South island champs

Von nzvr4poker, 06.04.2009, 3439 Aufrufe, 27 Kommentare | Kommentar hinzufügen

Monday morning brought about the start of the second no limit hold’em event of the New Zealand poker championships (NZPC). The $1100 south island champs was a chance for me to build upon my steady performance in the Canterbury champs. This time I was the only one flying the flag for Intellipoker as my friend Chris opted to reflect on his successful performance in the Canterbury champs. The tournament had an excellent structure with 45 minute blind levels and a starting stack of 10,000 chips. As it was a two day event, the tournament would pause for an end of day break either if the field reached a final table of nine or if nine levels had been played.

My opening table was talent-laden with Grant Levy (2007 APPT Sydney champion), Stewart Scott (2009 Aussie Millions champion) and respected New Zealand poker players Mike King and Simon Bismark all gracing the table. My first notable hand occurred during level four with the blinds at 100/200. I had and limped for 200 along with four other players. After seeing a flop of where a bet of 750 was called, I decided to raise my big draw to 3,500 chips. The original post-flop better called my raise and the turn was . I pushed all-in for 9,000 chips forcing a fold from my opponent and adding some valuable chips to my stack. With no significant hands before the dinner break which came after six levels, I was sitting on 18,000 chips.

After the dinner break the action loosened up with players falling frequently. 40 players still had chips and were looking to begin their charge to day two. My cause was helped when I raised with JTo to 2,000 chips with the blinds at 300/600 and a 100 ante. A short stack pushed all-in with A2s for their last 4,000 chips. I made the elementary call and the board ran out giving me an extra 4,000 chips. Another table was broken and Jamil Dia (2003 Aussie Millions champion) took his seat on my immediate left putting yet another dangerous opponent on my table.

Towards the end of day one and with 18 players remaining from the original starting field of 68, I was involved in a key pot with Jamil Dia and another player. I was dealt A9 and raised to 2,700 pre-flop getting two callers. I flopped two pair with the board reading , leading out for a bet of 5,500 which was called by Jamil. The turn was also a nine giving me a full house. Both Jamil and I had about 25,000 behind and I thought about what to bet to allow him to re-raise me for all my chips as I thought the line I was taking looked rather bluffy. I decided on betting 8,500 and I heard the magic words from Jamil as he asked me how much I was playing. Unfortunately after a lot of thought Jamil folded.

It wasn’t long before I was involved in another key pot. During the last level of the day with the blinds 500/1,000 and a running ante of 200, I had and decided to limp in middle position. The button promptly raised to 4,000 and I thought through my options before calling. The flop was and I considered my hand to be unfoldable. I checked with the intention of at least calling any bet with my multiple draws. My opponent fired out a bet of 3,000 which I called quickly. The turn card of improved my hand but I decided to check and keep the pot small, and allow the other player to possibly bluff the river as I now believed my hand was best. My opponent obliged by checking behind and my plan was ready to be hatched. The river card was a perfect card for me. The gave me the second best possible straight and I paused before checking. My rival fired out a quick bet of 11,000 chips and I announced "call" turning over my straight. His cards went into the muck as he shook his head saying that I was lucky. My chip stack was now at a healthy 64,000 chips.

After nine long levels the tournament director announced that day one had finished. My chip stack was 57,400 with the average of the 15 players left being 45,333.

The start of day two was frantic with two quick eliminations on our table. I was involved in one of the eliminations after being dealt on the second hand of the day. I made a standard raise to 3,600 with the blinds at 600/1,200 and an ante of 200 each hand. A player in late position moved all-in for his last 20,000. I instantly called and my foe showed to give me a big lead going into the flop. The flop gave the advantage back to my opponent with being revealed. The turn changed nothing with the appearing. The river gave me an unbelievable counterfeit as my two pair of aces and kings allowed my queen kicker to play. I picked up the pot of 40,000 and boosted my chip stack to approximately 76,000.

Soon after I suffered a setback when I raised an early position raise of 4,000 to 14,500 total with 44 and Jamil pushed all in for 20,000 more. I was priced into calling and found myself way behind when I saw Jamil’s pocket jacks. The board ran out and my chip stack was back down to 50,000. However, it wasn’t long before my chip stack was moving back in the right direction. After picking up KK and raising three times the blinds to 6,000, Jamil pushed all-in again. I quickly called for a total of approximately 36,000 and this time he showed . A third king appeared on the flop giving me a set with the rest of the board running out and 76,000 chips were shipped across the felt into my stack.

Shortly thereafter, the bubble burst and we were down to our final table of nine players. I took 71,700 chips to the final table knowing I was guaranteed at least $2,100 for ninth place. The final table was particularly strong with professional players such as Richard Grace, Craig Trevenna, Jamil Dia, Dennis Huntly and Peter Field butting heads with the cream of the local talent from Christchurch. 

After folding for a few orbits I found a spot where I decided I could attack my opponents successfully and accumulate chips. After the button limped in for 3,000, and the small blind raised to 12,000 I picked up A7 in the big blind. Thinking things through, I decided that the button must be fairly weak as he only had limped in and that the small blind would also know this and could have being taking advantage of this. I decided that I could effectively squeeze both players by moving all-in for approximately 65,000. The button paused before folding with the action moving on to the small blind. After going into the tank for an eternity the small blind called turning over AK. I was distraught as my calculated risk had backfired drastically on me. The flop came down . At this point another player on the table announced that they had folded a seven. I effectively needed a running straight or one of the last two sevens in the deck to win the pot of 130,000. The turn was a  before the river came down as a  to the gasps of the poker room. An amazingly fortunate card for me!

We were soon down to seven players when the of local player Doug Giles was good enough to hold against Dennis Huntly’s all-in hand of  . The flop improved both players as appeared but Dennis could not catch up and was out in eighth place as the turn and river were and  respectively. Jamil and another player exited shortly after leaving five of us to fight it out for the $23,000 first prize, the trophy and all the accolades that come with the title of being south island poker champion.

Much to my dismay, my tournament ended rather abruptly when I moved all-in over the top of a button raise to 16,000 for my last 95,000 with A9o. At this stage the blinds were 3,000/6,000 with an ante of 500 and I thought there was a good chance my hand was the best. This wasn’t the case as Richard Grace called quickly from the button showing AQo. This time the board offered me no help showing , and I was out in fifth place and collected my prize of $4,700. Richard went on to systematically crush the rest of the final table and proved a worthy winner adding the south island champs to his 2008 Canterbury champs title.

My gallant effort will be useful practice for the $3,300 main event which is due to start for me on Thursday with day two being played on Saturday and the final table playing out on Sunday. A sizeable field of over 100 is expected and some of the stars of poker from this part of the world like Grant Levy, Stewart Scott and Tony Hachem are expected to be playing in New Zealand’s marquee poker event. I look forward to bringing you more good news. Goodbye for now from jimdownunder.