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