Busto from Melbourne Champs Main Event

Made a very last minute decision to fly to Melbourne for the Melbourne Championship Main Event.

I arrived at Crown 10 minutes before the tournament started, quickly registered and settled in for a long day of live poker.

About 30 minutes in the following hand came up:

Effective stacks 20k.

Julius Coleman opened to 250 at 25/50 and was called by another player. I re-raised to 875 from the SB with AKcc and only Julius called.

The flop was 9c7c2h with 2 clubs. I led for 1300 and Julius called after a moment of thought. The turn was the Kh and I bet 2300 and Julius made it 6k with about 11,500 behind. I jammed and he reluctantly called with JThh for a flush draw and double belly-buster straight draw. Unfortunately the river came the 9h and I was left with 1800 chips which I got in a few minutes later with 66 and lost to A9.

Fortunately this event is a repercharge event, so I was able to rebuy on Saturday. Unfortunately I woke up feeling like death, and proceeded to get worse throughout the first 2 levels. By the start of the 2nd level I was having troubles actually reading the cards - so I was constantly running to the bathroom to stick my head under a tap. I finally managed to track down some Panadol and also had a neck and shoulders massage at the table which started to help and soon enough I felt well enough to play.

At 50/100 I 3b KK in LP and got flatted by Chris Chronis. We both checked the AQx flop, then I called a 2/3 pot bet on the turn confident I was ahead, then the worst card in the deck another Q fell on the river which ensured the hand was checked through and MHIG.

Through a mixture of bad flops and no decent starting hands (QQ once) I get all the way down to 9950 before going on a bit of a heater and working my stack to almost
30,000 without showdown - mostly through aggression as I was still yet to pick up a hand better than 88 or AJ.

As it turned out the cards never improved and with an hour left in the day I tried to make a re-steal with J8hh when the button raised 2 limpers and he tank-called with 55. The flop actually made me a favourite when it came KK9 with 2 hearts, but I couldn't get there.

With 2 tables left in play I have several frinds still in the hunt including Steve Topakas and Mark Iskander, aswell as PNW regular Kristian Lunardi. Hopefully one of them can ship it.

Leaving for Vegas in 2 weeks ... but many friends are already over there taking part. Hopefully one of us can do something memorable !!

GL all.