The joys and frustrations of online poker

Von nzvr4poker, 12.03.2009, 4901 Aufrufe, 56 Kommentare | Kommentar hinzufügen

Welcome to another week in the poker life of jimdownunder. I decided not to go to Canberra for the weekend roadtrip as I was not feeling well. Instead my girlfriend and I hung out at home and played some online poker as usual. As you all know luck has not being on my side lately and time is running out to qualify for some of the events I have been trying to qualify for. Namely the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) Sydney event and the New Zealand Poker Championships (NZPC).

It was the last week of qualifiers on Pokerstars for ANZPT Sydney as they are looking to kickstart their qualifiers to the last slated ANZPT event of season one – the flagship event in Queenstown, New Zealand. As usual they held a $320 multi-table tournament (mtt) qualifier, after electing not to play the $33 rebuys donkfest as usual. The NZPC qualifier was also running on the Sunday night and first of all I want to focus on how I went in this tournament.

26 runners tried their luck at winning a seat to New Zealand’s marquee poker event set to begin in the South Island city of Christchurch later this month. This meant that only one player would win the package of $2,750 to the main event. I again applied my tight-aggressive style to the table which had worked well for me in this event in the prior two weeks. In the early stages of the tournament a player pushed all-in with A4. I snap-called with AQ to knock him out and scoop a pot of 4,500. After getting my chip stack up to a healthy 7,000 chips I picked up AQ and re-raised all-in from the button over the top of an aggressive player in late position. I had re-raised this play using position cleverly on two prior occasions and I think this played a part in him calling with just A7 for all of his chips. I flopped a queen and never looked back eliminating another player, leaving 12 of us left. I was chip leader with 14,000+ chips and playing well.

The most pivotal pot for me was early on the final table. I had TT under the gun and after I was re-raised from late position I called the all-in for a 13,000 chip pot. The board ran out in my favour and I was up to 23,000 chips with second on 17,000 chips and eight players to go. The action came thick and fast for me with two more eliminations when I had AJ hold against KQ all-in for a 13,000 pot and KK hold up against AQ for a 17,000 chip pot. After these skirmishes we were down to just three players and I had 35,000 out of 78,000 chips. I was odds on favourite to win the seat to my national poker champs. My opponents were another New Zealander and a player from Malta. With the other New Zealand player getting short in chips I picked up JJ and raised the player’s big blind. My opponent responded by shoving all-in for their last 13,000 or so chips and I quickly called. Unfortunately I was up against AA and could not catch up for the 27,000 chip pot.

After a period of tighter play by the three of us, where pre-flop raises were tending to take the pots down, I picked up 44. The player from Malta was becoming increasingly aggressive and raised the blinds of 500/1,000 to 4,000 on the button. I shoved all-in from the small blind and the other player folded. After careful deliberation the player from Malta called showing AJo. I was praying for a hold as the pot was 50,000 chips and I had 10,000 or so behind so if I could win this pot I almost certainly had the seat. The flop was neither good nor bad for me as QT6 appeared on my screen. A four would be a nice turn card or just avoiding an ace, jack or king. The turn was a queen which kept me comfortably in the lead. I needed to avoid a river ace, king, jack, ten or six. To my disgust a ten appeared on my screen crippling my chip stack to just over 10,000 chips. I cursed my luck as I thought I played the hand well and put the tough decision on my opponent only for the board to deal me a cruel river void.

I could not perform the miracle comeback and I was eliminated ironically by the Maltese player in third place when I got it all-in for my last 12,000 chips with K6s against KQ after the flop was Kxx with the small cards being my suit. I could not improve with either a six or a club on the turn or river and picked up a mediocre $33 US for my efforts. The Maltese player easily overcame the other player to win the seat and book his ticket to New Zealand’s south island.

Sunday night’s second satellite was the Pokerstars $320 qualifier to ANZPT Sydney. 54 players registered for a total prize pool of $16,200 and with packages worth $2,935 (including tournament entry and accommodation) up for grabs, five people were to win seats. Positions six to ten received minor cash prizes. Serial Pokerstars satellite qualifier PokerdomeAA was amongst the starting field again. It is rumoured that he had won five seats to the ANZPT Sydney event before the qualifier and was very much after his sixth in what was to be the final qualifier to the event on Pokerstars.

On my table I had Gary Benson – a well known Australian professional player who was Australia’s first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner. My strategy was to avoid Gary and play against the weaker players on the table. Nine hands into the tournament I caught my first break. In late position I raised to 90 with the and the blinds 10/20 after the under the gun player had limped into the pot. Needless to say I was called and we saw a flop. appeared and after my opponent checked I clicked bet 140 (two-thirds of the pot). I was quickly called and the turn card was my gin card. The much welcomed appeared with my opponent pleasantly surprising me by leading into me with a bet of 200. I did not disappoint my eager opponent re-raising to 500 chips. I was again called and the river was . The other player again lead into me with another small bet of 300 and I called taking down a nice pot of 1,490 chips early on as my opponent could only muster up for a busted draw.

It wasn’t long before I was moving in reverse however. With the blinds 15/30 I picked up in the small blind. After the under the gun and next to act player had limped in, a middle position player re-raised to 150. I promptly called the bet along with the under the gun player. The flop was and I checked to the under the gun player with the intention of check-raising any bet all-in. The player under the gun bet 300 into the pot of 510 and I pushed all-in for 3,740 chips after the other player folded, having my opponent well covered. My aggressive play backfired on me when my opponent called with for his last 2,070 chips. I did not spike an eight and was down to 1,700 odd chips. If I was going to win a seat to ANZPT Sydney, it was going to have to be from a short-stack.

Not long after I was dealt A9o and found myself in a good position to double up after I was called by A8o for a pot of 3,234 chips. The board ran out , allowing me to double up and get back in the game. Soon thereafter more chips were shipped my way after limping the small blind with QTo and flopping two pair. After leading the flop and check-calling the turn, I check-called the river for a pot picking up 3,200 chips with my opponent showing JJ. My next big hand occurred with the blinds at 75/150. I had 4,250 chips on the button with AJo and flat called a min-raise from the under the gun player. The flop was giving me another flopped two pair. After my opponent checked to me I bet 450 into the pot of 825. My opponent insta-shoved for 4,800 chips. After ruling out my opponent having AK or QT I decided to call. It proved to be a good call with my opponent mustering up the smaller two pair of KJ. The turn and river were kind to me and I was on my way sitting comfortably with 9,600 chips.

After losing a pot of 10,000 with ATo after shoving all-in over the top of a raise by a loose player and running into AK, I won a key pot for 12,500 chips with 99 holding against 77. I was inside the top seven in chips and felt confident that I could win a seat from my good position. I started to step up the aggression with my big stack and managed to take the blinds and antes down with timely raises and re-raises. Before long I had made the final table and with a quick flurry of eliminations we were down to the package bubble with six players remaining. After the chips had been passed around the table for what seemed like forever, we all had rather equal chip stacks sitting around the 20,000 chip mark. PokerdomeAA had made his usual march through the field and we were poised to find our bubble player. I was involved in a key pot with after raising under the gun to 3,600 chips. A shorter stack on the button ended up calling and the flop was . As the pot was already 9,200 chips I decided to put the pressure on my shorter stacked opponent and shoved all-in for approximately 22,000. My opponent had a bit less than 6,000 chips and prudently folded leaving themselves in a perilous position.

Two hands later the short stack finally crumbled in quite sick circumstances. After the short stack put in most of their stack with a standard raise, PokerdomeAA shoved over the top of the raise prompting a quick call and putting the short stack at risk of elimination. PokerdomeAA tabled two red kings and the short stack was way behind with . However the short stack jumped ahead in the hand in one foul swoop flopping two pair to leave PokerdomeAA needing a miracle king to end the tournament. It dutifully arrived on the river and we had finally made it. The $2,935 US package was finally mine and now I will have to sell the five night’s accommodation package as I won’t need it whilst living in Sydney. It has been my delight to bring you all some good news. Stay tuned for more battles next week as I seek to claim an early package to the ANZPT Queenstown event and participate in the final qualifier to the NZPC. Until then have a good week. This is jimdownunder signing off.