The Sydney stopover was very profitable & good to catch up with Nick, Goran & family again. I managed to play 4 poker tournament while in Sydney & won 2 of them. The first was at PokerHQ Newtown, AKA 'The DOOOOOME!', which was a freeroll with rebuys. We did a deal when 5-handed (top 5 were paid), which split the prizes & left a bit extra for 1st. I was reluctant to make a deal because I was one of the chip leaders & I know from experience how much people change their play when they know they have a decent amount guaranteed (the original payouts had 5th paying something like $100, but with the deal everyone was guaranteed $180). This was added to the fact that later in the holidays I was playing in the Pokernews Cup Live v Online Invitational & wanted to play a serious heads-up match in preparation for it if possible. Anyway, with a combination of running & playing well I managed to win it & found myself with a new-found fan club in Nick & Goran.
A few days later I played in the $330 Star City Wednesday tournament (having busted rather early from the Monday tourney) & hung around until the late stages of the tournament. As the night got on, Nick, Goran & Chris (all mates from chess) turned up to follow my progress. They really started to get interested when it was down to the last 3 tables & they all left their cash games to join the rail ... or periodically walk over to the table if you are Nick (and get the obligitory 'players only in the poker pit' spiel from the nearest supervisor). I managed to survive with a short stack & picked up KK & doubled up against 77, which kept me alive as players busted around me. On the final table there were a number of things that went my way. The most obvious of which was how well I ran ... and how bad the other players were. The player who I was most concerned about (Roy V) just missed the final table, and no others had really impressed me in the latter stages of the tourney (with the possible exception of the one female at the table, though she seemed to be content to wait around with her short stack & move up the prize list), so although I had one of the shorter stacks at the start of the table, I was confident that I could do well if I got some chips. I chipped up early with some hands, and continued to pick up chips with the simple play of raising in late position & c-betting the flop. If there is one thing I have learnt about tournaments in my time playing them, it is that you should almost never open limp in the late stages of a tournament - you are simply putting too many chips at risk without doing anything to define what your opponent's hand is. Of course almost every other player at the table limped in at some point ... and of course they also left soon afterwards. The other mistake that people keep making is overvaluing a naked ace, but I still see so many players in hands with ace-rag that it keeps most games very profitable. The best example at the final table was of one of the other big stacks (I had chipped up quite a bit by this time) who raised to something like 120k UTG (think blinds were about 20/40k, but I could be wrong). I was UTG + 1 & looked down at QQ & after some thought decided to move all-in. Of course it folded back around to the guy who had raised & as soon as he started to mull it over & lament about how many chips he'd put in the pot & how late it was I knew I was going to double up if I could dodge an ace. He eventually calls & turns over the powerhouse A9o. As I'm telling the story, I won the hand & this left me as massive chip leader at the table. When we got down to heads up, my opponent immediately mentioned wanting to make a deal. I decided to play on for a few hands, and when he doubled up (with overcards versus my pair) and stacks became similar, I decided that a deal might be reasonable. The payouts were such that it was roughly $15k for 1st & $10k for 2nd, though there was a bit left over. Eventually we decided on $12.5k each, with the winner getting the extra $1.2k or so (think the actual prizes were more like 15.6 & 10.8). It worked out well enough for me & it helped that I picked up an ace about 60% of the time heads-up. Don't recall the exact final hand, but I had ace-rag (7-9) against his low suited cards (something like 57dd). We both missed & I took the tourney down!
The Solomon Islands International was a great experience. Good to see another, very different part of the world, even if the chess itself wasn't so great. I finished in =3rd with 6/9, drawing with Shaun (who won the tourney) & Brian (2nd), losing to Lee & Fernando (both =3rd) & beating the remaining 5 locals. We even managed to meet Stephanie Rice & some of the team from Sunrise one evening at dinner, and there was a piece on Sunrise about chess in the Solomons (though I had left by the time the crew turned on the final day, so didn't get my head on TV).
I'll post the games with notes later, but have a look at the coverage on Sunrise. They seem to have done a reasonable job, and got the whole 'helping out the little guys' angle down pretty well.
The Pokernews Cup will get its own post, however the short summary is that I finished 4th in the shootout of the Live v Online, but didn't finish deep (or in the money) for any other events, which was a little disappointing.
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