Vic Champs Trip Report part 1, The Land of Oz, Event 1

[Bond18]

Vic Champs Trip Report part 1, The Land of Oz, Event 1
Preface: Over the course of the WSOP I received an enormous amount of support through the threads of these trip reports, IM, email, facebook, and PM. I never really got around to messaging a lot of these people back, as post ME I was very busy/exhausted so I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their encouragement.

I’d also like to thank Timex/Stevepa for giving me the opportunity to play so many events. Of the team of guys they put together, I think its safe to say I was the least established and the largest gamble, unfortunately I didn’t pan out for them, though with Timex agreeing to go forward with the Vic champs, hopefully I can make it worth his while.

Lastly, I’d like to thank everyone who through the forum and especially on IM, have improved my game immensely over the last year. Guys like Grafyx, LuckyChewy, Mikej, Thay3r, DonT77, UCLAbruinz, curtains, Jurollo, Badgerpro, NoahSD, and adanthar have all been integral (sorry for anyone I’m forgetting, can’t get into my AIM list right now.) Of special notice is Ajunglen whose reviews have transformed my game over the last few months to really take it to a higher level. It came to absolutely zero surprise to me when he won his Sunday million recently. You guys and this forum are responsible for making me the player I am. End Preface.

The few days leading up to event 1 of the Vic champs have been mostly exhausting. I went from Las Vegas to Milwaukee, to Madison, to Milwaukee, to Chicago, to LA, then Sydney, and finally Melbourne. I had a few days to relax and get the apartment set up before the events started, as well as catch up with friends. Up until a few days ago, I hadn’t been in Melbourne for 13 months, and hadn’t seen most of my Ozzie friends since November in Singapore. We find time to make it to a Saints vs Hawks footy game, where the Saints crush the Hawks and win me 100 Ozzie, so boo yah and in your face Darren/Steve.

In my time studying abroad just about anyone who hung out at Crown could tell you I likely spent more time in that poker room than anywhere else. Within a few months I knew just about everyone and everything that went on in that room. Some would say the Crown poker room is full of degenerates and scumbags. Well if that’s the case they’re my favorite group of degenerate scumbags. Even though this time around I’ll mostly be sticking to online poker unless there’s a tournament series in town, I’ll always feel a certain nostalgia for the 20/40 limit days.

Walking into Crown tonight would find me having the same conversation fifty times over. “Hoooooooly shiiiiiit! Lucky Tony D. You’re back? What the [censored] are you doing here?!” Cut to the part where I inform them I’m unbanned, living in St. Kilda, and have definitely read the fine print this time. One of my favorite parts of Australian culture is their enormous informality, which is especially apparent in the casino where almost everyone I’m talking to is off work and out to have some fun. Tonight’s event is a simple $230 buy in NL holdem tournament, barely worth writing about really but I decided I’d write about everything I played. Previous to the event I run into Mark Vos and we start talking prop bets.
“Mark you want $100 last longer?”
”Only if you give me 6 to 1.”
”That’s to much. I know you can’t take this serious but that’s still to high. 3 to 1.”
”You’re on.”

In a $230 tournament, it’s a miracle if Mark can make it 90 minutes, by his own admission. Still, given that we only start with 60 BB’s and one hand gone bad and its over, this is likely a neutral EV wager.

I end up being seated on one of the red felted ‘feature tables’ along the rail and under a bunch of lights. We start with 3000 chips at 25/50 blinds and half an hour levels, much like a $1500 WSOP tournament but worse in fact, and apparently with no antes. Play gets under way and my table has one player I’m quite familiar with, my friend James Dood, one of Australia’s better players in Hold’em/Omaha. He’s on the other side of the table though, so he won’t be able to abuse me on the left. He’s in the BB on the first hand, and I immediately begin trash talking about how I’m going to blow him off his blind straight away. I’m in MP (11 handed, blegh) when the following hand develops:

I hold As Jc in MP2. All stacks 3000.
Villain is middle aged guy I’ve seen around a few times but don’t remember anything about.

Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 150, folds to SB, SB calls, BB folds.
Flop: J T 4 rainbow
SB checks, I bet 225, SB raises to 600. This is not a great spot, but this shallow I don’t think I can ever really consider folding here. J9/QJ/KJ are all in his range, though I don’t think he’s check raising me with a draw. I’m pretty sure if I shove now he’ll fold most J’s, but if I call he’ll commit himself on a safe turn. I elect to call.
Turn: 2
SB shoves, I call. SB shows KJ and I’m well in front.
River: 5

I raise the next hand and take the blinds. A couple hands later I raise again and get reraised by a guy I know in seat 1, and fold to his reraise. A round later the guy in seat 1 has continued to play somewhat aggressive but not spewy, when the following hand comes up.

I hold Jh Js in the SB. Blinds 25/50
My stack: 5800
UTG: 3300

Preflop: UTG raises to 350, folds to me in the SB. His 7x raise is really weird, but is rarely KK+. I call, BB folds.

Flop: Ks Qh Ts
I check, UTG checks.
Turn: Qd
I check, UTG checks.
River: 7h
I check, UTG bets 650, I fold. UTG proudly flips up 44. I’m not sure what else I could do, I didn’t really give him credit for 7x’ing a small pair UTG, and basically all his more likely range has me crushed on this board and isn’t folding if I bet as a bluff.

Play in this event is extremely loose/passive. People are limp calling 4-5X raises with things like J8o with a 60 BB stack and its totally the norm. While the play is bad at the WSOP, the thing with most recreational players in Australia is that the game is still quite new. Poker didn’t really find a popular stride until 2005 when Hachem won the WSOP, as the explosion of the Crown poker rooms size can tell you. When I first got there a couple weeks before Joe won, I think the Crown poker room had about ~25 tables. Now it has roughly double that. My table is no different, as there is a lot of limp calling and limp folding going on.

With the blinds having gone up to 50/100 the following hand comes up. The two limpers were very loose/weak.
My stack: ~5600
UTG+1’s stack: ~2500. Blinds 50/100, I hold Kc Qd on the button.

Preflop: UTG folds, UTG+1 limps, 1 fold, MP1 limps, folds to me on the button. I raise to 475, folds back to UTG+1 who folds, MP1 calls.

Flop: Td 5s 2d
MP1 checks, I bet 625, MP1 calls.
Turn: 9c
MP1 checks, I check.
River: Jd
MP1 bets out 900 with about 500 more behind. I’m thinking if he had a flush draw he’d mostly commit himself on the flop if he has ANY clue (poor assumption on my part) so pretty easy shove here. I put him in for his last 500, he calls and flips up a brilliantly played Kd 9d. Fair enough, I’m back to around my starting stack.

After this hand my cards dry up and seeing as everyone’s stack is so shallow, there’s no real room for creative aggressive play. The blinds go up to 100/200 and with 2800 in my stack I resteal the guy on my right with T9dd who makes it 600 and get a fold. A couple hands later I pick up AK and raise pre flop in EP, and some guy in BB tries to make a move by shoving with Q3o for 2k and my AK holds. Not sure what that was all about considering how tight I’d been for a while but hey to each his own. Then it folds to me in the SB and I raise air as the BB seemed really tight/straight forward but he calls. The flop is rags I c bet he insta jams and I fold.

A little while later with blinds now at 150/300, the following hand comes up:
My stack: ~5000
SB: 2100
I hold Tc Td in EP.

Preflop: Folds to me, I raise to 800, folds to SB, SB calls, BB folds.

Flop: 3c 3d 2c
SB shoves, I call. SB shows Kc Qc. The irony is I don’t think he even planned on stopngo’ing me on any flop, he just saw a hand he liked and called, then got a dream flop and crammed.
Turn: Ac
River: Ks

[censored], now I’m crippled. A blind steal a little bit and stay around 3000. When we get back from the break the BB has yet to show up and I’m sitting with about 3000. The blinds are 150/300 and the button is a fairly aggressive player with a big stack. It folds to him and he raises to 800. I look down at Kc 9c and insta jam. He calls and flips up 66.

Flop: Ac 8c 5h
Turn: 8d
Just a few outs here.
River: 3h

Oh well. On the plus side I won my $100 last longer off Mark who started shoving blind an hour in. I run into Mark later and after getting some food we head down to the poker room and decide to organize an in house home game. We recruit 10 players and set up a game of $25 buy in, 1-2 blinds, one rotation NL holdem, one rotation NL Omaha hi. The game is mostly drunk, loud and boisterous, and I run horrible and lose like $400. Oh well, tomorrow is the $1100 HU event, which given that it’ll be more SNG structure than cash game should play to my advantage.

BTW, for those Ozzie 2p2’ers who would like to meet up I should be in Crown basically every day for the next week, so just come find the young white guy hanging out with all the Asian guys.