Mingling in Melbourne

Von nzvr4poker, 27.06.2009, 845 Aufrufe, 7 Kommentare | Kommentar hinzufügen

After recuperating back in Sydney for a couple of days following my whirlwind Europe trip, I made the short trip down to Melbourne to play in the Melbourne Poker Championships. I was slated to play in four no limit hold’em events starting with the $230 100k guaranteed tournament, followed by the ANZPT Melbourne main event, the $550 six-handed event and the $1,100 Melbourne Champs main event.

I decided that half of the ten days that I was going to be in Melbourne for, would be spent in a hotel close to the casino and the rest with some poker friends that lived out in east Melbourne. As usual for this time of year, Melbourne was a bit chilly and I spent most of my Thursday in the climate-controlled hotel room before venturing out to play my first event the following day.

Friday dawned and I made the leisurely walk to Crown Casino and picked up all my entry forms for the four tournaments as I had pre-registered online. My table assignment had me seated with a table of complete unknowns and the usual phantom stack that was on my right. However, the phantom stack was soon occupied by none other than my good friend George Lyak. I enjoyed catching up with George between hands as it was the first time I had been in Melbourne this year.

The tournament was slated to run over two days and with day one to be 12 levels of 30 minutes I knew that I would have to start off well. I had 5,000 chips at my disposal and started well after I played my pocket kings passively. My opponent showed pocket jacks after I had check-called a river bet with under cards showing on the board. The first break came after four levels had elapsed and I had increased my stack 7,500 chips. Unfortunately soon after the break my mate George was eliminated. I carried on towards building a stack and came across a good opportunity soon thereafter. At this stage my stack was approximately 6,000 and the blinds were 100/200. I called a raise of 550 from an aggressive player with in the big blind. The flop was great for me as the dealer flipped over  . I check raised my opponent to 1,500 chips after he made it 525 to play. I was re-raised all-in and instantly called only to be up against a flopped flush of  . I need another spade to hit the board but the turn and river were unkind to me and I was knocked out of my first tournament.

Saturday dawned and my favourite AFL (Australian Football League) team, Richmond Tigers were playing a big derby game against the rival Essendon Bombers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Football to local Melburnians or Aussie Rules as it is known to foreigners is a fast, action-packed game featuring skills from sports like basketball, rugby, soccer and volleyball all mixed together. I met up with some fanatical Richmond fans at the transport bar in the middle of the city early in the afternoon. From there we walked to the game in the early evening in eager anticipation of the 7.30 pm kickoff. My team surged ahead early and held a nice lead through half-time and into the third quarter. This is about the time that jetlag kicked in. I actually feel alseep which I think was probably partially due to the alcohol I had also drunk during the day. Midway through the fourth quarter I woke up to an Essendon fan screaming "Go Essendon!" in my ears. To my shock horror my team was down by 30 odd points and after saying a couple of rude things to him, I left to save myself anymore embarrassment. I was booed loudly by the opposition supporters in that part of the stand as I made my quick getaway for home.

Monday signalled the start of the three day feature event of the poker festival, which was the $2,700 Pokerstars.net ANZPT Melbourne main event. I had just missed qualifying for this event online on several occasions and wanted to make amends for this. I sat out the first level of the tournament as I came to grips with my hangover from the Pokerstars party the night before. Because of this I played steady during the second hour-long level and managed to improve my start stack of 20,000 to 22,000 chips at the first break. During the third and fourth levels of the day I was able to further improve my situation and at the second break I had 24,000 chips. Things were starting to look up and my hangover was now long gone. I was thoroughly enjoying myself and at the dinner break after six hours of play I was back to my starting stack of 20,000. I spent dinner at Margo’s restaurant in Crown with some poker friends of mine. It is a great place to eat and my favourite place for dinner when I am playing in Melbourne.  

The resumption in play saw me restart the gradual process of building a chip stack to take into day two during the last three hours of play. A couple of new players sat down at our table including my good friend Julian Cohen who sat down on my immediate left. It was level seven and the blinds were now 300/600 with a 75 ante. In middle position I picked up AQo and after the first player to act made it 1,500 to go and was quickly called from another player, I bumped the pot up to 3,800.  To my shock I was re-raised all in by an aggressive player with a large stack behind. After the initial two players quickly folded I had an important decision to make. I had 14,000 chips left and the pot I stood to win was approximately 40,000. After convincing myself I was most likely racing or possibly ahead against my crazier opponent I made the call. However, it was AK and not a smaller pair or a random suited hand. I needed a queen and it wasn’t to be as I was eliminated soon after the dinner break.

A picture of me enjoying myself during the ANZPT Melbourne main event.

On Tuesday I moved from my hotel out to my mates place in Camberwell. After arriving by train I joined my mate Julian Cohen and his brother Hugh as well as our mutual friend Tim English, for some online grinding before my next event the following day.

Wednesday’s $550 six-handed event was a tale of contrasting fortunes and fluctuating chip stacks for me. After drawing a killer first table with Dennis Huntly and Julian Powell, I started well taking some decent pots to grow my starting stack of 10,000 chips to over 16,000. The 40 minute blind levels allowed things to tick over quite quickly and I was happy with the way things were going. Our table was broken just after the first level and I joined a table with ANZPT Sydney main event champion Paren Arzoomanian and online phenomenon James ‘Andy McLEOD’ Obst. This is the point at which my stack started making a turn for the worst. After a few mistimed bluffs and bad turn and river cards I was down to 6,000 in chips midway through the fourth level.

My opportunity to double up soon presented itself when I re-raised James Obst to 1,325 after he made it 550 to play. He promptly pushed all-in and I called showing pocket jacks. He could only muster up A9o and I doubled up to around 12,000. Shortly thereafter, I had another interesting hand with James. I was holding and raised the pot to 550. He called me out of the big blind and we saw a flop of . I thought that my hand was pretty strong after the flop and considered how to make it look like I was bluffing. After overbetting the pot with a bet of 3,000 he announced all-in. I silently celebrated and instantly called but was actually up against . He still had me covered but odds were on a split pot. Unfortunately for me though, the turn was a and the river was a and so his eight played and I made another premature exit.

The Melbourne Champs main event itself was starting at the unusual time of 7.30 pm and had a very big starting stack of 20,000. The blinds started at only 25/50 and so the tournament was very deepstacked to start off with. The tournament had an unusual format with two flights followed by a last chance repechage for players who busted out of one of the earlier flights. Some of the players were quite opposed to the format due to could open up short stacks to gamble late on their first chance with the backup option of the repechage. I decided before the start of the event that if I was knocked out I wouldn’t enter the repechage.

Once again I was off to a good start adding a quick 3,000 chips to my stack and chatting away to the player on my left who was another good mate of mine, Darko Balaban. My stack stabilized to level four, where the blinds were 100/200 with an ante of 25. At this point I made a very big mistake and played a hand on emotion with someone at the table. I was in an unraised pot with three other players and after the turn card had come an eight to give me top two pair I moved all-in over the top of a raise for 25,000 or so. The board was showing and I unnecessarily pushed my stack in over the top of this particular players’ re-raise after the player on my right had bet and I had called. Sure enough I was up against a flopped set of twos. The river did not bring me a king or an eight and I had about 6,000 leftover in chips.

After blinding down further, I managed to double up when I moved all-in following a succession of players who had limped in before me. I was called by pocket threes and flopped the top straight with QTo, increasing my stack to around 7,000. I was looking for a spot to improve my situation during level five when I was dealt KJ in the small blind and raised Darko’s big blind of 300 to 900. He moved all-in as I only had about 7,500 in chips left and I decided to gamble and make the call. The second card on the flop was a jack but the following card was an ace and I couldn’t improve and was knocked out of the main event.

After my elimination I joined Julian, Tim and another friend of ours, Andy on the sideline to discuss who had the best (funniest) tournament stack-off story. Hugh survived until early on day two when his tournament run was abruptly ended.

Next time I look forward to taking you all through some more rollercoaster adventures that I like to call online satellites.