Sunday, September 13, 2009

$5200 Sydney Champs High Rollers Report

As expected the field was pretty small with only 29 people fronting up the 5K buy-in. Australia must have like some of the softest high rollers tournaments in the world because within an orbit I felt like I was sitting at a 25NL table. Limp, limp, limp; check/fold, check/fold, check/fold.

The first significant hand I played I opened KK utg 6-handed. The button called and we saw a Q83hh flop. I bet 525 into 750 and my opponent called. The turn brought an offsuit 5, I bet 1450 into 1800 and got raised to 3100. I called, the river brought another offsuit 5, I checked and he instantly bet 6K. My first instinct was to call since he’s representing pretty much nothing and would have raised a set on the flop since live players are terrified of flush draws. My second instinct was also to call because live players love putting online players in their place and run retarded bluffs as a result. My third instinct was, you guessed it, also to call because he could be completely spastic and overplaying a queen. Despite all these instincts, I decided to mull the hand over for about two minutes since chip-wise it was still a big decision. Finally, when I decided to call, I picked up a 5K and 1K chip in my hand and he instantly called time on me. LOL, now I’m definitely calling! So I called and he instantly mucked without showing. Up to 30K, not a bad start!

The next big hand was against the same opponent. I raised 78s from the cutoff and he called from the big blind. The flop came TsTc9s and he check-called my ¾ pot bet. The turn came the Js giving me the straight flush and he check-raised me all-in when I bet. I obviously snapped and he was left in shock when he discovered that his nut flush was no good. Chip count = 40K.

After this I picked up small pot after small pot and was really running over the table. It’s so ridiculously easy to steal light when you know you are never getting 3-bet unless they have AA or AK. I was also extremely fortunate because I had a dead stack to my left which meant that I had two buttons every orbit and on my ‘real’ button I only had to contend with one player in the blinds rather than two.

The next noteworthy hand I played went as follows. A player raised utg and I was the only caller on the button with AJc. The flop came AT3hh and I called his ¾ pot bet. The turn came an offsuit 8 and I called his ½ pot bet. The river came the 6h and I decided to turn my hand into a bluff when he checked to me, overbetting 15200 into the 10K pot. He thought for a bit and folded. I probably had the best hand anyway but if I folded out AK or AQ that would’ve been a great boon for me. Chip count = 47K.

The last interesting hand that I played before my bust-out went as follows. I raised AK utg and got 4 callers at the 6-handed table (as you do…). The flop came KT3ss and I had no spades. I bet 3100 into 4200 and got called by the small blind only. The turn came the 9s and my opponent checked. This was a pretty terrible turn card as it filled both the flush draw and the straight draw so I checked behind. The river brought the 8s and he checked to me again. I decided to turn my hand into a bluff again and bet 7200 into the 10K pot. I actually pondered setting him all-in since he only had 12K but I decided not to since I thought he might be more likely to call an all-in as a) he might think I’m trying to bully him around with his tournament life and b) if he’s wrong versus an all-in bet he can ‘run away’ and not have to stay around to face the humiliation that would attend an incorrect call. Anyway he thought for a brief moment and called me. Damn it! I flipped over my hand, looked away and sighed in annoyance. Then I looked back and saw the pot being shipped to me. WHAT??? He had called with KQo with no spade! SHIP!!! Chip count = 60K.

Then came my bust-out hand. I was about 4th in chips with 12 remaining and the 3rd tallest stack on my table. The tallstack at our table open-limped in MP, a midstakes FTP reg isolated on the button and I looked down to see ATc in the big blind. This is a pretty awesome spot to 3-bet as a bluff but with a hand with as much potential as ATs and a player as bad as MP in the pot I decided to just call and see a multi-way pot. As expected MP called and the flop came AT4ss. Bingo! I decided to lead out since I didn’t want to check-raise MP out of the pot should the button bet when checked to (and I didn’t want to just check-call either). So I bet 7K into 10K and with little hesitation MP min-raised to 14K; kind of scary but whatever. The button folded (later told me he had KK) and I shipped for 45K more. My opponent then sighs, asks for a count, thinks, calls, then puts on a disgusted face when I turn over my hand.

He then turns over his: 44

...

I don’t fill up and that’s the end of that; from 4th in chips and 75bb’s to out the door. Awesome.

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