| Game Type: | No Limit |
| Buy-in: | $5,000 |
| Entries: | 313 |
Please click here to view Part I.
In between me and Tony G are sitting the two Brits from my original table, so at least I think I know how these two will play. Straight away one of them raises Tony G’s blind and he instantly puts them all in. The raiser folds and Tony G shows some monster like 5-3 off.
“This is my school and you’re all my students. I can’t believe how lucky you guys are… you’re earning money and I’m teaching you how to play, you’re getting paid to learn from the best, how lucky are you?”.
Some people think Tony G is bad for the game, and if you see some of his antics on You Tube they’re pretty ugly, but I have to say he was never disrespectful and was always somewhat tongue-in-cheek with his comments.
We redraw down to two tables and I’m again with Tony G. Him apart though, we seem to have a pretty inexperienced table, who were mainly happy for him to run things, only playing monster hands. With Tony sat at the opposite end of the table to me, I used this to my advantage, and steadily built my chips without ever really getting any cards or into any showdowns.
I was happy to avoid clashing with the mouthy one, not because he had somehow got inside my head, I just knew there were plenty of chips on offer and I could get my hands on plenty without clashing with the only player I felt could endanger my tournament life.
Our very sedate table seemed in deep contrast with the other one, which was surrounded by fans (as the two local players left were both on that table) and seemed to have more action.
However, the players were gradually quietly disposed of on our table until we were down to five players. A Scandi – yep you’ve got it, young, chipped up and hyper aggressive – moved one to my left and immediately went about trying to get busy. Tony G wasn’t happy with someone questioning his table captaincy, and it didn’t seem it would be long before he felt the need to put him in his place.
With around 200,000, I make it 20,000 to play from the button with A-J. Scandi boy is immediately all-in for just less than my total stack. There’s no way I can call such a massive overbet but I sit and stare him down, sigh, look back, and pass them face up.
His little smirk tells me immediately what he had, but just in case, he flips his A-J as he collects the chips.
“You want to risk your whole tournament on that rubbish?” I ask him. “Well played mate, played it much better than me.”
Tony G decides to back me up. “Ace-Jack is a big hand, a very big hand. If it’s against Ace-Ten. If it’s against a real hand it’s in all sorts of trouble, but if you push all-in you’ll find that out.”
The Scandi didn’t look too chuffed at having his play questioned from both ends of the table, and I’m sure that, and his whole attitude at our previously sedate table, contributed to him taking a horrible beat to finish on the bubble. He raised Tony G’s blind, and is immediately told, “You know the minimum we’re going to do is see a flop. You’re not learning very quickly.”
The Flop comes Ten high, and Tony, who is holding A-T, bets out. The Scandi raises and Tony beats him into the pot. The cards are flipped and Tony is miles behind his opponent’s Q-Q… only to see an Ace hit the turn.
I started the final sixth of 10, but with 240,000 and the blinds wound back a level, there was plenty of opportunity to make some serious progress. Playing 6,000/12,000 with a 1,000 ante, I knew the three short stacks, all holding around 100,000, would have to move pretty quickly.
My seat draw wasn’t ideal, with Tony G two to my right and Lee Nelson, the Aussie Millions’ champ, two to my left. I was hoping to stay out of trouble until the short stacks had gone (or doubled) but it wasn’t to be - The very first hand I’m dealt 9-9 in second position, with Tony G the big blind. I raise it and take it down… nice start.
Two hands later on by big blind, it’s passed round to Tony G on the button. The inevitable raise comes, and with K-Q I make the call. A-Q high rainbow flop looks good to me, although in hindsight I think I play this hand too negatively.
I check-call the Flop and the Turn and it’s check-check on the River to give me another nice pot. I think I should have made more from that situation, but either, way, I was approaching 300,000 and nicely tucked in the middle of the pack.
Elsewhere, the madness had set in. The two Singaporeans went at it straight away with the short stack re-raising all-in with nothing more than A-T. Josh Ang, a guy I know as X-Angel on Ladbrokes, made the call with his J-J, and despite the Ace on the Flop, took out his fellow countryman with a set on the Turn.
Shortly afterwards, chip-leader Samuel Lehtonen makes what looked a standard button raise, which Brendan Walls re-raised all-in, a massive bet, seeing as he started the final with 180,000. Samuel called in a shot and his Pocket Rockets stood up.
Two out, two shorties still struggling to keep their heads above water, and I’d made 50,000 or so, things were going well.
Lee Nelson (right) took out the short stack in between us, moving me a seat closer to a guy who I’d played a lot with two tables out. He was a classic novice, obviously did well online but didn’t seem to give any consideration to the information he gave off at a live table. With me on the button, I watched this guy on the big blind look at his cards and sit back and start looking round the room. He may as well have mucked his cards there and then, so I stick in the raise. Unfortunately for me, Nelson found a big Ace in the small blind and re-raised me. The big blind did as expected, but with my mighty T-3 off all I could do was follow suit.
With the two short stacks despatched and the blinds and antes rising, it was now time to move up a gear or two. Blinds were 8,000 and 16,000, meaning my 180,000 was pretty short, and when Tony G raised blind on blind into me for around 55,000, I thought my K-Q was probably good enough, if Tony made the call to my all-in. After a bit of deliberating he made what I would deem a pretty ordinary call with his Q 10, a dream for me, and a K high flop sealed the deal.
With Samuel having thrown his chip lead away, Tony having gone backwards a bit and Josh the big mover, my 400,000 wasn’t too short-stacked – with five left the average was 600,000, and with Josh having about 800,000, everyone bar me was about average.
It was then that I got the reminder, as if it were needed, what a cruel game poker is. With 5-5 utg, I make it 65,000 to go (blinds 10,000/20,000). It’s passed round to Joshua on the small blind, who says “raise” and puts in 60,000. The dealer tells him he has to make it at least 130,000. Josh asks why, and when it’s pointed out to him that I’ve already raised, he makes it very obvious he didn’t realise, and reluctantly puts in the 130,000.
Tony G folds the big blind and I consider my position. My 5-5 isn’t by any means a monster, but I know this lad could be raising with anything. I look at my newly doubled stack, I have about 340,000 back, meaning a re-raise would be another 280,000-ish to him. This gives him pot odds of around two to one on the call… but it’s a huge bet, and if he loses the pot, we would swap places, with me the chippy and him the short stack. With the knowledge he won’t want to lose the chip lead, and he may have been raising with any old rubbish that he can’t call with, I re-raise all-in.
In a shot he calls – no asking how much the raise is, no count down, no thinking…immediately I know I must have run into a monster. I reluctantly show my 5-5, he shows…..8-9! Sooted mind!
Now I’ve made eight final tables this year, and every time I’ve taken my first 50/50 bar one, I’ve lost and been knocked out. The only exception was in Turks & Caicos, when El Blondie was my victim… maybe I’ve found the only player with worse final table luck than me?
Either way, the T-6-4-A board looked okay… the River 9 was ugly. It’s harsh, having not made a mistake or bad call all week, to go out to someone who has made a mistake (missing my raise), then a bad call, but at the same time, the locals were loving watching their guy leading their first ever tournament, and I guess Josh got a bit carried away with the moment, then got that bit of luck we all crave.
After doing the obligatory interviews, and giving them the familiar line that I don’t know what I’ll spend the $87,000 win on because I don’t play for money, just the glory and the honour of the game, I leave the tournament area and go about spending some of it on the $18 a bottle lager in the hotel bar and thinking about what might have been – from chip-leader to the bar in one ugly river card.
I was pleased to find out that Tony G won the tournament, I think the class act from very early on, and his decision to give half the $450,000 winnings to charity can only be commended.
So a week that had started full of hope of becoming the first Betfair Asian Open ended sipping Singapore Slings in the Long Bar at Raffles… I guess there are tougher jobs in the world.