Learn to Close!

Every time I take a break from online poker I don’t like jumping into my full schedule of tournaments. Instead I prefer to ease my way in – maybe skip some of the bigger stuff that I would normally play and basically just try and get my groove back.

After an unsuccessful Monday grind that saw me only cash in two tournaments from the fifteen that I played, I decided that my Tuesday session would also be on the small side as I looked to balance my playing with some writing for Poker Asia Pacific. I only rego’d for nine tournaments over about a two hour duration with the $55 Big and $27 Turbo KO being the largest of the group.

I ran deep in the $4.40 Turbo before falling in 14th place as I also cashed in the $27 Turbo KO. However it was my run in the $3.30 rebuy that I was starting to get excited about as I always seemed to have chips as I slowly began navigating the 4,099-player field. I felt I played great poker and never felt uncomfortable when playing pots, but without doubt there were two key hands that set up my run.

With blinds at 40,000-80,000 and a 8,000-ante, I was dealt A♦K♣ and opened from middle position to 160,000. “Django66” defended his big blind before checking a 5♥Q♠A♣ flop as I continued for 135,500 only to have Django66 check-raise to 271,000. My hand is obviously crushing his range that he defends out of the blinds with, and although I’m going broke to two-pair or a set, I’ve got to maximise against his bluff range. If I smoothed his check-raise it leaves the pot at just under a million, and since he has virtually that amount left in his stack, he would have to continue to sell his story by shoving his whole range. Consequently I time down ... crucial for dramatic effect ... before calling the raise and then the shove when the 6♣ lands. The river spiked the K♠ which didn’t matter as Django66 could only muster up third pair with his Q♦2♦, as I rocketed up to 4,159,957 in chips – or roughly 52-big blinds.

Things slowly plodded on by as I made the final table sitting in the middle of the pack. There was only one decent player that I was worried about, and as the final nine got down to business, I remained fairly quiet gathering as much information from OPR and previous hands that I could so I could have a fair crack at the $7.1k first prize.

Sitting in second place with six players remaining, another hand like the previous one came up which would further my chances of capturing the win. With blinds at 90,000-180,000 and a 18,000-ante, I opened A♣K♠ from the button to 360,000 and “reevo777” defended his big blind to see a 3♥A♦7♣ flop fall. reevo777 checked and I bet out 299,999 only to have reevo777 click it back to 599,998. Put in an exact situation as before, there was no doubt that I was going to play it the same way – and since we were on a final table, his range was even more heavily skewed to weakness. Smooth-calling after timing down like it was an art-form, reevo777 bet out 720,000 into a pot of over 2.1 million when the 2♣ fell on the turn. I opted to ship for over 3.3 million and reevo777 snapped off his last 2.9 million holding A♠6♣ as the river faded out with the 4♣ to see me climb to 8,357,367 in chips or 46-big blinds.

Reaching heads up play, I was dominated by “cyberturn” as he had dispatched of the last few players. After failing in my last two major heads up visits ($55 BIGGER on PokerStars and $50 $100k GTD at Crown), and friends sweating me, I was going to attempt to play my best so I could get that win on the board.

Sitting with roughly a four-to-one disadvantage, I managed to spike a double when I flopped trips and got all the money in on the river when I rivered quads. However from there, it would be a downward spiral as nothing really went to plan. I was fairly card dead, and did make a few moves, but it seemed it was cyberturn’s day as he tended to pick off my moves more frequently. Eventually I decided that there was no point me sitting round waiting for aces or anything close to premium, so I started shipping regardless of what I held. Unfortunately my 15-big blind jam from the button with T♥6♠ was looked up by cyberturn and his K♥8♥, and after we both connected on the board, it would be cyberturn proving victorious as I collected a nice $5,338 payday for just an $18 investment!