Aussie Millions sat report

[Ulysses]

$600+40 Aussie Millions sat. 102 entrants. 5 to 7 get money ($2100,$3200,$5400). Top 4 get $12,600 package of trip to Australia ($2500 cash plus hotel) and two ($7400NLHE and $1200 "Speed Poker") tourney entries.

Early on I get nothing. My chips are dwindling. I'm down like 3 rounds of blinds, to about 900.

Oh wait, I remember one huge hand. I have 36o in the BB. Limper and SB completes. Flop is 33J w/ two hearts. SB checks, I check, limper bets 30 (pot is 90). SB calls. I call. Turn is a heart. SB checks, I check, limper checks. River is an offsuit jack. SB bets 70. I think about raising, but then decide that calling is better. I call. Limper calls. SB shows nut flush. I end this with 800 chips. I felt happy about that. What do you guys think about the way I played this hand?

Then I finally find a hand to make a stand with. I make a set of 8s on the river and a guy w/ pocket Queens calls me allin. OK, he called me preflop, but whatever.

A little later I push v. a small stack w/ AK and his pocket pair holds up.

I then get nothing at all. I bluff 3 or 4 times w/ nothing post-flop from the blinds or after whiffing, push all-in w/ some marginal hands, and basically steal blinds every now and then. I'm at 50% avg stack for most of the time, hanging around there. Finally, I find AA and almost double up against AJ. That gets me back in contention w/ an average chip stack as we're nearing the final table.

I fold a lot. I fold so much that I contemplate pushing my slightly below avg stack UTG w/ JTs. I think the AK and JJ would have both called - and my running flush would have been good for triple up and huge chip lead. Oh well.

Again, I get nothing nothing and am hanging around a slightly below average stack until finally, nearing the final table, I find 99 and go all-in v. QJ. He hits a Jack on the flop, but I hit a Nine. Good times.

Final table, same theme. I get nothing nothing nothing. Until finally I find QQ in the blind. Guy pushes - w/ QJ and I now have a solid stack as we're almost in the money.

Hit the money and before I know what has happened, 7 and 6 bust out.

Now I'm at about 12k. Other guys have like 15, 20, 25, 30. Something like that. 4 of us go to Australia. One of us gets $5400. Blinds are something like 600-1200.

I fold a little then find AJo UTG. I contemplate pushing. Then I contemplate folding. Then I contemplate opening for something. I move my slider over to all-in. Then I decide to fold. So I click fold. Except my cursor jumps. Seriously. And I click all-in. Oops. And then, one of the guys with like 20k calls. With Q2s. WTF? I think he wanted to lose. But he hit a deuce. And just like Aruba, I bubble again. AAARRGGGHHH.

Still, I got $5400, so it wasn't all that bad. I really wanted to go to Australia, though. So I'll be playing some more.

Anyway, the main thing I've learned here playing tourneys the last few days is that you can get a long way without getting cards by stealing quite a bit and waiting and waiting until you find a hand you can push with. You need to get lucky a couple of times, but you can steal your way into survival for a long time. Now that I've had three tourneys where I really haven't gotten a ton of hands to play (well, this one I actually got quite a few hands, but the other two were really dire) yet still made the final table, I've realized two things.

1) It really pays to not waste chips to see flops in early position when you're likely to get raised or have to just fold on the flop. All those little blinds add up and make a big difference when you need chips to steal w/ or double up.

2) With medium-sized stacks, I really hadn't been stealing enough from late position, especially as we reach the money. Being forced to do it by lack of cards, it's been educational how often it works.

[Jason Strasser]

Diablo,

Early trip 3 hand bet out. I dont like check/calling the flop, I wouldve at least raised. Nice turn and river.

Nice report, Q2s call makes... no sense. What would it cost you to just buy your way in?

-Jason

[La Brujita]

Q2s what the hell! Great job making $5k but I know it must be bittersweet. Heck I am sure you will win your seat soon enough.

Very silly of QQ to call you preflop when it was clear you were going to win on the river.

How would you say the level of competition was generally?

FWIW I would have led out on the flop with trips weak kicker and a flush draw on the board. I probably just call the river as well.

[Ulysses]

PS: That's 4 sat tourneys for me in the last few days. $640 (*102 entrants), $320 (*47), $110 (*160), $320 (52). Final tables in *three for $7500ish cash. So that's pretty cool. Still hurts that in two of them I bubbled one spot away from $10k and $12.6k prize packages. I'll get there, though! I like these smaller field tourneys where everything goes so much faster.

Huge thanks to all the 2+2ers at the tables and on IRC sweating. It really makes a big difference.

[ADGator]

i watched the final table as i am friends with surferick, tough way to go out. As surferick AIMed me during the final table, "This guy is insane". And he was it seemed like he didnt want the prize package. Anyway I am sure you will have a another chance for the Australia trip.

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
Early trip 3 hand bet out. I dont like check/calling the flop, I wouldve at least raised. Nice turn and river.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I was basically planning to make a big move if they put any significant chips in on the flop. But since the pot was still very small, I decided to see what the turn brought and make a decision there. I agree that the flop is questionable, but I really like my turn and river decisions.

[ QUOTE ]
Nice report, Q2s call makes... no sense. What would it cost you to just buy your way in?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, I really think that he wanted the $5400 cash. Or maybe he was just bad. He had been pushing a lot and everyone would be folding. I think he might have felt like he was running out of chances to get his money in as a big dog before someone busted in fifth.

The main tourney is $7400. And there's a smaller "Speed Poker" tourney for $1100 or something. That's what you get entries into for winning, plus hotel paid for and $2500 for your flight/travel expenses. So, I can see some people wanting the cash instead (the entries in this one worked out just shy of a fifth seat, so the cash was about the max possible for a sat).

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
Q2s what the hell! Great job making $5k but I know it must be bittersweet. Heck I am sure you will win your seat soon enough.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was pretty steamed at the moment, but now I'm pretty happy. It is $5400 after all. I'll definitely play some more sats. I haven't been to Australia before and would love a trip there.

[ QUOTE ]
Very silly of QQ to call you preflop when it was clear you were going to win on the river.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I didn't understand that call. /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[ QUOTE ]
How would you say the level of competition was generally?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd like to say that my superb poker skills have dominated incredibly tough fields, but the overall level of play including the final table has been just plain horrible in these things. I suspect the majority of these entries might be coming from people playing sats for entries into these rather than experienced tourney players buying in. I mean, the play is really atrocious - stuff like raising 50% of your stack w/ 8x the BB w/ 77 then calling an all-in raise is standard fare.

[HoldingFolding]

I saw PokerNeal doing quite well at one point, is that 2+2 PokerNeal and did he make it

[Tosh]

[ QUOTE ]

I'd like to say that my superb poker skills have dominated incredibly tough fields, but the overall level of play including the final table has been just plain horrible in these things.

[/ QUOTE ]

I've given up expecting anything but very poor play on Party, naturally thats a good thing.

Good finish again, but you are turning into the new bubble boy.

[cornell2005]

the situation was very strange. this guy had been pushing 75% of his hands in the last 5 min, but since noone wanted to call him, he was near the chip lead.

Obviously ideally you would wait until someone else picked up a monster and called him all in. But how much longer would eldiablo have had? Should he settle for a 60/40 here, given that its very likely that in 2 more orbits maniac would have a huge chiplead and noone will want to call him? my inclination was to just fold and hope someone picks up high pockets very soon, but time may have been running out before he picked up a big lead and quit playing the maniac.

[davidross]

Quote

"Anyway, the main thing I've learned here playing tourneys the last few days is that you can get a long way without getting cards by stealing quite a bit and waiting and waiting until you find a hand you can push with"

"2) With medium-sized stacks, I really hadn't been stealing enough from late position, especially as we reach the money. Being forced to do it by lack of cards, it's been educational how often it works."

In my mind this is the key to success in almost every tournament. On successful days, no one behind you wakes up with AA or KK and on bad days they do.

[Ulysses]

Heh, that's almost exactly what I was thinking as I was waffling back and forth between what to do.

As far as him pushing a lot, though, I really suspect he was pushing with nothing hoping to get called and lose.

[Ulysses]

[ QUOTE ]
On successful days, no one behind you wakes up with AA or KK and on bad days they do.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the other thing that's important is being able to pick up the tiny pots that nobody wants. Like I'm in big blind, one limper and small blind completes. Random flop checked around. I fire on the turn. That's mainly where my chips came from. Those pots were what kept me in these tournaments long enough to find a good hand. Of course, I got very lucky that in most of those situations people didn't pick up a pair on the turn or decide to call me w/ some marginal hand or draw.

[PokerNeal]

Nope I did not make it.

I viloated the two rules that El Diablo has stated so clearly that helped him make the money.

Rule #1: Do not piss your chips down the drain from early positions with semi-premium hands no matter what period of the tourney (Dark Ages, Middle Ages, Enlightened Ages, even the Heavenly Ages) until there are fewer seats in the table where your semi-premium hands are probably the best ones around. Take for example A-J. You bet from early position, get raised, and stay around to see a flop like this. A 4 7. What to do? If you are the first one to act do you have the best kicker? This leads to rule #2.

Rule #2> Feel free to bet with semi-premium hands from late positions. In the example above you can gauge your action based on what your opponent does. Ohhh, position so important even more so than the best hand!

What I did not have in that tourney (or the World Speed Poker satellite where I made the final table) was patience. Yes, PATIENCE. El Diablo is right. The odds are that lady luck will eventually smile your way and will give you a hand that you can push in on. Until then survive, steal blinds, make an opportunistic raise here and there from late position and steal the pot and so on. I lost my patience late part of the tourney and started aggressivly pushing hands I should not have because I was not getting any good hands! So I was out. ALL THIS SO EASIER TO PREACH THAN PRACTICE! /images/graemlins/confused.gif

Everytime I have followed the above simple rules I have made it further than when I have not followed these common sensical rules of reason. Wish I could be like Spock at such times and act rationally then emotionally. Alas! /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Ulysses]

I just received the hand histories for the end of the tournament. My opponent was in second place and went all-in 7 of the last 10 hands. The two times his hands were shown he had 56o (reraised AK raise and lost) and Q2s (called my all-in below). I really do think he was trying to bust out. Oh well.

Final hand
Seat 1: dbag02 (22131)
Seat 3: EJ123 (27148)
Seat 6: Deb58W (22080)
Seat 7: surferick (18600)
Seat 9: akshawnd (12041)

akshawnd raises (12041) to 12041
akshawnd is all-In.
dbag02 raises (22131) to 22131

[ 2d Qd ] [ a pair of twos -- Qd,Td,7d,2d,2s ]

[gergery]

Is there any guidelines you use for whether or not to fire on the turn in these spots?

Ie. Fire if you’ve been playing tight, fire if the turn looks like it might have hit you in BB (low card), don’t fire if it connects to the flop somehow, etc

[ZeeJustin]

Would it be colluding in this spot if he had said, "im trying to lose and I'm going to limp-fold every hand."

[RJCarter]

[ QUOTE ]
Quote

"2) With medium-sized stacks, I really hadn't been stealing enough from late position, especially as we reach the money. Being forced to do it by lack of cards, it's been educational how often it works."

In my mind this is the key to success in almost every tournament. On successful days, no one behind you wakes up with AA or KK and on bad days they do.

[/ QUOTE ]

Speaking of which:
I (SallyHayes on Party) ended this Aussie tourney in 18th last night. with about 7k chips i woke up to pocket aces after the chip leader at the time (about 12k chips) had put in a nice 3k steal attempt at the blinds, i pushed, he called with Q10 off. flop came something like 2 /images/graemlins/spade.gif 5 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif 7 /images/graemlins/spade.gif ...turn A /images/graemlins/spade.gif ...river 6 /images/graemlins/spade.gif. Oh yea, trip aces. wait, what, no...the caught chip stealer had the 10 /images/graemlins/spade.gif and my tourney is over, rather than being chip leader with 14k in chips.

Point being that it feels awesome when you wake up to a nice hand when there is a chip stealing raise facing you, but somehow that makes it all the more painful when you lose that way.

So it goes.

Anyway, so this is my first post to the board. I've probably read more of your wonderful posts than any non-poster, ever. There are so many great posters on here, but specifically I pay a lot of attention to DavidRoss, ZeeJustin, ElDiablo and PokerNeal. Thanks to you all for making my game what it is, which, apparently is only good for 18th, but someday might slip in there for a win.

[Ulysses]

Oh, man, RJ. That was SICK. You played really well. I saw a lot of your play as we were next to each other for a while. I thought your plays were well-timed and the guy who got you was such an idiot. I absolutely remember this hand and remember commenting on how idiotic it was right after it happened. That play was one of the sickest things I saw in the whole tourney. Sorry you had to go out like that.

Are you sure the hand went down like that? It's hard to keep all the sick beats straight, but I remember this one going down something like this: he limps, you raise to like 3k w/ an obviously real hand, he pushes his 12k and you call all-in. His QTo, your AA. Three spades on the flop, blank turn, river As. Anyway, doesn't really matter. However it went down exactly, it was a disgusting hand.

It's some small solace, perhaps, that this guy completely blew off his huge stack to finish in 12th.

[RJCarter]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh, man, RJ. That was SICK. You played really well. I saw a lot of your play as we were next to each other for a while. I thought your plays were well-timed and the guy who got you was such an idiot. I absolutely remember this hand and remember commenting on how idiotic it was right after it happened. That play was one of the sickest things I saw in the whole tourney. Sorry you had to go out like that.

Are you sure the hand went down like that? It's hard to keep all the sick beats straight, but I remember this one going down something like this: he limps, you raise to like 3k w/ an obviously real hand, he pushes his 12k and you call all-in. His QTo, your AA. Three spades on the flop, blank turn, river As. Anyway, doesn't really matter. However it went down exactly, it was a disgusting hand.

It's some small solace, perhaps, that this guy completely blew off his huge stack to finish in 12th.

[/ QUOTE ]

i knew he was going to dump my chips around the table after i left, so it's no surprise that he finished 12th. i dont remember the exact order the cards came out, your head was probably clearer than mine at the time, but im pretty sure (say 90%) that he did a blinds steal bet that was raised all in by me. like you said, regardless, i got all my chips in there and lost the hand. it happens - ive probably been the beneficiary of beats like that in the past, although i dont remember any of them coming with such timing.

that being said, thanks for the reply.

[Ulysses]

RJ, please look away. You don't want to see this.

For others reading this thread, here's the sick hand we've been discussing (Hero is me, Button is RJ, CO is well, CO).

The reason I remember the limp, RJ, is because at the time, I was sure it was a steal raise as well (just as you thought) , but I wasn't paying a ton of attention. After seeing the showdown, I went and checked the hand history to see how the money got in and realized he had limped and then got all the money in. Sick.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t300 (9 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

UTG+1 (t7866)
MP1 (t6965)
MP2 (t4716)
MP3 (t2760)
CO (t7857)
Button (t5482)
SB (t1890)
Hero (t5275)
UTG (t12723)

Preflop: Hero is BB with 6/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 5/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
UTG folds, UTG+1 folds, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, MP3 folds, CO calls t300, <font color="CC3333">Button raises to t1500</font>, SB folds, Hero folds, <font color="CC3333">CO raises to t7857 (All-In)</font>, Button calls t3982 (All-In).

Flop: (t13789) 6/images/graemlins/spade.gif, K/images/graemlins/spade.gif, T/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 2 all-in)</font>

Turn: (t13789) 8/images/graemlins/club.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 2 all-in)</font>

River: (t13789) A/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 2 all-in)</font>

Final Pot: t13789

CO shows Qs Td (flush, ace high).
Button shows Ad Ah (three of a kind, aces).
Outcome: CO wins t13789. </font>

[Sundevils21]

ouch. RJ got violated on that one. Im feeling pain right now, and I wasn't even involved in the tournament.

[Ulysses]

Well, I was just reviewing my last 100 hands in this tourney. I hadn't been paying attention to the chat for most of the time, so I missed this when we were down to 11 people:

cbird24: id take 5k over ausi tourney lol
dbag02: me too

[RJCarter]

Ha! thanks for posting that. i remembered it pretty differently. i tried to cutnpaste it from the chat box right after it happened, but it wouldnt let me. the worst part was that right after it happened i had to go into my room where my naked sleeping girlfriend was. i had to be quiet so as not to wake her. needless to say, it took me a while to come down from my loss. when i awoke this morning to the alarm, i remember saying, "he has Ace Queen" to my girlfriend. seriously. i dont know why it was AQ and not Q10, but apparently i had been dreaming about AQ. then i had to explain why i was dreaming about AQ instead of kangaroos and fosters.

[Ulysses]

SB = EJ
BB = UnkownPlayer

7th pays ~2k, 6th ~3k, 5th ~5k, 4th and up Australia trip. Note that he can fold and have 8k left - in good shape w/ a tiny 2k stack and two 10kish stacks still around.

That's not why I posted this, though. I mainly just wanted to highlight the classic DoctorGonzoe rail chat.

Party Poker No-Limit Hold'em Tourney, Big Blind is t600 (7 handed) converter (http://www.selachian.com/tools/bisonconverter/hhconverter.cgi)

Button (t24771)
SB (t19900)
BB (t9988)
UTG (t11840)
MP1 (t20700)
MP2 (t2360)
Hero (t12441)

Preflop: Hero is CO with 9/images/graemlins/heart.gif, 3/images/graemlins/heart.gif.
UTG folds, MP1 folds, MP2 folds, Hero folds, Button folds, SB completes, <font color="CC3333">BB raises to t2100</font>, <font color="CC3333">SB raises to t19900 (All-In)</font>, BB calls t7888 (All-In).

Flop: (t29888) 8/images/graemlins/club.gif, 2/images/graemlins/club.gif, 3/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 2 all-in)</font>

Turn: (t29888) 5/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 2 all-in)</font>

River: (t29888) 7/images/graemlins/spade.gif <font color="blue">(2 players, 2 all-in)</font>

Final Pot: t29888

SB shows 5d 7h (two pair, sevens and fives).
BB shows Kc Js (high card, king).
Outcome: SB wins t29888. </font>

HokieHustler: lol
UnkownPlayer: thats stupid
DARQU: WOW
UnkownPlayer: STUP{ID
UnkownPlayer: STUPID
DARQU: very stupid
UnkownPlayer: fukkkkk
HokieHustler: we all make bad calls
DARQU: be happy u made mad $
UnkownPlayer: fuk u
DoctorGonzoe: ahhahahha
DoctorGonzoe: WHAT A BLUNDER
UnkownPlayer: blunder
DoctorGonzoe: A $12k BLUNDER
UnkownPlayer: he caught
UnkownPlayer: ahole
UnkownPlayer: gla
cbird24: k j sucks for a all in anyway
UnkownPlayer: EJ
cbird24: 5 7 is even worse but oh well lol
UnkownPlayer: I hope your plane crashes
UnkownPlayer: I knew he had dirt
UnkownPlayer: he is dirt
UnkownPlayer: ej
UnkownPlayer: I hate you