Home sweet home

Von nzvr4poker, 29.03.2009, 3924 Aufrufe, 52 Kommentare | Kommentar hinzufügen

Welcome to another edition of jimdownunder’s blog. It has been a very busy time for me this week as I have ventured home to New Zealand for the first time since making Australia my new home. However, before returning home I decided that I should get some practice in before the big New Zealand Poker Championships (NZPC) poker festival. On Monday I had my chance to play in another qualifier to ANZPT Sydney at the casino in Sydney. The buy-in was $200 and 96 players bought in creating a decent prize pool where the top 10 received cash and the winner also picked up a seat to the $2,200 ANZPT Sydney main event.

We were given 3,000 chips and had the usual satellite 25 minute blind levels. I quickly imposed dominance over the field with a dream first hand scenario playing right into my hands. I limped in with 55 for the requisite 50 chips, and then called a raise from the player on my immediate left when he made it 250 to play. Myself and another player came along for the ride. The flop of 553 was music to my ears. I had flopped quads in my first hand. Now I had to figure out how to convince the other players that I had nothing. After the player in early position and I had checked, the initial raiser bet 450 which I called. A six appeared on the turn and I checked my huge hand again. To my amazement the player on my left tidied up his chip stack and pushed his chips across the line announcing he was all-in. I instantly called and he turned over AK. A hopeless bluff! The table was shocked at my hand and how bad his hand was. I had immediately doubled up to over 6,000 chips.

With the blinds at 75/150 I picked up JJ in late position. After an early position player had limped in, a short stack in mid position pushed all-in for approximately 1,500 chips. I was in a dilemma with what to do with my hand as the early position player had shown a propensity to call raises and re-raises frequently and he had me covered. I decided my best course of action was to push all-in with pocket jacks and isolate the short stack. After some delay the early position player folded showing KQ and the all-in player had 99 to give me a big chance to add an extra 1,500 chips to my stack. I was not in front for long however as a nine appeared on the flop. I did not improve and was back to close to my starting stack.

Soon after the blinds had gone up to 150/300 I again got dealt pocket jacks. An early position player had decided to move all-in for just under 1,600 chips and I decided to flat call with my jacks. To my surprise a late position player re-raised all-in for a total of 3,500 chips. After some thought I called and to my delight both players had smaller pairs showing 33 and 77 respectively. My hand stood tall and I was sitting on around 9,000 in chips with about 50 players remaining. 

After a couple of new players had moved to our table I decided to initiate myself with their playing styles. One of the new players had a big stack and was one of the tournament chip leaders. He had a rather aggressive style and I decided to play a trappy slow-playing style if I tangled with him in any big pots. It wasn’t long before I had my chance. After an early position raiser shoved all-in for approximately 2,500 with the blinds at 300/600, I peered down to see . I announced all-in for my last 6,000 or so chips and to my surprise I was instantly called by the big stack on the table. I was hoping he didn’t have the dreaded over-pair. To my relief he turned over and the short stacked player had . I was a favourite to win a 15,000 pot. The flop came down . I was still in front and had flopped an exclusive flush draw that neither of my opponents were drawing to. If the turn was a club or a ten my opponents would be drawing dead. The turn was . To my relief the river was not an ace, king or jack and in actual fact was improving my hand to trip threes.

With 27 players left I picked up AQ and raised to 2,700 from the cutoff seat with the blinds at 500/1000. The previous big stack that I had doubled through with TT when he had AK was this time in the big blind. As he was still playing aggressively I wanted to lower my raise just a tad to create the illusion I was a little weaker. The action folded around to him in the big blind and he did not disappoint. After looking at his stack, then his chips and finally the tournament clock he announced "all-in" for a total of 6,700. Before he finished speaking I said "call". I flipped over my cards and he said nice hand revealing . I flopped a queen and my hand held for a pot of 14,000 chips.  

After a couple of mistimed pre-flop raises where I was promptly re-raised and had to give up my hand I decided to open with . I raised to 3,600 chips with the blinds at 800/1,600. An aggressive young player who I assumed played a bit online thought for a bit before shoving all-in. He had a total of approximately 16,000 and it was 10,400 more for me to call. As there were 14 players left and the top 10 were paid I knew there was a chance he was putting me on a steal and was effectively re-stealing. I decided I needed more information and announced that I had a hand I didn’t think I was able to fold. When I said this I noticed his body language was quite negative. I announced "call" and he said great call and turned over . I was stoked at the call as it was for all my chips at such a critical stage of the tournament and if I was wrong I was in grave danger of doubling. Instead I was a favourite to win a pot that would be for approximately 28,000 chips and put me well above the average with just four players left to bust out before the money. Unfortunately a king was the window card and I couldn’t improve with the board running out eliminating me in 14th position. 

My next updates will be from down in Christchurch where I will be playing three no limit hold’em events. The Canterbury champs, south island champs and the main event itself. Stay tuned for individual event updates in the next few days.