Visit from father puts $15,000 poker package in jeopardy

Today we are continuing profiling the winners of AussieMillions packages. BONANZA_007 (pictured above) tells you how a visit from his father almost made him lose the tournament, while Lakseprinsen explains how a lucky 4 on the river got him through.

Lakseprinsen

I qualified through the $70 satellite about a week earlier, and I have played only one.

I was off to a bad start, playing a little too loose without a real hand. My chip stack had decreased from the starting 20k to approx 12k, and I am dealt 44 in late position. I believe blinds are 6-1200. I push my 12k to the middle, guy next to me pushes over for 30k. Damn. However I am glad to see him turn over AK, and I have a race for my survival. Flop Axx, river 4! Sweet Jesus.

I have been stealing some pots, and my stack is a little under average, getting dealt AT at the button, making a big raise to steal the blinds. Big blind unfortunately had QQ, but I spike an ace and take down a very nice pot.

My last all in I have KK and villain QQ, and I win.

Final two or three hours I am stealing some blinds, and just trying to stay focused and playing peoples stacks.

I haven’t been playing a lot of offline tours, perhaps 20-30, mainly in Aalborg, Copenhagen, Las Vegas and one time before in Australia.

I will try to play a lot of tours in December and early January, both offline and online, to sharpen up my tour-game, because I am mainly a cash game player.

I am looking forward to visit the Australian open and Melbourne again, and I hope I can do well in the Aussie Millions obviously.

BONANZA_007

I created my PartyPoker account last February and played several games since but not on a regular basis. Last November, after I watched a WSOP TV show, I regained a thrill for the game and went back on the website! I saw the Aussie Millions advertising so instead of playing some sit and gos as I usually do, I decided to try the qualifications for that awesome poker trip package! After losing a try-out with a $8 qualifier, I tried again the day after and qualified to the next tournament, the $70 buy-in qualifier. After a nice long run and a tough 3 player fight, I finished second and got the free entry to the $640 Aussie Millions Package qualifier which I ended up winning!

Few minutes before the tournament started, I was pretty stressed but had a particular feeling that I would make it. I isolated myself in my room because Sundays at home get a little crazy with the children running around, logged-in and waited for the tournament to begin. I was pretty active the first hour, got involved in many hands but my stack was below average. In the second and third hours of play I made a couple of good hands and my stack upgraded close to 100.000 just about double the average. The stress went down, I was in a comfortable position!

Just before dinner, I had a visit from my dad, had to be polite and entertain him a bit, I started to slowplay and lost 2 hands, my concentration was not there anymore and the sharks took advantage of it! I was frustrated, I was wishing for him to leave!

He finally left an hour after thank God! 50.000 chips left, 2 times below the stack average, I really thought that was it. I went back to my room, peace and quiet and won my first two hands, reaching back my 100.000 chips.

A half an hour later, my first very crucial moment happened. After hitting A4 on the BB and call the raise from the table chip leader, the flop A,4,J forced me to make a call that have been raise to all-in by the big guy. For the first time of the tournament, I was facing an all-in bet that I challenged.

The guy was on JTs looking for his flush draw that he did not make. Wow, I was back on track, close to 2 times the average stack! Then I did not hit great starting hands for a long while and had a lot of trouble to protect my blinds. Fighting for the last place, 21 players left, short stacked, the BB arrived to me, I prayed for a good hand to give me a break and there it was, the time had come to push all-in, the second time of the tournament that I am facing elimination. I hit KK and made it till the end of the game!

I have never attended a big offline tournament yet. I played some regional and bar tournaments but nothing like The Aussie Millions!

I do expect to gain confidence playing with professional and talented players. As many others, I would like to go as far as I can during the tournament. I will take it as it goes, play as good as I can to make it to the final table January 31st.

To reach this level, I do have to work and improve my skills and strategies. I am planning to play as many games as it takes to gain enough confidence and awareness to increase my chances at the tournament. Playing online is not as stressful to me as live tournaments. I plan to visit the Montréal and Foxwood Casino to play live. Also have to improve my non-verbal communication skills. I just bought the new WSOP DVD set, so I will watch the action there to get a feeling of what’s coming in this kind of tournament.

I would be thrilled to meet my poker idol Phil Ivey. This man is the best all-around player in the world and to be honest, it would be quite intimidating to face him at a table! I’d be glad to shake hands with the 2009 WSOP winner Joe Cada. The guy has a great attitude and his story as a young player is inspiring as well.

More winner stories are coming soon but you can revisit stories of MWT55 who multi-tabled to stay awake in the latter stages of the tourney and carlton_hahn’s interesting warm up to the final qualifier.