Postby BionicMike » Fri Sep 03, 2010 2:36 pm
Ok, I've been meaning to post something here, mainly just to say thanks to Garth, Sarah Franklyn, Michael Ratnik and the rest of the 888pl management and TC team for running yet another awesome weekend.
These Grand Final weekends are not only great fun to participate in, as a player or a spectator, but the tournaments are run so professionally, that I believe they are doing great things for the poker industry as a whole. As I have stated in this forum on previous occasions, the strength of the game of poker in this country depends on companies like 888pl presenting a friendly and professional image to the general public. I believe 888pl provided exactly this over the weekend. I have read briefly about Garth's proposals to put in place some kind of standardisation across leagues and I think this idea has great potential too, but that is for another discussion.
As for the tourney itself, I finally had me a bit of run good! Happy with most of my play. Day one was some of the best poker I have ever played. I was making quality reads and decisions from the start and found myself with a big stack before the first break. Ran over my first table, barely showing a hand, and when I did I was a mile ahead. Dale Chapman, king of the Geelong TCs and my SuperCoach nemesis, was running hand details back and forth to the PNW booth. I did my best to give him reportable hands but the lack of showdowns was clearly not good for juicy reporting.... He did however inform me that I was amongst the early chip leaders and I managed to hold that big stack right through to the final 2 tables.....
Now I had some good timing when I needed it but I also made some great moves with my big stack. After they broke my first table(3rd table in the room to break, sigh) I was put on the right of Satanicus, although I needed Trishan to point that out to me, I didn't recogonise Chris at 1st, sorry buddy. He was followed by a range of players that wouldn't let me run the table over.
Day 2 I started in the top 5 chip counts and kept building my stack throughout the morning, mainly just stealing blinds and knocking out short stacks. Won a few races when I needed to, I open shoved a folded pot with Q2 from the SB with about 45-50 BB into a 12-15 BB deep Big Blind, of course he snapped with AK but I rivered a Q, that's just how I roll. They moved Kon(eventual 3rd place, now 888pl legend) to my right and he was pwning me until i made a massive reshove check raise bluff(and showed it), he stayed out of my way after that and I hit the final 2 tables with about 1.1mill. The next hour sucked. I doubled up MattyMoate and Wabbit in spots I don't think I could get away from. I had the big stack and was being aggressive, they had a wide reshoving range and just managed to have the top of that range both times).
So I hit the FT with 650k, (about 7th or 8th/10 from memory). I know I need a double up to make a run at this thing..... As expected, the monster stack draws a seat on my left and proceeded to flat or 3 bet every hand I opened(or anyone else opened for that matter!) He was opening a massive range(and it was always 4x,5x or even more). I couldn't get a spot to reshove preflop, so when he flats my open(with A3 suited, 9 players left) and the board comes 2 3 6, I figure it misses most of his range and check raise his pot sized flop bet all in. He tanks and folds and that gives me enough chips to knockout the the 9th place finisher soon after and have enough chips to play my favourite hand of recent times....
7 players left. Jeff Fenech has just lost a big chunk of his stack when he got his JJ all in pre vs KK and didn't improve. Before the cards are dealt he is steaming, he is holding the remainder of his chips in his hand like he wants to get them in. I open 2.5x with 88 from UTG and Jeff calls from the button and the big blind completes. Flop comes 862, BB checks, I look at Jeff and he is basically telling me his chips are going in by the way he is double handed shuffling his whole stack. So I check. And sure enough he shoves and despite what PNW says, I did not "Double Fist Pump" snap call, but I did call quickly, I had the nuts....
Anyway, gets down to 4 players and I'm short after losing a big pot against Luke(eventual winner, who played a hell of a game and a real nice guy) 40k/80k Ive got K10 UTG and 1.0 mill almost exactly, open to 200k, Luke calls and so does BB. Flop comes 236 and there is more in the pot than in my stack so when I shove the flop and Luke calls, I think Im done and dusted but he shows K4 and I'm almost 3 to 1 fav. Sure enough he rivers the 5 and I'm done in 4th. In hindsight,I should have shoved pre, counting big chip stacks in live games is definitely something I can work on...
Scored the Mistress Poker promo prize for outlasting everyone with a MP shirt and the boys reckon they're sending me the Aussie Millions opening event, pumped about that! Can't believe how much I've rambled on here, all while accumulating a stack in the midday $11 rebuy on Stars! Giddyup.
If you ask me, Muhammed Ali in his prime was much better than anti lock brakes.
I would do it all over again minus the driving, losing my bag, getting knocked out early and not running around Melb airport with four bags.
