Tony G. Poker Blog

I arrived in Amsterdam on the morning of the tournament; a two hour flight from Vilnius.  I had a big break, away from the noise and stress of life, and was ready for the action that was going to start at 3pm. The Amsterdam tournament managed another record prize purse - it just keeps growing - this is the 10th year in a row for this event and the field just gets bigger each year.  That says a lot for the growth of poker throughout the world.  A field of 350 turned out and paid about $6,300 USD to play for a first place prize paying out close to 1 million.

The tournament structure is great for a solid player; each player starts with 10,000 chips and the rounds are 90 minutes with a TV table going from the very first hand dealt.  Since Marcel Luske and I shared the same table, I knew that we would be on the TV table soon.

I started the event very carefully and did not want to get too fancy and try to pick off the weaker players. I felt really good and was not making any big moves in the first few levels.  I cruised though to the dinner break and had about 16,000 in chips with out even exposing any part of my stack.  After the dinner break it was TV time and blinds were still 75-150 so there was a lot of play left.

I picked up J-J in an early position with under the gun raises.  I felt I was behind but called 450 to see the flop.  The flop was k-k-9 and he bet out.  I quickly mucked my hand and he showed me Q-Q.

A few hands later I picked up K-J of diamonds. Marcel raised to 600, the button called.  I was in the small blind and decided to call.  The big blind called as well.  The flop brought A-Q-8; with the A-Q being Diamonds, I had a royal draw.  I checked.  Marcel bet 2,000.  The button called and I quickly raised it to 10,000 total. Marcel went into the ‘tank’ for a long time.  He finally dropped his A-8 - two pair - so a great move for me and I pushed on to over 22,000.

It wasn’t long before I looked down to find Q-Q.  The chip leader raised under the gun and I just called since there were still six players behind me.  Marcel was the big blind and pushed all-in for 5,000 total. The raise was 900 from the chip leader on the table.  He was also the first raiser and he quickly called.  I thought that something might be wrong here but after 30 seconds of thinking - which is a lot for me - I made the move and went all-in to get the pot heads up with Marcel, who I put on A-K and the raiser, a Dane (Kristian), who now thinks a little more and finally says, “I can not fold this,” and calls me as he shows me K-K.  I am totally shocked, not by a bad move, but how the play went.   At this point, there is not much I can do, this is how I play my game and I am never afraid to put it all on the line any time, and all the time. Marcel showed his A-K.  The flop brings an A so Marcel tripled up but I took my walk of shame - but that is poker for you.  Poker can be a cruel, yet rewarding mistress, filling us with joy at times and despair at others.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  No matter what the end result, I always PLAY THE GAME.

My family is here with me and I will take them to Australia.  With two of my kids and my partner here, I feel relaxed. 

My next stop is Singapore. it will be interesting to see how it goes in Singapore since it’s a police state and every player had to provide their passport number and full name, and the police had to approve all the players two weeks before the event started.  Anyway there is betting via betfair.com. I see Gus Hansen, John Phan and even Liz Liu are playing.  My odds are 40-1 to be on a KLM flight soon for the 12 hour trip.

In the meantime, meet me at Tony G. Poker.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 at 6:50 pm and is filed under Tournaments.