Well the failings are continuing here in Melbourne. It's a bit of a sad story at the moment in this household with all three of us bricking off almost everything. Benny had a nice run going in the $1k 6-max before taking a really good cold 4-bet spot and missing a 40/60 with 11 payers left. We are still having a fun time though, and we are still mostly eating courtesy of Chu, so the trip could be a lot more expensive than it has been. I did manage to lose the biggest CCR of the trip but had swapped 30% with Benny so it wasn't too bad in the end.

The $1k 6-max was an event I was really looking forward to but unfortunately didn't last very long for me. I grabbed a couple of hands from the event that I found interesting though.

Hand 1: Blinds 75/150, Me 7k, SB 14k, BB 10k.

I open AJcc UTG, SB was a kinda spewy live pro and he flats, BB was an Asian guy with tons of badges from Pokerstars room Macau and also flats.

Flop; Tc 8d 4h - (Pot = t900) SB leads t700, BB calls, I pause for about a minute and call with intentions of playing my equity turns and pair turns really fast.

Turn; The very perfect 9c - SB checks, BB bets t1750, I shove t6000, they both fold (BB let out a huge sigh then mucked).

I guess this is a spot where I could probably just fold on the flop and in a lot of cases it will probably be best. There are just so many cards that could improve my raw hand strength on the turn and with my stack size the way it was I felt I was going to be handed a really nice situation to cap the action on the turn. I can also rep really nutted hands on the turn when I play the hand this way and I peel equity. On top of this, I don't think that SB's range is strong at all and BB is not likely to have a strong made hand very often either (though more likely than SB imo). The negative considerations is that some of my equity/pair turns will directly improve the strength of both ranges, for example; A Jack on the turn improves my raw hand strength but will sometimes also dramatically improve both villains hand strength and in some cases leave me drawing dead. All in all it worked out ok, but in hindsight folding flop may be better.

Hand 2: Blinds 75/150, me 11k, UTG+1 4k, BB 20k.

UTG+1 was the Asian guy from hand one, he had also been shoved on in a hand just afterwards and seemed a little tilted. BB was a really good young Asian guy (definitely the best player at the table).

UTG+1 Minraises, I call J8hh, BB calls. This is a spot where there is some tilt equity from the opener, but I don't expect to play this hand heads up at all. All of the stacks behind me are deeper and therefore I don't anticipate playing this hand with only 27bb's effective.

Flop; Qx Th 2x - (Pot = t900) BB checks, UTG+1 checks, I bet t625. I make this bet because I think that UTG+1 is often checking to check/fold or check/raise and get it in, BB's range is really wide and will be check/folding a lot, and this flop hits my perceived range pretty well. BB calls and the UTG+1 folds.

Turn; Again a very nice 5h - BB checks, I now have a gutshot and a flush draw and elect to barrel this turn with intentions of going big on most rivers. The turn looks pretty harmless and shouldn't really affect either of us much at all, however, firing both turn and river should see him surrendering on the river a lot. BB calls.

River; 2x - BB checks, I load up t2850 and fire away. I feel like such a retard for firing this card. The only part of his range he will fold at this stage will be sometimes Tx and missed draws, he will never fold Qx at this stage. I feel like a retard for firing river but I guess we live and we learn. Sometimes you have a plan and need to actually evaluate the board and what has and hasn't changed before just going through with things.

I have bricked everything else that I have played in the meantime, including every online session I have played here. Fortunately enough, I scraped through a really rough day one of the main event with a very sad looking 25 BB's. I ran really bad all day on day one and actually felt really great about how I played so I am hopeful that day two will start off much smoother and continue that way for me ... I did have the pleasure of playing with Patrik Antonius on day one (was actualyl a bit of a beat to have him at my table), but I am going to save everything I have to say about the main event for a seperate blog.

Day two of the main is tomorrow so wish me luck! I hope you are all doing well!

Matt

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