Melbourne Champs Summary (sort of)

A quick rundown of events in the Melbourne Champs & how they panned out for me:
Event 1 - $175 NLHE
I managed to score myself 3rd place and felt I played pretty well throughout most of the tournament. Picked up some chips early on a table that was fairly passive without having too many big hands. Did decide to gamble a bit with one other big stack (who was playing very aggressively since arriving at my table) and called his shove with 66 & won the race against his AJo, which left me with probably the chip lead at the second break (had 65.5k). Managed to hold the stack together until the next break & chipped up before the final table to head into it with just over 200k, which was about 5th. I managed to do my usual trick & fold my way up a few places before I caught a run of cards with about 5 or 6 players left, which managed to propel me to 2nd in chips. A few players busted & it came down to three of us when I played a big hand against the other big stack at the table. I had just taken the chip lead a few hands previously & had about 800k & picked up AQo on the button, so I raised to 110k (blinds were 20/40k no ante). The small blind (who I had been crushing all tournament - I'd been on tables with him throughout the tourney & won almost every big hand I played against him) pushed for just under 500k. I decided to call after thinking for quite a while & he turned over JJ & I lost the race ... and the chip lead obviously. I managed to go out not too long afterwards in 3rd place for $8k. Not a bad payday for 11 hours work if I do say so myself.
Event 2 - $120 PokerPro PLO
Yes, I did play this event ... albeit briefly. Essentially I played a few hands on the breaks from event 1 and was blinded out at other times. I managed to make it to the final three tables with this strategy, busting when I pushed with suited paint cards when short & ran into aces, which held up (flopping a set also helped significantly!).
Event 4 - $175 PLO
Continuing with my recent trend of cashing in two events in major tournaments at Crown this year, I managed to cash in this event, coming 14th for the not-quite-double-my-money prize of $338. I didn't do anything particularly noteworthy & just hung around long enough to make the money, without ever really challenging the big stacks at the various tables I was moved to.
Of course the logician in me should have realised the trend in recent events & stopped with the tournaments after my second cash, however there was also the added confidence & bankroll that come with such results ... so I played some more events.
Event 7 - $230 NLHE
Not much to speak of ... didn't pick up many hands & when I did I either ran into multiple players & scary boards or won a small pot. Unfortunately there was much more of the former than the latter. Of course to make the tourney complete, I managed to see a flop as a short stack with 7d4d in the BB with only 2 limpers. The flop came down all diamonds, so I snap-shoved, only to see the second caller quietly push his stack into the middle & roll over Jd8d, at which point I said my goodbyes and wandered over to the cash games.
Event 10 - $340 PLH/PLO
This should have been a great tournament, with a field of players who really didn't know what they were doing for the most part, particularly when it came to Omaha. This meant that I chipped up early & was one of the chip leaders at the first break with about 13.6k (starting stack was 5k). Of course things went downhill once I moved tables, as it seems to do ... I managed to get my stack in on the flop in the holdem round with 66 on a A63 flop against a pre-flop raiser who called with KK exclaiming 'I knew you didn't have an ace!'. Of course the K rolls off on the turn & my opponent decides to continue telling the table how his play was so great because he knew I didn't have an ace ... of course I manage to go out in the Omaha round when there was a limper & I raised the pot with KKQx with a suit. The BB decided to call & the limper folded & the flop was QJx & the BB shoved his remaining stack in, which I called pretty quickly. As it turned out, he had exactly the same amount of chips as me & rolled over KT86 with no suits, for nothing more than an open-ended straight draw & an overcard. Of course the inevitable happens & an A comes on the turn & I'm out right away ... no sweat, no outs, bye!
Event 15 - $1100 NLHE Main Event
I made something of a last-minute decision to play this event & managed to get very little going on day 1, with my stack doing little apart from heading south all night. I managed to stick around & end the night as the shortest stack, with just 7300 to my name (after starting with 20k).
Of course in the process there were 2 big hands that I decided to fold which really didn't help my cause ... and of course they need to be part of the blog!
First was a hand where I had AsQs & raised pre-flop after 1 limper. Everyone folded to the limper (a lady who had been playing fairly snuggly) who called. The flop came down AK8 & she bet into me. I re-raised after some thought, trying to figure out what hand she could have that would actually bet into me on the flop. The lack of a re-raise pre-flop put AA & KK out of the equation, so the only hands that came to mind were 88 or A8 (AK also being a hand that would probably not limp-call pre-flop). She then fairly quickly moved all-in, prompting me to go into the tank & consider ranges of hands. She had done a similar limp-call earlier with a hand like 66 ( and I also thought that she had done it with AT as well), so I really thought that 88 & A8 were almost the only hands she could have in that spot (although I would be less inclined to lead into the pre-flop raiser on that board, but that's just my way of thinking), so I folded. Of course there was another big hand not too long afterwards ... I picked up AA in the BB & put in a pot-sized raise to get rid of the 5 limpers who had tried to come along for the ride. Most of them duly folded, except for the cutoff, who called. The flop came down KKQ & my opponent called a bet (which obviously isn't something that I like with my hand & being out of position). The turn was a blank, a 4 I think & again I bet & was called. The river was the worst card (or the best card depending on how you look at it) for me, a repeat Q, making the final board of KKQ4Q. I decided to check & folded to my opponents 2/3rd pot-size bet, which slightly less than my remaining stack. Afterwards he said he had a K, and the way he played the hand it seemed entirely plausible ... so just another bad situation to lose chips.
Lets hope I get a quick double-up tomorrow when day 2 resumes, so that I can stick around for longer than 20 minutes (as has happened previously when I have played 2-day events & returned with a short stack)!
Feel free to follow my progress online (if I manage to get any coverage) at Pokernews

Melbourne Poker Championships

The Melbourne Poker Championships are almost here for another year ... so its tournament time again!
My plans for the fortnight include a few events, and hopefully a few final tables. I don't want to go too crazy & play too many events, however by the same token, if I am playing well I would like to maximise my opportunity to make some money.
The plans at the moment are as follows:
Saturday May 16th - Step 2 Main Event Satellite ... the plan is to obviously try to win a seat in the main event. If I don't, I'll be giving the main event a miss - I don't think No Limit Hold'em is my best game, so I see little point in paying $1100 to enter when I don't feel as though I will be able to make the money in such an event very often.
Sunday May 17th - either the $175 NLH event and/or the $120 Poker Pro PLO event. Although I would like to play in the opening event, I really think that I am better suited to playing the Omaha event. I might decide to play the opening event, and if I bust, play in the PLO ... but then why waste $175 playing in the opening event? This is my major pre-event dilemma at the moment.
Tuesday May 19th - $175 PLO ... I have been playing PLO cash games a lot more often recently, with the $1/2 PLO game now looking like it might be a regular fixture on Thursday, to go with the occasional Tuesday night $2/4 PLO game. Having said that, cash PLO is very different to tournament PLO, particularly when you have increasing blinds and no rebuys. The ROR-factor (aka: Risk of Ruin) is much greater in tournaments, which means that you don't get the sometimes ridiculous multi-way all-in pre-flop situations that you do in cash games with people who are 'there to gamble'.
Saturday May 23rd - $230 NLH ... I will play the second flight of this $100k guaranteed event. Although NLH is not my strongest game, I feel that with longer blind levels my advantage is higher, though I still struggle with balancing the need to continue to accumulate chips & choose good spots to play with the need to protect the stack that I have built in the middle section of tournaments. As a result, if I get near the money/final table I tend to be one of the shorter stacks, which obviously makes it more difficult to take home the trophy at the end of the day.
Monday May 25th - $340 PLH/PLO ... Very similar thinking to the reasons for playing the PLO tournament, though when there is a Hold'em/Omaha rotation, it tends to make either the NLH play much looser, or the PLO much tighter. Either way, I am fairly comfortable with such a situation, so hope to do well in this event.
Saturday May 30th - $120 Poker Pro NLH ... Again, its the deep stack nature of the event that really attracts me. I'm not a huge fan of PokerPro by any means, but more chips tends to reward the solid/patient style that I prefer to play.
There may be a few other events that I could end up playing, depending on time and money, and generally how I have been going in other events. Will see how it goes ... wish me luck!!

Digital TV!

I've finally begun to catch up with technology and purchased a new digital TV today. Went for a Samsung 32" Full HD (1920x1080pixels, 100Hz) model, with a decent discount off the ticketed price (about $150 off, and the price at the Good Guys where I bought it was about $100 cheaper than the JB Hi-Fi a few stores down)!
Initial indications are very positive - the screen looks clearer, picture is sharper, reception is better ... plus I get extra channels! 32 inches of pleasure!! YAY!

I am of course hoping not to turn into a couch potato, although things like live F1 races, nightly IPL cricket and Friday night poker amongst other newly available digital offerings may make this goal difficult to achieve ...

Technology, technology

I'm looking at updating a few things around my home, and it occurred to me that I really don't know enough about certain things to make an informed decision ... and sales people are trying to sell a product, so their advice or recommendations may not always be in my best interests.
This leads me to my dilemmas ...
Digital TV - LCD or Plasma?? Do I just plug it in straight out of the box, or do I need extra cables & other devices? Are the additional free-to-air channels worth the expense?
Laptop computer - How much RAM & Hard disk space do I really need? What about the speed of the processor and graphics cards?
Desktop computer - What do I need to be able to connect multiple monitors to my desktop? Is upgrading worthwhile, or is it cheaper & easier to buy a new computer? Where do I go for the cheapest 'build your own' computer?
Feel free to offer suggestions ... I think I need some advice!

Australian Chess ... 1974 style!

Two other mostly chess-related blogs that I read from time-to-time, Shaun Press' ChessExpress & Amiel Rosario's Closet Grandmaster, both made mention recently of the 1974 Australian Chess Championships held in Cooma in rural NSW. As a result, I took a look at the tournament book (a wonderful reference of events of the past that is sadly missing in today's internet-based world) and rediscovered a wonderful tidbit that was one of the reasons I purchased the book in the first place. The photo below, complete with wonderful caption, appears on page 73:

I had not seen Lloyd for a number of years, both because of my move to Melbourne a few years ago, as well as the fact that I have played far less chess than I did when I was in Sydney, and it was good to see him drop into the Sydney International Open recently.

It also reminded me of an old hip-hop favourite ... Memory Lane by Nas, from one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all-time, 1994s Illmatic. I don't think there was ever an official film clip made for the song, but the wonders of YouTube have produced this pretty good home-made effort, which is well worth a watch (or at least a listen to the song):