Tony G. Poker Blog

I went in as the favorite, with the odd makers for this event placing me ahead of Gus Hansen so I wanted to prove it.  The first day was cool.  I just cruised though it.  Today was the day where I had to make the stand and here is how it went.

I had 3.5k (about average stack) and I felt good. I got a great table. I got there last and I could see that everyone was waiting for me to come and be the captain. I duly obliged. The atmosphere was great.  There were a lot of people crowding around watching.  The fee to come and watch was $20 and many did.

I picked up A-K and it was raised to 4k before it got to me. I thought this raiser was not that great and figured I’d make a move.  So I stacked off, all-in for 34.5k. Everyone folded to the first raiser.  He went to the tank - it looked like he was fumbling.  I felt I had him dominated and I nursed him in to calling me.  He did and showed me A-Q.  It was an easy double up with no Queen out there.  And now I had over 70k and was with a chirpy table full of opponents that wanted me to coach them.  I LOVE IT!  I made sure everyone understood that I was the captain and that I didn’t want any crap play from anyone. I told them all that this was my poker school and it’s free, but to have the lesson, you have to be at my table.  It was so much fun out there, just being able to be part of and feel the heat and the excitement. I butchered this helpless table to full submission and had 400k in chips when the tournament broke with 27 players.   

We redrew and they wanted me on the TV table which was cool. The bad news was the great Lee Nelson was there as well.  This was bad.  I know he is a great player.  And he also won the Aussie millions and knocked me out of the World Poker Open in the UK on the final table.

Lee dominated this table and there was nothing I could do about it.  He was in seat 4, I was in seat 8, he raised a lot and I had to step away.  When I hooked up with him, I lost every race and was down to 200k but I was not going on any tilt, I never do.  I was focused and waiting for something to happen.  And it did.  The Gods smiled and Lee was in the big blind when Tomas Kremser TD came and grabbed Lee to balance the tables. I knew then that I could butcher these guys.  They were all tight, many good, but not in my class.  I feel I could read the game so much better than them.

It all went to plan.  I raised and raised and raised and then added in a few re-raises, punishing everyone there. Not one player won a chip from me after that and I knocked out eight players before we were done.   I laid so many huge bluffs on them.   I felt great at the end of the day. I have 717.5 of 3M chips and its final table time. I am second chip leader and a heavy favorite. What an honor it would be to be the first ever Asian Poker Champion in such a huge event.  The very huge, huge, mega news is that two local Singapore players, who bought in to play, have made the final table.  This is massive for poker in Asia. And these guys can play. This will be on TV in Singapore and most of EU.

The chip standings at the final table:

Samuel Lehtonen - 897,500

Tony G - 717,500

Ang Pang Leng - 309,000

Lee Nelson - 257,000

Hans Vogl - 250,500

Jeff Kimber - 240,000

Brandon Walls - 243,000

Mark Wheat - 101,000

Neil Yong - 98,500

Henrik Dahlgarrd - 74,000

I am in great form and go to the final as the heavy favorite.  Good luck to all of those who backed me on Betfair. I will do it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 16th, 2006 at 5:44 pm and is filed under Tournaments, Travels.