Yip ... winning feels good!

So my friend and I entered the ANZPT Teams Event on Sunday. The entry was a modest $550 per team and my partner was all psyched up. I on the other hand must confess that I was a little blasé about the whole thing. After a couple of hours of treading water from our 6k starting stack, I'd played 1 hand in almost 3 blind levels and my partner had played about 8, up and down. Luckily a few spots came up to steal a few pots near the end of an orbit and we had scraped together 7100 when the blinds hit 200/400. Then everything came together ...

Jim was on the button mid-level with about 4BBs left and shoved on an unraised pot with QTo. BB wakes up with an A and calls. T hits on the river and we aren't out! A couple of hands later, he doubles up. His JJ survived an inocuous looking flop of 227r. Only problem was that opponent had 23o. Thankfully justice prevailed when the J fell on the Turn which he flat-called and then called the river AI.

Then a couple more hands and UTG he puts in a min-raise. UTG+1 goes AI with a short stack only to be followed by UTG+2 with an AI to isolate with his AK. Folds around to Jim who thinks for a nano-second before shoving with his AA. His little tap to break the inertia had set off a very lucrative snowball effect and we tripled up! Happy days, we're suddenly well above average with 30 something left out of a field of 96, I think.

Breathe deeply and go back to solid play. A few spots came up and to be honest for the rest of the evening almost all of our hands held up AK vs AJ, JJ vs TT etc. We were getting our money in good and the hands were holding. We sat on 57k for the longest time as the field went from 18 to 12 ever so slowly, maybe 2 hours. Then on my break I went for a stroll to keep fresh when I receive a Text "Better come back, sry". I then tried to practice my best false smile and trite "Don't worry about it" lines. Sure enough the final table was forming and Jim was standing up. Then I noticed, cradled securely was the 57k intact. With 600k in circulation, we were average stacked going into the final table with blinds of 2k/4k.

We were happy with our guaranteed $1k payout and then just looked to climb the ladder a couple of rungs or get lucky. Well lady luck was shining and a couple of runners fell by the wayside. With $500 increments we were up to a massive (for us) $2k payout. Now we were freerolling. The final table played out 1 orbit each. I sat down one time and shoved KQs from MP, no callers. Partner believes that wasn't in the script. Very next hand, the most active annoying stealer leads out with 17k. I look down at A9o and decided to 3-bet as he can't always have the goods, everyone folds and suddenly we're running level 2nd in chips. Then a couple more drop out and we find ourselves 4-way. As the others had doubled up, we're now shortstacked again.

With 3 equal stacks, surprisingly, we wielded the biggest threat for a couple of orbits with our potentially damaging AIs. Then before we know it, we're up in the running again without a showdown. Our hands continued to hold up until we were Heads Up with last year's ANZPT Player of the Year Runner Up, Chris Levick and his wife Danette (the TV dealer). They were undoubtedly the best team in the Event and I'll be honest, very intimidating. Chris was raising nearly every hand from the SB to 55k with 4k/8k blinds. I decided to do the same as did our partners. I was surprised at not facing a small ball approach because I thought that a coinflip suited us. Then came the crucial hand, Chris raises AI from the SB, clearly a hand that he's happy to get it in the middle with. I look at the first card, Kc. I comment "halfway there". Then squeeze out a delightful 2nd K. I CALL! Board runs out something, who cares. A $6k blank, blank, blank. And then the very surreal moment of realising that we were indeed ANZPT Teams Event Champions.

It's still a little surreal. So much so that it was almost 12 hours later that I even realised the value of the blank board. From 4th place, they were just chips, pot sized bets and a desire to come first. Even drinking beers with our friends at 3am on Monday morning in Star City, the money jumps in the top 3 places weren't considered or discussed. We had the title, the trophy and of course 75 pristine unused $100 notes each. The $40 extra was already converted into Stella Artois.

Winning feels good and tastes good!

PS Star City did an excellent job of running the entire series extremely well despite the above gorund dungeon that is the poker room these days. And a big shoutout to Pokerstars who sponser these affordable poker tours. This amateur got to play heads up with a formidable foe - thank you Pokerstars. Maybe now I can learn How to Play 8 Game Mix and How to Play Badugi too.

My final shoutout may sound corny but Mike and Adam at the 2+2 Pokercast deserve a lot of the credit for our win. We've listened to every episode including the original BigPoker.ca ones and had visualised being at a final table many times. We'd heard so many pros describe the experience of every stage so often, its like we had been there. When we got there we'd already rehearsed the future. especially the heads up combat. Thanks guys ... you're the nutz.

Quick ANZPT update

I had an early exit from Event 1 last Thursday not even making it to the first break. AQo when the flop came AJ5r. I check/min-raised to take it down on the flop but got re-min-raised. Mega alarm bells. Turn comes a Q. I bet, he min-raises so I decide to go with it hoping for the AJ or AK. I can't put him on 55 or AA because he called pre-flop. Sure enough, he had the dreaded JJ ... gooooone.

Yesterday was a lot better, just missing out on the money. 12th out of 99 in the PLO, final table get paid. I was just under average stack at the time. With A787ds in BB, flop came 69T, so I had the nuts (sounds good) but with 2 hearts out there, no redraw (very vulnerable multiway in PLO). Blinds are 500/1000, I had 33,000 chips. I potted to 6000 but got re-raised AI to be pot committed and shoved hoping to hold on with slight edge and go 3rd in chips. In fact, I was in better shape as the shove was a fishy 9TJK for top 2-pair and a gutshot. With 75% equity, I quickly went to 0% when Q fell on the Turn. Ah well, played well and just missed out.

Should I have folded my way into the money? With $5.5k for 1st and $575 for 10th, I think that the answer is possibly "no", but I'm open to comment. What I should have done though was check OOP and it might have been checked around. Then I can get away when the Q flops and someone pots it. Assuming the top 2-pair pots it, this becomes a more interesting spot. What should I do in this scenariodo you think?

Another experiential learning experience under my belt, I'm looking forward to the Tony Haschem Deep Stack today. At $330 for a Bounty Tourney with 30 minute blinds its another good value tournament. Hats off to PokerStars for backing the ANZPT.

ANZPT Event 1 - short lived

Reflective of my short lifespan in Event 1, I'll restrict my update to a very disappointing single hand. Starting stack 10k, dropped to 9k, clawed back to 11k, elderly gentleman joins table with 15k to my left, guy to my right says watch this guy bleed off his chips. Sure enough, his 15k was soon 7k.

I get dealt AQs UTG+1. Had been relatively tight to this point and with blinds of 50/100 I made it 600 to go. Only 1 caller, elderly gentleman to my left. Flop AJ5r. Decided to get a few extra chips, so checked, gentleman bets 600 and I min-raise to 1200 expecting to take it down. He min-re-raises to 1800, I call. Bugga, he has a strong hand, probably AK or AJ but maybe a set. Turn brings a Q, happy days.

At this point, Dan Harrington is ringing in my ears. He says that it is worth taking chances earlier against fish because the chips are easier to get off them than it will be later from the shark who would otherwise end up with his chips. So I bet 1800. He raised to 4000 which was effectively AI and I pushed in the rest to put him AI. Needless to say, I was crippled when he showed me JJ.

An hour later, I'd doubled up with a nice squeeze play, gone AI against a shortstack QQ vs AA and very next hand decided to push what little I have left in the middle with 44 to find consecutive AA and exit stage left. All in all, very disappointing.

Stepping back, I have been running good and am now even more revved up for the PLO Event on Monday.

Online : The training ground for live

Long ago, I realised that I would never make it as an online pro. Thankfully, I've been able to comfort myself with the challenge of staying a winning player, even if it is only a few dollars. Then came PLO and I ran good early (as I've since found out). These days, I am struggling to keep my head above water at PLO100 but just managing too which has always been my goal. Still waiting for the influx of new players to the game which seems to be more of a trickle and the more experienced players. I must say that the standard has got noticeably better over the last 6 months and the CardRunner-type 3-bet aggression has well and truly come to the fore after what was a very passive old school style until recently at the lower stakes.

What has improved with PLO is my thinking about poker in general and this has undoubtedly help improve my offline play. My home games continue to be lucrative beyond what I think can be considered positive variance. That said, the number of hands I will play live in my lifetime is unlikely to exceed the 100k that is needed to be confident in PLO of being a winning player.

I dipped my toes back into pub poker with better results. If you can't beat them, join them, so I take a lot more aggressive lines early in the tourney. Go hard or go home. Luckily, Ive been running good when it matters.

I invested ($12) in Poker Income for my iPhone to track my Live results and the graph is very positive indeed. In BB/100 it is probably well over 100 for the last 60 hours of record keeping. My roll is up to the point where I can comfortably go to the casino within my BR and drop a few BIs if need be and reload. Not playing with scared money is very liberating indeed.

Finally, I am looking forward to the ANZPT which rolls into Sydney this week. I've registered for 3 x $330 tourneys at this stage. Will be disappointed if I get sucked out on early in the PLO, otherwise, I'm just going to give it my best shot to win the $2200 required for a Main Event ticket. Fingers crossed.

Importance of Poker Buddies.

... or Sky City gets the better of me once again, this time with superior poker skills.

It's amazing when you hear stories from the professionals, how the met playing backgammon in New York or even Tennis in Scandanavia. Either, they're all leveraging the same connections to become famous or, as the results would indicate, their results are for the most part superior to the rest of us and they've learned quicker as a group. My recent experiences at the ANZPT and Sky City Auckland have reinforced this concept in my mind.

Recapping the ANZPT, I felt a sense of anticipation in the lead up and I wanted to do well, as reflected a few posts ago. I met or exceeded my expectations in terms of results and was suitably chuffed (you'll be pleased to know that my cockiness has been well and truly been knocked out of me coming back to earth at the felt which is a great leveller). Anyway, at the Sunday Deep Stack Event, it struck me that my anticipation was nothing to the excitement that a quarter of the field were enjoying having brought their partners along to share the experience. There was another quarter that it was just another day at the office. For me, I was in the middle which isn't a bad place to be because it means that you're still appreciating it. From a results and expectation perspective though, I have a long way to go yet and it's unlikely that I'd get there on my own.

Now what really struck me was that over the week where I played only 2 days, albeit 12 hours plus both times, you do get talking to a lot of other players. And by the Main Event where I turned up briefly to spectate, I was involved in conversations with a lot of the top Aussie Pros. People know people and just by being there, you get right in the middle of all sorts of hand analysis, comments on tells that were spotted, partnerships being formed for the upcoming teams event, media reporting, playing styles of specific individuals, who to watch out for and who to take advantage of, various home games that go on, etc. etc. It was really harder to avoid being in the middle of it all. How then can you not succeed?

And so to Sky City Auckland where I played all night. With the time difference, I can either leave in the afternoon to get a flight, or first thing the next morning. My preference is to do the latter, which means setting the alarm very early. If you stay out to midnight, it's hardly worth going to bed. And as someone who has been known to sleep under telephone booths in Euston Station, beaches in Greece etc, the thought of a hotel room lying essentially unoccupied seems like a waste. Extrapolating this line of thinking, I play to the poker room closes, get a cab to the airport in time for the opening of the Qantas Club at 5am. A couple of hours snooze there and then a 3 hour flight to Sydney where I manage to sleep the whole way - sweet.

Anyway, last night when I sat down, there were no recreational players, NONE! Hardly a +EV spot with a load of grinders. But you know what, the best players aren't grinders either, their gamblers at heart and that's who turned up for the most part. There were the long faces grinding out their $200 / night on the $60-$100 BI NLHE tables, where I started. But then a tournament started with $100 entry, 3000 starting stack and 20 minute blinds. Almost every one of the 50 competitors had been to Sydney and the ANZPT. I now understood all of their stories and could join in. I got respect at the table and actually started well, thanks to good cards. I didn't cash though and that wasn't the point of the story anyway. The point was, I was being accepted into this group and hearing stuff that I only get access to on PokerCasts. But this time it was current. The hand analysis was refining thinking that I'd only just experienced and drawn my own conclusions too. But these guys were noticing things that I hadn't really thought about.

For example, I had AA one time, with about 6000 in chips, blinds were 100/200. EP raiser made it 600 and MP limped. I was on the button, happy days. I thought about my betsize, and I was sure that 1500 would have got two aggressive callers. I made it 1850 to draw some attention to the bet. I nearly got the desired single caller but both folded which I wasn't too unhappy with as my stack was growing just nicely. But then a player not involved in the hand said "Nice squeeze play". I know that he was probably just fishing for confirmation, but it struck me that this was a squeeze play. I'd never really thought of it like that before the bet, but subconsciously that is what I was doing. And I hadn't even formalised it in my head after the action, but it was a genuine squeeze play. Just by drawing it to my attention, I thought about it more and it did crystalise my thinking on the move for similar situations in the future. A small example of how being in the community helps you improve.

I'm just not getting that to nearly the same extent online, on 2+2 or even to be truthful this blog. If this was a business, I'd have to say that the ROI just isn't there. That said, it isn't a business today, its a (sometimes very) challenging hobby that I really enjoy. In that regard, following the half dozen or so blogs that I do really does cheer me up, so it has got to be +EV. I just wish the LSG was back blogging again though. Those were the days.

So I was $100 after busting out and still a few hours to go before my flight (I didn't want to go busto on my kiwi dollars). I went to look at sitting at a table and there was a $1/$2 PLO game going. These were the very experienced online and live PLO specialists. Their home games also include Omaha/8. I was way out of my depth but if I bought in short stacked and played really tight preflop and picked my spots post flop, I should be able to do OK with not too much risk. Nice theory until I got it all in with a Turned A high Flush only to get sucked out on with a straight flush on the river. Ah well, there goes the first $100 chip. I took another out of my pocket and am pleased to report that this lasted me until the poker room closed. The education that I received though was second to none.

At the table was a German guy (I think) called Andy who could have come across as arrrogant to plenty and was commentating incessantly. He was by far the best LAG there. But he also analysed every hand after the pot. He'd also call (pretty accurately) the hands that people had, which I actualy think is easier in PLO as there is less bluffing and the range is narrowed by the flop betting a lot. He clashed with another guy who was a gambling NLHE LAG but very little clue about PLO. In the pursuit of all of his chips, he lost several BIs, but by cash out time, he'd way more than recovered them; nice work.

In the early hours, we got shorthanded, down to 6 but the banter continued and I got a whole new persective on how to play PLO. Spots where Andy would explain to the table that if you fire there he just can't call. I think that with a few more sessions like this, my game would come on in leaps and bounds, but I write this post back home and all alone in the absence of live poker buddies to discuss strategy with. I always have you guys though.

I'll leave it there, but without the opportunity to live amongst living, breathing poker players on a regular basis, I'm convinced that I'll never win a bracelet. Truth is that even if I did do it all day every day, it just isn't in me to be that bracelet winner anyway probably. Highest percentage of Cashing will do me just fine. If I could acquire a modicom of the BCG's discipline, I reckon that I can get that to 50%.

Well that is today's rant, but I'd certainly be interested to hear of anyone that has similar or contrary, thoughts and experiences.

PS The next Poker Cruise will be on Pittwater on May 15th if anyone can make it to Sydney for then, there are still 2 spots available.