Staying out until after 5am probably isn’t the best preparation for a live event, but I don’t get to Auckland very often and staying in or getting an early night would definitely have been -ev given the relatively small buy in of the North Island Championship.

On arrival at the Sky City complex we spent a good 15 minutes driving around in circles in their overcrowded car park before biting the bullet and surrendering the keys for valet parking @ $30 a day. I’d have felt a little more “balla” if I wasn’t driving a battered 10 year old Mitsubishi Charisma.

After a quick turnaround, we registered for the tourny and headed out for some food at the Viaduct. We got in contact with a couple of friends and found out they were hanging back at the casino and were talking about playing some poker (sigh). It turned out that our ex house mate Shaun (aka Mathclub) was in town on his way back from Sydney, so was good to catch up with him and the other guys. Unfortunately by the time we arrived at the casino, Shaun and Ben had already jumped in a sit and go, so thehills and I were resigned to spending an hour or so in a cash game before hitting the bars. I had no interest in playing any serious poker, so when we were told there was immediate seating at 1/2NL I was pretty pleased. However, they wouldn’t let us sit in the same game as we were friends – pretty ridiculous really, imagine that at the highest level? “I’m sorry Mr Brunson, but we have no games for you today, Mr Greenstein is sat at table 1, Mr Ivey at table 2 and didn’t you go to primary school with the gentleman in seat 4 at table 3?”

Within two minutes of being seated I realised that this was the softest cash game I had ever sat at, by a considerable distance. 7 players in every pot until the river, and in the first hand a guy called a $30 river bet with ten high with the line “ahhh thought you were bluffing”. Half an hour later I had bluffed and value-towned my way to a $200 stack (start with $100), when an English lad raised utg to $7. This guy had been trying to put players on hands since I sat down, he knew the basics but was also obviously very tight. He had also been speaking about how online poker was rigged etc etc, so I couldn’t help but want to play a bit with him. An Indian gentleman called the $7 raise and I peaked down at 42o on the button, here we go “call”.

Flop A J T with two diamonds.

UTG fires $10, Indian guy calls. Oh god, how am I going to win this hand? I just couldn’t help myself and smooth called the button, fairly sure that I could represent a whole host of turns/rivers to make the tight English lad fold assuming the Indian got out of the way.

Turn Jc

UTG fires $20, Indian guy folds. Bingo! Perfect turn, I really felt this guy would fold everything but a jack/set or KQ to me on this turn. I counted out my chips and made it $50. He sighed and almost insta mucked AK face up, I couldn’t help myself and turned over the 42o. He promptly stood up saying “I can’t afford to lose this money, I shouldn’t be playing” and left the table. I felt like a dick.

Shortly after our table broke and I was moved to thehills table – what happened to the friend rules I don’t know. We weren’t there long however when Shaun came bounding over to tell me about the idiots who had busted him and Ben in the sng, time for the pub.

Surprisingly we gave ourselves enough time for breakfast before the 12.15pm start the next day. I wasn’t feeling too bad all things considered and the play at my starting table certainly helped with any lingering hangover I did have.

To summarise, the play at Sky City is like being transported back in time 3 years. The standard in British casinos is pretty appalling, but it has got a little better. To me this was a flashback to Friday nights in Glasgow playing 10 pound rebuys in 2006. Some players are too tight and too passive, others are too loose and too passive, both in general are bad combinations. In addition to this, the majority of the time they have no idea if they are bluffing or value betting, especially when on the river.

I increased my 10k starting stack to 25k within a couple of hours with no real problems, I called a big river bet with KK on a 9926J board for the villain to show 88 – I’m assuming he was bluffing, but what he wanted me to fold is beyond me, TT is the only hand I would have folded that beats him. Another hand I raised 99 and the flop came 444, the gentleman to my left informed me after the hand that he had 84 and almost called by 2nd position raise because things like that happen. He followed this by saying he would have all my chips. I assured him he would definitely not.

After losing JJ all in pre to 88 I was down to 15k or so and moved tables. This second table was a lot more active, I had a young internet cash game pro sat three to my left, so I was aware I had to be a little careful as I had a stack where I didn’t really want to be raise/folding much. I got a big break when there were 5 limpers to me in the bb, I had 16k, which was 20bbs at the time, but there was almost 6k in the middle. I looked down at T7 and tried to convince myself to pull the trigger and move in, but I couldn’t and checked.

Flop T 7 4 – that works!

I check/called the button big stack, turn 6, check call all in and he showed QJ hearts for the flopped flush draw, the river bricked and I had about 35k.

The last hour was a terrible one for me, I doubled two short stacks AQ < AK then K9s < 33. Then in the final hand of the day I raise 99, got called and stupidly c-bet the A hi board to be raised – the villain in question turned over AQ, and was not the type to bet the flop without an ace. I counted up my chips and stomped off in disgust at my 12k stack, it was beer o’clock again.

We managed an earlier night this time, having spent the evening in a pretty cool bar near the casino talking about poker, golf, football and life, and a couple of other things… In bed for 3am, plenty of time for sleep considering the rather late starting time of 2.15pm for day 2. I should point out at this time that thehills had already busted squeezing QT into AK midway through the first day.

I had 12bbs to start the day, and was definitely of the “go big or go home” mindset. First hand it was folded to me in the sb, I looked down at 76o and jammed. BB was one of these 40 something year old live players you find everywhere, who takes 10 seconds to make every decision, no matter how trivial it is, and is annoyed whenever he gets dealt shitty cards. After the standard 10 seconds he mucked 62o face up asking me if I was going to be doing that all day. “What else am I supposed to do with 10 big blinds and Ace Jack?”.

After shoving a few times I had about 15k and decided to throw in a standard raise with TT utg. BB called. Flop A 7 7 he checks, I check. Turn 2, he bets half pot, I call. River 7 he checks I decide against a ridiculously thin value bet and check, he tables Q6o.

I then raise/folded my way back to 15k before calling a 14k shove with Aqs in the bb, he had A6 and I held. At this point I decided it was time to kick it up a gear and opened the c/o with 56o. The sb who was an American guy in his mid twenties made the call. I felt he would 3 bet me with large aces and mid-big pairs, I felt his range consisted mostly of broadway cards, suited connectors and small pairs.

Flop A 5 2 with two diamonds.

He checked I bet he called. Turn 4s putting two spades on the board. He checked, I checked. River Qc and he fired 10k into the 10k pot. I’m so bad. So obvious he had me beat, but I tried to convince myself that he had nuts or air and was betting the missed flush draw. Then the thought of “I’m going big or going home right?” popped into my head and before I knew it my chips were in the middle and he had flipped A3 for the straight.

Seriously terrible call, soooo bad.

5 minutes later I picked up QQ utg, thank god I was being hit by the deck the way I was playing. I raised 2.5x and a new guy in the bb with loads of chips called.

Flop K J 2

He checked, I checked.

Turn J

He checked, I checked.

River J

He looks at the pot, then bets it – 7.5k.

My hand is so under-repped at this point that I can simply not fold. I didn’t bet the flop a) for pot control with the King out there and b) because I felt he likely had nothing considering the range of hands I figured he was calling with preflop. The turn meant I was now behind any jack too, and I couldn’t see what he could call a bet with, so again I checked trying to get value from him bluffing the river. The river was a great card for me as it was now very unlikely that he had a jack. I called he said “good call” and mucked his cards. I foolishly turned over my Queens, I didn’t need to as his cards were mucked. He said “nice hand, 99”…. I couldn’t help myself:

“99? Are you kidding? If you’re going to make up a hand you had at least make it believable!”
“No I had 99.”
“Then why did you insta-muck when I called?”
(Table starts laughing and guy mumbles something).

There were now 24 players left and our table broke meaning there were 3 tables of 8. 12 were to be paid and I had a 26k stack with the average a little under 50k. As luck would have it, my friend Mike had just arrived, and my new seat was right by the rail where he could stand and watch. “Don’t let me put you off Puggy” he joked.

I got dealt 99 in mid position my very first hand with the blinds now at 600/1200 with a 200 ante.

I bumped it to 3k, the c/o called, the button called and the bb – the American from the other table goes “Oh I have to call now!”.

Flop: 2 4 7 with two diamonds (re-reading this it seems like every hand I played two diamonds flopped!).

There was 14k in the middle, I had 23k back. BB checks, I bet 7k, c/o folds, button folds. BB starts thinking and counting chips. There is no way in hell I’m folding to a shove here, I have way too much invested and I know I’m crushing his range, which will have top pair in it and the flush draw. In fact the only hand that u felt was in his range after his speechplay preflop that had me beat was 74, and even then I think it would have had to be suited for him to cal preflop.

He shoves, I snap call.

He goes “set?” (No sir, I do not have to have a set to call that bet

“Oh I thought you had to have a set how quickly you called” he says as he shows T6dd for the flush draw.

Unfortunately he had an overcard with his flush draw, and when the Tc fell on the turn I felt more violated than if it had been a diamond. There was to be no 9 on the river, and that was it for me. I hold and I have 57k – with the bubble approaching. Now that would have been fun. As it happened the guy who knocked me out went on to win the tourny, which didn’t surprise me – he was definitely one of the better players.

There was time to grab a quick drink with Mike, chat with a local guy called Bob who follows my blog (hi Bob) as we waited for Hills to finish his cash game then we hit the road.

I enjoyed the weekend despite not cashing, and missing out on value online. The debate of “is live poker worth it” resurfaced. If you are looking purely at figures, then obviously it can’t be. I could have played in $7k worth of tournaments while I was playing in a 500 USD equivalent live tourny. But at the end of the day it’s not all about the money, it’s about the experiences too. As a result we’ve decided that we’re going to make the flight to Christchurch next week for the New Zealand Championship. It’s a 3k NZ buy in, which roughly equals $1.7k US. It would be a shame if New Zealand’s top two ranked online tournament players weren’t there wouldn’t it?