ITM at Grand Prix: PlayLive Poker Tournament in Melbourne

In the last weeks, I was thinking about playing some poker again, and so I started to watch some footage of the EPT Paris, where one of my fellow Magic the Gathering colleagues Felix Schneiders made 2nd place and won more than 700k Euro as the runner-up. Also, I discovered ACR and started to play some tournaments, eventually winning a tournament with 31 players.

This was enough preparation for me to search for a suitable live poker tournament in Melbourne, and I learned about PlayLive Melbourne. I had never invested that amount of money (300 AUD) in my whole life but I thought that it was still reasonable, and so I gave it a crack.

The Venue in South Melbourne

I took the train from Pakenham to Flinders Street in the city of Melbourne and made my way to York St. where I found a modern venue and some players at the tables. I payed the registration fee (245+55 AUD) and got seated at table three.

Soon did I realize that there were all sorts of players around: some who would constantly lose their entiry stacks with marginal hands (I overheard a guy re-buying 6 times for a total of 7 entries), some super tight players, and the occasional pro. Where did I belong to?

Well, I used to be a tight-aggressive player (TAG) in my student days, amost 20 years ago. I knew that in order to survive, I had to loosen up, since live tournament is very different from online poker:

• you play way more hands online
• you can observe players at the tables
• you need far more endurance at live tables
• you need to play far worse hands at live events.

Triple up with 92o

I was card dead for the most time, and in the first 30 hands or so my best pick-up would have been a medium pocket pair. The first big hand was me holding 92o with minraise from UTG, two callers, and I kinda had to complete due to favourable pot odds.

The flop came 92x, and I had two pairs. With about 10000 Chips in the middle, and 16000 Chips in my stack, I decided to go all-in – and I got two callers! The UTG raiser showed pocket aces, and the 2nd player K9o – top pair good kicker. Luckily, my two pairs held, and I was able to triple up to be in contention for Day 2.

Some good coin flips

In the next hands, I was able to beat Ax with my TT and AJ with QQ – the 2nd hand was already on Day 2, and I was sure to make the money! This was very exciting for me, since it was the first MTT in real poker for me, the biggest buy-in ever, and I made already 450 AUD.

In the next hands, I probably made the mistake to play far too tight. I had 88 early and should have gone all-in with maybe 10-12 BB left but since we also had big antes, my M was maybe 7-8. I was slowly blinding out, and made a desparate call with K7s multiway which was another big mistake, since I should have just waited for the next pay jump.

Anyways, I took home 670$ which I am very happy about, and I am certainly looking forward to the next live poker event, either in Melbourne or in Gold Coast.