Genting Las Vegas Challenge Play-offs & APAT Cardiff

The Genting Vegas Challenge league was completed as of Sunday 27th May, with me finishing in 5th after not playing any of the last five tournaments. Weirdly, some players around me who were guaranteed top 11 places with no chance of the outright win kept playing. Hardly +EV when there are no meaningful prizes to play for - hopefully such bizarre decision-making would manifest itself in poor satellite play. My recent poker track record has hardly been stellar, and with three play-offs available paying five packages (2 packages out of 10 players, 2 out of 37 and 1 out of 28) it would still be an uphill battle to bink a $7,500 prize.

Monday saw me tangle with the other players from 2nd-11th in the table, starting with 5,000 chips on a 10 minute iPoker structure. Got dealt a dreadful seat, to my left was a station, to his left was the most aggressive 3-bettor. Four nits to my right, with the crazy 49/40 player diametrically opposite where I couldn't really get at him. Needed to pick up the odd hand here and there given my reputation, so of course I spent the tournament largely card dead. So in essence I couldn't raise too light, and my 3-betting opportunities weren't looking too hot either.

I finished the first hour 8th of 10 holding 7% of the chips in play, hitting the chiplead briefly shortly after when I check-shoved the nut flush draw in a perfect spot. Doubt he did, but given the situation I think UTG could even pass AK or AA here.

Genting TVC Championship Play-off 60/120

Button (4895)
SB (5410.50)
BB Hero (4235)
UTG (5173)
UTG+1 (3820)
MP (3207)
MP (6260)
MP (6664.50)
CO-1 (4620)
CO (5715)

Preflop: Hero is in the BB with A J
UTG raises to 240, 5 folds, CO calls 240, Button calls 240, SB calls 180, Hero calls 120.

Flop (1200) 9 8 K
SB checks, Hero checks, UTG bets 900, 1 fold, Button calls 900, 1 fold, Hero raises to 3995, 2 folds

Hero wins 6995 with High card: Ace

By the end of the second hour I was back down to 5.7k, 5th of the remaining 5 players. Had 3-jammed a couple of times and shoved AK once, but with three players over 10k, my VPIP dipping to 7%, and me holding just 11% of the chips it was beginning to look desperate.

I needn't have worried.

In the league games I took the approach of open-shoving 10-15BBs, maybe slightly more. It hadn't really served me well, so going into the third hour I decided I was going to raise-call from smaller stacks than I usually would as my opponents weren't really adjusting correctly. It clearly flummoxed this guy:

Genting TVC Championship Play-off 200/400/50

Button (7151)
SB (12835)
BB (11550)
UTG (13779)
MP Hero (4885)

Preflop: Hero is in MP with A J
1 fold, Hero raises to 800, 1 fold, SB calls 600, 1 fold.

Flop (2250) K 6 2
SB checks, Hero bets 1200, SB calls 1200.

Turn (4650) K 6 2 5
SB checks, Hero checks.

River (4650) K 6 2 5 9
SB bets 3200, Hero fecking snap calls 2835 (all-in)

SB shows J  J , Hero shows A  J 

Hero wins 10320 with Flush: Ace high

This pot put me right back in the hunt, and from there on in I was the only player of the final 5 not to make any massive mistakes. The only time I was ever at risk was 4 handed, with blinds 250/500/50 UTG (4k) passed, the button (21k) min-raised - again, the SB (15k) flat called, and I moved in for 10.5k with TT from the BB. The button made a dreadful call with AJ and I held to take 40% of the chips in play. From there I was able to comfortably maintain my stack as the other chipleader was insistent on tangling with everyone (including me). I barely played another hand, took the blinds a couple of times but he knocked out the remaining short stacks in quick order. His strategy was somewhat questionable, but I'm not exactly complaining - my path after the double up was effectively risk free as a result.

So after investing over $1k in a league with no meaningful payouts aside from the packages, I've come up trumps and am now $7.5k richer. Las Vegas was already planned and booked, but this rolls me to play a variety of tournaments in the $100-600 bracket plus WSOP event #33 $1k NLHE.

2 Las Vegas leagues, 2 packages. Looking forward to next spring!

Finally, the APAT Welsh Amateur Championship was held in Cardiff over the weekend. Nothing to report from the £75 main event for either myself, Tony or Perry. Aside from my 3bet shove on the turn with an open-ender into the nuts. Oops. At least we were out early enough to watch the football and boxing - with Perry being out early enough to fit a film in too. You suck.

We all flicked in the £25 PLO side event on the Sunday. Perry took a nasty beat early, with Tony hanging on before an attempted steal gone wrong around the mid stages. I on the other hand had AAxx hold up 2 out of 3, and with a passive table I was able to steadily accumulate to reach the final table with an average stack. It was an absolute grind with no cards for a while (would've smashed up a Badugi tournament), but I was able to hang on long enough to pick up a couple of double ups. Once I finally reached a decent stack the playable hands kept coming, and although an erratic Italian Gianluca caused me a few problems heads up I fell on the right side of a couple of coolers and got the job done for £295. Not much, but prior to the Genting bink last night it was the biggest score of the year so far!

Feel like I've finally got what I've deserved - haven't had that feeling for a while. Really believe that I've turned a corner and I can now go to Las Vegas with optimism. How much is down to a couple of slight strategy adjustments, and how much to an improved lifestyle - who knows? However it's given me added motivation to cope with the Gironda protocols in the days and weeks to come!