Knucking down on the virtual felt and preparing for Queenstown

Von nzvr4poker, 24.07.2009, 1143 Aufrufe, 4 Kommentare | Kommentar hinzufügen

Hey folks. Sorry about the long delays between some of my blog entries. I have had limited access to the Internet while I have been on my travels. This time round I want to share about a couple of online tournaments that I played in a couple of weeks ago. I will also share about my preparations for my trip to Queenstown, in New Zealand’s south island, to play in the ANZPT (Australia New Zealand Poker Tour) Queenstown event next week.

To start things off I played in the $215 Aruba Classic qualifier on Wednesday afternoon, a couple of weeks ago. 56 players were in the starting field meaning that the winner would get the $8,500 US package to the tournament due to be staged on the Caribbean island of Aruba in early October. Second through fourth were to be awarded cash prizes of $1,350, $810 and $540 respectively.

Each player was allocated 3,000 chips and blind levels increased every15 minutes. I started well with after I raised under-the-gun to 95 with the blinds at 20/40. I was called by the small blind and flopped a flush draw . After my bet of 145 was called by the small blind, the came up giving me the flush. I managed to get my non-believing opponent to call off an extra 975 on the turn and the river as my flush was enough to beat the mucked pocket queens.

A couple of hours into the tournament I was involved in a significant pot. At the start of the hand I had 5,250 in chips and was dealt pocket kings in first position. After making a raise, the small blind pushed all-in for a total of 4,710. I quickly called and was up against pocket queens. After the board failed to serve up any nasty surprises I had increased my chip stack to over 10,000 and was sitting pretty. I then had 3 successive winning hands on the 150/300 blind level that saw my chip stack soar from just under 10,000 to over 23,000. The key hand in this sequence was when I limped from the small blind and flopped a straight draw. After the other two players and I checked the flop, the turn gave me a flush draw in addition to the straight draw. I took a stab at the pot and was raised by one of my opponents’. After the other player got out of the way, I called. The river gave me a flush which I checked for deception and to my delight my opposition shoved all-in which I called. It was an epic stack off as I was up against a total bluff in .

With the blinds at 300/600 and antes of 75, I continued my march towards the final table. After raising from the button and then calling a subsequent re-raise from the small blind, I was fortunate enough to flop a set of eights.  We were all-in on the turn and my opponent showed pocket kings with my set holding for a pot of over 50,000. That was enough to elevate me to chip leader. I improved my situation even more when I won a race with pocket nines against AKo to boost my stack to over 70,000 in chips.

The nine remaining players contesting the final table knew what was at stake and I was in pole position to win the package. My first significant pot at the final table came when six players were left. At this stage the blinds were 400/800 with antes of 100. I still had 65,000 in chips and picked up pocket jacks in middle position. After raising pre-flop, I was called by the big blind who was the short stack. The big blind then checked a relatively safe flop of   backed up my pre-flop bet with a half-pot bet, which my opponent promptly raised all-in. I made the quick call and was taking on pocket eights. The turn and river brought blank cards and I eliminated another player, collecting a pot of nearly 19,000 in the process.

With just five players left I was the dominant chip leader with a stack of 75,000. However I was on the wrong end of some all-ins against shorter stacks which saw my stack drop to 50,000. After a big pot featuring an all-in between the two of the other players, four players remained. A further confrontation between the two next biggest stacks saw another elimination and the emergence of a clear chip leader who had an intimidating 100,000 in chips. If I was to get back in contention I would most likely need to eliminate the other remaining player and overturn a chip deficit heads-up.

With just three of us remaining, the blinds had escalated to 600/1200 with an ante of 125. I picked up on the button and raised to 3,200. The big stack in the small blind folded and the player in the big blind promptly pushed all-in for 13,000 total. I made the call and found myself up against . The flop improved my hand as an ace hit the board with only one spade present. A ten came down on the turn so I just had to avoid the queen on the river. The river was another ace and I eliminated my challenger in third place to setup a heads-up battle where I would start with 60,000 versus 110,000 for the package to Aruba.

The last remaining adversary standing between me and glory started the heads-up battle in positive fashion as I soon dropped back to 35,000 in chips. At this point in time we played a pivotal hand. The blinds were still 600/1,200 and I was on the button raising to 3,100 with . I was called and we saw a flop of . After the flop I bet 3,875 into the pot of 6,200 which caused my opponent to push all-in. I quickly called and saw the good news as I was up against – a flush draw that I had crippled. The turn and river of respectively kept me in front as I won a pot of 71,500 to regain some impetus.

However it wasn’t long before I drifted southwards again and with the blinds moving up to 800/1,600 with an ante of 200, I had to get busy. I was down to 53,000 in chips and facing a bet of 4,000 from my opponent. I decided to move-in with and was quickly called by for a pot of a little over 107,000. The board ran out meaning my eight kicker would play, catapulting me into the lead in this epic heads-up battle. The momentum was now firmly on my side as I now had the chip advantage for the first time during the heads-up stanza.

Less than twenty hands later, I picked up in the big blind. I had maintained a big chip lead with 115,000 chips compared to 53,000 for my opponent. The blinds were still at 800/1,600 and I was facing a min-raise to 3,200. I decided to push all-in. I was instantly called and took a big gulp. Potentially, this was it. Just over four hours of work and it could all ride on this one hand. I was up against . If my hand could stay ahead of my opponent’s, I would secure the $8,500 US package to Aruba, a remarkable victory and could begin planning my trip to the exotic Caribbean island.

The flop was the worst possible one for me without an actual seven hitting the board as appeared. At least he didn’t have a club flush draw! However, not only did I have to dodge a seven, but now all four’s and nine’s would be soul-destroying. The turn brought the onto the virtual felt. I was one card away from jubilation. The river was ………………………………….. ! CAAAAAAAAAAA$$$$$$$$$$$HHHHHHHHHHHH. I had done it! I had overcome challenges from most of the 55 other players to claim an epic victory and punch my ticket to Aruba! Quoting the Beach Boys from their song Kokomo. "Aruba, Jamaica ooo I wanna take ya. Bermuda, Bahama come on pretty mama….."

On a side note in the Pokerstars $320 qualifier to the ANZPT Queensland-Gold Coast leg, I finished ninth out of 44 players. That was good enough to get my money back, but short of the top three who were lucky enough to win $3,345 packages to the next leg of the ANZPT, due to kickoff in early August.

This week I have been very busy shopping for Queenstown and getting the appropriate clothes to keep warm in the expected sub-Antarctic climate for next week. I am really looking forward to an improved showing down there as I have not yet made a Day 2 in the previous ANZPT events which have so far been staged in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne. Hopefully my recent improvement in online results translates to the live arena and I can share some more good news with all of you.

Look forward to reporting to all of you from Queenstown. This is jimdownunder!