Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Grand tournament IV

Wideshot

Whose playing in Grand Tournament IV ?!!! The buy in is
$1000 which is pretty crazy, but there are plenty of
smaller tournaments to play in to qualify. This is the
best online tournament to play in ! You start with 10K
in chips, blind levels are 30mins each, its like a mini
world series. After 6.5 hrs, if ur still in, u get to
go through to day 2 ! And do it all again.

If you want to improve your tournament play, this is the
best one to play in. Pokerroom run $100 satellites for
this tourney, if you want me to play for you, ill be
happy to (as long as i know you). GT IV however does
start Sunday quite early in the morning, so that is
a bit of a catch. Hey , you gotta sacrifice a bit
sometimes.

Anyway, if ur still keen and cant play in the during
the day qualifiers, i can play. Last time frage came
15th ! Way to go !

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

B is for Bellagio !!!!

Wideshot chips
Wideshot chips


Ive finally done it ! A life's dream to go to vegas, ever since i was
well, for a long time anyway, has been achieved.
And they're paying me, and i get to enter a big vegas tournament
and , well its just too cool for school !!!!

Last sunday i played on a pokerroom WPT qualifer for the
5 star diamond event at the bellagio. 91 entrants and there
was 1 seat for the winner. My goal was to make the
top 5, as thats where the money started and then see
what happens from there. Good thing about this tourney
is you start with 2500 in chips, which gives you some time
to play. I played well early with little in the way of cards,
just keeping afloat. Everytime i managed to get ahead,
i seemed to give the chips straight back. Finally got to 5K,
then make a late raise guy from the big blind push all in
for 4K, i raised to around 1, I had Js, I called he has Aces.
Grayte back down to 1. Then just before the end of the hour
i finally hit some cards , picking up Ks and As, in 3 hands, and
trippling and doubling up. From there i played really well.
I attempted to keep some poker map going but struggled.
Just mentally keeping track for now.

Made it to the final table, with about average chips, and started
getting some tough decisions. Pick up pocket 10s, get into 3
handed action. The Flop comes 8 high make a bet, two callers. Then
check the turn, sensing some gheyness, the guy who called from the
blind makes a big over bet , still 8 high on the turn, I think about
and decide to fold, later said he ahd Js !

Phew big fold there. Then later on I raised with k-10 5 handed , got
called, by the blind, flop came 10 high, he check raised me not a
big amount but enuff, i thought about it and folded, he showed A-10!
Another good lay down.

With that confidence i played really well to get to three handed. Then
one guy started going crazy and i folded 10s when he pushed all in.
I felt i could outplay them on the flop, and stuck to the game plan,
not wanting to race if i could. The other guy got rid of the crazy
guy, heads up. 42K to 160K, some tough work ahead. Early on,
he makes a small re-raise, I have K-8, i call. Flop comes 10-8-3,
he puts me all in call, he shows A-Q, another good call and I double
up. From then on it was a procession of me winning pots,
and finally he bluffed all his chips with nothing on the turn and
i had top pair, and OMG , the bellagio seat was mine :)))

Things i learnt from the tournament, a good nights sleep the
night before is very useful, other ppl were going out, it was
tempting, but i said , nup im going home, i have to wake up
early ! Last time i did that b4 melbourne tourney, it paid off
as well ! Hanging in - really important not to give it a way,
even if ur down the barrell, i came back a number of times
just like in melbourne, and stayed patient.

Anyway so whats the deal with the seat ??? The four
pictures up the top are , 2 of the bellagio and 2 of the
paris hotel where i am staying. The paris is opposite
the bellagio, and coz the bellagio is full, team pokerroom
which i am a part of , get based there.

Here are some 3d panaromaic photos of the paris and bellagio.

The tournament im playing in is the 5 star diamond WPT event,
which has a 15K buy in and prolly all the best players in the
world. Last years tournament attracted 377 entrants, a prize
pool over 5 million, with first place (negranu) getting 1.8 million!