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Okay I'm definitely finishing the IPC on this entry, I promise! Before I do that I'd just like to congratulate Flipper on winning the CPT event, well done buddy.
So, to continue from my last post. The situation was nine handed and we had to lose one more player before the final table. Unfortunately, we lost Rory Liffey after his KK got done by JJ in pretty brutal flushing fashion; poker can be cruel but gg Rory. Also, gg Rory Brown who had a great tournament and got unlucky to finish in 10th, well done and well played.
Final Day
So at the final table I basically had 1 million of the 2.7 million chips (or so...lol) in play, so I didn't really plan on getting too busy early and thought I could just cruise down to the final 3/4.
The only hands of note were when I ran my AA into AK and used all my skill to get some chips from a Polish guy. More interesting was the hand where I doubled up Chris Dowling. He limped into the small blind and I raised with AJ, he called, the flop came 7, 9, 10, he checked and I decided to take a free card with my gutshot and two overs. He then led a blank turn in weak fashion and I thought he probably had some sort of weak pair and if I stuck him in he'd probably have a tough time calling and even if he did, I'd probably have two overs and my gutshot.
As it happened, he flopped a straight so I only had an 8. I think limping in with 86 and then calling a raise with his chipstack vs. the chipleader is pretty bad, but my play is horrible too, for the sole reason that there's no decent hand I would check the flop with and then move in with on turn.
Being aware of my own aggressive image, I would just bet my hands out there, even if I had a set or similar. When I think back, I don't feel like I could have gotten him off any 9 or 10, so I suck and I hate my play.
I then found myself three handed with Ben and Chris. Unfortunately, I was out of position against Ben, which was kind of annoying, as I never had the goods so this combination led to me losing a fair bit of my stack.
After getting spanked a bit by both of them, I decided to actually tighten up a bit since I was sick of burning off chips bluffing. I decided to wait for a hand. Eventually I got AhQh, Ben limped on the button and I raised in the big blind, which he called. The flop came 532 with one heart. I bet and he called. I wasn't too sure of what he had here, but I was jamming in on a heart, A, Q, K.
The turn came, the nutter butter 4 for me! I was playing around 550k at the time and my thinking behind this was - considering I had checked hands over to him a few times and he had bet which I had passed. I really felt that he would think that if I did have an Ace, I would check it to him and let him bluff it. For that reason, I decided to bet 200k as if I had 77-KK type hands too. Which would come across that I didn't want to seem weak by checking, but also left myself a decent shoving stack of 350k (at 10-20k).
Thankfully, Ben was clever enough to see I had left myself enough behind to pass if he moved in and he obliged and did so. I think his play was pretty bad because:
1. It's hard for him to represent an Ace after he limped on the button.
2. He cant really represent a 6 as a lot of hands with 6 in them push the flop I think (56s,46s even 67s) and I cant see him just peeling, say if he had K6 as opposed to his K5s.
He said to me after that he just could never see me leading the turn with the straight and with my stack so low, so I guess that worked out well. Sometimes it helps to turn the nuts, but I like the way I played this and it crippled Ben, which meant I was back in great shape to take the game.
Chris then took Ben's remaining 200k and we were heads-up. At the heads-up I started with 1.6 million and Chris had 1 million. I didn't really plan on steam-rolling Chris because he still had a lot of chips and I had learned that he was a person who played with no fear of making huge bluffs and wasn't afraid to gamble.
I didn't really have a set plan, but was confident I probably had played more heads-up poker than Chris from both online and live and thought I'd just feel my way around and play it by ear.
The first big pot we played, I raised on the button with K5 and he called. It came A75 and he checked. I initially thought I'd check it just for pot control and the fact that I can't be called by worse (except 68), but I hadn't been very aggressive so far, so I thought I'd bet it. He called. The turn came a sweet K.
When he checked I obviously had to bet. At the time, Chris had about just under 700k in behind, so I bet a weak looking 180k giving him the illusion of fold equity and hoped he'd get crazy with a 7 or 86 or something similar. He showed A3 and on the board of A57K I was one card away...BANG 7 on the river. I was in full disbelief, I'd gotten dogged in big pots before, but this was just WRONG. After counting a lot of chips and sending them over to Chris I had calmed a bit and I knew that if I could double up somehow, I'd be favourite to take it down again (in my eyes anyway).
With my stack hovering around 500-700k, I really didn't want to raise-fold. The blinds were at 15-30k and I would just be burning too much of my stack if I did. I decided to limp a lot of pots with my marginal hands and only raise if I was willing to call the all-in or else just shove all-in first myself (although my stack was just too big to do that, so it was a pretty awkward stack size).
Luckily, in some of the limped pots I caught some hands and was able to win big pots with them. I feel Chris looked my up light a few times and this must have been my horrible mistimed bluffs and earlier aggression, finally paying some dividends.
Also, Chris wasn't in overdrive pre-flop (not that he should have been). This meant I was able to limp these pots and mix it up between hitting some flops and stealing these pots, which essentially added 10% to my stack for each one I stole on flop.
The final hand I had about 1.7 million and he had about 900k, he raised on the button and I had A10. At 15-30 he made it 80k (as far as I can remember) and I initially thought I'd just move in and take the pot down there. Then I thought, although it's nice to win the 100k there and then, I felt he could really only call with better hands or hands I'm flipping with (maybe A9 A8 too, but I'm not so sure).
I thought I'd raise to 210k and try and get him to shove (I had decided I was calling if he did, because A10 is just too big a hand I think and to be honest I just wanted to end it and thought this was definitely a decent spot). He did in the end with 96 off, which is pretty sick but hey, he made a lot of moves like that and they were what had got him so deep in the event so fair play Chris, great match!
Finally, I'd just like to thank everyone involved in the organising of a great event and thanks to everyone who congratulated me since the win too. Well that's my lot I guess. Any more questions just post comments here - don't be shy now people!
Until my next post (about the Aussie Millions)
Best of luck,
Reesy
Comments (5)
best blog/event report ive read in along time, great logic in alot of the hands, spot on keep it up