It was time for a change. I’m not usually superstitious but a 0/15 live record in Melbourne called for drastic measures. I had to do everything different today. I didn’t eat nutella on white bread, I ate peanut butter and honey on brown. I conditioned my hair. I wore shoes instead of thongs. I was ready for the 1k rebuy.

I get there and rebuy straight away and there is only me and a youngish american guy at my table when the cards go in the air. First hand I pick up A10 and raise to 150 and the stubborn American refuses to let me have it and calls from BB. Flop comes Q105. He checks to me and i fire 200 and he calls. Turn Q. He leads for 400 and I make the call. River comes a 3 and he bets out 1k. SIGHHHHHHHH. I think for a while. It sort of feels like KJ. I call and he announces ‘nuts’ and rolls over his Q10. So much for fuckin superstition. The rest of the players at my table take their seats and I decide not to rebuy for the moment and stay at around 1.4k.

In the next action hand utg+1 limped, another player limped and late position player made it 100. One player called behind and I called with KJcl in sb. The original limper then moved all in for 375. The raiser flatted and the player behind him also called. I was slighly confused at why the raiser, a young looking guy wouldn’t just isolate all in here. I decided to move all in assuming that his hand wasn’t strong and the caller behind him was most probably dead money. After some time the raiser made the call and so did the player behind. OOOOPS! I rolled over KJ and was amazed to see I was pretty much favourite against utg limp raisers’ 87off, raisers 109s and callers 5s. SUUUURELY! First card peeled off a J. Followed by 87 to compete two pair for the limp/raiser and a straight for 109. Nice try Ko.

I was forced to double rebuy alot earlier than I had hoped for. A couple of nothing rounds later 2 people limped to me on the button and I limped 34d. 5 of us took the flop and it came down K64 with 1 diamond and it checked to me. I bet 175 and sb made the call. The turn came a 3 and sb lead for 400. I quickly shoved for 500 more and he snap called me with 63. Back down to 1600 and it isn’t even the end of the first level yet. This is not good.

I made a plan for myself. Keep it tightish and just look to get it in preflop with decent hands and only look to gambol it up with 15 minutes left in the rebuy period. I saw nothing for about 30minutes and with about 12min left I found QQ utg. No-one had been open shoving and I had relatively tight image so I limped utg and hoped for a squeezer. Two players limped behind me and the flop came down 10s 9s 3. The blinds checked and I checked. Late position player made it 150, the American guy called and it folded back to me. I jammed it in for about 1300 and the raiser folded and the American guy began to tank it. He asked for the dealer to put the raise aside from the pot (a new live player trend as they pretend to act as if they understand pot odds etc). ‘You’re not getting pot odds if that’s what your trying to work out’ I said. ‘Yer but what if I’m ahead’ he replied. ‘Well then pot odds are irrelevant then aren’t they?’. ‘Ok. I call’ he announced and flipped over J9. The turn came 8 and river J completing a 1 card straight for me and sending me back to >3k chips. With 10minutes left I won a couple of nice pots with top pair and somehow ended the rebuy period with 5.5k and 8.5k after my double addon. Huge relief.

After the rebuy period I lost 3 straight hands with mid pairs dropping down to 6.5k. I raised 4’s from utg+2 and was called by the old Aussie guy behind me. Flop came 10d 5 4d. WOOOO. I bet 450 and he called. Turn came Jh. I considered check raising but stuck to the more conventional approach and fired out 1300. He called quite quickly. The river came a nice blank 6 and I bet out 2600. He called again and I slammed down the effective nuts. He grunted and mucked.

Not much else happened for that level and we moved to 75/150. Young american raises the cutoff and I looked down at AK on bb. I reraised him to 2100 not really wanting a call but happy to get it in preflop. He called of course. The flop came K 10 4. Way to hit a flop under pressure. I bet out 3200 and he folded relatively quickly. I was 15k which I remained at until the break.

First hand back from the break I picked up 88 and flatted an utg+1 raiser. Flop came 922 and he bet 800 and I called. Turn came a 10 and we both checked it. Cmon keep it low please. Q on the river and he leads out for 1600. Being the calling station I am I pay him off and he turns over KJ. Sigh.

The level went by and I had absolutely nothing and hovered around 12k. The last level before the dinner break was 200/400/50 and the young american guy raised utg+1. I looked down at AK again (only 2nd time I had it). He had about 5500 so seemed like quite an easy reraise/call situation. I made it 1900 trying to give the allusion of possible fold equity. He moved all in and I called only for him to show AA. So shattered. The flop came Q 10 x and he reeled back like I had just made an open ended straight flush draw or something. He walked away from the table and closed his eyes. Like cmon really? Seriously? Get your hand off it. I bricked the next two cards and I was just happy that this American could breathe again. Not really. I shook my ahead till the dinner break about 20minutes later.

First hand back from the dinner break I picked up KQ in the cutoff and raised it to 800 at 150/300/50. The button threw in 4k more enough to put me all in. I didn’t really want to call but I hate raise/folding there because he’s showing 9s-Js enough. I called and he showed AK. Flop came down Axx and I exited witha 0/16 record.

Needless to say I was pretty cut. Amazingly I haven’t had AA or KK in 18hrs of live tournament poker. I think Grant Levy asks the dealers to recheck the deck if he hasn’t had it in 18 minutes.

Melbourne is the shittest state ever in Australia. Give me Tasmania anyday. Melbourne is the nut low. So they got some sports stadiums. It’s overriden by the pride they take in the Yarra, or trams, or the rediculous weather. OK enough ranting.

I got the 1600 bounty tourney tmoz which I somehow have to find a positive state of mind about. I’ll do my best. Lets hope the title of my next blog is ‘I heart Melbourne’

Kochan

http://kochanpoker.wordpress.com/200...ingingranting/