Second tourney, second cash

Just on my way back from the Vietnam APT, I think you might be here because of my click bait folding Kings preflop. So let's not waste time and jump into it.

We are about 50 spots away from the money on day 3, with 664 runners in the whole tournament. I have not had one big pair in 3 days. Finally I look down on KK under the gun. Blinds were 3000/6000/200. Standard open was 15000 so I did that (125k effective). UTG +2 had 220k and asked me for a count.

If anything, the food in Ho Chi Minh is so good

A bit of background about this guy. He seemed to be a relatively new player. Knew his poker terms, Vietnamese local (pretty gambl-y overall), young hot headed guy, would tank fold KQo to a firm 3 bet preflop. Anyway after asking for a count he announced all in almost immediately. Everyone folded until BB who tanked for a while and folded. This was the moment I was waiting for, to double up with a premium hand and sail comfortably into the money. But I sense super strength. Sure he might do that with AK, KK, QQ, but based on his previous play, and physical tells I can sense that he is super strong.

To cut the story short, I folded face up. He then showed me an ace. He didn't tell me what other card he had, and others commented he might have AK AQ to tilt me. But I was happy with my fold. If he had AK or AQ, why wouldn't he show me the other card? That would put me on super tilt and make him look so good, making Kings fold. I concluded that he had Aces. What do you think? Later when we were ITM, everyone was super happy and celebrating, I asked him and he said he had aces.

The tournament turn out far exceeded expectations, which caused some chaos with chips, tables, events etc but overall I would say the APT team did a pretty decent job in spite of the challenges. It was a fun tournament and comparatively soft field. Unfortunately I only managed a small cash and after deducting my donation amount I still made a loss. But I had a lot of fun and the money went to a good cause. Nevertheless it was my 2nd main event cash of the year so I am 2 for 2 so far. Pretty happy with that. I also made the final day of the high rollers but fell 11 spots shy of the money running AQ into KK.

Next stop Baby Dragon and Red Dragon!

First post, first tourney, first cash of 2018

Last year I set a number of goals for 2018, I wanted to play more tournaments, get at least 10 cashes for the year and this week it was off to a good start.

I played at the Pokerstars ACOP Platinum Series Main Event in Macau, a field of 312 with many familiar faces like Sparrow Cheung, Danny Tang, Derx Lai, Hazel Chui, Kevin KT, Kevin Choi, Jack Wu and many other pros. Sorry if I missed your name but these were the pros I saw and those I know the names of.

It was a pretty smooth tournament for me other than one hand hero calling 70% of my stack and lost, otherwise I was above chip average throughout Day One. Middle of Day Two I had to pull some big moves to keep myself within pace and after losing a pre-flop all in 99 vs T7 (flop T7) I had to grind my way from 24th spot in. Hovering at between 10-18 bb all the way until it was 10 handed. Again I had 99, against AQ, this time AQ on the flop.

Pretty happy with my result. I was 6th in chips going into the final day, but 2 hands before the end of day I had AK under the gun. I opened, tight Japanese player limps in the cutoff. Small blind jams for about 18 bigs. I tanked for a while but decided to fold due to several reasons but mainly was what could the Japanese player cold call with. (he didn't play a hand for like 3 orbits) Eventually SB shows AQ and Japanese guy had KK and was trapping. By the way he had about 80% of my stack, I would have been crippled.

Great start to the year, despite bubbling the FT, 9 more cashes to go to my target, so far so good.