Chop in Macau Classic part 1

Irish Classic Festival 2008, Macau Casino Cork

I said in my last post that the Macau festivals have been very good to me the last few years and that run continued the weekend. I was fortunate enough to get a four way equity chop, we then took 1k each off to play for along with the trophy, I was happy to deal as the payout structure dictates a deal at times. It was a long slog over the three days and there was a huge amount of poker left in this if a deal wasn't struck. The €41,000 I brought home is a great payday and what a super start to wearing the BrucePoker.com shirt but it could of been very different as I narrowly miss being involved in a crash just as I left Waterford on Friday.

Day 1

I had just left town and was passing the Whitfield Clinic when a jeep lost control and bashed into a truck about two seconds in front of me. It was a pretty serious smash and the jeep hurtled off the road and through a ditch however it seemed no one was seriously injured. I'm sure had I been twenty yards down the road there would off been no poker for me last weekend. So with the accident fresh in my mind as I restart the journey about fifteen minutes later I decide that missing the crash constitutes running good.

Having checked into the hotel and grabbing some dinner with Paul from Brucepoker it was off to the Macau with great anticipation and a hunger for a poker tournament that I hadn't felt in a while. I had been playing a lot of small games recently but the previous Thursday having played like a donkey in New Ross I had decided on a no live poker policy until the Macau as I wanted to be fresh and eager to play. The plan worked as I was well up for it by Friday and its something that I will definitely do again in the run up to a big game.

I cant recall that much of Fridays play TBH but the day went reasonably well. In the first level I flopped a set of queens and won about 30 big blinds with them, which got me above starting stack, and my stack would rise in small increments for the rest of the day. I didn't play any big pots over day one but did hit some nice cards and won a lot of small pots eventually finishing the day on 26,000 chips just short of the average.

Day 2

I didn't sleep great and nipped back to the hotel for an hours nap after a light breakfast. When I woke for the second time that day I was feeling very good about the day ahead and it didn't disappointed. Day two of the event was just the perfect poker day for me and I will remember it well as everything just fell right for me.

The first hand of consequence was what I'll be calling from now on my Brucie bonus hand as I'm hoping I get a hand like this every tournament now I'm part of the Brucepoker.com team. Having worked my stack to over 30k I'm small blind with 47os and decide to complete. The flop comes a magical 3c5c6x, which I check, into three players. The bb checks and the first limper bets 1500, when the second limper announces all in its music to my ears and I get the chips in expecting to be facing a set or flush draw but its even better as he turns 4x5x more or less drawing to a chop. After the hand is over I'm up to about 60k and now I know a deep run is there for the taking.

I lose some chips against a very aggro Cork player when I raise 4.5k on the button with QQ the big blind who is a bit of a maniac re pops me to 10k. Now normally in this spot I 4-bet but because of the way he was playing I decided to slowdown, the flop comes k1010 Yuk. It goes check/check flop, check/check turn, he bets 10k on the river and I make a marginal call to be shown KK and although I lost 20k in the hand I felt rather lucky to have gotten away cheaply.

I got back most of the 20k immediately and was talking over my shoulder to Gavin 'Valor' Kelly about the QQ hand when a very strange hand occurred. I post the big blind and after a little confusion by me I realise that I've actually limped under the gun by mistake. The dealer should of noticed this but its still a stupid mistake. Anyway, just the blinds enter the hand and the flop brings 8s9sJx which fits rather nicely with my Ks5s. Peter Murphy an excellent player makes it 2200 and Guy a very nice English player whom I had been getting on well with raised to 5k. Guy was tight and could lay down a hand so after figuring he probably had two pair or a one pair hand and a ten, I decide to bump it up to 15k, as I'm confident I can fold him out.