Asian Poker Open - Results (Part 1)

Back from Macau to hear a Vietnamese Nail Technician (as in beauty therapist) won the US$2,500 tourney. Hachem and Liz Lieu made the final table and the high rollers event kicks off today. I managed just one tournaments...full blow by blow coverage below......
Entry Fee: US$470+30
Stacks are $3,000 and blind levels jump every thirty minutes.


Blinds 25/50 - no playble hands in site and raises on my blinds mean I don't see a flop.
Blinds 50/100 - Two limpers to me in the cut off and I call and hope to see a flop with 67s. The blinds follow me in and its five handed. Flop comes 789 with two clubs showing.
Under the gun plus one sticks in a $400 raise and its folded to me. I have bottom pair and an open ended straight draw. I would have to risk a sizeable percentage of my stack and I could already be drawing dead so I let it go.
Blinds 50/100 - I get another chance to see a hand in the big blind with 3 limpers in.
Flop J92 with two clubs.
Pot: 450
I lead for 300.
I'm called by an aggressive Scandinavian player in early position.
Turn: K diamonds
Pot: 1,150
I bet 500
A weak bet here. I was planning to play it stronger but realised the king could have filled up a higher straight draw.
Scandanavian throws in a raise of 1,200 and I give it up.

My stack size is reduced to about 1,800.

Blinds 75/150
It's folded to me in the cut-off with T8s and I plan to raise 3 times the big blind and bet 300. As soon as I do so I realise my mistake and that I've failed to take into account the latest blind increase making it a min-raise. Ouch. The latest player, who appears to be wearing a bracelet of the poker variety and looks the part pushes all in from the small blind. I fold with my tails between my legs.

I've not been getting any cards at all and I'm not getting respect when I do raise. My stack is down to 1,400 and the blinds already mean I'm in allin preflop territory.

Blinds 75/150 - Chinese guy on my immediate right (UTG+1) raises to $500. I push over the top with Ace Jack spades nd its folded all the way back around to him. I'm looking for a fold here but when he ponders it I'm thinking he may call with a middle pair or slightly better hand that dominates me. He calls and flips over K and T hearts.
I go in as a 61% favourite and noone connects and I'm back up to near my starting stack.

Blinds 100/200
I'm under the gun and I look at Pocket 9's. Its my best hand yet but its still a pretty marginal raising hand. I raise to $600. Folded to Mr Bracelet and he once again pushes on me. He has me covered. I'm pretty sure I'm beat or possibly racing with AK. I give it up and he tells me he did indeed have a big pair.


I reach the first break with a newly diminished stack and join Deadly to compare notes. I'll give you the scoop on his tourney in the next post.

I return from the break. Stack size 2,000 and within a couple of hands the big blinds are folded to me as they do they announce that antes of $25 are to be added to the pot.

Blinds 75/150 antes 25 (8 handed)

Its folded all the way to me to the small blind and its my previous combatant to act.
The pot is already $425
He raises $500.
I look down at pocket 3's. I think he has a pretty wide raising range and I think my 3's are ahead. His pot odds are good hear but I think I have a decent fold equity and I'm a slight favourite anything other than a higher pair.
When he ponders my push I'm pretty sure I'm not going to be a big dog. I'm once again hoping for a fold but at worst I'm going to be racing for my tournament life.
He eventually sticks his money in and flips over J3.

Its as good a situation as I could hope for really and leaves him with just one overcard and me a 67.5% favourite. the luck factor deserts me as a Jack spikes on the flop. I have a runner runner straight possibility and just one out. It's not looking good. My straight possibility vanishes on the turn and my one out fails to show on the river and I'm gone.

Summary: I think in retrospect I may have been better not getting involved with both T8 hands and saved my chips for later. Seems an overpair could well have been paid off and those extra chips could well have given me enough breathing space to find them. I recognised one of the guys at my table from Hong Kong rounders, another guy at my table was across from Bangkok that I had been watching playing on the Lightning automated poker machine at pretty high stakes and he had walked away a stack up. I had a semi-pro from Australia at my table for a while and the wife of an unnamed pro whose husband finished 50th in the US$2,500 event. There were a few weaker players at the table that I noticed so the standard wasn't overly intimidating. I'll be back next year.

Result: I estimate 35th out of 80.