A week of nearly there’s

Von nzvr4poker, 27.02.2009, 4276 Aufrufe, 66 Kommentare | Kommentar hinzufügen

Have you ever had one of those weeks where you nearly had a good week? This question obviously has a different answer and the end outcomes of a good week differ depending on the level of player you are. For some of you it may be winning three sit n go’s in the lower limits. For some of you it may be winning a ticket to the weekly big online tournaments like the Sunday Million. Cash game players will want to concentrate on playing a solid game and returning a profitable hourly rate. Others will want to cash in lots of MTT’s or win satellite’s to live events. Obviously, all of those goals would exist in a good week for me. But there is nothing I love more than winning a satellite to a live event – particularly when it is to your home poker championships.

After winning through the smaller qualifiers for the week I had a ticket in the $120 qualifier for the New Zealand Champs main event. The tournament awarded a package to one in 25 players and after 26 entrants registered there was minor cash paid to second, third and fourth positions. In summary, the tournament may as well have been a winner takes all tournament. After an uneventful first hour or so I really started travelling well. My big hands were being paid off and as the field was dwindling my chip stack was gaining momentum. A key hand was when I flopped the top set of tens and got it all in on the flop against a pair of jacks, holding on to win a key pot. I had lots of momentum as we headed into the final table.

For me, the final table was a mixture of timely pre-flop raising and re-raising and eliminating short stacks as I seized the chip lead from eight players left down to the final three. The last three players consisted of a player whom I hadn’t ever played against, a good friend of mine and fellow professional poker player from my country, Graeme Putt and myself. A key pot happened when Graeme and the other player got it all in on a board of J552 with Graeme showing 22 for a turned full house against the other player’s QQ. The river blanked crippling the other player and handing Graeme a small chip lead over me. It wasn’t long before Graeme finished off the other player. The scene was set for an epic heads up battle.

With 78,000 chips in play, I had about 30,000 with Graeme having close to 40,000 chips to start the heads up play. At stack was a $2750 US package including a seat in the $3300 NZ ($1700 US) main event running from April 1 – 5 in Christchurch, New Zealand. 2nd was an afterthought. $55 US. After flopping a straight with J9 and extracting some extra value from it I managed to surge ahead to just over 40,000 chips, holding a small chip lead over my much more experienced opponent. However, that’s where my good fortune ended and I had a horrible run of cards to fall back to just over 20,000 chips. With the blinds reaching 1,500/3,000 I was forced to make a move. After an epic 45 minute heads up battle I raised a bet all-in with QJs. My opponent called with 99 and hit a 9 on the flop to pretty much push me out the door. I couldn’t get a miracle running straight and had to settle for second. Needless to say I was bitterly disappointed that I had battled through the field so far only to end up with all but an empty pocket.

I went to bed as it was late on Sunday night and rested up for the motherlode of all weekly online tournaments – the Sunday Million, which starts here early on Monday morning. I had actually qualified twice for the tournament during the week so I was feeling confident, especially after my effort the night before. I had my girlfriend and breakfast by my side willing me on and told her that she needed to be watching four hours later if she wanted a present this week. After mostly folding the first 17 hands I got my first opportunity to double up on the 18th hand. Early in the second level, I got in the cutoff and raised to 300 with the blinds 50/100. The button insta-shoved for 7,525 chips. As the other players got out of the way I thought about the call. The button had recently taken two bad beats and I decided he was trying to push me off my hand with a tilt shove. I called and he flipped over . I was ahead for a pot of 15,200 chips with just under 2,000 chips behind and thrilled about the call I made. All this was about to change as in one foul swoop the appeared as the window card on the board along with and . The turn and river were and respectively, as no nine managed to appear much to my dismay. I was crippled.

With just 1,875 chips left I needed to be aggressive. Three hands later I was under the gun and picked up . I raised to 300 and was called by a late position player. The flop was . With 750 already in the pot I decided to shove all-in for my last 1,825 chips. Much to my surprise the other player called with and I was in great position to double up to 4,400 chips. The turn was a bad card for me. appeared to give him a flush draw in addition to his K and J outs. The river was cruel to me when the fell to seal my fate. A very quick exit in less than half an hour. It was back to bed for me.  I will battle on though and give you an update on this week’s tournaments online as I will be playing the ANZPT Sydney $33 rebuys qualifier and the New Zealand Champs qualifier on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Also on this Tuesday coming up there is a qualifier in Star City Casino here in Sydney which I will be playing. With all those updates and more for next time, this is jimdownunder signing off again. Peace.