Adelaide

First, before I begin, I need to point out that my WPT epsiode has FINALLY been pirated by the fine people of the internet and is available over at thepokerbay.org and possibly some other torrent sites as well. I'm looking forward to watching it later on today. Edit: It's now also up on www.pokertube.com for people who dont want to do the torrent thing.

Alright so the last four days I spent in Adelaide for the ANZPT event there. I guess I'll start with a brief recap of my tournament since some semi-interesting stuff happened and I last more than 3 hours.

We started with 20K chips and hour long levels, a pretty fast structure but quite reasonable, I think it was the same as the standard EPT structure. In the early levels I chipped up a lot by getting dealt big pairs and winning decent sized pots with them and just winning most small pots I played uncontested whether I made pairs or not. I got as high as 42K before this hand:

Hand 1: 200/400 a50 I opened to 1100 UTG with AKo no spade and a bad player flatted as did some guy in the CO as well as the BB who actually seemed ok. The flop came A83 all spades, I bet 3K, first guy flatted with like 4K more behind or something ridiculous, CO folds, BB shoves for 9K more, I sigh and stick it in and other guy calls as well. BB has 88 and other guy has KK with the Ks so I don't win. Gross spot but in this tournament I can't imagine ever playing it differently.

Hand 2: At a new table now 400/800 a100 a loose player who's very short opens UTG to 2K, I make it 6K UTG+1 with AKs and around 18K more behind. It folds to a pretty tight youngish girl Monica in the SB who makes it 16.8K without hesitation. Folds to me and after some thought I realize I should probably not give away the rest of my chips yet.

Hand 3: Same guy opens UTG to 2K, I 3-bet to 6K UTG+1 with AA. Nice life. He makes some comment along the lines of "this fucking kid, every time" and says let's see a flop. Flop AQJ with two spades, he checks, I shove his last 10K or so in and he mumbles about how of course the ace had to come and he has 8 outs before folding T9cc face up. lol.

Hand 4: 500/1000 a100 I"m up to 30K or so. Asian lady minraises in EP, guy on my right calls with like 4500 behind, I call button with 22 and a blind calls. Flop KQ2 two spades, lady bets 6k, guy on my right calls all-in, I expert raise to 12K, lady calls. Turn blank, she shoves I snap and hold vs AA to get to ~70K.

Hand 5: I open to 2700 in MP. Some Canadian guy with a ton of chips who talks a lot calls in the BB. Flop QTx rainbow, he tells the dealer tha I'm going to bet if checks and then he'll call so I oblige and bet 4K he calls, Turn 8 he says now if I check hes gonna check behind so I've gotta bet and leads 10K. I'm thoroughly unamused by this nonsense and call. River blank he shoves for my last 45K or so and I cry and fold. He def seemed like a bit of an idiot but most people when they pull this type of bs and talk this much always have it so and he didn't seem like the type to run such an insane bluff.

Hand 6: Monica limps UTG, I raise to 4K in MP with AQo she calls. Flop KJ8 two clubs she donks 5500 with like 13.5 behind and I decide to shove since these leads are usually weak, she might fold KQ even, or I might accidentally be ahead of a draw, but she really did just lead into me with top 2 pair and so I'm down to 20K. Oops.

Hand 7: HJ who is new to the table opens to 3K, I shove 22 in the CO for 20K, he calls with AK, I flop a set and lose to the backdoor flush.

Anyways, the big news from Adelaide was Tony final tabling and finishing 2nd for 111K AUD. Even at the current exchange rate he cleared his makeup! There were also several nights out where I learned the true meaning of "Go hard or go home" as they like to say here. I have decided to go home. But not right away. Saturday I leave for LA to go play a few events of LAPC. My flights are tentatively booked to stay until early March and play the Celebrity freeroll thing but I might bounce right after I bust the WPT main event instead depending how much I'm feeling LA. We shall see. Anyways I'm off to enjoy my last week in Melbourne. Check out my episode I've watched it since I started writing this blog and it's pretty sweet. I cooler everyone so fucking hard. There's really not a single hand where I do anything resembling outplaying anyone, I just always get there.

Mike