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!