Despite my delving back into the cash games, I’ve continued to donk around in a couple of tournaments.  I’ve recently played a couple of satellites to both Melb Champs and the ANZPT Melbourne.  I went deep in a couple and then finally the other night I broke through with a win in an ANZPT sat on PokerStars.

After dropping $215 in a satellite on two days earlier, I qualified for this satellite in one of the $8.80 sub-satellites. I don’t remember too much about this sub-sat as it was a turbo, other than I didn’t rebuy at the start, I doubled twice and tripled once before adding on to be top 3 at the break. It was smooth sailing from there as I grabbed a seat for just a $16.80 investment.

The satellite only got 32 starters which was surprisingly low as only 3 ANZPT Melbourne seats would be up for grabs. I managed to build up from $3k stack to $4k pretty quickly, and with a good structure I pretty much sat tight on those chips without too much happening. As we got down to the last two tables, I then went on a mad tear. I picked up pocket aces three times (twice in consecutive hands) and ace-king within one orbit. Not surprisingly I got paid off to storm from a shortish stack to be amongst the leaders. Then as we approached the final table, the following hand came up. It’s pretty sick, yes I was running good, but I’m amazed he didn’t stack off here. Did I misplay it to not get his whole stack?

PokerStars Game #27400553977: Tournament #153770645, $200+$15 Hold’em No Limit – Level VIII (150/300) – 2009/04/23 8:43:43 ET
Table ‘153770645 5’ 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: dufchips (13398 in chips)
Seat 2: grunter321 (11354 in chips)
Seat 3: kyomi (10876 in chips)
Seat 6: A6540 (4236 in chips)
Seat 7: TheBigHef (14756 in chips)
dufchips: posts the ante 25
grunter321: posts the ante 25
kyomi: posts the ante 25
A6540: posts the ante 25
TheBigHef: posts the ante 25
TheBigHef: posts small blind 150
dufchips: posts big blind 300
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to TheBigHef [5h 5d]
grunter321: folds
kyomi: folds
A6540: folds
TheBigHef: raises 600 to 900
dufchips: calls 600
*** FLOP *** [2d Qd 8c]
TheBigHef: bets 979
dufchips: calls 979
*** TURN *** [2d Qd 8c] [5s]
TheBigHef: bets 2300
dufchips: calls 2300
*** RIVER *** [2d Qd 8c 5s] [3h]
TheBigHef: bets 4500
dufchips: calls 4500
*** SHOW DOWN ***
TheBigHef: shows [5h 5d] (three of a kind, Fives)
dufchips: mucks hand
TheBigHef collected 17483 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 17483 | Rake 0
Board [2d Qd 8c 5s 3h]
Seat 1: dufchips (big blind) mucked [2c 2h]
Seat 2: grunter321 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: kyomi folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: A6540 (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: TheBigHef (small blind) showed [5h 5d] and won (17483) with three of a kind, Fives

We got to the final table and I was chip leader as Grant “grunter321” Levy warned me he was about to play like a maniac to drop a few of these guys. I LOL’d and stood back with my healthy stack to watch the carnage until I picked up AA UTG and raised. The second biggest stack to my immediate left, and interestingly also from Hobart, three-bet and it folded back to me. I wasn’t going to mess around so I put in a four-bet and did a little jig. He shoved and I called. He showed AK, and I tingled. Dear god, no funny business! The board bricked and I had 40k, and 4x the second biggest stack with 8 players left! Talk about DING!

I sat back with my huge stack and let Grunter do most of the work to eliminate the others. I could’ve raced with him once with AK, against what he later said was pocket jacks, but decided against it. We got down to four-handed with three seats on the line and I still had close to 40k. The short stack had about 10k and open shoved from the button with the blinds at 400-800. I had AJ in the small blind, and although the villian was tight I think I had to make the call as the big stack against the short stack to take a shot at the win. He showed AQ and doubled through. Shit, now things got very interesting.

Suddenly thoughts of yet another bubble flashed through my mind as I’d just blown my chip lead. Tears welled in my eyes. It couldn’t happen, could it? Things continued to go pear-shaped. I raised with TT and had to ditch it as Grunter re-raised, what he later said was another set (blessed). I then opened with AQ and the same short-stack shoved on me again. Four-handed it felt like a call, and I so wanted to bust this guy and end it, but somewhere deep I found a crying fold.

I was now hurting as the seat was slipping away, as I was now one of the shorter stacks. Out of nowhere the same guy then open-shoved for 16k from the small blind into my big blind of 800, and I insta-called with pocket queens. He flipped KJ and I couldn’t watch. The board bricked and it was victory for the good guys. Grunter grabbed a seat also which should help keep him off the streets. It was great to have some of his run good brush off on me, and man it felt good to run like Grunter for a day! Hopefully this time I can convert it into a big score.