You're a Bunch of Factors

ok, im gonna try and go through the weekend, but OMFG its still a massive blur and im still not sure how i managed to win it. sorry, but this is really long.

im not gonna talk about saturday much, because i dont really care any more about that! (if i didn't run deep in the ME it would have been a 2000 word essay), but needless to say i finished third and got $550 and a ME entry.

sunday, i was supposed to be picking up a couch, so a bit of mucking around say me get up at like 730 to go pick up the ute from dads house 20 mins away. i was pretty tired, and i had to rush to get down to the port club on time.

when registered, i told dakota to give me feature table, and he nearly abliged, giving me table 1 which was right next to the feature table. but i was very happy with this, because i knew this meant that the table wouldn't get broken down until very late in the day.

my plan for the day was to start really aggressively, and over and over again in my head i was just saying to myself "out of positon is spew". but nearly every button and cutoff that was limped or folded to me i was raising, with as little as any paint and any connectors down to 67.

it turns out that i was on the best table ever, because noone had the balls to play back at me preflop, so i was taking pots preflop a large amount of the time preflop. whenever i got called, i would pump all flops when i was in position, and get folds most of the time.

as a result of me playing a lot of hands, i started to get lots of callers preflop - but no re-raises, so it was pretty much perfect

so in the first 2 blind levels, i built my stack up from 5k to about 9 with maybe seeing 1 or 2 showdowns, but basically nothing special, mostly just getting blinds.

then i nearly doubled in the 100/200 level when i was dealt A9 in the bb. a spew monkey on the button just limps, so i pump it to 800, and he flats again. i am not so worried that he called here, because i was confident of being able to outplay him, or get away cheaply if i didn't hit.

well flop comes 998, and i am loving it!. i check (80% of flops i was leading, and if i checked i was mostly folding to a bet if i missed, especially oop, so it was a perfect trap). button checks behind

turn comes with a J, and i lead out for 800, trying to make it look like i am stealing again, and he instaraises to 3K, which left him about 2K left in his stack. i put him all in, and with out thinking for a millisecond, he snap calls and tables AJ, and i held. that took me up to around 13K

i went back to about 10K after raising utg with A10, then leading into 3 players on a rag flop and having to fold to a raise. i gave myself a good telling myself off because it was absolute spew from OOP. so i told myself the next time i show down cards they will be good.

i think i won a small pot or two after that, because i built my stack up to 16K just before the break, i think i won a top pair vs second pair type of pot

then the last hand before the break set it up for me i reckon

i get dealt [qh] [9d] on the button, and there is 1 limper from the hijack with a big stack or around 15K. so i make it 4BB to go, and the limper comes along.

flop is [kh] [8h] [9h], so i have flopped middle pair with the Q high flush draw. he checks the flop, and i check behind. turn comes a 9. he checks again. my reads on this player were that he is calling a lot of hands, and that if he had the flush already, he almost certainly would have bet (probably min bet) on the flop but definitely on the turn.

so i think i am in a really good spot here, i have trips which i think is the best hand, and if he flopped a flush, then i still had some outs to the house and the second nut flush, but i figured at absolute best he had the Ah

so once he checks to me, i bet 1800, and he tentatively raises to 4K, basically a min raise - i am sure he thinks i am trying to steal again, as i had been doing this continually, so i decide to shove for 16k, and that puts him into the tank. eventually he makes the call with [ad] [10h] for the 10 high flush draw!!!! at the time i thought he had a gutshot as well, but i dont see how he could have without a Q out there, so im not sure it was. so the river is a Q to boat me up, but it obv didn't matter as i think he was drawing dead, so i am up to 32K at the break.

at the break, i am feeling awesome, because as garth said i was on a table of tight passive players who mostly had 10K or less, with a couple bigger. but i felt that i was picking up chips with basically no risk, and also getting paid off when i hit my good hands.

just after the break, i get dealt [2d] [2h] (my new fav hand) on the the button. mid pos, the second biggest chipstack on the table with about 15K min raises, and i ask him to count his chips out. when he was doing this, he looked pretty confident, so i knew he had a decent hand, and that i could probably stack him if i hit a set, and i was in position as well.

flop comes [2c] [ac] [6c], so i have hit my set. he instantly leads out for 2bb again, and i raise to 8bb, he shoves and i snap call. he rolls [as] [qc] for top pair plus flush draw, so i have to dodge some cards, and sure enough the board bricks out.

so now i am up to about 50K, and the rest of the table was short stacks.

at this point in time, i opened my range up MASSIVELY, raising from button, cutoff and hijack, as well as any ace from any position, and basically without showdown. the only time i got caught when i had to call a shove, i ended up with my A3 racing KQ, and i held. other than that, i built my stack up basically without any risk at all

so that was the early stages of the tourney, probably first 3 hours or so. at that stage i was on 80 odd, and 2 players got moved to my right with about 20-30K.

i think ill post and start a new post

the next part of the tourney was really really tough, and this is probably where i think i played my best poker

the person directly to my right, (he cashed but im not sure what his name was), picked up pretty much instantly that i was running the table and betting and raising extremely light.

so i reckon just about EVERY blind and every one of my buttons, he just started shoving. he built up his stack from like 20K to 40K just by taking blinds and antes.

he totally changed the tone of the table, and most definitely took control. he played his short stack extremely well and forced me to tighten up hugely. this is when i went from about 100K back down to 60K, because he took the aggression away from me

straight after that, another guy got moved to my table (massive pacific islander looking guy with a beanie) as a big stack on about 120K and he started with a bang as well, really aggressively. the big pot was when i raised on the button with A8 off, and the limper (big fijian guy) came along. flop came 445, and i cbet. the guy tanks for ages, and folds, declaring he had KQ but i had A9. so that signalled to me that he knew what he was doing, and i had to be careful.

from then on in, it was pretty standard for a while, i won a AJ > KQ race. and i was up to about 270K.

i was really happy now, and intent to coast to the final table. but about 3 hands before, i check my option with [2c] [4c] in the bb. flop comes 10 5 4, i check and the limper SB min bets, and i call.

turn comes a 2, so i think this is gonna be payday. there are now 2 hearts out there though, and plenty of straight draws as well ( i think turn was a 7)

i would have been happy to take it down now, so i bet 50K, and the other player calls very quickly. alarm bells are going off in my head, and the river was 9h, so it pretty much made every straight draw and flush draw imaginable. so i am thinking there is not much chance i am ahead here, i put the limper on a 10 with a flush draw when he called the turn bet

so i decided to check, and he checked behind and rolled 10 5 for a better 2 pair. that was a definite cooler and i was down to 5th in chips with 170K, with that pot being worth about 200K

i felt myself very much on the verge of tilt then, so i got up, and walked around the room and chatted to aaron and gaz. i tried really hard to not lose focus when i sat back down, but in the end it was final table and i had 20 mins to compose myself.

ok, another post for the final table

ok. so now its final table, and matty norwood sits down to deal it. that makes me pretty confident, and probably felt a bit more at ease, as i was fkn nervous

i came onto the table with 175K, but soon found myself down at 120 after some crazy action, and i had to fold my blinds away.

so when i picked up 22 on the button, i wanted antes and blinds, because it would have been about 40% of my stack

so when sb and bb both called, i knew i was in trouble and i was drawing to 2 outs probably.

and i definitely knew that when the sb open shoves, and gets tank called by the BB.

so we all roll our cards, i start calling for a duece, and aaron and thommo start YELLING for a duece

so when the duece hits, i pretty much lose it, and i dont remember how i got there, but i was standing 10 metres away in hte crowd getting congratulated by aaron and thommo. then kyle says that he folded a 2, and i just realised i spiked a 1 outer to more than triple up, and i think i was up to second in chips then.

thats when it really hit me, bloody hell i could win this. the nerves really kicked in then, and i had to get away for a bit. so i went to the toilet, and slashed water on my face and just took a second to compose myself. turns out during this time i folded a big blind, but i was ok with that, i really needed to stop playing for a bit.

so you can read in the live reporting thread, i managed to survive a couple of races and get it down to heads up.


second hand, in the sb and i look at aces. i had no idea what the hell i was gonna do, but kyle had been instashoving any decent hand, even when he was deep stacked. so i decided to flat call. i have no idea how i managed to do it without my hand shaking, or maybe it was, i dunno.

but then kyle jammed, i called about the quickest i have ever done

do say it was a double fist pump snap call was a bit of an understatement. i called and slammed the cards down so hard that i think i nearly broke the table! once again, i found myself standing in the crowd with no real idea how i got there, but this time my chair was lying on the floor and so was the one next to me!

i realised that i could have looked like a bit of a tool to kyle just then, so i rushed over to him and shook his hand and wished him good luck. i try to always be gracious when winning or losing, so i wanted to try and stick to that.

so the board bricked out, and i won. i went all numb, and felt like i was going to faint. i still can't believe that i spiked a 1 outer to stay alive, and then win on pocket aces. it really is the stuff dreams and movies are made of.

add to that, it was matty norwood dealing me the duece. matty is the best dealer in the whole wide world, and a top bloke who i now consider a mate, so it was awesome. add to that, dakota swapped with matty to deal me the aces. dakota was my first ever td at the old spot in gawler, and he dealt my first ever win, so i think this whole thing was planned out from the start.

gotta go out, finish off my uber post in a little bit

lol congratulations benny the cunt, two players in a row have won the main event who actually know how to play poker

what you gonna do with the money?

hehe it's a tiny bit like when a pro actually wins the WSOP Main Event instead of an amateur!


Ask his missus what she's going to do with the money

bennymacca wrote:so we all roll our cards, i start calling for a duece, and aaron and thommo start YELLING for a duece

so when the duece hits, i pretty much lose it, and i dont remember how i got there, but i was standing 10 metres away in hte crowd getting congratulated by aaron and thommo. then kyle says that he folded a 2, and i just realised i spiked a 1 outer to more than triple up, and i think i was up to second in chips then.

This was the best moment of my young poker career. I have never been happier to see a card fall that when that 2h hit.

bennymacca wrote:second hand, in the sb and i look at aces. i had no idea what the hell i was gonna do, but kyle had been instashoving any decent hand, even when he was deep stacked. so i decided to flat call. i have no idea how i managed to do it without my hand shaking, or maybe it was, i dunno.

but then kyle jammed, i called about the quickest i have ever done

do say it was a double fist pump snap call was a bit of an understatement. i called and slammed the cards down so hard that i think i nearly broke the table! once again, i found myself standing in the crowd with no real idea how i got there, but this time my chair was lying on the floor and so was the one next to me!

I remember this hand well I didn't see your cards, but I found out later that everyone else had, and I don't how the hell they kept their composure. Your double fist pump snap call was awesome, the chair FLEW across the room, and you practically yelled call at Dakota. I wanted to leap on you right then and there, but figured I could wait until the river was dealt

bennymacca wrote:add to that, it was matty norwood dealing me the duece. matty is the best dealer in the whole wide world, and a top bloke who i now consider a mate, so it was awesome. add to that, dakota swapped with matty to deal me the aces. dakota was my first ever td at the old spot in gawler, and he dealt my first ever win, so i think this whole thing was planned out from the start.

It really couldn't have been scripted any better.

Aaron wrote:I wanted to leap on you right then and there

i don't think aaron will be allowed around benny the cunt's house any more unless chereen is there watching his every move.

Great post benny the cunt and again I'm so damned happy for you.

It was a great read and I felt the angst waiting for that duece to come. It would have been great to have railed you and enjoyed the moment and experience such as AK & Tommo seemed to have had.

You'll have to do a tour of the B&G venues now benny the cunt. It would be great to see you at the Wheaty on Tuesday nite not only to celebrate your win but also to show us your hardware.

Again, well done.