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Hanging out Down Under...

Tuesday, April 07, 2009 –

After becoming a member of the recently formed Poker Pack along with my good friends Nam Le, Chino Rheem, Quinn Do and Steve Sung, I found myself travelling a lot more frequently to different parts of the world to take part in some of the best tournaments on the International poker circuit. Most recently I found myself heading down under to play the Aussie Millions at Crown Casino Melbourne. I was amazed by how nice the people were. Everyone at the Crown Casino Hotel was very welcoming and the place was great. On the first day, I met up with the boys and we went to the zoo.

We got there at around 4 pm and stayed until 5 pm, which was the closing time. We saw a lot of interesting animals. The animal I most wanted to see was a kangaroo. After all, who comes all the way to Australia without seeing kangaroos? My only disappointment was I didn’t get to see a koala bear. First night we went out, I wasn’t that impressed because we went to an all-Asian club where they allow 18-year-olds in. I felt like I was partying with a bunch of my nephews and nieces. The clubs we went to later on our trip were different from Vegas-style clubs but the atmosphere was definitely fun. Everyone seemed energetic and happy to be there. All clubs should have that kind of atmosphere!

We also chartered a fishing boat and went out deep-sea fishing with the boys. Actually, it wasn’t really deep-sea because we never left the bay. We caught little flatheads and a couple of sharks that were no bigger than 18 inches. I was very disappointed because at home, I go fishing a lot with my friends and we often catch fish up to 3 feet long. The best part of the entire trip was that I got to watch Rafael Nadal play at the Australian Tennis Open. I have never watched a tennis match before and this one was a lot more exciting than I expected. It was a great experience. Other than that, I didn’t do much else but play poker. Overall, I think Australia is a great place to go and see whether you’re playing in a poker tournament or just visiting as a tourist. The entire Poker Pack will definitely visit Melbourne again!

I intended to play 2 events, the AUD$100K High Roller event and the AUD$10K Main Event. I actually played 3 events including the AUD$1K PLO event for fun. I busted in the PLO event fairly early on but I wasn’t too bothered as I only played the event for something to do. The next event I played was the $100K High Roller event. To be honest, I wasn’t too sure what the field of this event was going to attract, but I knew that most of the high-profile pros would definitely want to play! I certainly wasn’t wrong with 23 big names, including Nam, John Juanda, Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, and Chris Ferguson putting up $100K to make a healthy prize pool of AUD$2.3M.

We started this event with a 100,000 start stack and a speed format was introduced. Each player was given 30 seconds to act in any hand and we were also given 3 x time breaker buttons which gave us an additional 30 seconds if needed. The betting was pot limit pre flop and no limit post flop. I started off pretty good with the help of catching a few hands. One of the key hands that came up was when the blinds were 500/1000 and I limped under the gun with 22 - another player called the bet. Ivey raised it to 5,500 on the button and I called. The flop came 229 and I check called Ivey's 9K bet and player C folded. I put Ivey on a strong hand like QQ or KK so I felt because I check called the flop, check-raising the turn might be too strong and there was a chance he wasn’t going to bet. The turn was a 5 and I led out with 17K. I knew that if he called, he was probably not going to fold on the river. The river came another 9 which was pretty much a blank because he couldn’t have put me on a 9 after limp calling a raise pre-flop. I wanted to get as much out of him because I felt that he was going to call any bet I make. I bet 50K on the river and he called. This was a big hand for me because not only would this make me a big stack, it made Ivey's stack shorter which made him not as dangerous. He is still a very strong short stack player, but he would have been an absolute monster with a big stack.

Throughout the rest of the day, I continued to catch some hands which propelled me to the final table with 2nd in chips. We stopped play with 6 players - John Juanda, Tony Bloom, David Steicke, Dan Shak, Bill Jordanou and myself. I've played a lot of times with Juanda and Shak but this was my first tournament with the other players. With the elimination of Juanda in 5th place, I felt like I was the favorite to win. When it got down to 3-handed, we were all about even in chips. This was when Steicke kicked it up a gear and ran over the table. He played a lot of hands which made it really difficult to play against especially when it’s 3-handed. I lost plenty of hands and was left with a severely short stack. With the blinds at 12K/24K and only 58K in chips and 24k in the Big Blind, I defended my big blind with K 6 and ran into Steicke's K J. I failed to improve and busted out in 3rd place. I was really disappointed because I felt like this was my tournament to win.

After busting out in the High Roller, I was now pumped up for the Main Event. I have to say that the overall structure of the tournaments was great. With a 20,000 starting stack for the Main Event there’s definitely plenty of play!

I thought I played really well for the first few levels of the tournament and built my stack up to a little over 50K. Then the level right before the dinner break, I lost a couple of big hands bluffing chips off which left me with about 25K. After the dinner break, I couldn’t win a hand! I was now left with about 9K in chips - the last level of the evening saw the blinds at 300/600 with a 75 ante. I limped in the cut off for 600 with 89 offsuit and Joe Hachem made it 2,100. The big blind folded and I decided to call and play position even though it was more than 20% of my stack. I felt that if I miss the flop, I can start pushing with my 6K plus stack. I also didn’t put Joe on a big pair or anything in my range. The flop came 10 8 7 and Joe led out for about 3,500. I loved the flop and if Joe did have an over pair I still have a lot of outs. I moved all in and he called, showing Q 9 offsuit and I was actually in a lot better shape than I expected. Joe can only win with a Q or a J and split with a 6, however the turn was a J and there goes my tournament.

I was glad to have cashed in at the Aussie Millions! Melbourne is a great place and I’m really looking forward to going there again in 2010 – I will definitely see a Koala bear next time and hopefully go deeper into the Main Event.

JC TRAN