FRIDAY
The Friday night tournament is a stand-alone event with a buy-in of $20 and re-buys and add-ons available. The blind structure for all the tourneys is the same. It goes: 50/100, 100/200, 200/400, 300/600, 400/800, 500/1000, 1k/2k...., so there is a doubling of the blinds in the first two levels. There were about 100 players involved. By the time they finished the welcome speeches and went over the rules we didn't start till about 7.30pm. . The starting stack was 15,000. It took a while to get used to the different coloured chips, as they didn't have denominations on them, although each player was provided with a little card that showed the chip values.
I found myself sitting at a table with five Auckland players (three of them from the same club) with one local from Petone and one other out-of-towner from Te Kuiti. I lost about half my chips in the first hand when I had KT and another player had KQ and the flop came KKQ. Fortunately, I was able to chip up a bit when I raised with AJ, got called by Kx, and Ace high won at the showdown. Then I had a double-up when I made a bad decision but got a good result. I'd limped in from late position with A3s and a flush draw came on the flop. Another player put in a big bet, so I didn't have the odds to call; but I called anyway and got lucky when my flush came on the turn. My chip-stack approaching the break was big enough that I didn't need to push the action in a 'double-up or re-buy move'. But I did add-on for another $20 when the break came.
A lot of players had taken the add-on so there were plenty of big stacks around. My stack got gradually whittled down and then the next period of 'double the blind' levels started. As if that wasn't bad enough, the organisers realised that they under-estimated the effect of re-buys and add-ons to the tournament structure, and announced that they were reducing the period of the blinds. I ended up with just a handful of big blinds (BBs) left so I went all-in on the big blind without looking at my cards. I got called by A6 and I had J7. I got lucky when two Jacks were turned up and I dragged in a few more chips. My final push came with QJ and about 5 BBs left. I got called by AK and was eliminated in about 40th place. My wife was also out so we went and checked out the band for a while before catching the courtesy van to the motel. We didn't want to stay too late as it was an early start for the next day.
SATURDAY
We were due to start at 11am so we got into the club early enough to have breakfast at the restaurant. It was good to see a lot of poker players there supporting the host club. The Saturday tournament is a qualifier for the main tourney on Sunday. The top 48 players qualify and then all those that miss out have a chance to play in the 'second chance' tournament where the top 16 make it through to the next day. We were starting with a stack of 20,000 and blinds at 50/100.
I did quite well early on but then dropped down a bit and was down to 10k by the lunch break with the blinds at 200/400. My worst hand in this period was one where I had a straight and my opponent had a higher straight. Very hard to get away from. I noted some very passive play from some players. I saw people putting in minimum raises with both AA and KK, and another just limping in with QQ. By the second break I'd built back up to around 25k, with the blinds at 500/1000. Unfortunately my 25 BBs would become 12 BBs after the break. I had no great hands in the next period and played cautiously, stealing a little here and there, occasionally showing down a medium pair to win a small pot.
As we approached the bubble I was getting short stacked and had to do a lot of thinking about the correct strategy to pursue. I pushed all-in a couple of times to keep my head above water and then, with fifty-five players left and sitting on a stack of 5 BBs, I decided to close up shop. A lot of other players were doing the same. For example: at my table player 1 limps in with AK and then the flop is A K 6; he bets at it and player 2 re-raises all-in; player 1 folds his top two pair; player 2 reveals he has AK also. Now that's tight bubble play! At this point I was just folding without even looking at my cards, hoping to limp my way across the bubble. Finally a big cheer erupted in the room as the 49th player was eliminated. My joy was somewhat diminished when I turned around to see that it was my wife who was the bubble girl. So I qualified for the main tournament with just 2 BBs left.
But the tournament carried on. Although most of the prize pool was to be paid out on Sunday, there were still cash prizes for the top three in this event. With just 2 BBs left I was forced to push all-in a lot. Some shoves were with fairly decent hands and one was an outright steal but I managed to build my stack up again. Then I pushed once too often when my A6 came up against KK. After this crippling blow I chipped up again when my pocket threes improved to trips. Then the roller-coaster went downhill again when my AT lost to QJ. With just 1 BB left I was all-in again with 66 and lost the last of my chips with about 30 players left in the game.
Apart from me, one other OWMC player had qualified in the first stage. The others, my wife included, were now in the second chance event. While they played on, I checked out the two cash game tables. To my disappointment I found that these were both dealer's choice games, Holdem and Omaha. As far as I could tell, they were mostly playing Omaha or, as I prefer to call it, 4-card Bingo. So I hung around for a while, hoping for a Texas Holdem game to start, but it didn't happen. One by one, the other workies players were eliminated, with no-one else qualifying for the main event. And my wife went out on the bubble again. Most of us piled into a courtesy van at this stage to go back to the motel for some beauty sleep, although a couple of die-hards decided to party on into the night.SUNDAY
Another early start, another breakfast at the club. There are two tournies on Sunday: the main event and the consolation tournament, which costs players another $20 to join. Both tournaments start at the same time, 11am. But first, we had a delegates meeting to discuss this event and future events. My club had put in a bid to host the 2017 event, but we lost out to the Weymouth Cosmopolitan Club. Oh well, back to the game.
There were two of us from OWMC in a field of 64, while the other five were playing in the consolation event. I was playing pretty tight during the first period, and had boosted my 20k starting stack to about 25k by the first break. In the second period my stack initially climbed to 30k before the beginning of a long, slow decline. The other OWMC player was knocked out during this stage and by the second break I was getting short-stacked. After the break I was sitting on 8 BBs. There followed a period of careful stack management, stealing the blinds occasionally and looking for a chance to double up. But the chance didn't come until one of the Aucklanders at my table raised when I held 99. I figured it was now or never so I pushed all-in and she eventually called with KJ. So it was more or less 50/50 but she flopped a King and it was all over. I made it about halfway through the field. I was glad to hear later that she put my chips to good use and made the money. Most of the other OWMC players were also out and in the end none of us came anywhere.
After two and a half days of poker I was now ready to play some more and went looking for a cash game. They were now running a dealer's choice table and a Holdem table, so I put my name down on the waiting list. Unfortunately, it was a long wait and when it was finally my turn they had reached their $500 prize pool limit (as required under New Zealand's gambling law), so there were no more new players allowed. By then it was time for the evening barbecue put on by the host club, followed by speeches and prize presentations. It was one of the Auckland Interclub players who won the main tournament, taking home a trophy and $2,000. Nice.
After the clean-up some more cashies got started and this time I managed to get into a game. These were the typical short stack games that tournament players seem to love. The blinds were $1/$1 and the buy in was $20. I'm used to these kinds of game now and was doing OK until one the Auckland players, a young excitable fellow, had a bit of a brain melt-down when one of the other players fell foul of one of the local rules. He was a bit of a pain about the whole thing and all the other players ended up cashing out of the game. It was around this time that most of the others headed back to the motel, but I hung around and eventually got into another game. Once again, I was doing OK until my AQ hit two pair on the flop and my opponent's AK hit a better two pair on the turn. It was one of those surely-he-can't-have-AK (but what else could he be calling my big bets with?) moments. Oh well. I'm still learning to recognise when I'm behind. The tables closed down at about 10.30pm. Most of the poker players were now in the upstairs room enjoying the karaoke. Fortunately, it was a sound-proof room. Time to go.
In the end it was a great poker holiday. The host club did a terrific job and the venue was fabulous. The fact that I came nowhere in the tournaments doesn't matter. It's hard enough cashing in a 20 player event let alone an event involving 60 players or more. I guess the only disappointment was the cash games. At last year's event I went home early on Saturday, only to hear all about the late night cashie marathon the following day. So I was looking forward to lots of post-tourney poker action but it didn't really happen. But this is just nit-picking. It was a great weekend that I thoroughly enjoyed. Now I'm looking forward to Taradale next year.
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