Good week

Its been a good poker week for me. Beginning on Tuesday with a final table at the Shafston playing APL. I had finished just off the table for the last couple of weeks so it was nicely to finally make it on and I had a decent stack. Nothing went my on the final table tho, getting good hands but none of them holding up and I ended up getting knocked out in 5th.

I had a home game with my friends from school last night. $20 buy-in, rebuys allowed and there were 7 starters. The action was wild and woolly early and I of course was getting paid out on for folding so much and it took me ages to win my first hand. The rebuys were frequent early and with top 2 getting paid I was just waiting for a hand to push with. That ended up being queens which got outrun against jacks and ace queen off, of course an ace came. So I rebought and started to get a few cards, won hands and eventually got to heads-up with a large chip-lead. I pushed with ace 2, got called by queen 8 and a queen on the river put the stacks even. A few hands later and I raised all-in with ace queen, got called by 6's and the board ran out 2, 3, 4, 5 and it was over. The second place made me $60 profit after the buy-in (and rebuy) but it was disappointing next to get the win and finish second yet again.

This morning I played on PokerStars and ran red hot. I played six 45 mans, cashing 4 (and bubbling another) and of those 4 I had 2 seconds a third and a fourth. I also played 2 big MTT's cashing 1 of them. Thanks to the success in the 45 mans, the bankroll broke through $1300 for the first time reaching $1340.

APL update

Well, in my post at the end of 2008 I said that I would be going back to the APL State Finals next quarter but I have fallen just short of achieving that.

I didn't play that many games again this quarter, instead choosing to play more online. The two APL venues I played were Hotel Broadway on Monday night and my usual Shafston Hotel on Thursday night.

I started well at Broadway with a 2nd place finish in the 2nd week of the venue. After that, I made top 16 a couple of times but couldn't get back to the final table and score the big points. In the final month of the quarter I stopped playing when I was no longer in contention.

Shafston I got off to a slow start struggling to put any good performances on the board against the English language students and players who had a few too many drinks. Shafston is such a tough field because of the larger numbers and "colourful" characters that play the game. In the 3rd and 4th weeks I finish top 16, just off the final table the 4th week being an agonising bubble. I then found a bit of form (and of course luck) making two final tables in a row finishing 6th and 4th. This put me back in contention for the venue, needing to finish top 3 to make it to States. I had two poor results in the following weeks and a final table 5th in the last game of the quarter wasn't enough to get it done.

I finished in 6th place for the quarter at the Shafston, basically one win out of 3rd place. So close! Congratulations to my friends Jasmine and Ellen who came first and second respectively. Ellen, sorry for knocking you out of contention in the last game. :-)

Straight Flush

Up until a few weeks ago my best hand ever had been quad aces. I was yet to get a straight flush until I hit one with jack-ten of diamonds on PokerStars last month. My first straight flush in APL came last Thursday in my regular game at the Shafston.

It was just after the break and I had around 3500 in chips. I was one off under the gun and called the blinds of 200 with 7-8 diamonds hoping to see a cheap flop. There were 2 other callers and then the big blind (an aggressive player) raised 3 times the blind. I figured the other 2 callers would come along and I didn't really want to fold for just 400 more. The flops comes and its exactly what I wanted to see, all diamonds (5, 6, king) and giving me the open-ended straight flush draw. Big blind is first to act and throws out a little continuation bet of 200 so I re-raise to 1000 ... knowing that if another diamond comes my two diamonds are that strong anymore. I get a caller from a big stack on the other side of the table and I put him on the ace of diamonds (with some other non-diamond card). The next comes out the 4 of diamonds giving me the straight flush and hopefully the other guy the ace-high flush. I'm tempted to double check I have the straight flush first but throw out another 1000 hoping he'll instantly call. But, much to my delight he instead puts me all-in thinking he has the nut flush. I insta-call of course and surprise him by turning over the straight flush 4 - 8 which he never saw coming. Dream scenario for me and he's drawing dead on the river.