NPC is over

Well the NPC was pretty much a fail in a nutshell. I was very pleased with how i played throughout the series but unfortunately only managed to scrape to break-even for the series.

I did however manage to grab a win in the teams event (Event 6), playing with Nathan Ruprecht and Glenn Randell. Was a fun event and very cool to get a win but the profits were obviously small from that event. I played the 'Pineapple' leg of the event, with the 3 legs being NLHE/PLO/Pineapple. Even though i had contributed throughout the tournament in building our stack, it was the final PLO leg with Glenn getting it in on a 99TJ board on the turn holding J9KQ against a naked AJXX which really got us in there. I was next up and preceded to try to lose the tournament with around 50% of the chips in play 4 handed. Fortunately, after i had dumped off 1/3 of my stack, Nath jumped back in and got it done.

Even though we won this tournament, it kinda highlighted the week for me. I was having no troubles at all building my stack and playing a lot of small pots. However, as soon as it came time to play the big pots i found a way to lose. As frustrating as this is it is a part of poker in general and is why the economy continues to remain relatively stable. The mere fact that random donks can get lucky a few times and take down these tournaments drives the economy.

I also Final Tabled the Deepstack event (Event 8), finishing 6th. Was also a fail given that i really hadn't had to play any major pots but when i finally got my stack in and got called i come up short against run good child Ken Curry (who ended up winning the main event, big congrats!).

When it came to the ME, it resulted in another fail. I built my stack up very easily from the starting 30k to 70k before i took a massive nosedive in the evening session resulting in the first time i've genuinely tilted in a long time. Getting run down by stations always seems so much more brutal in live MTT's because you play so few hands per hour with the following hand a prime example.

My Stack: 65k
Villain: 50k

Blinds 300/600, I am in MP1 holding AcQs.

UTG+1 (villain) limps, I raise to 2200, folds around to villain who calls.

Flop ~ QcTc3h (pot:5300)

Villain checks, I bet 4200, villain calls.

Turn ~ 5c (pot:13700)

Villain checks quickly, and i decide to fire out a big bet of 11000, villain calls quickly.

At this point in time he never has me beat and im pretty sure he has a draw or a pair + FD type hand.

River: Ah (pot:35700)

Not the best card in the deck. But in saying that, it improved our hand strength and only completed one draw. Albeit that it was the only genuine draw out there. Villain checks pretty quickly and I contemplate a bet. If he really had KJ here I cannot understand how he can be c/c and potentially not getting any value when he gets there so i decide to go for a small VB to try to get calls out of his one pair type hands that missed the FD.

Villain checks, I bet 6500, villain instantly announces raise and makes it 15000.

I sigh and feel retarded for betting. I really cannot fold my hand for 8500 into like 60k with top2. So i tell him to show me his KJ as i toss me chips in and obviously he obliges.

That was just a premium example of what was to come in the ME for me. I definately regret V-Betting the river in that hand, but in the same sense I don't feel like it can ever really be that bad.


Anyways, I'm very much looking forward to getting back into the online grind. Hopefully things will start looking up for me. Im contemplating playing maybe the opening event and the HU event at ANZPT Sydney coming up in April, and would love to be in a position by May to think about getting to the WSOP.

For now though im just going to focus on grinding out a ton of games online and spending time with my new family...

GL in all your games~!!!

Matt