ANZPT Queensland. Beautiful one day, want to jump off a building the next

Day 1 ANZPT

After deciding to change my flights I rocked up to Jupiters on the Gold Coast feeling pretty good about things this morning.

Last night didn’t get too crazy, I met up with Dan for a few drinks at one of the many clubs Aussie pro poker player Jamie Pickering owns on the Gold Coast, before retiring to bed at a reasonable hour.

So I showed up to my table and only recognised one person, Andy Meldrum who was 2 or 3 seats to my left. I’ve played a little with Andy in the past and he is definitely very good, but not one of the super aggressive players who could make life hell having him on my left.

I picked up a few chips early after raising 34dd in MP and firing again on the Q67dd board.

I turned the flush and bet again, and got a 3rd street of value on the river when my opponent made 2 pair.

Sensing that my table (apart from Andy) was fairly weak, I played much more aggressively than usual, and managed to pick up a lot of chips fairly quickly, and was up to about 36k when the following hand came up.

A player UTG opens to 400 at 50/100 I flat with JTs on the button and Andy calls out of the BB. The flop is 78x, Andy checks, original raiser checks, I make it 1050 Andy calls and the OR folds.

The 9 on the turn gives me the super nuts and I bet once again after Andy checks. He calls. At this point I discount a set because I feel Andy would have either checkraised the flop or turn … but I still don’t love the 8 repeating on the river.

I hate my life when Andy leads for close to 4k and elect to call and wince when he shows his 98 for a turned 2 pair and rivered full house. I actually think it’s a pretty clear fold on the river. So I was down to under 30k.

I continued to pick up small pots for a while with relative ease.

Sometime after the 2nd break I played an interesting hand with an older guy, who seemed very tight on my immediate right.

At 200/400 – 25 he opened UTG and I found QQ and 3b him fairly small. QQ isn’t the best hand to play from UTG+1 in a 3b pot so I didn’t want the pot to get huge.

The older guy called and we saw a flop of 562.

UTG checks, I bet 2/3 pot UTG calls.

Turn 8, UTG checks I bet fairly large and after saying “ok let’s gamble” UTG calls again.

The dealer drops the 9 on the river and UTG grabs for his chips (in a way where I know he is NEVER going to bet) and I deliberate for a minute before deciding I can get value from worse hands and bet about half the pot. UTG insta mucks and I rake in a nice pot.

Soon after I bust a young kid who I had been 3 betting all day when I pick up AA to his KK. Cooler spot for that guy given how many pots I’d already taken from him.

After the last break the table has gotten a bit tougher mostly due to a good player on my immediate left picking up a lot of chips (mostly from me when I turned the K hi flush v his A hi flush).

First hand after the break the BB is sitting out and I open AQs from UT, the cutoff who is a rock 3bs me and I stupidly decide to put him to the test. A test I fail miserably when he rolls the AA over and I’m down to just over 30k.

Fortunately very next hand it’s raised UTG, re-raised by a new player to the table with a big stack and I find KK. I put on my best tilt act and jam my chips in the middle and get looked up by QQ. Easy game … back to about 70k.

Not much happens for the rest of the day and I finish level 7 with just under 60k.

I go out for dinner with Punty and Dan (who are both still in) and Dan loses Credit Card Roulette again, and we get a fairly early night.

Day 2

I make the stupid mistake of playing tennis with Dan at our hotel in the morning. Despite getting through 2 sets (both of which I lose costing me $100) I manage to injure my back bending down to pick up a ball and can’t move without being hunched over.

I get back to the room and crash on the bed in agony and sleep for an hour or so, take some Panadol and get up again and make my way to the Casino.

My seating draw isn’t really ideal with 2 strong players to my left (the young kid from my first table who caused me problems, and Sydney reg Danny Joukhadar with the overall tournament chip lead).

Nothing much happens for the first few hours, I try to stay aggressive, but get 3b a lot pre flop and blind down to under 45k.

I hover around the same mark for the first 2 levels, before going on a mini rush and chipping up to about 70k by the time of the 2nd break.

At 500/1000 a player opens to 4k on the button and I call with Ac5s. The flop comes 985 and the button instantly jams for 2x pot after I check.

I think for a few minutes before deciding to go with it and call and win again the BBs A6o.

A short time later I play one of the more interesting hands of the tournament.

The button with about 38k opens to 4000 at 500/1000 and I call with 5c5s.

The flop comes 8s7s2x. I check planning to call any bet and the button checks back as I’d seen him do with hands like AQ AJ etc, so I figured he had 2 overs.

The turn was the 6s giving me the low end of the gut-shot straight flush draw. I check and the button bets 11k which I call thinking my 5s are still best.

The river is not a great card when it comes the Kh.

I check and the button jams for about 30k which is a fair % of my stack, and I think for as long as I’ve ever done in a tournament before going with my read and calling. His face tells the story as he flips up AT and I slam down my 5s which are good.

Before the day ends I also manage to pick up KK v KQ and win some chips off a lady who actually deals Hi Stakes Poker in the US. She dealt the biggest hand ever played on TV between Tom Dwan and Barry Greenstein which was cool.

I also manage to make another good call with 88 on a Q924 board against a player with AJ but he rivers his ace which to win a 80k pot.

I end up finishing the day with 160k which puts me about 10th of the 40 players who come back for Day 3.

We go out for dinner at Zen Chinese restaurant and Chris Levick loses Credit Card Roulette and pays the $1200 bill. I’m running super good at CCR the last few months which scares me as I think a big bill is just around the corner …

We contemplate going out but instead head back to the room to watch the cricket and get to bed.

Day 3

Despite my back still hurting from yesterday I manage to lose another 2 sets of tennis and $100 to Dan, but feel pretty damm good about my Day 3 draw. I have a fairly tough table, but am in a great spot with the 2 big stacks on my right.

Early on in the day I get it in with KK v a very short stacks AA and get there with a K on the turn, and at this stage I’m actually considering the possibility that I might make a deep run here.

At some point in the early going Scott ‘Punty’ Smith gets moved to our table and we have 4 of the top 6 stacks in the room … all on my right.

We get down to 27 when Dan is knocked out on the exact bubble and then redraw for seats.

At some point after the money bubble bursts a player jams and I make the call with red 88s and hold vs his KcJs despite a pretty bad flop of AQ3 with 3 spades and I’m over 250k for the first time in the tournament.

With blinds at 3k/6k –1k a player UTG makes it $15k I call on the button with 66 and the BB squeezes to $35k with about $150k behind. I make the call and to my surprise the BB announces he is all in blind. I remark that I guess I will have to flop a set – which obviously I do on the A64 flop and win easily v AJo which is drawing dead by the turn.

Soon after we re-draw at 18 players and I change seats to a table with good friend Joel Dodds 2 on my right.

We get down to 15 fairly quickly after some short stacks bust and I continue to win a lot of hands preflop or on the flop and by the time we are down to 12 players I have about 750k and the overall chip lead of the tournament.

Unfortunately with 11 left things start to crumble in a hand I start with about 680k.

A fairly aggressive player with about 375k makes it 40k at 8k/16k-3k and I elect to disguise my hand by flat calling QQ out of the BB.

I check the J74dd flop planning on making a big checkraise but Scott checks back aswell.

The turn is the interesting Qd.

I lead for 60k and Scott instantly jams his last 280k or so in the middle which I instantly call.

He shows Ad4x for bottom pair and a flush draw.

If I can fade a diamond I’ll have more than 20% of the chips in play on the Final Table bubble, and have a very real shot at my first title.

Unfortunately the dealer drops the Td and I am absolutely shattered. Being a poker player I should probably be able to deal with a beat like this … just brush it off as part of the game, but this one really hit me hard. I felt for the last 3 days that I had a legitimate shot at winning this tournament … apart from the one mistake on Day 1 with the AQ I thought I played really well. That’s not to say there isn’t things I can do better, but I was extremely confident.

I bust shortly after in 11th place when my AJ fails to improve against Joel’s 88 and I head straight for the exit – not even worrying about picking up the $9k in prize money. I just wanted to get out of the casino and ended up sitting by the river for about an hour by myself.

This is by far the most disappointing result I’ve had so far … much more disappointing than last years Vic Champs Final Table where I busted 9th because for 3 straight days here I gave myself every shot of winning, and had it taken away with one card.

But I’ll continue working hard, and hopefully get some better results in the future.

Congratulations to Joel Dodds (3rd), Punty (5th) and Danny Joukhadar (6th) and to Scott Kerr for winning the tournament.

Yes he had some luck, but poker – like many things – you have to make your own luck and capitalise on it, which Scott did.

Next up in Victorian Poker Champs this weekend ... so back to Melbourne, and hopefully back to the Final Table in this event.