AceHighWine

Came into the second day of play in about 30th place with my seating draw putting me back on feature table 31 which is where I spent all of Thursday. As my live experience is pretty limited and I’m not a Melbournian, I didn’t recognise too many names on the table which is both good and bad I suppose. However, on my end of the table I had Antonio Casale who made the final table of this year’s Aussie Millions main event for a six-figure score (I think) and the guy who won the 6-max event earlier this year at the Melbourne Champs. There were ~130 players returning and 50 got paid, but with so many short stacks floating about, I figured we’d get to the money sooner rather than later.

When I finished my Day One flight, I magically chipped up from like 8k to ~32k in the last level which was good for just around average, but on my starting table, I was one of the big stacks which was nice in one sense, but a bit awkward in one sense as it meant that with the short-ish stacks behind me, I couldn’t open as much as I’d like as I’d probably be faced with a tough decision if a short stack reshoves and I have odds to call but (obv) won’t really want to (most of the time).

Still, I manage to chip up slowly unopposed for the level [400/800/50a] and take down most pots pre. One interesting hand where the 6-max guy opens the cutoff to 3000 and I bump it up to ~8k on button. A short-stacked Antonio Casale starts sweating in the SB and murmuring, frustrated at his hand and the action to him. I start feeling a little uncomfortable as when older players do that, they always have big hands and while I couldn’t fold if he shoved, I wouldn’t be that chuffed about it. Eventually he gives it up claiming he had AK while the original raiser tanks after a little thought. Get out of jail free there Maxie.

Then the winning stops and the bleeding commences. I open in the CO and Paul Gianfriddo flats in the BB. I cbet the flop of K56 and he quickly calls. The turn is a repeat five of diamonds and he promptly ships it. Obviously I have to fold as I (think) I have 10-high or some sort of monster and he shows me 74dd for the open ended straight flush draw on the turn.

I then get moved a few tables back and see the sharply-dressed Tony ‘Bond18′ Dunst amid a table of other obvious young internet players and Crown regulars: after being the youngest player on Table 31, I’m now firmly in the “older” demographic on Table 29 and with all the youngsters having position on me, will have to tighten up a little bit, especially as I’m likely one of the short stacks.

One hand I raise CO+1 and find a caller in big stacked Marlon Goonawardana in the BB and we check through the all-spade flop. Check through turn and he fires a 5k bet on the blank river which is either a bluff (and rightfully so as I didn’t have the cajones the fire on the flop but it missed me completely and I had one over or something standard like that) or the world’s biggest value bet. Even though I’m getting immense pots odds and won’t have to show if he does have me beat - maybe 55/45 he’s ahead - I figure my 5k in chips will be put to better use later.

A couple of spots away from the money bubble, blinds of 2000/4000/300a: I open the monstrous 62o to 10k with about ~25k behind (I’m not too sure, don’t hold me to that). Once upon a time, I used to always raise 3BB and 4BB but have since been experimenting with smaller amounts initially just live but then online as well as a lot of people don’t really want to play post-flop and you can take down pots with a smaller risk:reward ratio. While my live sample size is a little too small to draw any meaningful conclusions from, it seems to be working online, particularly during the pre-bubble stages of SNGs and MTTs. Plus, 10k seemed to be the magical figure at the table which people were usually folding to.

Disappointingly, I get a caller in the BB (maybe 45k behind? God a lack of chip stack counts annoys me!) who is a young Asian kid who seems to be part of the young online clique as he’s taking with Tony, Tuan and Marlon. I have him pegged as a thinking player so am a little confused by his flat.

Flop comes 7h8h2c and after a little bit of thought he puts me all in. Gross.

I do some rudimentary maths in my head about how big my M will be if I fold here, but even with my mediocre hand, all signs are pointing to a call as there’s around ~52k in the middle and it’s 25k for me to call. Plus I have a pair. I can’t put his range down to too much but figure it’s either a monster [30], monster draw such as two big hearts [30/40] or air [40/30].

“Caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall,” I wail, tabling my embarrassing hand.

Tony starts tapping the table and saying “Nicely done, Max” and I wonder if he has telepathic abilities.

My fears that I am a genius at poker were all sadly confirmed when the BB tabled J10dd for air but I still had six outs to fade.

I ask God to reward me for my brilliance and obv expert hand-reading ability and my pair of deuces magically hold and suddenly, I’m up to ~75k in chips and in good shape.

Sadly Tony is the bubble boy when he gets it in with pocket 7s and a big stacked Garth Kay reraised to isolate with AK. Everyone else got out of the way and a king on the flop left Bond18 drawing to two outs which never got there. He calmly got up and left the table with class which is more than I can say for a lot of live poker players. According to Tony, he used to get really worked up at the table but since his recent Around the World in 90 Days caper (a fantastic read by the way) and subsequent score at the Bellagio, he has since mellowed out and bad beats, lost coinflips don’t faze him as much.

I don’t play another hand until 3000/6000/300a when I’m UTG and open to 15k. Folds around to BB who quickly announces all-in and I snap even faster with AA. As I’m blessed he has KK and I hold, my stack soaring to about ~120k. Skill game poker, it really is.

A couple of hands later when on the button, I open for 15k and get a caller in Scott Peel in the BB (cliff note: he hadn’t see me open with 62o and he’s a youngster who has a Full Tilt Poker shirt on, a cap and sunnies so he’s either really good or really not good). He checks the flop of AK5cc which looks like an excellent spot to fire at which I do for 25k. Peel thinks about it for a little bit, does the annoying “pump-bet” that live players do where they put chips in their hand and pretend to throw them out, and then eventually raises for another ~30k leaving himself a similar amount behind. FFS.

IMHO, he either has a set of fives here or complete air as logic dictates no-one checks such a draw heavy flop. Maybe because he knows I’m a 100 per cent cbetting monkey, he figured he’d just check-raise. It’s either fold or shove but I have 9-high so I have to be pretty confident he has air and that I can get him to lay down his hand. I even pick up a mini tell that suggests he’s FOS but in the end, I give it up and he shows me 67hh for complete pwnage. I actually wasn’t pissed off at all and don’t mind being outplayed as I think it’s good for the game and I congratulate him on his hand and bluff telling him he got me to lay down a king. This hand was reported on PokerNetwork a little inaccurately, although I wouldn’t testify in court that my bet amounts are correct either.

From there, he goes on a heater and picks up some big hands including magically getting paid off by K10 when he flops a set of queens on a QK8 flop with K10 in the SB leading into him, plus busting another player when he has aces. Blessed.

I get a few chips back after I raise UTG and a short stack Jim Mastorakos puts it in from the button. I’m not entirely thrilled about the call and double-check the amount I have to call as I have the vulnerable JJ but as expected, it’s only like another 12k to call and I’ve already put 20k out there, so I toss the rest in and Mastorakos is filthy that he’s behind with his eights. I hold and he storms off lamenting his luck and how things like that always happen to him. That brings my stack to around 80k and then I get moved for the final time that night.

Massive stacks at my new table which is excellent to see. I open J10o in the CO to 20k and after asking how much I have left (way to pick up on that Max you tell detective) chip juggernaut Brendon Edmonds flats in the BB with about ~3trillion behind. He checks the K-high flop to me and I decide to spazz out and put it in with a pair draw and backdoor straight possibilities. He snaps and I know I’m dead. He shows me aces. I cry a little bit and start getting ready to leave. Surprisingly I don’t get there and I shake everyone’s hands and wish them well before getting my prize money from Jonno. Out in a similar place I started the day in, going home in 30th place.

But if I thought getting it all on a bluff with Jack-high was a stupid decision, it pales in comparison to making a booking at Waterfront for dinner a few hours later. F*ck me that was a shambles. I won’t type it all up now as I’m sick of writing (hey, I do it for a living!) but suffice to say, the attitude of the moronic manager who was on that Sunday ruined our night and basically convinced us to take all the money we were going to spend at his restaurant and give it to the good folk at Bistro Guillaume down the hall near the excellent Nobu and Rockpool - of course, he still managed so squeeze some money out of us for a bottle of rooted Champagne.

While I’ll go into more detail later, I thought I’d put this up in case anyone was even contemplating of eating there (no offence to kitchen staff and other waiters who by all accounts did a good job looking after us but were put in a tough spot by their knuckleheaded manager) - save your money and spend it elsewhere because I’d hate to think that other people copped the same shitty reeking-of-arrogance service we did.

While most poker players choose to spend their time learning about the game and doing something constructive, tournament luckboxes like me spend their time designing geeky hoodies that may or may not elicit a chuckle from fellow hold’em’ers.

For those who have asked or heard about some “dickhead wearing a poker hoodie”, I’ve dug up a “full screen” (rather than cropped at the VPIP and PFR stats) shot of the “PAHoodie” I got made up and wore during the 2008 Melbourne Vic Champs State of Origin tournament. During the event, I had a young internet player came up to me and tell me my top was disgraceful - I wasn’t sure whether it was because it WAS a PAHud or because the stats were so loose-passive.

FYI, the shot above is with fellow Perth poker Player Peter Antil (who some of you may have lurking on your hard drive in a 2006 WSOP telecast where he plays alongside Daniel Negreanu for an episode - PS please run good in the Main Event Pete as you deserve a win and I have a piece of you) after busting out with 10-7s three-handed at aforementioned tournament.

The hoodie was designed using a local company called Foghorn that prints one-off tshirts and hoodies, but the catch is you have to use their flash-based design suite which features clip art, so no uploading your own images. All the text is straight up bold Courier and you can print text in a variety of colours. There’s not an entrepreneurial bone in my body and while there *might* be a (tiny) market for making something like this and selling them, it’s just as easy to DIY.

Many thanks to Marie who gave me the Foghorn vouchers for my birthday. I still have another couple of vouchers to use, so in addition to my Luckbox shirt (please excuse the Betty Crocker Polaroid film. Polaroid film is getting scarcer and scarcer so beggars can’t be choosers) which made its debut at the recent Sapphire Series Main Event at Burswood, there may well be one or more ridiculous shirts coming to the fore…

The PAHoodie can next be seen at a Macau APPT Main Event near you!

AKA Day one of the Melbourne Champs Two-day 250k repercharge and the State of Origin events.

Day one repercharge

A lot of fairly standard hands helped me chip up quickly. First hand where I lost was where I button raised and was called in BB. I reraised the BB lead and he promptly shoved and I had to fold to much derision from my end of the table along the lines of “Your bluff just got PICKED off!!!!!!!!” and “Sometimes you have to believe brother.” Sigh.

One funny hand that I probably butchered, but I won so proving that being lucky is better than being good. About 170 players limped to my SB when I had 44. I had ~3000 left and there was ~1200 in middle. I figured I’d just send it all in and scoop the pot. UTG limper tells me “You’re ahead but I need to double up so I call”. Awesome – but praise the powers that be for the second chance format. Everyone folds and he has 9c10c. Flop has two clubs. Turn gives him gut shot outs on top of his two overs and not to mention any club but I miraculously hold and double up. Cue more commentary and disbelief.

I ended up paying off same villain from “Your bluff just got picked off” infamy when I thought he was making a move and reshoved his turn bet with an up and down draw with 88 on a board of 67Q5. He snap called with 67o which he called my raise pre in the blind with.

Most amusing hand of tournament: After about five limpers (pot: 1950), I decided my 67o on the button was worth shipping with my last 1200. I had seen it do wonders the previous hand. The player next to me reshoved and everyone folded and it was my hand versus her pocket tens. Flop 9-7-7 flop. Turn six for sheer comedy value and I managed to fade a two outer on the river. Person with tens: “The banana got lucky” (same person that took great delight in telling me my bluff got picked off). Me: guffaw.

Another hand of note – young Sydney kid who sounded like he had a decent understanding of poker and poker theory. At blinds of 200/400 he open to ~1200 on button and I shipped it in the BB for ~6300. He tanked for a little while and realised he’d only have 800 left if he called and lost and folded AJ face up.

I then peddled my 10-15BB stack and found spots to get it in with medium-strength hands and whenever I figured there’d be good spots. I managed to get it in with JJ vs 44 and held but that was one of the few hands I had to showdown. Another hand I reshoved Aces on the button to a raise from the hijack and he managed to find a fold even though odds were okay for him to call.

Tony Dunst gets moved to table and after reshoving on his UTG+1 raise to take down a pot preflop, we get into a big hand together at last level of 400/800.

I make it 3k UTG with JJ (I have about 14k behind). Cutoff flats and Tony raises on the button to 9k with about ~20k behind. Yikes, so awkward as I assume I don’t have any fold equity versus him if he’s bluffing a hand and he’s smart enough to know that I know that his raise commits him to the hand. But preferring to er on the side of aggression rather than caution, I convince myself there’s too much there to fold so ship it and hope he has 1010 or worse. CO tanks and folds and Tony calls so quicky I’m certain I’m dead. While he doesn’t hold QQ+, Tony’s AKo still means I have to sweat five cards but magically my hand holds up and I get up to ~32k which is where I end the night to be about average for my starting flight.

After the tournament finished up around 2am, it was off to get some much needed sleep after arriving in Melbourne that morning at 5am and getting about two hours of shut eye after checking in at Towers.

The next day it was the inaugural State of Origin poker tournament of which I was part of the West Australian side together with captain Aleks Lackovic, Jarrod Shawcross, Jay Kinkade, Michael Pedley and Kent Hunter.

Lots of photos and what not which is kind of cool but since I’m about as photogenic as a piece of half-eaten Kentucky Fried Chicken, not sure what the general public will think. Also, I’m not much of a cap wearer as I think I look like a peanut when I have them on but I get into the team spirit and don my baggy black.

Only person I recognise on my table is Grant Levy winner of APPT Sydney and the first Australian to win $1m on home soil. I have Croc on my left who is a very good player.

I win some chips early in level 50/100 (start stack 10k) when it folds around to Grant in SB who completes and I raise to 400 in BB with KK. “What, that’s not a show of strength Max? OK, I call.” He check-calls my bet of 700 on the flop of 633r. He checks the K on the turn and I check behind hoping he’ll bet river. He obliges by betting 600 on fifth street and I pause before reraising to 3k in the hopes he thinks I’m reraising with air but folds. I show him my top full so he thinks I’m not nitting it up.

More standard hands and then at blinds 150/300 with blinds 25. George Mamacas raises to 1200 on the button and I reraise him to 2800 in the BB (too small, damn lack of chip stacks live and having to calculate your own raise sizes). George tanks and then calls. The flop comes 483r and I lead for 4k and George tanks for what must have been five minutes asking dealer for a chip count and everything. Eventually he reshoves for another 2k which I’m not happy about as I have 10-4o and put him on a big ace that missed but have to call with odds. He has a dastardly A8o and starts cheering and cameras come over so the whole world can see what a spewing station I am. I don’t hit one of my five outs and ship about 10k to George. TY PokerNews for not reporting on the hand.

Even though I’m down to about ~5k, the blinds and four-handed nature of the game means I’m basically shoving or reshoving to keep my head above water. Eventually South Australian player Sam busts out and I’m the short stack with Croc (Vic) and George (Tasmania) left. Whenever I folded on the button, Croc was taking advantage of my short stack nature and raising George’s blind who had to fold as he couldn’t risk busting out with my short stack in there.

Eventually at blinds of 300/600 a100 I ship it on the button with 10s7s for 4k and George calls with 66 in the BB. I miss the all-club flop and am drawing dead on the turn when I hit the 10 of clubs when George makes a flush with the six of clubs: gg me.

Great tournament which shows all the hallmarks of becoming a major event on the Australasian poker calendar. Congratulations to Crown on executing it and Tony Hachem and Aleks Lackovic for birthing the concept. Congratulations too to the South Australian boys who took down the event, particularly considering the forum banter leading up to the event about the lack of online players (ie Rayan Nathan, Andy McLeod, Monsterdong etc) in the SA side.

For those who haven’t been introduced to the wonders of egg tarty goodness, here’s a shot of some recent dim sum treats I brought back to the office after lunch one day.

Obviously this post speaks volumes about my love of food, but we’ve already starting looking into the local treats we’ll be able to get stuck into while in Macau.

Thanks to blog posts like this, we’ve began compiling a to-eat list of Macaunese dishes which thus far features egg tarts, pork buns and African chicken.

The tournament schedule hasn’t been released yet but fingers crossed there’s enough time to go exploring and enjoying all the gastro-treats the Island is known for.

Thinking optimisitcally, it’s really a win-win: you either go deep and make the final table and win cashola, or you have free days to spend exploring a new and exotic location.

Through the grace of Lee Jones, I managed to luckbox a package to the APPT Macau this September which was great news indeed as I’d already made plans to go and booked flights, so not having to worry about accommodation and buying in to the main event is heaps good.

The critical hand when it came down to the final seven was when I raised KQo in LP and got called by the next player to act. Checked the queen high flop and fired when the second queen landed on the turn. I value bet the blank river and opponent shoved on me. I snap called and was shown pocket nines much to my relief and raked a handy pot.

From there, the other three shorties were despatched within the space of a few hands and I managed to sneak into the four-man (figure of speech here for the PC brigade, there may well have been a woman among the four top finishers) winners circle.

While I’ve been to Hong Kong once, I’ve never actually been to Macau so am really looking forward to adding another country to the list of places I’ve visisted.

Here’s hoping I don’t screw up getting over in the ferry direct from Hong Kong airport!

After looking forward to the series for a long time, this month’s Sapphire Series at Burswood turned out to be a bit of a let-down, and in a strange way (and perhaps I’m just trying to find some silver lining somewhere), I’m a little glad that I didn’t make it through to Day two as it frees me up to put a dent into this workload I have.

Quick recap of the week.

$330NL tournament: was looking forward to this, but last minute got an invite to amazing truffle dinner at Gala Restaurant which is seriously one of Perth’s most under-rated restaurants and one of my top three places to eat in the city. I stand by my decision.

$440NL teams event: Personally, this was my tournament of the series as there was a great atmosphere and plenty of good teams in the field. Structure was a bit thin though, but still fun and found a few spots to get creative in. Burswood: have a monthly series for this tournament and make the buy-in smaller, $220 or $330 and set up a league with a cool prize at the end for the top team on the leaderboard (two seats to $1100 event or something). I reckon you will make a killing and get more heads in the poker parlour regularly because the atmosphere during teams event was awesome.

$120PLO rebuy tournament: This was the worst tournament of the series and the worst structured event I have ever played. Each casino is welcome to run its tournaments how it sees fit, but a confusing rebuy (NO ADD ON) format where with blinds of 25/50 and a starting stack of 2000 (rebuys only if you have 50 per cent or less of your stack left) and a rebuy period that ended three minutes from the end, there really wasn’t a lot of value to be had and I should have just got up after first rebuy. The number of drinks my friend Aleks was sending over probably had something to do with my decision to stay however and after we all busted, proceeded to have a laugh and some drinks. Was beaten by someone who called my shove with ace-high and a gutshot when I had top pair and up and down on the flop, but he turned and rivered perfect to make trip sevens. I laughed and wished everyone well while swearing off live PLO tournaments ever again - so what if I’m a one-eyed hold’em player…

$1100 main event: Had some good players on the table that made it possible to play some creative deep stacked poker. Interesting hand at 25/50: UTG limps and a few more limpers. I raise to 300 on button. He reraises to 1100. I make it 3000. He folds. I show him J-9o. At level 75/150 I manage to get away from AK after raising it on the gun and leading all streets on board of K-Q-5-9-3 rainbow and get reraised to 3000 on river after betting 1000 into pot of 5000 because I put villain on busted flush draw (check-call sometimes you donkey). As I’m going through hands while the rest of table goes on break, I realise how band I am at poker and ask if he’ll show if I fold as I’m only worried about J-10 (although this villain had crippled a player after calling with Kc-9c after UTG raised QQ and flops KQA, called bets, turn K, more bets and river 9, bet, shove, tank, call. ul QQ). He says yes fairly confidently and I fold my hand face up and he shows me Kc-3c for the rivered two pair. Sigh.

Nothing too exciting happens until about 150-300 (I think): Raise AA to 1000 in MP and get called by player two spots down and we go heads up to flop. Flop is 9h-10h-3c and I lead for ~1800 and he flats. Turn is a gross 8s and I slow down as it hits his range and he quickly goes all in for almost 8000 into a pot of just under 6000 (I can’t remember the exact amounts but it was a big overbet). Sigh. I’m leaning towards folding but just don’t like the bet amount as he’s the kind of player that bets there for value. If he made it 2500 I can fold, but his shove looks a lot like he’s still on a draw. I tank for about three minutes and reluctantly call figuring if I’m wrong, I’ll still have ~2k in my stack which isn’t horrible and there’s too much money out there to fold, although I hate calling off with an overpair. “Good call,” he says as he shows KJ for the naked up and down. Still, eight outs to fade for a big pot but my hand holds and I have about 19k which is double average going into break.

After that I probably try to run over table too much and lose a lot of chips when I flop flush draw with two overs with AcQc on button in a raised pot but play it badly and have to fold when villain shoves river into me. I entertained a ridiculous hero call as the board was double pair and he could have been doing the same with AK as the shove doesn’t make a lot of sense as he’s chasing out value, but calling for a chop (which would be like less than 10 per cent chance) is ridiculous and I don’t think he’s doing this with king high or a pair less than eights.

Blinds creep up a little too quickly and I’m forced to make ridiculous play at 200/400 when after three other players limp my BB, I raise to 1800 with 62o and get called by CO who has big stack. I lead with a little more than half of my remaining 6k stack on Q-high flop and villain tanks and tanks before eventually folding. I show the bluff in the hope of getting plenty of action when I do pick up a hand.

I get my wish a few hands later when I get QQ and after UTG raise (1100) from young aggressive player who knows how I play, reraise him to 3k. Folds back around and he shoves and I snap call as a third of my stack is out there and considering out history, he would probably do this with 10s up. He throws his head back and exclaims “You must have aces.” Shit. Two other players say they each folded a queen so I’m drawing dead. I probably should have been able to fold as in a bubble, UTG opens and four-bets with exactly QQ, KK, AK and AA only as far as I’m concerned but then again, poker isn’t a game played in a vacuum and plenty of factors affect our decisions. None the less, there are worse hands to bust out of a tournament with, so I can’t complain too much that lady luck wasn’t on my side.

Anyhow, thank God (hence the significance of the Amen Brother 45 pic posted) that I don’t play live tournament poker for a living. Having to endure the sort of every-mistake-could-be-your-last pressure that comes with tourneys makes the prospect of holding down an office job very appealing. Stay in school kids.