Swingy Month

APPT Sydney Opening Event Report

(Photo taken from biggamepoker.com.au)

So after a disastrous couple of days online I decided to take a break and play the opening event of APPT Sydney, the $1100 Deep Stack NLHE tournament. I hadn’t intended to play initially because all things considered it’s a relative waste of time compared to multi-tabling 10/20 online but I figured that I could only lose 1K in this MTT while I would probably lose another 10K if I stayed home.

So I rocked up to Star City two hours early, all prepped and ready, checked out the new poker room, got some brunch from Subway, listened to my iPod to psyche myself up, and took my seat. Before long the cards were in the air!

And then, 8 hands and 15 minutes later, I was out.

…

This is quite an accomplishment if you ask me. So much so that I now present to you a world first: a tournament report, recounting EVERY SINGLE hand! How many people can say they have done that?

Hand 1: I have 69o. A player raises in early position and I fold.

Hand 2: I pick up 83o. The player who won the first pot raises again and I fold.

Hand 3: I pick up KTs and open raise in the hijack. The button, no doubt tilting from losing 1/4 of his chips in the last pot, 3-bets on the button. I fold.

Hand 4: I pick up K2 and fold.

Hand 5: I pick up KQo in EP and fold. The king was a spade but, alas, the queen was a mere club. Thought you might be interested.

Hand 6: I pick up QQ and raise. MP and BTN call. The flop comes KJ8r. I bet 575 into 975 and both players call. The turn pairs the K and we check to the button who bets 700. I call, MP folds. The river is a 4, I check and he bets 1600.

***Random Strategy Aside***

This is usually a clear fold, but I’ve made way too many retarded folds in MTTs to fold this. I used to make all these folds which were standard in cash but turned out to be retarded in MTTs because people’s thought processes in MTTs are just so whack.

I remember a funny incident at ANZPT Sydney where I went up to Daniel Kochan, a respected MTT player, and sought his thoughts on this hand where I made a big fold. I had folded a Q high flush (using both my hole cards) to what turned out to be just a 7 high flush. I was obviously pissed off as hell and wanted to confirm with him that my fold was OK.

The conversation went like this:

Me: “Hey, what would you do in this hand. So a guy limps in EP, another guy limps in MP, the BTN…”

Him: “Call river.”

Me: “DOH!”

***End Random Strategy Aside***

So I called here and he had AK. Oh well, whatever.

Hand 7: I pick up J8d in the big blind. UTG raises 3x, LP calls, SB, calls, I call. Flop is 732r with one diamond. I ponder leading and triple barreling my bucket load of backdoors and overcards but then decide I’d rather simmer on the QQ hand more. I check/fold.

Hand 8: I pick up 68o in the small blind. Steaming 3-bettor from hand 3 is the only limper, I complete, and the big blind checks. The pot is 300 and the flop comes down T97r. We check to the limper who bets 500. I check-raise to 1650, the big blind folds, steamy limper shoves all-in. I call the extra 9700 or so and he shows TT. The turn and river come deuces and he barely covers me so I’m out.

Cool chickens.

So I go home and resign myself to donking off more money on the virtual felt. Luckily the poker gods finally felt sorry for me and l managed to turn in a 19K day :)! Weeeeeeeeeeee!

PCA, New York, Exchange, Cambridge and more!

Well, exams are over!!! That’s a big relief. I did my usual Red Bull-driven cram and think I did pretty well all things considered. In two days I have a summer internship interview for the NSW Law Reform Commission. If I get that I’ll be working December and February and travelling to the Bahamas and New York in January. If I don’t get it I’ll be playing APPT Sydney in December and hopefully will be going to Japan in February. Either way I’m hitting up PCA and NY!

For PCA I decided to do the full package, extended nights and all, so I’ll be there from the 4th to the 15th and then I’ll be in New York from the 15th to 24th. I can’t wait for both! I’ve never been to New York and since everyone says how incredible it is I’ve been itching to go for ages. And this will be my second (and probably last) time at PCA so I’m definitely looking forward to that and I know it’ll be a blast.

I’ll also find out about my exchange in January. I applied to the law exchange earlier in the year but didn’t get that because my law marks aren’t good enough. I then applied through the general university-wide exchange program which counts all your marks and my commerce marks are pretty killer so I’m pretty confident of being able to get that. My preferences (in order) are Lund and Uppsala in Sweden (maybe I can find and learn from Isildur?) and Toronto and Ottawa in Canada. I’m really hoping to end up at Lund but will be happy with any of the other destinations too.

Finally, I received this e-mail the other day about this opportunity at Cambridge. Basically I can do one of my law units next year over at Cambridge instead of here in Sydney. The way it works is that I do one less subject here next semester and then I travel over there to do an entire subject in one (very intensive) week! I did a day-trip to Cambridge last time I was in London and the university really caught my imagination. It has cobbled streets, luscious lawns and sandstone buildings, and as a university town it has this really unique ambiance about it. I remember thinking how amazing it’d be to be able to study at a place like that and now I have the chance! Now obviously one week isn’t much compared to the real thing, but it’s the best chance I’ve got so I think I’ll have to take it.

The only problem is…it coincides with the WSOP Main Event. Oh well, I wasn’t sure I was going back anyway since I was probably going to travel around Europe if I got into exchange. I also figure that I can go back to the WSOP later in life, but I’ll never be able to do this again.

Whatever happens, a pretty exciting year coming up for me I think. Can’t wait!