Melbourne re-cap part 2.

Hey guys,

Going to go over my second match in the Hachem Deepstack HU event, which unfortunately was my last match for the tournament. I had no idea who my opponent was in this case although it become quite clear he was a local regular. To be perfectly honest I thought he was pretty bad overall, but props to him because he got the win.

The first match I decided to come out pretty hard and test him out early, which worked perfectly as I 3bet him twice out of the first 5 hands and got folds and had taken down every pot in position either pre-flop or on the flop. He then did something weird and raised 5.5x on the button as well as 3betting me to 1600 over my 300 open. So at this point in time I basically knew that I had someone who wasn’t particularly familiar with HU play. The first hand of real interest came up at 50/100 level, and was the first real time that we had ran a whole board out.

Blinds: 50/100
My Stack: ~11700
Villain: ~8300

Pre-Flop: I raise Jd8d to 300 and he calls. This was pretty standard as he had been flatting an increasing % pre and c/f a lot of flops.

Flop ---> Ts8s5d

Not the best flop ever but certainly not the worst. I definitely can bet my hand for value vs him at this point in time which I did, c-betting 400. He calls really quickly.

(Pot = 1400)
Turn ---> Ac

This is a good double barrel card if I had air here, but in this case I much prefer to check back my showdown value, and make an informed decision based on the river (to be honest, I intend to call a pretty large % of rivers anyway). He checks, I check back.

River ---> Kh

He thinks for a quick second picking up several grey chips (1k chips), then casually flicks one of them into the pot. Basically every draw had missed and I really wasn’t sure if he was ever floating Kx, although it was likely he floats Ax on that board. I decided to call in the end, and he rolls over Js3s. He then gives me a glare and says “very interesting” in an extraordinarily condescending tone. Haha.


The next hand was about 15 hands later, and not much had happened in the meantime except me raising all of my buttons and mostly taking it down, and him limping most of his and taking it down on a lot of flops.

Blinds: 75/150
My Stack: ~15k
Villain: ~5k

Pre-Flop: I raise 7c9c to 400, and he flats from the BB.

Flop ---> 9dAh5d
He leads out at the flop for 525. He had done this once before and I had raised and taken it down. This time I decide to just flat obviously.

(Pot = 1850)
Turn ---> 6s

He checks pretty quickly, and I decide to just check back as I think he has air a pretty large % of the time, and is folding and furthermore, I have a pretty decent showdown hand anyway. (fwiw, not sure if a bet was more appropriate here, would love to hear thoughts).

River ---> 5h

This card really sucks in hindsight, but at the time I kinda thought it was pretty good. More so because I didn’t really expect him to lead bottom pair on that flop, given that I had raised last time he lead and it sucks to build a pot with bottom pair obviously. But apparently it was good for him as once again he very casually flicks in one grey chip. I don’t think for long before calling given that the FD missed and I really expect him to fire all of his A’s on a relatively harmless turn. He rolls over Q5o for rivered trips and I feel pretty stupid.


Not much really happened for the rest of the match, with the chips basically going back and forth right through to 300/600. By the chips going back and forth I mean we really didn’t play a pot of any significance. The dynamics were pretty passive as he reverted to limping a large % of his buttons, but seemed to like to raise directly after I had made aggressive plays post-flop the hands before. I had established pretty early on that when he limped he was almost always limp/calling. In the end we got it in flipping with relatively close stacks (he had me by about 800 chips at the time), he min-raised and I 3bet shoved KQo, he called 77 and held to take down the first match.


The second match went very similarly to how the first one had ended. Basically he began limping a ton of buttons and flatting a lot OOP. To a degree I felt I lost control of this match pretty early on, partly due to the fact that I had been playing live poker for around 6 hours with basically no break and on very little sleep. Generally speaking I feel my endurance for grinding is great, and I have ground out super long sessions online on a regular basis. But for some reason I really lost my focus in the second match and probably didn’t play as well as I would have liked. It wasn’t so much that I made any significant mistakes in this match, but more I lost the focus that I think you need to pay attention to your opponent when playing live poker. To a degree I went on auto-pilot and didn’t push the edge as much as I would have liked. In the end the following hand took place that saw the end of the tournament for me.

Blinds: 150/300
My Stack: ~9k
Villain: ~11k

I have the button and made a standard open to 800, with 89hh. He flats from the BB (he had actually been folding a TON in the BB in the previous 10 minutes or so).

(Pot = 1600)
Flop ---> Td7h2d

He checks pretty quickly, and I fire out a c-bet of 1000, he c/c and we go to a turn.

(Pot = 3600)
Turn ---> Th

Pretty sick card. He checks after thinking for a brief moment, and I decide to check back. The reason for my check is that I hate my life if he c/shoves on me on this turn, and even though I have a monster draw, i’m essentially behind his range for getting it in on that turn. I hadn’t seen him play one draw aggressively and don’t really expect him to start now. So in the end I decide to check back and see if I can get there on the river.

River ---> 6c

*Bink* I feel really good about my hand obviously, he thinks again before checking (this time for much longer)... I think for a brief moment (deciding on betsize), and end up firing a bet of 2700. He instantly announces “All-In”, and looks ridiculously excited. I tank for a long time because I just felt beat so often, nothing really made much sense besides T7, 66, or 22, but even then I have no idea why he was c/c such a wet flop. In the end I have to call 4500 into a pot of 18000 I think, and the odds were just way too juicy, even though I really really wanted to fold. I told him I thought I was beat and announced call. He stands up and yells out “nuts”, as he rolls over T7o, and gg me.


So that was it for me for Melbourne. I now really look forward to getting over to Belgium and seeing how we go. I’m currently on my flight from Sydney to Singapore. I managed to score myself a Business class ticket on the A380, and I must say that this plane is really the nuts. I have wanted to do a trip on the A380 ever since Qantas first purchased them, but haven’t had the opportunity yet. The take off was one of the most unbelievably smooth flying experiences I have had. Being upstairs obviously helps a lot, but not hearing landing gear or anything like that even, just made the whole take off seem effortless. We have been in rough weather for the large majority of the flight, yet strangely even the turbulence doesn’t seem what it should be, lol. The only concern I guess is the baby crying non-stop about 5 rows in front of me, but that is something I have to get used to anyways. The space in the aircraft is amazing, and with dinner coming soon I guess I should wrap this up. Let’s hope that the next few take-off’s and landing go as smoothly as the first one.
I will be trying to get some more update type blogs done whilst I’m in Belgium, hopefully with better news than I had in this one.

Good Luck in all of your games!

Matt