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So I decided to drop by the cas’ on my way home to play some 2/3 nl. Bought in for the table max which was $300 and got comfy It was a little slow to begin with but then the cards started to fall my way and chipped up to a little over $900 in approx 2 hours.

This one player turns up at the table (lets call him Fred), the read I got straight away was that he was just there to gamble and didn’t know a lot about Poker. I was determined to take this guys money….and that is what I did.

First hand he plays I get AQs in late pos, I raise it to $12 and get two callers; one being the new guy. Flop comes all hearts, nut flush Fred leads out for a little over half the pot, the next guy raises, I 3-bet and get Fred to call all-in and the raiser to fold. Needless to say I take down that pot. Fred re-buys and next hand I get AA and take his buy-in off him again. 2-3 hands later I take his 3rd buy-in off him with QQ. I alllllmost felt sorry for him

I was considering the thought of cashing out as I was feeling fairly tired but then I had the following hand..

Just before the hand was dealt I got a weird feeling I was going to get 10 10 and hit quads. I look down at my first card and saw a 10….2nd card another 10. At this point I was thinkin’…wtf?!

So I’m in late position, a couple flat called the $3 to which I pushed it up to $15; 4 callers…
Flop: 8 3 2 (There may have been 2 suited cards on this flop, not 100% certain)

Now I could not be happier with this flop Checks around to me, I lead out with $60 in a $75 pot. I wanted to take this pot down now, giving others 2.25:1 to call. I get one caller from the guy UTG. This play confused me a lot and was finding it difficult to put him on a hand considering his past play.I couldn’t put him on the following hands due to his pre-flop and flop action:

AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AK, AQ, AJ, A10

I was thinking more so middle pair. I didn’t think it would be 33 or 22, but possibly a set with 88; 99 was also likely. Therefore, I put him on a middle pair and if he happened to have the set then he could have my money.

Turn: J

He checks, I bet $100 into a pot of $195 (minus rake), he thinks for about 10 secs and then bumps it up to $200; he has $192 behind whilst I have approx $725 behind. I watched him during the time I had to make my decision and I was getting the impression that he didn’t want a call or a re-raise for that matter. If I had more time to make a decision I may have folded, but I pushed my stack in and he insta-called with AJ??!!?!?

So I was fairly confused to say the least. First he is flat calling my raise in early position with AJ off and then calling my flop bet of $60 into a $75 pot with air and then spikes a J. Did he really think he was ahead on the flop? I was thinking 88 was the worst possible scenario, with all other potential holdings at that time giving me some degree of fold equity.

Ahhh well, I hope he calls my flop bets with that kind of holding every time against me because if he didn’t hit on on the turn, it would have been very expensive for him to call the river; that I can be sure of.

So I lost more than 50% of my stack on this hand, wasn’t too thrilled about it and like I said before. If i was given more time to make my decision I hopefully would have been able to get some kind of read out of him and fold.

I cash out $415 for a $115 profit…could have, would have, should have….

So heading into Day 1c of the Melbourne Poker Championships main event I was feeling good and chipped up to $40k (my max chip stack for the day) quite early. 2 hours in we had our first 10 min break which felt desperately needed. For some reason after this break everything went down hill very quickly. I could not connect with a flop, I was card dead for hours and others would call my raises with ridiculous holdings and draw out on me.

This one hand I had AQ and raised it up 3.5x BB in late position and was called by K3-off in very early position. I didn’t connect but he hits a 3 on the flop, he checks I lead out and he calls. Turn comes a queen, he checks, I bet and he calls. River comes a king and now he leads out, it smelled so much like a value bet, although I ran the hand through my mind and it didn’t make sense (and it still doesn’t) and I made the call. He rolls K3 with me thinking, “what the hell just happened?!?”. This was just on of several hands that really annoyed me yesterday.

I had the pleasure of sitting 2 seats away from Amanda De Cesare who is a well known poker player that won The Poker Star in 2009. However this did not last long when she hit the rail with KK against QQ when a Q landed on the flop.

Anyway, trying not to let it get me down. I played a 180 runner tourney on Pokerstars last night and came 21st, just missed the money. And also played a FPP80 freeroll qualifer to SCOOP 17 and it gave away 4 seats but came 7th/90; it does not seem to be my day today.

I’ve decided I’m going to have a lazy day today and watch some movies

Keep an eye out here for the live reporting for the Melbourne Poker Champs.

I’m locked in for Day 1c

Going into day 2 of the Joe Hachem Deep  Stack I was feeling confident with a stack of $121,100. I was up and down for a while and then made a bad read/call and was down to $20,000. I had an awesome run after that and chipped back up to $200,000.

After the next break I was card dead for some time and before I knew it we were nearing the bubble; which seemed to last forever. I was relatively short stacked so I tried to hold on until the bubble burst. Top 45 paid, at 46 I looked down at QQ in mid-position. As much as I didn’t want to at the time I shipped my stack in (approx 10-11BB) and it was folded around and I picked up the blinds and antes.

It was a few more hands later when the bubble finally burst and everyone loosened up a bit. I was still quite card dead after this and was moved table about 30 mins later. I had approx $130,000 with blinds at 8,000/16,000/2,000; I needed to double up really bad. I woke up with 44 in late position and shipped my chips in and was called by the guy to my left with only a slight chip lead with AK. An ace hit the flop with 3 hearts, I had the 4 of hearts, unfortunately no others landed and I went out in 34th for $1,100.

Overall I was quite happy with how I played apart from that call that dropped my stack down to $20,000. Anyway, 5 days break and then onto the Melbourne Poker Champs main event!

Next tournament: Melbourne Poker Championships

Going into Day 2 of the Joe Hachem Deep Stack I’ll have a stack of T121,100 with the average being approx T50,000. The table I was on yesterday was fairly loose  and managed to make a huge chip up through the chip leader on the table with K 10.I completed the small blind to see a flop which came Q 9 X. The flop was checked and out came a J on the turn. We ended up all in at this point, he hit a set of Queens with my straight taking down the pot. If he had raised pre-flop or on the flop this would not have happened (lucky for me!). Next hand I got JJ and hit a set and took a few more chips off him

Starting stack: T20,000

1st Break: approx T47,000

2nd Break approx: T126,000

End of day 1: T121,100

(average stack: T50,000, blinds 800/1600/200)

Nearing the end of day one I witnessed a crazy hand which had people from other tables racing over to see. The short stack to my left had JJ and shipped it in for approx 13-14k. He got one caller who had QQ.

Flop came: X X J
Turn: Q
River: J

I’m feeling fairly confident today, at a guess I believe there would still be about 200 people left out of 450-500. Min cash is $1100 whilst 1st place being close to $50,000.

Anyway, I’m having breakfast Wish me luck!

Article taken from Crown Poker website:

World Series of Poker Announces Partnership with Crown

The Moe hotel held the first Gippsland Poker Championships (GPC) on Sat 28th April run by the APL/Full House Group. Overall it was a great event with 80+ players. With starting stacks of T20,000 and 20min levels it provided sufficient time for players to show their skill.

I started off with some great hands, getting AA, QQ, JJ, TT before the first break.Though I cannot now remember how the hands played out exactly, I 3-bet the aces pre-flop and took the pot down. I Flat called QQ in the small blind, led out and folded to a “decent” raise with an ace on the flop. The JJ and TT I am unsure but I know I won those. Went to the break with T27,700 feeling quite good, however after this break was a different story. Went completely card dead, stole some blinds and antes in appropriate spots but could not catch a break. Going into the second break with T31,000, I did not have a lot compared to the blinds at the time. Unfortunately it took until I was down to about 6BB (eek!) until I shipped my remaining chips with 88. i was called by Q10 off and of course a Q lands on the flop. Came approximately 29th/8x.

Overall, a great event. Congratulations to all and especially to Paul B for taking down 1st place $2800.

^Paul B: Winner of the Gippsland Poker Championships.

Next event: Joe Hachem Deep Stack Flight 3- 5/5/2012 $550 Buy-in…