Club Champs

         The boys next door,
         The mums and dads,
         New weds and near-deads,
         Have you ever been had in Clubland?       Elvis Costello

I play a live poker tournament every Friday night at a local Workingmens Club. It's through my membership of this club that I discovered the Clubs New Zealand North Island Poker Championship. This event is held every year over Queen's Birthday Weekend (a three day weekend at the end of May). It's attended by members of Clubs New Zealand affiliated clubs from all over the North Island. The venue alternates between the southern end of the island, the middle of the island, and Auckland. This year it was played in Auckland, at the Manurewa Cosmopolitan Club. When my wife and I found out about this we cancelled our plans to play in the annual pool tournament that we usually attend at this time of year, paid our $40 entry fee, and waited in eager anticipation for Friday 30th May.

FRIDAY
   Although the main tourney was on Saturday and Sunday, there was also a separate $20 game being played on the Friday night. So I got my wife to pick me up after work so we could go straight there and avoid the worst of the Friday night rush hour.  On arrival we were pleasantly surprised to be given a gift bag containing a number of little gifts, as well as a copy of the tournament rules. The Manurewa  'Cossie' is a pretty flash club. It's very spacious, with a big pool/snooker area, a restaurant at one end, a bistro at the other and a fairly expansive dance floor. The poker tables were set up on the dance floor, with a big screen at one end for the tournament display.
   We'd heard that the club had failed to get a late licence for the Friday night and that it was due to close by midnight. As the tourney wasn't due to start until 7.15 pm, we figured it would be a speedy format. Sure enough, we were starting with just a stack of 10,000. With the opening blinds at 100/200, this amounted to a short stack of just 50 big blinds. So clearly, there was going to be plenty of action.
   My early hands were pretty poor but I knew I had to get active earlier rather than later. So I raised with KT on the button and got two callers. The flop was AAK so I bet and got called again. Getting nervous, I checked and so did the other two players. The river was a third spade and one player put in a big bet. The other player, 'B', one of the Friday night regulars, folded his hand and I reluctantly called.  My two pair lost to a flush. Then B revealed that he'd folded an Ace. Now that's what I call a disciplined fold. Knowing when you're beat is an important skill in poker.
   A little later, getting short-stacked, I limped in with 99, hoping to hit a 9 on the flop. I got my wish; a 9 hit but there were three spades on the board. Player 1 bet at it and I called. After a nothing turn player 1 bet again and I folded, wondering if I'd  made the right decision. Obligingly, my opponent showed his Ace-high flush. Now that's what I call a good fold.
   With about eight big blinds left I checked in the big blind with Q8. When a Queen hit the flop I pushed all-in and got called by someone with QT. I lost most of my stack and was left with 1 1/2 big blinds. So with Q2 in the small blind I pushed my last chip into the middle. After the cards were dealt out there was two pair on the board. My Q high was beaten by another player's K high. I'd played for about an hour and came around 70/76.  After that I hung around with some of the other also-rans and listened to their bad beat stories (everybody's got one, right?). We were keen to start up a cash game but there didn't seem to be any spare chips available. My wife was eliminated not long after me, so we decided to call it a night and go home.

SATURDAY
   On Saturday there are two tournaments played. They both offer cash prizes but they are also qualifying events for the main tournament on Sunday. If you make the top 48 in the morning tourney, you qualify for Sunday. If not, you play in the second tourney and you qualify if you make it into the top 16. My wife and I arrived in plenty of time for the start of the first qualifying tournament which was due to start at 10.30. On arrival we learned that R, one of the Friday night regulars, had won the previous night's tournament. Saturday's tournament started out with a much better starting stack size of 100 BB (20,000/200). However it soon became apparent that the blind structure was somewhat challenging. It was structured like this: 100/200, 200/400, 300/600, 400/800, 500/1000, 1000/2000, 2000/4000....  So you start out with a doubling in the blind levels, then it's quite gentle for three rounds before you hit two double-ups in a row. It was obviously going to get very interesting after the first couple of hours. With 120 players seated on the dance floor the tournament got under way.
   With all the out-of towners in the tourney, I ended up sitting at a table full of Auckland Inter-club regulars. I'd thought a bit about how to approach this kind of tournament but in the end decided to just play my natural game without thinking too much about trying to limp across the qualifying threshold. Things started out pretty slowly. I was getting a few big hands early on, things like AJ,  AQ,  AT suited etc, but couldn't seem to hit anything on the board. So I was sitting on a stack of around 17,000 for quite a while. Just before lunch I nearly got busted out and ended up with one 500 chip left, with the big blind at 2000. It was not looking good at all. The only good news was that the organiser was chipping up. So all the 500 chips were getting taken out of play, which meant I would get bumped up to 1000. The bad news was that the blind levels would be 2000/4000 after the break. So I'd still have just 1/4 of a minimum bet.
   After lunch, on returning to the table, I was in the 'under-the-gun' position (first to act) so I went all-in without looking at my hand. There were two callers and one went all-in on the flop, the other folded and I turned over 89 of hearts. I was up against a made hand and needed a ten for a straight. The turn was a heart so now I needed a ten or a heart. The river was a ten, a perfect result for me as I now had one big blind! I was in the big blind next anyway, putting me automatically all-in. It was a nothing hand and I hit nothing, busting me out after sitting back down for about five minutes. I finished 75/120.
   There were a couple of cash games going on but I didn't want to play in those as the 'second chance' qualifier was due to start at about 2 pm. While I was waiting B told me (and anyone else who would listen) his bad beat story. It went something like this:
  'I have pocket Kings so I raise and get one caller. The flop is [something like] K 8 5. I push all-in with my trip Kings, the stone-cold nuts. The other player has QT. Absolutely nothing. No draw, no pair, nothing. Why would you call? The turn is a 9, then a J hits the river, giving him a straight. Can you believe that?' 
   I have to admit, it's a pretty good bad beat story.
   My wife got knocked out before qualifying as well so we both entered the afternoon tourney. This was held in a room adjacent to the dance floor area, and once again, it was a short stack tournament. I was playing pretty conservatively at first, just looking for a good spot, but not much was happening. With just 20 BBs left I started looking for a chance to push the action but I was card-dead for a while. Once I got down to 10 BBs I started pushing all-in with any half decent hand. I managed to pick up the blinds a couple of times before finally doubling-up and bouncing back up to 20 BBs. It was at this stage that I realised that there were only 25 players left, putting me nine places away from the qualifying mark. I changed tack and decided to try and fold my way to the 'bubble'.
   Even though I'd vowed to fold even Aces, I just couldn't resist playing AT suited in position and ended up losing some chips when I missed the flop. So I closed up shop again and played the waiting game. The player to my left was in a worse position than me, with just 1 BB left. When someone went all-in on the bubble on the other table he went over to watch, along with a couple of others. One of those players was eliminated and I passed the qualifying mark with just 3 BBs. Then I decided to go all out for the win, but it was too late for a last minute charge. I ended up all-in with A6s against JJ and lost. I finished 10/62.  Never mind; at least I qualified.
   The first tournament was still going, but there were only four players left at this stage. I went over to take a look and witnessed the following play:
   Player 1 is all-in, player 2 is all-in and player 3 is considering whether or not to call. The board reads A A T T J. After thinking for a while, she calls and shows 44. WTF? What could she possibly think they were going all-in with? Did she really think they were just playing the board? Player 1 had a ten and player 2 had an Ace, so there you go. In the end the players that came first and second were both Friday night regulars; another good result. There were some cash games going and some entertainment due to start later, but my wife and I both decided to pike out and go home and get some rest.

SUNDAY
   We arrived fresh and eager on Sunday morning. Some others were not looking so fresh. Apparently some of the cash games went on till quite late the previous night and some others took a trip into the city to check out the casino. Many had opted to have breakfast at the club but we just hung out over by the courtyard and waited for the action to start.  There were two tournaments to be played that day; the main event and a consolation tournament for those who didn't qualify. These tourneys were set to run at the same time and were both set up in the dance floor area. My wife hadn't qualified so she was playing in one and I was in the other.
   There were 64 players in the main game and we started with a 100 BB starting stack. As usual I started out playing fairly conservatively and managed to pick up some chips here and there. My best result was when I was doing a little 'set mining'; limping in with 77 and hoping to flop another 7. When I flopped my set I called big bets on the flop and turn, then raised on the river and got paid off by someone who was over-valuing her top pair. That was a big chip-up.
   After the lunch break, having gone through the roughest part of that brutal blind structure, I was starting to get short-stacked. Having seen three players lose badly with AQ so far, I figured it was time that hand paid off, so I went all-in with AQ. My AQ held up against A9, winning with A high. This tripled my stack and put me in a much more comfortable position. By this time my wife had been knocked out of the other tourney and was playing in a cash game off to the side. When she came over to have a look she was most impressed by my big stacks of 1k chips. Actually it looked better than it really was - I'd ended up with a lot of  'small change' while many other players had smaller stacks that were made up of 5k chips.
   As the number of players diminished I was down to about 10 BB again, but actually still above the average stack, so extreme caution was required. We were sitting at eight-player tables so with just two tables left we were down to playing five-handed and the blinds were coming around real fast. Finally one more player was eliminated and we were on to the final table. At this stage I had 190k in chips with the blinds at 20k/40k. A seriously short stack. B had bought his fancy ten-sided polished wood poker table for the final, so there were nine players and the tournament organiser, who was doing the dealing. But we had to take a break while the final table was set up.
   They had the area roped off and there were quite a few onlookers standing around the edges. R, one of the Friday night regulars, had also made the final table. As we waited to be seated I made the comment to her that, after all that build-up, it would be funny if I got knocked out in the first hand. We drew for seats and I was in the big blind. One player limped in and I checked my option with KT. The highest card on the flop was a King so I immediately went all-in and was immediately called. The caller had AK so I was drawing very thin. The miracle card didn't come and it was all over. Having hardly sat down, I got back up and was greeted by a round of applause from the spectators. It must have been ironic applause surely. So I slunk off to the bar to get a beer and then went to check out the cash games.
   My wife and I played in a cash game for a while as the final table played on. There were now quite a few railbirds over there. The cashie was a fun game but it trailed off after a while. By this stage we'd had enough poker for a while so we headed off home without waiting to see who would collect the $2000 first prize and championship cup. We found out later that R had made the money in 5th place (the top six got paid) and that the winner was one of the Auckland Inter-club regulars.
   I was pretty impressed with this whole event which was very well run and at a terrific venue. My wife and I had a very enjoyable time and I'm pretty happy about qualifying and going deep in the main event. It was a fun social event and there was plenty of poker to be played. The only regret is not staying on Saturday night and getting into those cash games (and also taking my camera three days in a row and never using it). Next year it's being held at Lower Hutt, down Wellington way and we will definitely be headed south to have another crack at it. Only 50 weeks to go.