Boosting the Bankroll

The draining aspect of my usual online grind in combination with the annual PokerStars WCOOP had taken its full affect, and mixed with some fairly break-even results, I decided to take a break and head up to Melbourne.

The ANZPT had made its way to Melbourne, and with it saw the unusual $50 Opening Event where there were five flights where you could re-enter and add-on. Regardless if you made it through, you were able to play alternative flights in an effort to accumulate a bigger stack – and with a $100,000 guarantee, it was a lock to attract a high number of players.

I was originally supposed to play the WCOOP Event 37: $109 8-Game Mixed at 7am, but I woke up late and missed registration by a few minutes. Instead, I decided to venture up and have a crack at the $50 Opening Event with a few mates. Everyone began with a 5,000-chip starting bank, and if you were eliminated you could receive another 5,000 on a different table. Registration lasted two hours, and if you made it that far, you could make a $50 add on for 10,000 in chips.

Nothing really went right with my first stack, and I ended up punting that off. However if I was to do a rebuy I would only be coming back with 15-big blinds, so instead I waited until the add-on period and came back with 15,000 with blinds at 400-800. I played a few hands to try and build my stack, but eventually made a move and busted to head on an early dinner break.

A few of the boys eventually made their way into Crown to play the final flight of the event, and just like the previous one, I busted early and waited until the add on period before re-entering. Fortunately however things went much better as I accumulated my stack fairly well as the end of the day closed in. With around an hour to go, I decided I had to find some spots to push my stack up the leaderboard. I made some fairly standard open-jams and three-bet shoves as I built by stack upwards of 50,000 before on the final hand of the night it was folded to me in the small blind. With blinds at 2,000-4,000, I opened up the mighty five-two to 8,400 and the big blind made the call to see a jack-five-two flop fall. I bet out 13,200 only to have the big blind raise it up nearly enough to put me all in. I instantly pushed every last chip into the pot, and once the board blanked against my opponent’s jack-eight, I was bagging133,200 to end the day as one of the chip leaders.


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On arrival for day two my table appeared fairly weak – a few nits, some amateurs, and overall a table that I felt I could exploit. Since we were about an hour or two from the money and about fifty players, I decided that my game plan would see me play fairly aggressive in an attempt to increase my stack instead of limping into the money.

Unfortunately things started off badly as I got pushed off some hands and eventually switched my game plan to not being so laggy. I snagged a double on the exact bubble as I was all in with aces against nines to push my stack above the 150,000-chip mark. From there I slowly built my stack as we eclipsed pay jump after pay jump before I was moved to the feature table with good mate Luke McLean (pictured above).

We both had the biggest chip stacks, and were both seated at opposite ends of the table as incredibly weak players sat between us. Although we tried to stay out of each other’s way, I was forced to three-bet him with ace-king, and he was forced to do the same with queens against my sixes. As the tournament was fairly speedy in the level jumps, I was moved tables and eventually saw my stack dwindle to around eight big blinds. I shipped eight-seven from the cutoff and the big blind called it off with ten-five. I spiked a seven and doubled before shipping a few hands later with A♠ K♠. The biggest stack on the table tanked for nearly three minutes before making the call next to act with queens, and after the turn and river dropped running kings, my stack was the biggest in the room. I moved back to the final table, and after a few more eliminations we were at dinner break with a final table of ten and myself as chip leader with 3,260,000 heading into 40,000-80,000.

The final table was locally-dominated with Andrew Demetriou, Kris Nedanovski, Yuri Mamistvalov, Stephen Boots, Carlos Lai and of course Luke and myself. Once blinds were up to 50,000-100,000, Carlos opened to 250k (with a 750k stack) with ace-ten and I shipped next to act with A♠K♠. He took about two minutes before calling it off, and although I flopped a gutshot, flush draw and live king, his outdraw with a ten put a huge dent in my stack in a pot that would have seen me hold one-third of the chips in play nine-handed.

Some of my mates were fairly surprised at how well I kept my composure following that beat, and I think that was mainly due to the constant beats associated with online poker. Playing online, you can’t afford to lose focus otherwise all your other tournaments are going to suffer – you just have to keep level headed and totally focused on playing your best so that you can achieve your maximum results.

With play being fairly slow and my stack not the biggest as it once was I decided to make a play by opening ace-ten to 250k from under the gun. Kris, Andrew and a third player made the call to see a J♣4♦4♠ flop fall. I felt that Kris and the other player couldn’t have flatted me with a big pair as they would have three-bet me pre, and any kind of jack in the range would be so marginal. As for Andrew, I know that he is capable of folding big hands, and that making a pay jump or two with his shortish stack would be his main goal. Consequently I decided to fire out a continuation-bet of 385k to look like I was pleading for a call – and also if either of the three players held a weak jack or underpair they would struggle to ship it with the difference between busting now or winning was $18,500.

The three players folded, and my stack was back to around 4 million as a few players eventually bit the dust. With play four-handed and Luke holding the chip lead, Andrew and the others talked about a deal, and although I was happy to discuss it, Luke instantly turned it down. Once we were down to four-handed play, Andrew again brought it up but was shot down a second time as he bowed out next. Luke, Stephen and I discussed numbers, but instead played on – which worked out to be a good decision for both Luke and I.

With blinds at 120,000-240,000 I opened the button to 500,000 with A♠6♣ only to have Stephen move all in from the small blind for around 2 million. I deliberated for a few moments before making the call to be up against the top of his range with queens. Fortunately I dinked an ace on the flop and a six on the river to put us into heads up play with Luke holding around a three-big blind advantage.

We had already discussed chopping earlier in the tournament if we somehow managed to go heads up, and with $20,000 and $13,500 the amounts for first and second we decided to chop $17,000 for Luke and $16,500 for me as we continued to play for the trophy that was the biggest ever produced at Crown (in recent memory and mainly due to a stuff-up in the production).

Battling back-and-forth, Luke furthered his lead before I doubled with queens against his ace-ten. With only roughly forty-big blinds on the table, Luke opened his button to 600,000 at 150,000-300,000 and I shoved on him. I gave him a walk the next hand before he opened the button again and I jammed with ace-three. Luke made the call holding ace-nine and eventually rivered a straight to leave me crippled. I doubled, but then was dominated when his ace-six made top pair against my seven-six.

I have to admit, from about four tables out, Luke was easily the best player in the tournament, and it was a pleasure not only playing with him, but seeing him collect his fourth major title at Crown. What made it even better was that him and I used to play home games together at my apartment across the road alongside a group of players that many of you would know – Michael Guzzardi, Trung Tran, Aleks Brkovic, Daren Yoon, Joel Feldman and Abel Cabrera were just a handful of the guys that were at my place multiple times a week – and since those days they have all gone on to become incredibly successful players.

I hope that I can be the next to taste major success!