Well that was short, and not particularly sweet. I’ve busted out of the APT Manila Main Event within 40 minutes – my quickest ever live tournament bustout. Pay those who took the unders at busting by the dinner break.

It all started pretty well. I was chipping up on a table full of unknown crazy asians. A couple of young Japanese players would probably give me the most trouble. My first significant hand I picked up AK and raised to 150 and found one caller. The flop was Q-J-T giving me the nuts. I fired 200 and my fishie was on the hook as he called. Turn king. Shit. There goes my double up. I bet 500 and he raised to 1,500. I assumed we both held an ace, but I just flatted and hoped for a brick river in case he had a set. It bricked and I checked. He fired 2,000 and I check-raised to 6,000. He called and I guess justice was served as he revealed AK also.

A few hands later I pick up QQ and re-raise to 400 after the guy to my right opened to 150. Surprisingly he folded preflop.

Then after a biggish raise to 250 from an older Asian guy in early position and a call from the guy to my right, I looked down at AdAh on the button. I re-pop it to 875 and both opponents called. The flop was KhJd4d. Not a great flop as both opponents checked to me. Perhaps I should check behind here to keep some pot control since I had the Ad in case another diamond fell. But instead I bet half-pot of 1,500. The older Asian guy then check-raised me to 3,500. The third guy folded and I had a decision to make. Folding here seemed weak, as I can’t put him on kings, so I really only fear jacks or fours. I would think he might flat call a set and try to trap me. It’s just as likely he could have ace-king or king-jack. Since I had the backdoor diamonds I decided to call and see what happened on the turn.

The turn was the 4c. Not a diamond but I felt it was a good card for me. I now beat KJ, and its now unlikely he had pocket fours. He then moved all in for about 5,500. I had 6,000. I went into the tank and was pretty sick at the decision. I really feared pocket jacks, but I felt he could just as easily have AK or KJ. There was also an outside chance he was getting overly funky with AJ or a flush draw. After seeing some pretty crazy play since I’ve been here, I decided to just lean towards a call. He turned over black jacks. The river bricked and I was crippled.

A few minutes later I got my last chips in with QQ against KJ and a king fell on the flop to bring my tournament to an end within the first level. Pretty sick. While there is merit to the thought that I could’ve or perhaps should’ve got away from my aces, I think it was pretty close decision. Perhaps at the Aussie Millions or APPT I could’ve got away from it when we have 20k in chips, but at APT it’s only 10k, so I’m afraid I just wasn’t good enough to make that fold yet. I think my mistake was betting the flop, rather than calling his shove.

So now I’m off to drown my sorrows and rue my luck at another lost opportunity.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 30th, 2009 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Poker, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.