Day Four

I enter Day Four knowing I have won a minimum of 65,000 AUD and if I can go back to surviving ahead of four players I can get to 100,000 AUD and then get aggressive. In hindsight I played my worst poker of the tournament on day four.

Chip leader on my table is Max Bracht with 837,000 and I am in third but after only an hour have lost over 100,000 in blinds and antes, raising once with AQ but getting no callers. Alexander Kostritsyn however, starting the day on 366,000 gets involved in hands right from the start and is up to 1,200,000 by the time I decide to make a stand with AK and am up against his QQ (that hand again).

Alexander had made his by now standard pre-flop raise of around 3 times the BB, which I reraised and he reraised me all-in. I did think afterwards that obviously I could have just flat called his raise and had the chance to get out of it on the Queen high flop. But I’m guessing he would have checked with his trips and I’d have been all-in after the Ace on the turn so the outcome would have been the same.

One of the things I will remember most of the whole experience is the friendliness of all the players I sat with over the four days and I think I was almost as sad to be missing out on the continuing pitting of wits as much as the next payout levels.

I will leave you to look up for yourself how Alexander went on to lift the trophy, and congratulations to him. He was about the strongest player I sat with for any length of time and deserved his victory.

As for me I just want to do it all again as soon as possible. I shall be back in Melbourne next January to defend and improve on my 19th place if I can, but will be playing some UK tournaments before then to see if my game has genuinely improved.

As has been reported elsewhere, I am not foolish enough to think this means I am ready to take on the world’s best but I shall be trying.

Day Three

What am I thinking at the start of Day Three ? I want to survive (that word again) into the top 80 and take home some money. It’s nice to win these ‘free’ holidays but I need to start converting them into hard cash !

The biggest name on my table is Kenna James on 114,500 but the table chip leader is Alexander Kostritsyn on 398,500 and one player, Jim Sachinidis, has just less than me on 28,500. Now even I know I won’t make the money without playing a hand or two and I decide to make a move all-in from seat 5 with J8spades when the blinds are seats 7 & 8, Sachinidis and James. The SB thinks for a long time, questioning the speed of my push, before folding (AK) but Kenna hardly hesitates before calling with 77. The flop is x79, the turn is the miracle 10 and I don’t remember the river but I had doubled up.

A small win later I am on about 60k, there are less than 90 players left and I am starting to count my 15,000 AUD for making the top 80. Then came another QQ. Can’t remember if I raised to 10k or called it but 4 players saw the flop of x9J. I bet 20k after the flop and was called by only Trevor Wollard on my immediate left. The turn is a K and I check, Trevor raises me all-in. I think. For a long time. He calls ‘time’ and I decide he’s got KK or AA and fold, showing the QQ. Gasps all round. Trevor mucks without showing and everyone thinks I’ve folded the winning hand. Apart from Trevor who later confirms he had QT and a straight. At that moment however I thought I had messed up.

I can’t remember how many chips I had but it didn’t feel like enough and there were still 4 or 5 to the bubble so I needed to hang on, and thankfully hang on I did. Making the money was such a great feeling. Every fold over the previous two days were now so worthwhile that I could start to really enjoy the game. I must have won a hand or two because when our table broke up I was back on 60,000 or so and I joined a table of players I had not sat with previously.

Then the miracle 6 or 7 hours began. I started getting cards, hitting flops and earning respect. For the rest of that day I started accruing chips for the first time. Pokernews reported my AK beating Mitchell Carle’s 77 as he became the second and last player I would knock out of the tournament. I had won more chips with Aces just a few hands earlier however and all of a sudden I was on 210,000 with confidence growing, even if I was still well behind the average.

Now came three moves of table in what seemed like fairly quick succession, and for the last two I was jumping into Andy Black’s seat – first when he left to go back upstairs on TV and second when he went out in 34th and I took his place upstairs. My second TV showing corresponds with the period when Pokernews incredulously report that Erik Seidel is the ‘loudest on the feature table’ !

I went upstairs with about 260,000 and the game with chips is a lot easier than the game without so I’m hoping if both stints make it to the 2008 Aussie Millions DVD that the new found confidence will be obvious in episode two. Two hands stand out – my best (most valuable anyway) and worst of the day probably. The best was to double up with suited AQ versus suited A7. He (sorry I don’t know who the player was) hit top pair on the flop with his 7, but two of the flop were the spades I needed so we were all-in before the turn, which was also a spade. The turn, however, also paired the board so another the same or another 7 and I would be gone (as he had me covered) but neither came and I was up to over 500,000.

The worst play I made was to call a bet after the river by Erik Seidel of 30,000 with A high. I hoped, and said on camera, that he was holding even less than I had but he had made a straight that I had not even seen the possibility of. It had been a long day and the lights were hot !

Pokernews (sorry to keep quoting them) report that at my peak I made it to 588,000 but I ended the day in 15th of the 22 remaining with exactly 500,000 and on a complete high.