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The next day was the 6-handed event which I was very excited about. 6-handed is the most enjoyable poker to play as I can open up my game. Most people think I’m a nit, which you really have to be on a ten-handed table sometimes, so it’s great to bring that image to a 6-handed table where I can LAG it up. I had a perfect table draw full of local regs and old school nits. I pounded on these guys relentlessly but just couldn’t win the big pots. I raised and re-raised Tim English all day and he just had no response. Unfortunately I was priced in to call a shove from short-stacked David Gorr when I had QJs and he flipped AQ so I doubled him up. I misplayed a hand pretty badly against him where I 3-bet with pocket kings on an 8-high flop against David, when I should’ve just called the flop and let him hang himself on the turn. He got away from his hand, so I was annoyed with myself there.

A little later Jacob Chen and Andrew Demetriou got moved to the table so things got a little tougher. I bluffed away a good portion of my chips against Andrew, and I’m determined to find out what he had when I see him next. I raised the button with K7o and Andrew called in the big blind and then donked a bet at a 543 flop. I decided to test his donk bet with a raise but he quickly called. The turn was a repeat 5 and he donked out big once again. If I was to raise again I’d have to commit most of my stack, so I had to give it up. If he had a 5 then it was pretty sick, but maybe he already had a set.

I got myself up to over 25k with 50 players left but was then out in two hands. Joe Cabret limped the button for 600 and Jacob made it 2,300 from the SB. Jacob was the most aggressive player at the table, and had re-raised my UTG raise (when I had 52o, so gross) out of the SB with AJ earlier, so when I looked down at AQs in the BB, I felt that I had the best hand. Jacob could very easily be punishing the limp of Cabret. Jacob had 14,000 behind, so I decided to raise enough to ensure I was committed to calling if he shoved. I made it 6,300, he shoved, I called, he had AA, and I was down to 10k. In hindsight I guess I could’ve made it like 5k-ish which shows as much strength but then I can fold to his shove. The other option is to just flat call, but an ace arrived on the flop so I would’ve stacked off there also.

Next hand I picked up T8s in the SB and complete with 4 limpers. Flop was T72 and I check-call the bet from Joe Cabret. The turn was a 9, giving me top pair with an open-ender so I decide to try and take down the pot by moving all in for my last 7k or so. He insta-called with just about the worst hand I could see – T9. The river bricked a king and I was out. Just like that.

I was extremely disappointed with this result, as I felt in control of the table for 6 hours and had just got my stack to its highest point, only to be eliminated two hands later. If I can continue to chip up and aggressively pound opponents and pick spots as well as this tournament then I’ll be in good shape for the big clashes in future tournaments. More six-handed please!

Someone asked me the other day which tournament I get most excited about. To be honest, once you’ve worked or played at enough events, they all become pretty similar. That may sound a little unappreciative, but the fact of the matter is that most casinos in the world look the same on the inside.

However I was able to come up with an answer to the question posed at me.  The event I actually get most excited about is the State of Origin event at the Vic Champs. This may sound like a strange choice, but this is a unique event which I am very passionate about. I’m proud to be representing my state, I’m honoured to get the opportunity to play against the best in the country, and I love the friendly rivalries that have formed in the event’s short history.

After numerous emails with team captain George Mamacas, we were both somewhat concerned about getting together a strong team. Finding eight solid Tasmanian poker players is a harder task than it may sound. Fortunately I came in contact with a couple of guys online and George knew a couple of other locals, and we were very content with the team we were able to put on the park. We played a home game together as a little training session and I knew we were in good shape after a hand that went down within the first 10 minutes. I opened from UTG, there was a 3-bet, then a 4-bet. I folded my A9, the 3-bettor folded (what he said was weaker than A9) and the 4-bettor showed QJo. Nice!

I was very happy with my table draw as there were plenty of sharks to avoid in this field. I drew Tino Lechich and Eric Assadourian and was happy that they were both two to my right. I’ve seen Tino play a lot and expected him to be very aggressive, while I always seem to draw Eric in any major tournament I play, and while he talks big, he plays very snug. Two to my left was James Honeybone who I knew as being a solid player, but I’d only played with him once online. From the early going he appeared to be happy to sit tight which was good. It quickly emerged that the two players to watch out for were Stevan Lackovic from WA on my direct left and Dominic Olm-Milligan from QLD who was three to my left. These two guys were young and aggressive and I quickly thought they were the threats on the table. The value was definitely NT/ACT and SA. The SA guy was on my direct right, and quickly proved to the room why SA are A) the worst players and B) the worst blokes of any team in the event.

In the first level I picked up pocket aces under the gun and made a standard raise 3x raise. Both NT/ACT and SA called. The flop was JT5 rainbow and I fired a c-bet. NT/ACT called in position before SA put in a decent check-raise. At this stage I didn’t know much about SA but check-raising over two players felt very strong. I was worried about JT or a set as there weren’t too many other draws other than KQ that would c/r, and I had two of the aces that KQ would need. I could reraise here, and in hindsight if I realised he was such value or we’d started with shorter stacks I would have, but since we had 20k start banks and we were on the first level, I didn’t particularly want to stack off here, so I flat-called. NT/ACT called behind. The turn was another brick, like a deuce, and SA fired out a bet of 1,500. Not a huge bet, but it felt strong into two opponents when out of position. I wasn’t about to fold yet, so I called and again NT/ACT called behind. The river was a 9 and if SA would’ve fired a standard bet of 3-4k or so here then I would’ve folded my aces, but SA fired a weak 1,000-chip bet. I’m not folding for 1k so I call, and NT/ACT raised his eyebrows and gave up his hand. SA genius tabled J-9 for rivered two pair and started celebrating with his idiot SA buddies like he’d just discovered the cure for cancer. WP sir.

A few minutes later I tangled with Stevan Lackovic in a blind battle. I limped with A2 and he raised in the big blind. Usually I avoid calling OOP in marginal spots like this, but it was early and we were deep, so I called and flopped big on the A26 flop. I checked, planning to check-raise but he checked behind. I didn’t know what to make of that, but sensed it was strong rather than weak. The turn was a ten and I again planned to check-raise but he fired a big pot-sized bet. I decided against letting the pot get out of control and just called, figuring I’m either way in front or way behind. The river was a brick and I check-called his half pot bet. He showed AT and raked in the pot. Again if I was shorter I would’ve probably lost my stack, but since we were deep I was able to lose minimum. I probably didn’t play any street of this particularly well, but I guess I should give myself some credit for making a good read.

Soon after we tangled in another blind battle where I raised K4o and then checked a 679 flop. A king fell on the turn and I fired turn and river for value and he called and turned over KQ. Sigh.

It just seemed like nothing was going right. I was down to about 12,000 and needed to pull something to recover some chips, when a really interesting hand went down. I believe the blinds were 100/200 when James Honeybone raised in early position to 600. Eric Assadourian called on the button and I had 5c4c which is a nice hand to call in a multi-way pot in the big blind. The flop was 923 rainbow which again looked like an innocent flop. I checked, Honeybone fired 1,500 and Assadourian called. I had an open-ender and plenty of options as to how to play this hand. I put Eric on a middle pair like sevens or eights, while Honeybone could’ve had a similar hand or maybe he was c-betting with overcards on a dry flop. The flop was so dry without any real draws, so I felt like I could take down this pot with a raise as I’m really only representing a set since my image is tight, and if called I’ve always got eight clean outs unless they have aces. So I decided to raise. With about 11k or so behind, I could raise a standard amount to 5-6k, but since that committed over half my stack and since there was already around 5k of valuable chips in the pot, I decided that a shove was my best play to take it down there and then. James cringed, tanked and folded what he later said was pocket sevens, and then Eric went into the tank. This really had me worried. If Eric is tanking then he must have a real hand. Suddenly the sevens I put him on started to feel more like tens or jacks. I really felt like he was going to call, but after a good few minutes he folded and I scooped a nice pot with my draw. Eric then started talking about how he was laying a trap for James, and later told me that he’d folded pocket kings. I couldn’t believe that I’d forced him to fold kings. In his spot I don’t mind the flat on the button, but since he under-represented his hand so much, he probably has to make a crying call here. I dunno, it’s a tough spot he put himself in.

Unfortunately that hand was about my highlight of the evening. I couldn’t find too many good spots, and after a few raise/c-bet/folds I was back down to 10,000. I doubled up with KQs versus Tino’s pocket sixes, but after that the blinds snuck up and I found myself back down to 10BB’s. I stole the blinds once, but when I tried again with 98ss I was called by Stevan’s AK and it was all over. I was out in 5^th on my table.

The other boys also didn’t have much luck, and although only one guy failed to score points for his 7^th place, most of the others finished either 5^th or 6^th for minimum points. Andrew Scott was going pretty well before busting out in 4^th, so our lone hope was captain George who played really well to win his heat and book us a spot in the final. By that stage the Kiwis had dominated the events to win three of their heats to have a virtual lock on the trophy and team prize. George battled valiantly in the final to finish 4^th, as the Kiwis teamed up to finish 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd.

Once again this was a great event to be a part of, and while I landed another sick pot against Eric for the 2^nd year in a row, I was disappointed not to finish stronger and cash. All the boys are looking forward to next year where we will definitely be more than competitive once again.

My time has been soooooo insanely busy at the WSOP that I just haven’t had time to update this blog recently. I then had the following conversattion with one of my poker buddies and fellow PokerNews bloggers, Tim “The Nizzles” Duckworth…

Him: ”Can you please update your blog . . . it’s been nearly a month”
Me: “You really think I have time?”
Him: “Well, either way, I have nothing to read”
Me: “Why don’t you write something for me then”
Him: “Ahhh . . . ok”

So here it is…straight from the duck’s mouth….I present the nizzles…

So here I am at 2am in the morning after being asked to be a guest writer on Tassie Devil Poker and make the first (and very belated) entry since the World Series of Poker kicked off and the Devil himself captured second at the ANZPT.net Melbourne Main Event.

After arriving in Las Vegas just under three weeks ago we both expected to be hitting the felt a bit while tackling the computer from the media row . . . however that hasn’t been the case.

I’ve only played a handful of sessions, while I don’t think TassieDevil has even touched a card or handled a chip . . . and when you’re six figures richer it probably pays to put some time to run it up one time!

The main reason why, is that the scheduling hasn’t been on the healthy side for him. Mixed events that stretch to the 3am cut off on day two are the norm, with day three starts starting earlier then expected. Basically his schedule seems to be Work – Sleep – Work – Sleep – Work – Sleep and maybe if he’s lucky he gets a chance to put his feet up to do more work for other projects such as PokerNetwork.

Let’s not to mention the problem we experienced over the first two weeks with commuting to the Rio everyday for work. With people grouped together in housing, you would think it would be wise to schedule them on similar events so that car-pooling was easier – however this was not the case until recently.

On most occasions catching a cab was a necessity, and the cost of these start to build up once you factor in the tip. $30 later you’re at work but then you have the issue of the return leg. To hear more about the dilemmas experienced you really need to hear the Devil’s side of things . . . very amusing . . . well, that’s if you like hearing stories of difficulties, tilt-inducing acts and utter grumpiness!

The downs are always paralleled with the ups – and at this World Series there have been plenty!

Phil Ivey capturing two bracelets along with Australian Jeff Lisandro capturing two Seven Card Stud bracelets to go along with his one in 2007. Two females making a No Limit Holdem final table with one going on to finish third and of course one of the most anticipated prop bets of all time with Jeff Lisandro and Barry Greenstein battling Daniel Negreanu and Erick Lindgren for most Player of the Year points for who knows how many millions!

Phil Hellmuth explosions have become standard, hearing the Star Spangled Banner played nearly everyday to celebrate a native capturing a bracelet and seeing the thousands of American’s stand up, hand on heart like they were out in the middle of Fenway Park!

Finally the trick to looking like a balla . . . take a wad of $1 bills, place a $100 bill on the outside and wrap it tightly with a Las Vegas money clip of a rubber band. Deep down you know it’s basically a stripper-roll, but to the non-observant folk you might just appear to be the next online millionaire whiz kid or the cash game grinder that plays 24/7 or just the next random to walk away with a bracelet, hundreds of thousands of dollars and a fading memory in the many chapters of the WSOP history books.

Many thanks to everyone for your support over the last few days as a dream all but came true for me at the ANZPT in Melbourne.  I haven’t updated the blog for a few weeks as I’ve been busy preparing to head to Melbourne for the Melbourne Championships followed by a trip to Vegas for the WSOP.  However it feels somewhat appropriate that my last post was about how excited I was to qualify for the ANZPT.  Fast forward a month and I’m writing about how I almost won one of the biggest events on the Australian poker calendar.

I was excited, calm and quietly confident when I said down at my opening table.  The only player of note was Celina Lin and I’d seen her play many times, so I was happy with my draw.  Looking over my sholder at the tabe of death next to me that featured 6 or 7 insanely good players, I was very relieved.  Interestingly that table also featured eventual winner Chris Levick as we started the tournament back to back, and would end up finishing it face to face.

Early on I lost my first pot with AQ vs Q6, but then got headed in the right direction with one of my only “moves” of the whole tournament.  I was becoming frustrated with the raising of one young player and decided to put up a flat him in position with Js6s.  I don’t remember the flop but I had no pair, no draw and had decided I was going to flat the flop and try and take it away on the turn.  I picked up a flush draw on the turn, then made my flush on the river and got paid off by the kid as his eyes bulged from his head when he saw my cards.

After that I had a big decision with AK on a king-high flop.  I’d been check-raised and made a pretty bad shove in hindsight, but he also had AK and we chopped.  I then got my tournament moving into 5th gear when I picked up 77 under the gun.  I raised and the guy to my left flat called me.  We saw a flop of 364 which I liked and fired a c-bet.  He min-raised me so I called to see what developed on the turn.  I spiked a 5 for my straight and check-raised him.  He lost the plot and shoved and I called.  He had 88 and didn’t even see the straight until the pot was pushed in my direction.  I was up to over 50,000 and in strong shape.

Our table broke and I got moved to a slightly tougher table and just held my own for a little while.  Just before dinner, I went on a nice little heater which continued all night until the chips were bagged.  I had KK in back to back hands and got paid off by AK, I flatted a raise with Qh5h and flopped a flush, I had KK vs QQ hold up, I made a full house in the only hand I played against tough pro Tino Lechich and I twice hit sets against two pair and got the chips in with my opponent drawing dead.  To summarize, I hardly remember losing a pot and ran like God to end the day with a monsterous 214,000 chips.  Somehow another dude came from the clouds to pip me as Day 1 chip leader, but I was content in 2nd palce, way ahead of the field.

Although I entered Day 2 in dominant shape I was quickly back to the pack when I lost KK vs AK all in preflop within the first orbit of play.  It was a huge pot, that would’ve put me over 300,000 chips (the average chips needed to make the money was 240,000).  So I was pretty unhappy to be back with the pack, however I stayed tough and shook it off.  I was pretty card dead but maintained my stack until I picked up QQ and busted a short stack with 99 to get myself headed back in the right direction.

Our table then broke and I got moved to a terribly soft table.  Considering we were approaching the money it was absolutely perfect.  I was sitting on the direct left of the worst player in the field and I had none of the dangerous pros on my table.  I chipped up a little and then picked up AA and KK in consecutive hands.  Both times I got paid off and again I was with the chip leaders.

Fortunately the bubble burst with two eliminations in the one hand to avoid any drawn out pain and I was thrilled to be $5k richer.  Anything from this point was a bonus.  We redrew for the final two tables and I got moved to the feature table for the first time all tournament.  It was here I lost two consecutive pots for the first time all tournament.  I raised UTG with TT and gave it up after my c-bet was raised on a A54 but said worst player in the field.  She hadn’t raised in five hours and I insta-mucked.  I got myself back on track with a little bit of luck a few moments later.  I raised on a steal with JT and c-bet a 992 flop.  The big blind called and I was left with only 100k behind.  Fortunately I spiked a jack on the turn to pair up.  I bet again and the BB laid down what he said was AK (wp).

I then got moved to the other table, much to my disappointment as it was distinctly tougher with Chris Levick, Greg Shillig, Brent Thomas, Kristian Lunardi and Sam Khouiss to contend with.  I struggled against these guys but stole enough blinds and antes with some small ball play to avoid being blinded down too rapidly.  I then picked up KK and Brent paid me off with JJ and I was again confortable.

The play slowed considerably as we eeked towards a final table.  It was here that Chris started to accumulate chips and surge to the chip lead when he busted Brent.  They lost another two on the feature table and we’d snuck onto the final table in 7th place.

Eventhough I was one of the short stacks I still had plenty of breathing room and never felt threatened by the blinds.  I was guaranteed 10k and if I could squeak out another place or two I’d be thrilled.

The next day I was a little toey as I arrived early and had to wait for ages for pre-game interviews and bits and pieces.  I wasn’t nervous all tournament, but I’m not a big fan of waiting, so this was about the most nervous time of the whole tournament.  Once we sat down and the cards were in the air I was settled.  We lost the second Tasmanian on the second hand of the day and I was pumped to jump up $6k in prize money.

I believe my next significant hand was AQ in the big blind.  Ben Savage limped and Kristian Lunardi raised from the SB.  It didn’t feel particularly strong and I thought he was punishing the limper and trying control of the pot.  Kristian seemed like a very smart, thinking player capable of moves, so I felt my AQ was in front and re-raised from the BB.  They both insta-folded and I took down a nice little pot.  Kristian later said he had AK which kind of shocked me, but I guess my image allowed me to get away with a few things.

Soon after I picked up KK and made a standard raise.  Ben Savage then three-bet me to 80,000 or so from the big blind and I decided to four-bet another 95,000 or so rather than see an ugly flop.  My approach all tournaments was to play fast with the goods and try and avoid getting myself into tricky spots or decisions post-flop.  He ended up shoving with TT and I snap-called.  The board bricked and I doubled to get myself back into contention.

I got away with a couple of other little moves.  After seeing Kristian’s reluctance to play pots with me, I had decided to raise his big blind (from under the gun) next orbit with any two cards.  I looked down at 62o and raised it up.  Jie Gao, who was already frustrated and spewing chips, was the lone caller.  The flop was AA5 and I checked to represent a big ace.  He checked behind and I took it down with a delayed c-bet on the turn.  A few hands later I raised AK and called Jie down with ace-high when he tried to bluff the river.

They started to drop away and at dinner I was maybe 3rd in chips with 6 left and guaranteed $27k.  I couldn’t believe it!  I then got a nice surprise at the dinner break as my fiance had flown over to Melbourne to rail me home to victory!

After the dinner break, the speed of play picked up as Jie had a brain explosion.  I continued to chip up against some of the other players while staying out of the way of chip leader Chris Levick.  He was picking up a heap of cards and doing all the hard work to bust the table as I crept up the prize money table.  We got to three handed and I picked up a set and it was the only hand I moved all in with, when I check-raised Chris, but he folded.  Chris busted Greg in 3rd which gave me a 40k payjump to a massive 100k.

We took a break and my head was spinning.  Is this really happening??  I couldn’t think straight and it didn’t feel real.  I chatted to Kirsty and told her I was going to go for broke - take a gamble or two to give myself a chance to overcome the 3.5 to 1 chip deficit I was facing.  I didn’t want to get blinded out of this without a fight.

I got back to the table and focussed more than I can describe in words.  The crowd on the rail were non-existant in my mind.  I couldn’t see anything else other than Chris and the trophy.  It was a weird zone to be in, but a thoroughly enjoyable one of intense, unbreakable focus.

I wanted to continue by small ball approach but it didn’t work early.  I couldn’t find any cards, or hit any boards, and Chris was relentless.  I suspect he hit more boards than I didn’t and he worked me down to about 10 BB’s.  Time to change it up as it just wasn’t working.  I re-raised all in twice, once with queen-high and once with jack-high, with Chris folding and flashing an ace both times - again my image was working for me.  I then finally found an ace with a four kicker and shoved but Chris woke up with ace-jack.  I spiked a four on the flop and doubled up to survive.

Again I was going to continue the pressure and play bigger pots.  I decided if Chris raised I was shoving a lot of hands.  9c7c seemed perfect but incredibly Chris found another monster wth AQ.  I spiked a 7 on the flop and rivered a flush and suddenly I was back in it with about 1.5 million to Chris’ 2.8 million. 

Chris was visibly upset and gave me a bit of a spray, telling that was “kindergarden stuff”.  I told him to settle down before I would play the next hand.  He gave me a nod and I continued the pressure.  Now that we were deep, and I wasn’t risking so much of my chips each hand, it allowed me more room to be creative.  I no longer needed to hit cards or the board (both of which were still eluding me in the HU battle).  If he limped the button, I raised any two cards.  He donked out at a queen-high flop and I re-popped him with 27 for air.  He continued to respect my moves, but I decided to flash the bluff to him - not something I’d normally do, but I wanted him to know it was game on and really rattle him.  Within about five minutes of this bluff he was asking the tournament director for a break.  I said no, we’d wait the 20 mins until the scheduled break.

We were nearly back to even in chips as I had all the momentum.  I think picked up the biggest hand I’d had in HU play - ace-nine.  Chris raised and I 3-bet him.  He shoved and I deliberated.  It was an easy fold really, but if there was a chance we were flipping I wanted to take it.  I folded and he later said he had pocket queens.

A hand or two later the roles were reversed.  He raised again and I 3-bet him with pocket queens.  He shoved with AhJh and I snap-called.  He had me covered but not by much - this was the tournament on the line and I was a 70% favourite.  I stood and leant on the chair in shock that I was so close to the trophy.  Maybe my “I can’t watch” mentality didn’t help as the ace spiked on the flop and it was all over.

So close to a spot in poker history, two trophies and a life-changing payday.  As it was, I’m thrilled to have done so well and finished so deep.  It would’ve been great to win, but I have no regrets - I gave myself every opportunity to win.  Well done to Chris - he thoroughly deserved to win and dominated the final table.

Hopefully this opens up a few opportunities to play some more tournaments on the tour and enjoy further success with a new found confidence.  Thanks to everyone for your support and many thanks to Tim, Oatsy, Mat, Paul, James, Kav and Justin for covering for me behind the desk for three days.

May this be the start of much more to come…!

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.