Gambling
Related Essays and Reports by Andrew W Scott
Macau
Magic (The Long Run - Part 2)
October
14th 2008
Reprinted
courtesy Bluff Australasia and Andrew W Scott
Since my last column I've played the Vic Champs at
Crown in Melbourne, the Asian Poker Tour at Star World
and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour at the Grand Waldo
in Macau, and the APPT events at Walkerhill in Seoul
and Sky City in Auckland.
The
highlight of those was the APPT High Rollers event
at Macau, where I picked up second prize of HK$2,100,000
(US$270,000). The field was certainly world class,
including names such as World Champions Joe Hachem
(2005), Mansour Matloubi (1990) and Johnny Chan (1987
and 1988); WSOP bracelet winners David Chiu, Quinn
Do, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, John Phan, Dan
Schreiber and JC Tran; WSOP final tablists Harry Demetriou,
Hevad Khan, Emad Tatouh, Liz Lieu, Van Marcus, Isabelle
Mercier and David Steicke; 2008 Pokerstars Carribean
Adventure Champion Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier; 2008
EPT Dortmund Champion Mike McDonald; 2006 Aussie Millions
Champion Lee Nelson; 2007 APPT Macau High Roller Champion
Eric Assadourian; 2008 APT Manila Champion David Saab;
2008 APT Macau Champion Yevgeniy Timoshenko; 2008
Bellagio Cup IV event winner Tony Dunst; 2008 APPT
Macau main event runner-up Charles Chua; 2007 APPT
Macau runner up Ivan Tan and world all-time money
list 38th-positioned Nam Le.
It's
very unlike me to go on tilt or get seriously frustrated,
but I have to admit that prior to this tournament
I was feeling somewhat frustrated. Not only had I
lost something like 80% of my last 30 or so coin flips,
I had been sucked out on a lot more than I had sucked
out on others. One particularly brutal example occurred
during a 1,300 runner tournament at this year's WSOP.
I got all the chips in pre-flop with Aces against
Jacks and lost to a runner-runner gutshot. If I had
won that one, I would have been chip leader with 10%
of all the chips and just 31 runners left. It would
have been a serious shot at a WSOP bracelet.
Fairly
early in the Macau High Rollers I had two criticial
hands against Yevgeniy Timoshenko (who had just won
the APT Macau event about a week earlier). On the
first of these I was dealt AK versus his QQ. We got
it all in pre-flop - and I finally won a crucial coin-flip
hand, doubling up in the process. Incredibly, on the
very next hand I was dealt QQ to Yevgeniy's AK and
once again we got it all-in pre-flop, and once again
my hand held up. This busted him from the tournament
and gave me a stack of nearly three times the average.
After winning these two coin flips it felt like a
weight had been lifted from my shoulders and I was
finally in business!
The
final TV table bubble of a single table of ten players
was a great experience. Watching the great Johnny
Chan play his short stack during the four hours (yes,
four hours!) it took us to finally lose a player was
a fantastic learning experience. And I was very pleased
with the way I used the bubble to grow from a short
stack to the second chip leader. The final TV table
was also a great learning experience. While it was
my first TV table, I was very comfortable as I have
made a particular point of spending time in all the
APPT final table crowds, soaking up the atmosphere
and observing the action.
Once
we were down to the final three players, I felt very
much it was me against Nam Le and Quinn Do. Nam and
Quinn are great friends, both of whom had recently
signed on to APT sponsorships. They were both sporting
their APT badges, seated side-by-side in seats 1 and
2, like a team glaring me down in seat 8 at the other
end of the table. Sadly, when it got down to heads
up against Nam Le, I got an absolutely atrocious run
of cards. My hole cards rarely added up to a number
greater than 12, and when they did he folded to my
action. On the only big hand we played I laid down
top pair with a trey kicker as I was sure his re-raise
of my check-raise meant he had me beat. I can't wait
to see that hand on TV to confirm my suspicion.
An
interesting footnote to the tournament is that during
the whole three days I was never dealt pocket Aces,
never got a set or a flush. During the 75 minute heads-up
confrontation I was never dealt a pocket pair. And
I only sucked out on someone once in the entire tournament.
It's a cliche that you have to lose a football grand
final before you can win one - maybe you have to lose
a heads-up match for a major title before you can
win one. If so, I've got the loss under my belt and
hopefully next time I can take it just that one step
further. Until next time, always do what's best in
the long run…
©
2008 Andrew W Scott
Home|FAQs|Disclaimer|Contact
Us
©2000 to present.
OZmium Pty Ltd. All rights reserved
