The big tourney...

Today is the big tourney... Winner goes through to play in the Aussie Millions, a live tourney in Melbourne, Australia. To qualify, one had to get through (and win) a rebuy satellite. Which, the rebuys can be very loose, considering people are not "really dead" if they lose their hand on a speculative all-in.

Surprisingly to me, I did not need to rebuy in this tourney once. Which, in the interest of fairness, I've never won a rebuy where I have rebought. In this satellite, I entered the finals table fifth in chip total, which was about half the stack of the leader. One of the players, who I knew to be rather loose with his play, raised preflop. His hand range, by my calculation, was anything from 10-8s on up. I felt comfortable putting him allin with twos in the hole. He flipped over Jack-Seven suited, which was a bit worse a hand than his usual, but he was shortstacked. I hit trips on the turn card, and knocked him from the table.

Two hands later, I had A-A, which I decided to uncharacteristically slowplay. One person, the chip leader, raised preflop, which I gladly smoothcalled. Another individual between his action and mine also called. The flop gave me trips, which I gladly checked. However, there were also two suited cards on the board, which concerned me a little. The leader bet out, 1/2 pot, other guy raised putting himself allin, I called as did the leader. Turn card paired the board, giving me a boat. I check, leader checks. River card flushes the board. I check to the leader, who bets big, I reraise to put myself allin, he calls. I turn over pocket aces, and get mucks from the two. This win gives me the chip lead and puts the leader in a dire situation.

Now I have the chip lead, which is more than half the chips on the board. I let everyone else destroy one another for a bit, and enter pots as appropriate. A player emerges from that mess with about 25% of the chips to my 75%. Heads up play goes three hands. I folded to him, he folded to me. On the final hand, I raise, he reraises to put himself allin, I call, holding KJs to his A9s, which makes me a slight underdog. Fortunately for me, I flop a jack, which also appears on the river adding insult to injury and sweetness to victory.

So, in summary, I emerge the winner of the satellite, and move on to the main event this weekend, which features an all expense paid trip to the Aussie Millions tourney. Win or lose, I'll keep you posted...



Poker