Have you still got a few tricks up your sleeves…?

Hello my friends,  

For those who remembered, last year at about the same time of the season started the APPT at the sky city Tower in Auckland. I managed to qualify via a 90$ satellite all the way through the main event only to finish 30^th outplaying more than 300 players and was rewarded a copious amount of 5750 $NZ. I thought I could reiterate that performance this year, so I did take off few days from my hard work at the Turkish palace in Petone to get to THE BIG CITY in New Zealand.

Well well mes amis after a couple of unfortunate fortune at the Casino I was well determined to turn things around. Here is a little glimpse of my performance. For those who don’t give a sh*t about Poker, well then you might find it boring. For those who don’t give a sh*t about poka and who don’t read English well, then you might as well exit this page and return to your usual occupation(K0 style).

So where was I…? Hmm yes poker, so In order to qualify for the main event if like me you don’t have enough savings on your bank account to afford buying in for 3250$ you need to go through a first satellite which costs 90$, then 1 in 5 players  qualify for another 360$ satellite which awards Only the top 10%. Sounds complicated? It is indeed.

First day I managed to finish in top 20% in  the 90$ one but failed in the360$ just 20 places away from getting a seat. doh!  I got involved in a tricky spot with poket Jacks which are always hard to play if there is action before it’s you turn to act especially from tight players. You’re are usually way behind. But I always try to make my decision based on different factors, math and probability being the most important. Here is the link of the hand for those who are interested: twoplustwo.com/high-stakes-mtt/sat-appt-auckland-tough-spot-jj/. In order to win those satellites you don’t really need to put an impressive display of your table management skills but just need to wait for others to get busted before you do. As a matter of fact when there is only one or two players to get knocked out before the bubble, folding aces preflop for example is often the best decision! It is not quite poker anymore.

Anyway day 2 I got eliminated only 2 places away from a seat (21 seats were awarded and I finished 23^rd). Day 3, the same bummer.

Day 4 I decided to register for the deep stack tournament with a buy in of 330$. Deep stack just means that they give you more chips compared to the BB. For example, each player started with 15,000 in chips with blinds starting 25/50, good structure to develop your game and outplay your opponents.

Had a tough first table as most of the players were young guns qualified on Pokerstars. I managed to survive though adopting a pretty tight style. I played pretty good poker sticking to my first impression, call it instinct or whatever but it usually works well. There was then 15 players left from the initial 111 players. First place was awarded a copious 12,000$, I was among the chip leader as I build up my stack taking big risks and avoid big stack confrontation. But at this level one mistake can be very costly. I raised with K6s in late position in order to steal the blinds as the table was very tight and passive. A tight old guy called me from the SB , flop came TT6, he checked I shoved All in so that is not seing a free card on the Turn if he has 2 figures or a big ace, he bravely called showing his pocket 88. I was down to below average and already in critical position. Next hand I got 10-10, a tight guy on the UTG raised and I shoved for the rest of my chips. Guy showed me Aces and that was it  I was roasted like a sausage.

It was a costly trip to Auckland but a lot of fun and learned more things about strategy and patience. Will try to do it again in …Australia this time !! Chur bro. Ta.

C.U