Friday
Having won a ticket to the Skycity Casino Deep Stack Tournament on Saturday night, I had to wait almost a week for my first time playing in a big buy-in tournament ($1500 may be petty cash to some people, but it's big money to me). But Friday finally rolled around and I headed off to the casino for the fourth time in so many weeks. Somehow my planning went awry and I arrived later than expected, giving me no time to get anything to eat. It was pretty much a case of just checking in and getting seated. The tournament tables were on one side of the 'poker room' (really just an open bar area), with quite a few other games going on at the other tables. It looked like a busy night for poker games.
The starting stack was 25,000 with the blinds starting at 25/50, which adds up to a starting stack of 500 big blinds; definitely a big stack! What's more, the blinds changed every hour, with a 10 minute break every two hours. It looked like it was going to be a long night. I'd never played with such a deep stack before but had already decided that as long as I had 100 BB or more I'd play the same way that I would in a ring game. It turns out the chips were different colours to those in the satellite games, so I had to get used to that. We started out with an eight-handed table but with late entries it soon became a ten-player game.
Surprisingly, there was still quite a lot of limping in and limp-calling in this game, but also a certain amount of re-raising (3-betting). During the first couple of hours I had very few playable hands and had to fold a couple of times after being 3-bet. My best result came when I called a raise with AQ and hit top pair/top kicker on the flop and ended raking in a moderate sized pot. The only other really good starting hand I had was KK, but everyone folded to my early position raise. Finally the first break came and I had just enough time to get up to the bar and get myself a coffee.
There were quite a few Australians around at the bar, some of them wearing Rugby League jerseys. Obviously they were in town for the NRL Nines which was playing on the weekend. On sitting back down the blinds were at 75/150 and I still had a pretty deep stack. We had started out with just 16 players in the tournament but eventually the number of entrants climbed to 42. There had been some talk among the players about when Day 1a might actually end, but nobody knew for sure what the time frame was and there had been no indication of this from the organisers. Meanwhile I was moved to a different table and had to start my observations of my table-mates' playing styles all over again. I had plenty of time for observation as I was card dead and not playing many hands. I did manage to scoop a few pots by bluffing in position but that was pretty much it.
When the second break came I rushed over to the bistro, which is on the other side of the casino, to get myself something to eat. I still hadn't learned how to manage meals in this style of game and ended up wolfing down a pie at the counter and then rushing back to the Poker Zone in time for the next stage. We were now at a stage where the blinds were 100/200 with antes of 25. This was a first for me, never having played a live game with antes before. By this stage my stack was below 100 BB and I had to tighten up my starting hand range. But this made very little actual difference to the number of hands I was playing as I'd never had a chance to play a looser-style deep stack game because of the 'rags' I was being dealt.
We had a number of controversies at our table, one of which centred around me. I made a loose call in position but one of the chips I put in was the wrong denomination. On realising my mistake I pulled back the big chip and replaced it with the one I'd meant to put in. A young Chinese guy across the table from me (let's call him 'YC') took exception to that, whereupon several other people ventured their opinion. The dealer didn't seem to know what to do and I didn't want to display my ignorance any more than I already had so I just waited for the dealer to make a decision. Eventually YC insisted that the tournament director should come over and he ruled that it was a raise, whether that was what I'd intended or not. Of course I missed the flop and had to fold when the player in front of me put in a bet.
Then on another occasion, when one player was facing a raise and asked the other 'Do you have it?' before folding, YC chimed in again. He decided that, as these two players were sitting next to each other and had talked to each other occasionally that they were friends and the question amounted to collusion. He went on at some length about this to everybody at the table. Then later, when two other players spoke to each other in Chinese and they were asked to stop by the tournament director (TD), he argued that it was acceptable as long as they weren't in a hand together. In his opinion the TD was wrong and he let everyone know it. Then when the TD told him not to use his cell phone at the table he started arguing the point once again. He clearly considered himself to be an expert on the rules and etiquette of poker. I had to smile when he ended one of his expositions by saying, 'I'm not trying to be a dick' and I heard one of the other players say, 'Well, you're failing'.
Apart from these diversions there wasn't much else happening for me. By the time the blinds and antes reached 150/300/50 it was after midnight and I was still looking down at some of the ugliest hole cards ever. At this point the average stack was 30k but I had 9k, amounting to about 30BB. I'd already decided that, with antes in play, 30BB or less was the 'yellow zone' where I need to start pushing the action a bit and look for good spots to try and steal a little. At one point one of the other players complained that 'every time she hit a set it was a draw-heavy board so she couldn't get maximum value from it'. I was sitting there thinking 'I DREAM of hitting a set'. Although actually, at that point I would have been happy to hit anything.
As the sixth blind level was approaching the end it was announced that Day 1a would be over at the end of the round. Then, with ten minutes to go, the TD conducted a draw to decide how many more hands would be played. So we were to play four more hands, with all the remaining tables playing hand for hand. With less than 30 BB left, I decided to just fold, unless I hit a monster hand. I was just hoping for a better run on Day 2. Just to keep things interesting, on the penultimate hand of the night, two players ended up all-in pre-flop. One had KK and the other had QQ. Then a low straight was dealt to the board and they split the pot.
The last card was dealt at about 1.20 on Saturday morning. There were 32 players left out of 42 total entrants and I had a rather meagre stack of 8,200. The dealers handed out zip-up bags to everyone for their chips. This was all new to me: I had to fill in a card with my name and the number of chips, get it checked, and then the bag was sealed up for use on Day 2. I checked with the organiser about check-in time for Monday and he told me I didn't need any documentation on that day; just my name and ID. The casino was still pretty busy as I left to look for a taxi. I knew that I was heading into Day 2 with a short stack and probably wouldn't last long. But I didn't care. I'd made Day 2 of a big buy-in tournament. What a buzz.
Monday
Day 1b and 1c of the Sky City Deep Stack Poker Tournament were held on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th, and Day 2 was played on the Monday, which was a public holiday. Play was due to start at 12.30 pm, so I turned up at the casino in time to check out what the check-in procedure was. They had the names of all the players and their seat assignments on a list posted on the wall. It was in fairly small print and I had to get someone to read it for me because I hadn't brought my glasses. I discovered what my seat assignment was and also found that I had the second-smallest stack among the remaining players. Of the 105 players who entered there were now 66 left.
On sitting down at the table I was asked for ID by the dealer and then handed my chip pouch. I broke the seal and emptied out a sad little stack of 8,200 chips. The largest stack at my table was 77,000 (about 200BB), and the smallest stack in the tournament was also there (about 6,000 chips). On looking around I recognised a few players from Day 1. The blinds were starting at 200/400 with antes of 75.
With about 20 big blinds in my stack and antes in play I decided that I'd better just go into push or fold mode. I managed to pick up a few decent pre-flop hands and on each occasion everyone folded to my all-in push. So I managed to pick up a few chips to keep me in the game. Then the shortest stack pushed all-in. He only had about 1/3 of my stack by this stage and I had A 6: not a great calling hand but I decided to take a chance. I called and he showed KT. My Ace was good and that gave me a few more chips to play with.
At this stage I was trying to figure out my 'zones of play'. In an ordinary game I consider 12BB or less to be my red zone (the push or fold level), and in an ante game it's 15BB or less. But I'd already realised that the antes were higher than I was used to in this game. I calculated that with the blinds at 200/400/75 I was losing about 4BB every round. So I decided to play super-cautiously and set my red zone at 25 BB. With my topped-up stack I was able to play a few hands for about 20 minutes or so before dropping back into the danger zone.
We had one notable 'big decision' hand at our table, which went like this: player 1 raises, player 2 calls and the Big Blind calls. The flop is J 6 4. The BB checks, P1 checks, P2 bets, BB folds, then P1 pushes all-in. Player 2 then spends a long time trying to figure whether he is ahead or behind. He tells the table that if he folds, it'll be a big fold, then apologises for taking so long to make a decision. Eventually he folds his hand but can't really let go of it. He tells everyone he had pocket Kings and keeps fishing for information from Player 1. I guess he'll never know whether it was a good fold or not.
After two hours of play we had our first break. I rushed off to the bistro to pick up some sandwiches (I'd decided that these were the best option for meals on the run) and got back in time to grab a beer from the bar. There were now 53 players left and the blinds were 400/800/100. I had a stack of 15,000, giving me about 20 BB. In the first hand I was in the big blind and folded to a raise. In the second hand I was small blind with A T off-suit. The first player put in a minimum raise, player 2 called and I pushed all-in. I was called by player 1, who showed A Q. The flop was Q T x, neither of us improved any further on the turn or river and my tournament was over. So I retired to a nearby barstool and finished my sandwich and beer. That was end of my first big buy-in poker tournament, lasting 2 hours into Day 2 and finishing 53rd out of 105 entrants.
They were showing the Super Bowl on the big screen but I had no interest in that, so I wandered off into the main gaming room and had a go at a bit of roulette. After throwing away a little cash at the roulette table, and a little more at the bar, I headed home. It was still only late afternoon, so at least I didn't have to take a taxi home. The following day I Googled the tournament and found a report in 'The Herald'. Apparently the tournament had ended at 8 am on Tuesday morning. The winner got $41,000. A long night but not a bad payday.
Looking back at the tournament, I'm pretty happy with how it went. Although the standard of play was generally better than I usually encounter, I don't think I was out of my depth at any point. The one thing I think I could have done better is the decision about zones of play. I think I panicked a bit there, giving too much weight to the influence of the antes. If I ever play in a big tournament, I'll take a look at the structure in advance, rather than trying to make decisions on the run. Over-all, it was an enjoyable experience. I already have some 'shadow bankroll ' cash put aside, and there's a High Roller Tournament with satellites being played next month. Maybe I'll have a go...
Friday, 26 February 2016
Wednesday, 10 February 2016
Sky Satellite
I've been playing in a few online satellites to the Aussie Millions over the past year. But I recently came to the conclusion that if I were to win a seat in this tournament it would involve a considerable expense for me to travel to Melbourne and stay for the time required to play. I decided that I'd be better off to play in satellites to local 'big events' like the ones that are occasionally played at Auckland's Sky City Casino. But there's a catch. Satellites to these live events are bound to be much more expensive to enter than the super-cheap online games. And I didn't want to play outside of my buy-in limits.
Then at the end of last year, I came into some money. The organisers of my regular Friday night tournament gave away some prizes to the top points scorers for the year. Although I had been told that there wouldn't be a third prize, that turned out to be wrong. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had won $250 for coming in third. Although some of this money was used for other purposes, I also had some other cash from my Interclub Poker team prize, leaving me with a little pool of spare poker cash. I decided that this would become my 'shadow bankroll', to be used to buy in to a satellite tournament if I could find a suitable one.
I checked out the Sky City tournament schedule in December and found that there were a number of satellites to the $1500 buy-in 'Waitangi Weekend Deep Stack Tournament', running through December and January. But although I knew that Waitangi Day (New Zealand's national day) was on February 6th, there was no mention on the website of when exactly the target event was to be played. So I sent an email to the Sky City poker section and they replied with the information I needed.
The cheapest satellites available had a $70 buy-in with prizes consisting of tickets to the main event, tickets to the $350 'Mega Satellite' and tickets to other $70 satellites, depending on the number of entries. They also featured one re-buy for $30 and one add-on for $30. According to the website, the re-buys were available if a player had less than their starting stack. I'd never come across this format before: I'd call it a 'top-up' rather than a re-buy. There was also a 're-entry' for $70 if you lost all your chips (what I would call a re-buy). The starting stack was 10,000 with the blinds starting at 25/50.
These tournaments were playing on Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons, so I turned up on the Sunday and registered. I was careful to ask plenty of questions of the poker cashier first, as I'd had problems in the past with a lack of information provided by Sky City regarding their tournaments. After waiting around for quite a while I went back and asked what was happening and was told the tournament had been cancelled because there weren't enough entries. But the cashier told me that Thursday nights often had more people entering.
Thursday
Four days later I was back up at the casino, looking to play in the 7pm satellite tournament. I could see that there were already a few people registered when I got there, so I paid my money and got my cash chips for the expected re-buy and add-on. I nearly missed the start because I didn't realise I had to get a seat assignment, and I was still standing in line when the announcement was made to start dealing. But I found my seat and settled in at a table of 6 other players, in a field of 15. I was starting with 200 big blinds and the blinds changed every 15 minutes. I started out by familiarising myself with the chip colours. There were also 2 different coloured chips with letters on them. I asked my neighbour what they were for he told me they were the tokens to be used for the re-buy and add-on.
I started out by playing pretty tight and observing the play of my table-mates. I was surprised to see quite a lot of limping in and even limp-calling. Not at all what I expected. I'd originally decided to re-buy as soon as my stack dropped below the starting level, but no-one else seemed to be doing that so I thought I'd just hold off for a bit. Over the next hour or so there were more entries and we ended up with a total of 23 players. I lost a lot of chips in the following hand: I raised with J J and got called by a player who had position on me. The flop was K J x, giving me trips. I bet and got called. The turn was a 3, putting three hearts on the board. Hoping I was still good, I bet and got called. The river put a fourth heart out there. I knew if I checked my opponent would bet, whether he had the flush or not. So I put in the smallest bet I thought I could get away with. He called and showed the King of hearts with a Queen. I got some cash chips out and used my re-buy token. A little while later we reached the end of the third blind level and everyone added on.
Most stacks were around 20,000 at this point, with the blinds at 100/200. My stack was a bit shorter than that, but not too bad. There was not much action for me during this period and the number of players dropped down to five. I'd just got used to playing on a short-handed table when one more player was knocked out and we were down to a final table of ten. So I had to re-adjust to full table play. By this stage the prizes had been posted. First prize was a ticket to the main event, second was a ticket to the Mega Satellite, 3rd, 4th and 5th were all $70 satellite tickets, and sixth prize was $35.
There were a number of Mega Satellite games available, but I decided to play in the Saturday afternoon game. My wife dropped me off at the casino and I registered using my confirmation number. When we got started there were 15 players involved. This tournament had an even deeper stack than the previous one, starting at 15,000 with the blinds at 25/50, and the levels changing every 30 minutes. There were only 7 players at my table, so I was playing at a short-handed table with a 300 BB stack. Interesting. Looking around, I recognised a couple of faces from the stage 1 satellite, including the guy sitting at my table with the Macau Casino hat on.
After some thought I decided to just play the game the same way I would a ring game, at least until I was down to about 100 BB. There was a lot less limping in this time around, with more raising and folding pre-flop. One player in particular, sitting across from me (let's call him Agro Joe), was raising pretty frequently, and seemed to be a serial blind-defender. I had to fold to him a couple of times after initially raising and then getting re-raised. But I managed to get a few chips back off him once I realised he was raising light pre-flop, by betting in position post-flop. With late entries the total number of players climbed up to 17.
We had a little comic relief at our table when I folded my hand clumsily and my K 5 was exposed on the table. Then the flop was K 5 x. Someone suggested that the turn would be a King, but they were wrong. It was a 5. Ha ha. Apart from this I wasn't hitting much, but I managed to drag in a few pots without having to go to showdown. Meanwhile Agro Joe seemed to have quietened down a bit and wasn't playing many hands. Maybe he'd been trying to double-up early? Who knows. Once I dropped down to 100 BB I tightened up my range and started folding a lot.
When the organisers posted the prizes I saw that there were three $1500 tournament tickets up for grabs. Fourth prize was another $350 ticket and fifth was $250 in cash. With a few players eliminated my table dropped down to 6 players briefly, then another player dropped out and we were a final table of ten players. My stack was down to about 20 BB and I started looking for spots to push the action. With a small Ace in my hand I raised and got called by one player. The flop was K K x and I immediately pushed all-in. My opponent, sitting across the table from me and wearing big dark glasses was obviously thinking about calling. I tried to put on my best poker face, but he was sitting there looking at me for quite a while. They were showing the cricket, NZ vs Pakistan, on the big screen and I suddenly developed an intense interest in the match. Eventually he decided to fold and I let out a quiet sigh of relief.
After 4 hours of play it was time for our second 10 minute break, so I rushed off to the Bistro on the other side of the casino to get something to eat and drink. With one 10 minute break every 2 hours, you don't have much time to take care of bodily needs. But I managed to get back to the table with my pie and beer just in time for the start of blind level five. At this point we were approaching the bubble. I was getting short-stacked so I decided to take a punt and in the face of a minimum raise I pushed all-in with J Ts.. I was called by K Q. Not good. There was a King on the flop, then a Queen on the turn, then an Ace on the river, giving me a straight. Now that's lucky! This elimination put us across the bubble.
After playing for a while my stack was dropping down again, and I was down to about 7 BB. Mr Macau Hat pushed all-in and I looked down at Q J. With such a short stack, I was running out of options. What's more, I didn't want to win fourth prize and find myself having to play in another one of these Mega Satellites. Even though I suspected that I was behind, I figured that I was better off to try and double-up and go for the top prize, or bust out and go home with $250 cash. So I called and Macau Hat showed A J. My hand was dominated. Neither one of us hit the flop or the turn and I was looking for one of three remaining Queens to turn up on the river. The river was a Queen. Mr Macau was knocked out and he was not happy. Sometimes you just have to get lucky.
Despite my chip-up, I was still a reasonably short stack, so I just continued in push or fold mode, and tried to stay out of trouble. After a short period of play the smallest stack was eliminated, leaving just three of us at the table. The other two players started congratulating each other and it took me a moment to realise that I'd just won a $1500 ticket to the Waitangi Weekend Deep Stack Tournament. Not bad for my first attempt at a big game satellite. I wandered over to the cashier and picked up my ticket. Yes, this time I actually got a printed ticket confirmation. I was told that I'd be playing on day 1A, next Friday night. After 6 hours of play I decided that I deserved a couple of celebratory drinks at the bar before heading back home to share the good news.
Then at the end of last year, I came into some money. The organisers of my regular Friday night tournament gave away some prizes to the top points scorers for the year. Although I had been told that there wouldn't be a third prize, that turned out to be wrong. So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had won $250 for coming in third. Although some of this money was used for other purposes, I also had some other cash from my Interclub Poker team prize, leaving me with a little pool of spare poker cash. I decided that this would become my 'shadow bankroll', to be used to buy in to a satellite tournament if I could find a suitable one.
I checked out the Sky City tournament schedule in December and found that there were a number of satellites to the $1500 buy-in 'Waitangi Weekend Deep Stack Tournament', running through December and January. But although I knew that Waitangi Day (New Zealand's national day) was on February 6th, there was no mention on the website of when exactly the target event was to be played. So I sent an email to the Sky City poker section and they replied with the information I needed.
These tournaments were playing on Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons, so I turned up on the Sunday and registered. I was careful to ask plenty of questions of the poker cashier first, as I'd had problems in the past with a lack of information provided by Sky City regarding their tournaments. After waiting around for quite a while I went back and asked what was happening and was told the tournament had been cancelled because there weren't enough entries. But the cashier told me that Thursday nights often had more people entering.
Thursday
Four days later I was back up at the casino, looking to play in the 7pm satellite tournament. I could see that there were already a few people registered when I got there, so I paid my money and got my cash chips for the expected re-buy and add-on. I nearly missed the start because I didn't realise I had to get a seat assignment, and I was still standing in line when the announcement was made to start dealing. But I found my seat and settled in at a table of 6 other players, in a field of 15. I was starting with 200 big blinds and the blinds changed every 15 minutes. I started out by familiarising myself with the chip colours. There were also 2 different coloured chips with letters on them. I asked my neighbour what they were for he told me they were the tokens to be used for the re-buy and add-on.
I started out by playing pretty tight and observing the play of my table-mates. I was surprised to see quite a lot of limping in and even limp-calling. Not at all what I expected. I'd originally decided to re-buy as soon as my stack dropped below the starting level, but no-one else seemed to be doing that so I thought I'd just hold off for a bit. Over the next hour or so there were more entries and we ended up with a total of 23 players. I lost a lot of chips in the following hand: I raised with J J and got called by a player who had position on me. The flop was K J x, giving me trips. I bet and got called. The turn was a 3, putting three hearts on the board. Hoping I was still good, I bet and got called. The river put a fourth heart out there. I knew if I checked my opponent would bet, whether he had the flush or not. So I put in the smallest bet I thought I could get away with. He called and showed the King of hearts with a Queen. I got some cash chips out and used my re-buy token. A little while later we reached the end of the third blind level and everyone added on.
Most stacks were around 20,000 at this point, with the blinds at 100/200. My stack was a bit shorter than that, but not too bad. There was not much action for me during this period and the number of players dropped down to five. I'd just got used to playing on a short-handed table when one more player was knocked out and we were down to a final table of ten. So I had to re-adjust to full table play. By this stage the prizes had been posted. First prize was a ticket to the main event, second was a ticket to the Mega Satellite, 3rd, 4th and 5th were all $70 satellite tickets, and sixth prize was $35.
As it got later my stack got shorter and I ended up reaching the push or fold level. I lost a lot of chips early in this stage in a coin flip versus a shorter-stacked player. Then, a while later, I got most of my chips back in another coin flip against the same player. As it got later the other players' stacks diminished and it became an all-in fest. I was mostly just keeping out of the way, but I was always looking for the right spot to get my chips in the middle, constantly checking my stack size and the progress of the clock. At some point we crossed the bubble, but I didn't want another $70 ticket, I wanted the big prize. Some time after the second break we were down to three players, myself, a young woman in her twenties, and a man older even than me who was knocking back quite a few beers, which appeared to have no obvious effect on him. At this point he offered us a deal, but I had no idea how you would split a prize that consists of tournament tickets, so I declined, as did the other player.
At this point the woman had the big stack, but we all had at least 20 big blinds each. Despite these reasonable stack sizes, the other two just wanted to play push or fold. Mostly I just stayed out of their way, as I wasn't hitting much, but I lost a few chips by raising pre-flop and then having to fold to an all-in shove. But eventually the other two settled down a bit and we actually started playing some hands. The man seemed to have a talent for hitting flops and the woman started making some questionable calls, what she called 'spite calls'. His stack got bigger and hers smaller and eventually she was eliminated.
With two of us left, my opponent offered me a deal. I realised that what he was proposing was that the winner agree to pay the second place-getter $200. It was basically an insurance proposition. Even if I had the money to spare, I wasn't really interested, and declined the offer. Even though I was the short stack I figured I still had a decent chance at winning the top prize. But the cards were not good to me. I couldn't seem to hit anything. In the end I pushed all-in with K Q and got called by A K and that was it. Although I didn't win the big ticket, I was still pretty happy to win entry to the second-level satellite. So I went over to the cashier's counter, expecting to get some sort of ticket or confirmation of my qualifying. Instead, he wrote my name and phone number down on a scrap of paper, and that was it. Really? It was 12.30. I'd been playing for about 5 hours and I was pretty happy with the result. So I took a taxi home. Just before I went to bed I got a text message from Sky City confirming my entry in the Mega Satellite event.
SaturdayThere were a number of Mega Satellite games available, but I decided to play in the Saturday afternoon game. My wife dropped me off at the casino and I registered using my confirmation number. When we got started there were 15 players involved. This tournament had an even deeper stack than the previous one, starting at 15,000 with the blinds at 25/50, and the levels changing every 30 minutes. There were only 7 players at my table, so I was playing at a short-handed table with a 300 BB stack. Interesting. Looking around, I recognised a couple of faces from the stage 1 satellite, including the guy sitting at my table with the Macau Casino hat on.
After some thought I decided to just play the game the same way I would a ring game, at least until I was down to about 100 BB. There was a lot less limping in this time around, with more raising and folding pre-flop. One player in particular, sitting across from me (let's call him Agro Joe), was raising pretty frequently, and seemed to be a serial blind-defender. I had to fold to him a couple of times after initially raising and then getting re-raised. But I managed to get a few chips back off him once I realised he was raising light pre-flop, by betting in position post-flop. With late entries the total number of players climbed up to 17.
We had a little comic relief at our table when I folded my hand clumsily and my K 5 was exposed on the table. Then the flop was K 5 x. Someone suggested that the turn would be a King, but they were wrong. It was a 5. Ha ha. Apart from this I wasn't hitting much, but I managed to drag in a few pots without having to go to showdown. Meanwhile Agro Joe seemed to have quietened down a bit and wasn't playing many hands. Maybe he'd been trying to double-up early? Who knows. Once I dropped down to 100 BB I tightened up my range and started folding a lot.
When the organisers posted the prizes I saw that there were three $1500 tournament tickets up for grabs. Fourth prize was another $350 ticket and fifth was $250 in cash. With a few players eliminated my table dropped down to 6 players briefly, then another player dropped out and we were a final table of ten players. My stack was down to about 20 BB and I started looking for spots to push the action. With a small Ace in my hand I raised and got called by one player. The flop was K K x and I immediately pushed all-in. My opponent, sitting across the table from me and wearing big dark glasses was obviously thinking about calling. I tried to put on my best poker face, but he was sitting there looking at me for quite a while. They were showing the cricket, NZ vs Pakistan, on the big screen and I suddenly developed an intense interest in the match. Eventually he decided to fold and I let out a quiet sigh of relief.
After 4 hours of play it was time for our second 10 minute break, so I rushed off to the Bistro on the other side of the casino to get something to eat and drink. With one 10 minute break every 2 hours, you don't have much time to take care of bodily needs. But I managed to get back to the table with my pie and beer just in time for the start of blind level five. At this point we were approaching the bubble. I was getting short-stacked so I decided to take a punt and in the face of a minimum raise I pushed all-in with J Ts.. I was called by K Q. Not good. There was a King on the flop, then a Queen on the turn, then an Ace on the river, giving me a straight. Now that's lucky! This elimination put us across the bubble.
After playing for a while my stack was dropping down again, and I was down to about 7 BB. Mr Macau Hat pushed all-in and I looked down at Q J. With such a short stack, I was running out of options. What's more, I didn't want to win fourth prize and find myself having to play in another one of these Mega Satellites. Even though I suspected that I was behind, I figured that I was better off to try and double-up and go for the top prize, or bust out and go home with $250 cash. So I called and Macau Hat showed A J. My hand was dominated. Neither one of us hit the flop or the turn and I was looking for one of three remaining Queens to turn up on the river. The river was a Queen. Mr Macau was knocked out and he was not happy. Sometimes you just have to get lucky.
Despite my chip-up, I was still a reasonably short stack, so I just continued in push or fold mode, and tried to stay out of trouble. After a short period of play the smallest stack was eliminated, leaving just three of us at the table. The other two players started congratulating each other and it took me a moment to realise that I'd just won a $1500 ticket to the Waitangi Weekend Deep Stack Tournament. Not bad for my first attempt at a big game satellite. I wandered over to the cashier and picked up my ticket. Yes, this time I actually got a printed ticket confirmation. I was told that I'd be playing on day 1A, next Friday night. After 6 hours of play I decided that I deserved a couple of celebratory drinks at the bar before heading back home to share the good news.
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