Poker in paradise

Von nzvr4poker, 16.08.2009, 1527 Aufrufe, 1 Kommentar | Kommentar hinzufügen

Welcome everyone to Surfers’ Paradise. The first major poker tournament in Australia’s tropical north Queensland area has arrived and Pokerstars have come to the party. After departing on my late Monday afternoon flight from Auckland I arrived in Coolangatta at twilight time and organised my rental car. The weather was nice and warm which was in stark contrast to the icy cold weather of Queenstown that I had experienced just ten days before. I navigated my way up the Gold Coast highway and checked into my hotel. Following that I grabbed a meal at Hard Rock Cafe with my poker friend from New Zealand – Phil Willcocks and his girlfriend Karli.

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday lapping up the brilliant sunshine and warmth that is synonymous with the Gold Coast all year round. The tournament had a unique format where up to 65 players could play simultaneously over the two opening days at Brisbane’s Conrad Treasury casino and the Gold Coast’s Conrad Jupiter’s casino. Wednesday was the start of the tournament proper and I watched my friends Andy Hinrichsen, Julian and Hugh Cohen, and Phil play. Andy had an early double up with aces against kings chipping him up to 40,000. As I was assigned to play on Thursday, I decided to go shopping at Pacific Fair which is one of the bigger shopping venues in Australia. I needed some new clothes for my club crawl later on in the day. After my wallet was emptied with the purchases of some new shirts, shorts and shoes, I was ready to party.

5 pm had arrived and I made my way down to the Shooters night club which is right in the middle of the Gold Coast clubs district on Orchid Avenue. I got chatting to two guys – Anthony and Chris from Sydney as our club crawl got underway. We were joined by two nice German girls who we shared drinks with for about an hour. Next stop was a bowling alley where we swapped drinks and nibbles for strikes, spares and gutter balls. As the alcohol was flowing freely the gutter balls were more and more frequent. The group of us then moved back to Shooters for some dancing and on to Cocktails and Dreams where there were plenty of party games. The final destination was The Bedroom where Andy, Julian, Hugh, another friend of ours ‘tollgate’ from Sydney and Daniel Neilson joined our club crawl group for drinks. It was lots of fun there and we all made some new friends including Sancelot from France.

I was assigned to play on Thursday which was day 1B. I sat down at a table which included three friends of mine. The first of which was Aaron "azzabentonaces" Benton who graced Australia’s television screens as a Big Brother participant, and recently had the biggest online score in a single event by an Australian for over $260,000. Also seated at my table were the lovely Celina Lin and Robert Wang from New Zealand and we all enjoyed chatting to each other throughout the day. As usual we had 20,000 chips to play with and had to avoid stacking off for seven one-hour levels in order to build a chip stack to set up for the rest of the tournament. All up 249 players registered over the two days and venues for a prize pool of $622,500 Australian dollars. The top 27 players would finish in the money receiving $4,668 for their efforts with a first prize of $168,000 plus the trophy, on offer for the champion.

I got off to a good start flopping a couple of sets and also making a good call with a pair of kings which was an over pair on a scary board as I pushed up towards 30,000 in chips. At the first break after two hours, I was sitting on 28,000 in chips. During the third level with the blinds at 100/200, I was involved in a big hand with Celina Lin. I made a re-raise holding pre-flop in middle position with Celina calling out of the big blind. The flop came down and I bet out 1,975 into the pot of approximately 3,700. Both of us checked the turn of that gave me the second best possible flush. On the river I bet out 3,950 and Celina made the crying call before mucking her cards as I showed the winning hand. After winning the pot I was sitting on 47,000 and looking good to make day 2.

During the fifth level of the day I knocked out my friend Aaron. The blinds were 150/300 with an ante of 25. After I made a raise to 800 pre-flop with pocket aces Aaron and another player called me. He pushed his short stack all-in on a ten-high flop and my aces held up to catapult my chip stack to over 55,000.

By the time of the third break which came after six hours, my stack was up to 60,000 and I was amongst the overall chip leaders on the day. During the last level I was aiming to push up the leader board even further and improve my standing heading into day 2. In a critical hand early on in the last level of the day with the blinds at 300/600 with an ante of 75, I raised from under the gun with . I was called by the other big stack on the table in the small blind. The flop came down to give me a gutshot straight flush draw. I lead out on the flop and was quickly called by my opponent. The turn was a blank for me but I fired another bullet and was called again. I decided to take an aggressive course of action on the river which was also a blank. The small blind led into me with a bet of 5,000 which I re-raised to 12,500 with total air. Unfortunately he called me down with a pair of aces and I dropped back to about 42,000 in chips. Some aggressive play during the last level meant that I finished the day on 48,375 in chips leaving me well placed heading into day 2 on the following day.

I went to pickup my friend Gaylene from the airport early on Friday as she had come up from Sydney to spend the weekend hanging out and hopefully watching me go well into the tournament. 129 of us had made it through to day 2 and we were slated to play either seven levels or until the last 40 players remained. Andy and Hugh were both on my table as well as another friend of mine – New Zealand’s Lee ‘Final Table’ Nelson. On the second hand of the day I was in the big blind and picked up . The blinds were 400/800 with an ante of 100. Lee raised to 2,100 in middle position and I re-raised to 6,000. Lee made the call. The flop was and I bet out 10,000 with Lee calling again. The turn brought about an and I shoved in the remainder of my stack which was about 32,000. Lee quickly called and tabled for a set of tens and I needed a miracle ace on the river to survive. The river was another queen and Lee just had me covered eliminating me. On the bright side of things I knew I could relax and enjoy my weekend but I was left wondering what may have been as I left for the casino exit.

In the afternoon Gaylene and I went to play mini golf and had loads of fun. For the record I won with the highlight being the animal course with bears and lions and the odd stray panther keeping us on our toes. Later on in the evening, Phil, Karli and another poker friend – Martin Cardno joined us for a night out on the town. Phil, Karli, Gaylene and I met up with Marty at Waxy’s which is an Irish nightclub. After some dances and drinks we moved on to Melbas to indulge in more drinks. As Phil was still going well in the tournament with over 100,000 in chips he left us and the rest of us retreated soon after with Saturday anticipated to be a big day of activities, as it was Gaylene’s birthday.

On Saturday Gaylene and I checked out the wax museum. We then made the trip to the casino to watch Julian, Phil and a fellow friend of mine, Tim Clarke, make the money in the poker. Phil ended up making the final table on the Sunday. Sunday dawned and to show our support, Gaylene and I made our presence felt as we cheered Phil on during the final table. Phil played really well and ended up taking down second place for $112,050. Gaylene flew back to Sydney later in the evening so we had a meal at hooters restaurant on the way to the airport. My flight to Melbourne was scheduled for 8.30 am the following morning as I had a week of tournaments at the Victorian Championships to follow.

My next blog will outline my tournaments and activities in Melbourne as I will be playing in the $1,650 heads up event as well as the state of origin event where I will be representing New Zealand. At this stage I am undecided on whether to play the $2,700 main event. Talk to you all soon.