The big tourney…

Today is the big tourney… The winner goes through to play in the Aussie Millions, a live tourney in Melbourne, Australia. To qualify, one had to get through (and win) a rebuy satellite. The rebuys can be very loose, considering people are not “really dead” if they lose their hand on a speculative all-in.

Surprisingly to me, I did not rebuy in this tourney once.  In the interest of fairness, I have never won a rebuy where I have rebought. In this satellite, I entered the finals table fifth in chip total, which was about half the stack of the leader. One of the players, who I knew to be rather loose with his play, raised preflop. His hand range, by my calculation, was anything from 10-8s on up. I felt comfortable putting him all-in with twos in the hole. He flipped over Jack-Seven suited, which was a bit worse a hand than his usual, but he was short stacked. I hit trips on the turn card, and knocked him from the table.

Two hands later, I had A-A, which I decided to uncharacteristically slow play. One person, the chip leader, raised preflop, which I gladly smooth called. Another individual between his action and mine also called. The flop gave me trips, which I gladly checked. However, there were also two suited cards on the board, which concerned me a little. The leader bet out, 1/2 pot, other guy raised putting himself all-in; I called as did the leader. Turn card paired the board, giving me a boat. I check leader checks. River card flushes the board. I check to the leader, who bets big, I reraise to put myself all-in, he calls. I turn over pocket aces, and get mucks from the two. This win gives me the chip lead and puts the leader in a dire situation.

Now I have the chip lead, which is more than half the chips on the board. I let everyone else destroy one another for a bit, and enter pots as appropriate. A player emerges from that mess with about 25% of the chips to my 75%. Heads up play goes three hands. I folded to him, he folded to me. On the final hand, I raise, he reraises to put himself allin, I call, holding KJs to his A9s, which makes me a slight underdog. Fortunately for me, I flop a jack, which also appears on the river adding insult to injury and sweetness to victory.

So, in summary, I emerge the winner of the satellite, and move on to the main event this weekend, which features an all expense paid trip to the Aussie Millions tourney. Win or lose, I will keep you posted…