later position I would happily raise/call because I think people are far more likely to re-shove 77 or AJ or something but from utg+1 I only ever saw myself getting flatted (which was gross) or 3-bet by better. Since I lose to the better anyway I thought I might as well avoid tough spots versus the former too. Anyway, it folded all the way around to the small blind who had 300,000 odd. He asked for a chip count and eventually made the call after about 3 minutes. I’m obviously pretty destroyed against his tank and call range which is something like JJ-TT and AQ so I asked him whether he had AQ, hoping beyond hope that he did. He shook his head and my heart sunk.

Then he flipped over AK.

WHAT.

He explained that I hadn’t played a hand all day and that he was losing if I held any pair. I felt almost insulted that he regarded me as that big a nit! lol

Anyway, the flop came an awesome 652 but the turn came a deadly ace of clubs and I was reduced to one out as he had four to a flush by this point too. I missed and was sent packing in 131st place with $12,500 in prize money. And so ended my first taste of a live 10K tournament.

All in all, not bad, but not great. I was happy to get my buy-in back as well as enough to cover my accommodation but I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t do more. Also, 130th was also the next payjump and received $15,000. Sigh.

Anyway, I spent the last four days just chilling and enjoying the resort. By day we swam or floated or slid, by night we drank and ate and played poker. It was an awesome time all-round. I played three cash game sessions and made like +500, +200 and -1000. I also staked Jason in a $60 SNG and he managed to come 2nd for $150. Antony and I had to listen to him vividly recount every single detail of the tournament for the rest of the week.

Anyway, it was definitely an awesome week and I’m really glad that I decided to go. As I said, I wasn’t remotely rolled at the time that I bought in (I had like 40K online and the package cost 13K) but I decided to follow my heart and go enjoy what really was a once in a lifetime opportunity. The poker gods evidently thought highly of this decision, as I was rewarded with a 47K heater in cash games in November and December, won 45K AUD at APPT Sydney and cashed at PCA! To be honest, I think buying into PCA actually caused me to play better in those months. Too often last year I was just grinding and grinding with no real reward to show for it other than a bigger balance on my screen. This caused poker to become pretty repetitive and boring. But once I realised that I was definitely going on an awesome holiday in the summer and that poker was paying for it, it made me realise just how much I’d achieved that year and motivated me to do more. I think it’s not a bad idea for all poker players to periodically step back, splash out and reward themselves for their efforts. It’s all too easy to focus on the 10K downswing and not on the fact that you’re still up 2K for the month and 50K for the year and making more than most people do in their part-time or even full-time jobs.

Anyway, I’m off to the Aussie Millions today and my flight leaves in six hours. I’ll try to do daily updates while I’m there as it’s going to be tough to come back in two weeks and recount ten days of poker. At the moment my plan is to play the $1650 bounty tournament and the $10500 main event. If I get knocked out of the main event (which I won’t!), I’ll play the $2200 six-max event for sure and possibly the $1100 mixed hold’em and $1100 turbo hold’em events as well. Here’s hoping my good summer run continues!

To finish, I thought I’d put up some more photos and videos of my unforgettable week in the Bahamas. Best of luck at the tables!

PCA, Atlantis Resort and Casino, Bahamas - Trip Report Part 1

I just got back from the Bahamas yesterday and already have to start packing for Melbourne tomorrow. Ah, the life of a poker player, it’s tough! :D

My week in the Bahamas was pretty damn awesome. We arrived pretty late on the 4th and just had enough time to get down to the Royal Deck and catch the end of the PokerStars welcome party. Despite being given underage wristbands by mistake and having to spend 10 minutes convincing the bartenders that we were indeed over 18, we managed to have a pretty good time and Antony got the thrill of his life when he got to have his picture taken with Humberto.

Afterwards we headed down to Coral Lobby to have a drink and to see whether online players, despite being in one of the sickest resorts in the world, really did while away their time playing online poker instead. We weren’t disappointed, and to top it off we found Daniel Negreanu sitting there by himself too! Despite my detailed explanations as to why it made no sense, Antony went up to him and offered him a beer. He duly got rejected.

We then headed down to Atlas Bar and Grill (an American style diner) and got our first taste of American food and portion sizes (do you see what I did there?). We ordered some Nachos and Chilli Fries and the latter were a massive hit, though I don’t think they’d quite get the Heart Foundation’s tick of approval down here in Australia.

To finish off the night we headed down to the poker room to see how everything worked. I saw Tom Dwan and Andrew Robl in a three-handed 100/200 game and felt pretty sympathetic for the third guy who seemed like he was getting seriously sharked. He had durrrr to his left and his girlfriend/wife sitting behind him watching. I don’t know if he realised how bad a spot it was for him, but I later saw him with Ivan Demidov so maybe he is some sick Russian player that I haven’t heard of.

The next day (the 5th) we went down to the poker room again to see day 1A of the main event in action. I was pretty surprised to see so many pros, especially non-PokerStars ones, and was especially happy to catch glimpses of Negreanu, Chris Ferguson and Phil Galfond among others.

The rest of the day we acquainted ourselves with the lazy river and the various rapids and slides that branched off from it. It was loads of fun and I couldn’t wait to bust from the tournament the next day so that I could return as soon as possible. Ok, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but you get what I mean!

I went to bed at about midnight and watched some CardRunners MTT videos. I was pretty jetlagged and tired by this point though and continually drifted off while watching TravestyFund explain some basic point. After rewinding it about 10 times to understand what he was saying, at about 1AM I simply gave up and said to myself “You know what you know Joey, just rest and see how you go”.

Day 1B

I woke up pretty early the next day and headed straight down to the poker room to pick up my receipt with my table number and my seat number. I paced around, scanned the room and slowly took everything in. Soon, a realisation came upon me.

I had made it.

Three years ago I watched awestruck as players paid $10,000 to have their chance at winning millions on the WPT. Three years ago I bought a chipset on a whim and learnt how to play with my friends. We played pub tournaments every week, bet top pair like top set, and spouted Sklansky like gospel. We had no clue what we were doing, but had so much fun doing it.

And now, three years later, I was doing it all for real.

I turned on Forever Young by Youth Group on my iPod, my song of choice in early-2006, and took my seat.

Whatever happened, I had made it.

* * *

My first table was pretty tough, with four aggressive young online players filling seats 3 to 6. I was in the 10 seat, and pretty fortunate to be away from all the 3-betting and squeezing. I was also fortunate to have two very tight players to my left and a weaker player two to my right who showed some pretty basic leaks (open limped a lot, defended his blind way too light, check-raise-tanked a lot with value hands, etc.). This meant that (in theory anyway) I could steal light and isolate a lot. Directly to my right was a tight young online player and three to my right was an older Mexican dude who busted literally 10 minutes into the tournament. He was soon replaced with none other than Gus Hansen.

We were given 20,000 chip starting stacks with 75 minute levels, starting at 50/100. We were to play 8 levels on day 1, finishing at around 1AM.

The first six levels of the day proved extremely uneventful for me and I hovered between 16000 chips to 28000 chips throughout this time. I was pretty card dead throughout and found it hard to do those small but pivotal steals with stuff like JTo from the hijack because so often it was already raised or re-raised by the time it got to me. Thus I never really got to build up my stack as the pots I won merely counteracted the numerous blinds that I had to give up.

During this time I played maybe four or five relatively significant medium sized pots. In one I raised UTG to 300 with JJ and got called in four spots. The flop came 975r and I led for 900 and got called by the button and the big blind. The turn paired the 7 and brought a flush draw. We checked to the button who bet just over half the pot and the big blind and I both pretty quickly mucked. It felt a bit weak but I didn’t see him betting TT or a nine here and I didn’t think I could stand a river bet no matter what card came (unless it was a Jack obviously) so check/calling the turn only to check/fold every river seemed pretty gross.

In another hand I had 89o (no spade) from the small blind in a near family pot. The 6TKss flop was checked through and on the turn the Qs fell, giving me a double gutshot. I decided to lead out and the button called. This was probably my only ‘live’ misdemeanor of the whole tournament as I didn’t actually notice that there were three spades on board. I don’t think it would’ve changed my action much though as there’s very little chance someone has a flush after the flop checks through as most people would stab a flush draw on the flop. It does however mean that I will probably have to double barrel most rivers as I could easily get peeled by random middle pairs with a flush draw type hands. The river brought the 2s and after recovering from the shock of seeing four spades on board I bet out about 1900 into 3300 and got raised and obviously folded. I still think it’s a pretty decent spot to bluff though as only the As really feels comfortable here and he can’t have A6o or AKo too often here so his calling/raising range is limited to like AQ or AT with the As only. I’m also pretty much the only person on the table who can actually represent the nut flush fairly well too as from the small blind it’s not unreasonable that I wouldn’t lead a flush draw into five or six people on the flop. Anyway, that pot took me down to my lowest point of the day, about 16000.

I got back to 20000 after I 3-bet Gus with QQ to about 1900 and the tight German player to my left shipped all-in for 5000 total with JJ. I had 3-bet three times up till then and all of them had been as a bluff (A9o, K7s and 89o) so it was nice that when I finally had to showdown a 3-bet hand I was able to table the goods and maintain my image.

Gus got involved in a pretty cool hand soon after which I thought I’d recount here. A player with 9600 chips limped for 600 in EP and Gus isolated to about 2000. It was folded back to the limper who shoved and Gus thought for about five minutes before saying “I really feel like you have two fours there and my hand does pretty well against two fours”. He eventually made the call with J9o and sure enough the limper flips over 44. It reminded me of his call against Antonio Esfandiari’s 77 with T8s and demonstrates a real method to his madness. To anyone else it’s a completely sick and crazy call, but to him it’s as standard as calling an all-in with AK against someone else’s QQ. (That said, I’ve seen him fold AKs versus 77 too so I’m not sure what conclusion I should actually be drawing!)

Anyway, in another hand I opened the button with K9o to 2000 and was called by the big blind. The flop came AK2 with two hearts (I had none) and the big blind check/called my half pot bet. We checked through an offsuit jack turn and my opponent led for 4000 into 11000 on the offsuit 2 river. I thought for quite a bit before deciding to make the call. With the two pairing on the river I didn’t see him betting an ace which was splitting with any other ace (Aces and Twos with a King kicker). This left only AJ as a real possibility (AK 3-bets preflop, A2 check-raises the flop). However, his bet size was so small that I had difficulty believing he was bluffing and thus had trouble making the call. When I did eventually call, he actually turned over the same hand, K9o, so we split the pot. I don’t know what his thought process was at all to be honest.

In the last hand before dinner I won a pretty nice pot to hit my pre-Level 7 peak of 28000. I flatted an EP raise in the cutoff with AQo, called a bet on an A88r flop, checked back a K turn which brought a flush draw, and called a 1/2 pot river bet on an offsuit 5 river. My opponent showed QJo.

For dinner I had a spinach salad from Atlas Bar (my first meal of the day) and returned ready and raring to go.

Our table broke up soon after and I got moved to the 9 seat at a nine-handed table with a huge tallstack to my direct right. The first notable hand I played there a player opened UTG to about 3K and I shipped 28K from the button with AKo. He called and tabled KK and I was halfway to the door when the flop bricked massively (not even a backdoor straight available!). The turn bricked as well but fortunately the poker gods heard my prayers and the dealer turned over the most beautiful ace of diamonds I’ve ever seen. Easy game.

The next notable hand I played was actually pretty mundane but could’ve been absolutely sick and I still wonder to this day what may have been. The tallstack opened from the hijack and I decided to flat with AQh in the cutoff. I’m obviously way ahead of his range and can take down the pot a huge proportion of the time if I 3-bet here, but I felt that I would hate getting 4-bet 40 big blinds deep and this hand played pretty well postflop anyway so it was worth seeing a flop and saving 3-betting for bluffs since his most likely reaction to a 3-bet is to fold anyway.

The big blind whose KK I had just cracked called the rest of his stack off so we had a sidepot of 800 between the tallstack and myself. The flop came pretty disgusting, 358 with two clubs and one spade. The cutoff checked and I thought about stabbing since the preflop raiser is often check/folding if he checks this type of flop. I decided however that I probably had him beat anyway with AQ high and with the big blind still in the pot it wasn’t worth stabbing half the main pot if I only really stood to win the 800 sidepot since the big blind probably had Ace high beat.

The turn brought a 9 or T (not sure) and a third club and the cutoff led for about half the pot and this is where it got interesting. I really felt that he would c-bet any flush draw so it was extraordinarily unlikely that he had a flush here. At best, he had a weak one pair hand, though I really thought he would check/call most of them on this scary a board and play a bit of pot control. To me it really seemed like he had the ace of clubs and if this was the case in all likelihood I had a better kicker and had him beat. I didn’t really like just calling though as if he does have a weak one pair hand I’m going to look ridiculous when I check back the river and he wins with a pair of fives or something and moreover if he does have the nut flush draw I don’t want him to get a free card. So I thought about putting in a raise.

Herein lay a problem though. I didn’t know how he’d react to a raise. Would he shove? Would he fold? Would he just call? I really had no idea. If he shoved, I couldn’t see myself raise/calling off a 40bb stack. I was confident in my read, but not THAT confident. If he called, I’d be happier, but still not that happy, since he still had 12 outs to beat me. In the end, I really was just praying that he’d fold.

And this is actually a common problem in poker. A lot of people think poker is all about hand reading. Daniel Negreanu is sick because he can read hands like they’re face up right? Well, not really. What is arguably more important is knowing what your opponent will do with his hand, how he’ll react to your bets and raises. This idea most commonly arises when you’re deciding whether to fire a bluff. You know he has a weak hand, but is he good enough to fold it?

In the end, I decided to take the easy route out and fold. The big blind’s presence and probable hold on the main pot definitely swayed my decision though, and I really wonder what I would’ve done had it been a normal heads-up pot. Anyway, the cutoff did show Ac4x and ended up bricking so the big blind tripled up with T3d for a pair of threes.

Soon after I got moved to a new table (with Humberto!) for the last level of the day and went on a little bit of a rush. I picked up some hands and managed to win more pots uncontested preflop than I had all day till then. I also won a small pot with a set when the raiser check/folded the flop, and zoomed up to about 85K when I won a race with AK v QQ for a 65,000 pot. The action went something like UTG opened, I 3-bet with AK to 9000, and someone else behind shoved for about 30000 total. UTG folded JJ and I binked two aces on the flop. Awesome game.

With 13 seconds to go in the day and a hand having just finished the players on my table breathed a sigh of relief as they had made it through day 1. But I was having none of it! I had just paid both blinds and was desperate to get my button before tables were redrawn for day 2. I asked the dealer for one last hand and he obliged. Everyone turbo-folded to me on the button and I gleefully got ready to steal. I took a peek at my cards and was pleasantly surprised by the sight of two kings. I opened to 3000, the small blind 3-bet to 9000 with 35000 more behind, and I shipped. He quickly folded AJ and I smiled. Things were beginning to look up. I finished the day with 96,600 in the chips, safely above the average of about 75,000.