Heat 7 was one of the two Betfair sponsored heats and involved only players that play on Betfair Poker. Therefore some so called experts believed our heat not to be too strong as there were no real “Superstars” in it. I have a very different opinion on this; as internet players are usually much more used to the format of Sit and Go Tournaments. Take me as an example, I have played 957 STTs in April alone, and I would be surprised if the likes of Devilfish and Gus Hansen would have played more than a dozen STTs in that time span. That is the reason why internet qualifiers often do so well in these tournaments and the BPO was surely no exception.

The afternoon build up was quite long with TV interviews and all kinds of photo shoots. For one afternoon that was great fun but I am not sure I would want to swap my day to day life with any of the big movie stars. So all the players seemed very happy when the cards were finally in the air at 8 p.m.

Seat1: Bob “Sixpac” Coombes
Seat2: Russ “Ariston” Cawley
Seat3: Myself
Seat4: Bengt “Young Gun” Sonnert
Seat5: Peter “Punting Pete” Abela
Seat6: Robert “Bob the Builder” Burnside (drew button)

We started with 100,000 chips and blinds of 1,000 / 2,000. Our heat would eventually last 90 hands which just shows you how similar this format is to an online STT or Sixpac STT. Looking down at my cards I found 99 UTG (Under The Gun - which means I was first to act). I decided to make a standard raise to 6,000 and was quite happy to see everyone folding. It is always good to settle in by winning a pot early, even if it is only a small one.

Hand 6 was an absolute key hand: Bengt raised to 6,000 holding KT and Peter Abela re-raised him 10,000 more to a 16,000 total holding AK. The raise was small enough to entice a call from Bengt so we had our first big pot of 35,000 chips. The flop of KQ2 had “trouble” written all over it as it brought top pair for both players. Bengt was first to act and checked, Peter bet a relatively small 10,000 and Bengt called making the pot 55.000. The turn brought a T and with it a possible straight plus a flush draw (2 hearts on the board). More importantly it gave Bengt 2 pair and he duly bet 25.000 chips. Peter holding top pair and top kicker called and after the river card was another blank Bengt bet 25.000 again and Peter called again. Peter`s stack was heavily dented and we had Bengt as an massive early chip leader.

Bengt likes to play a lot of flops and the first time I “danced” with him was in hand 9. All folded to my SB (Small Blind) and I raised to a total of 7,000 holding AT. Bengt called from the BB (Big Blind) for 5,000 extra, holding a measily 3 5 s. That just shows you how confident he is in his pre-flop play. Most players would not even dream about calling my bet in that spot, but he felt it was worth the investment. I liked the flop of AQ8 and bet out 10,000 to take the pot.

A bad spot for an all-in is when if you get called you are drawing dead. But that was not the case here. Even if he called with a flopped set I would have outs to a better set or a flush. So the only risk, (which was worth taking) was him having flopped a big flush. I was more than happy to rake in 34,000 in level 2. I really like to protect my hands by betting big. Compare that to the way Peter Abela played his AK in hand 6. Make no mistake it could very well have worked for him getting extra chips from Bengt, but in that case it surely backfired. In hand 16 I find A9 on the button but as Bob Coombes had raised from EP (Early Position), I decided to fold. Watching the tape I found out he had AT, so not getting involved could well have saved me from a lot of trouble. These medium and weak aces are really bad flat calls with a raise in front of you in my opinion. Bengt tried to use his early chip lead to raise several times with marginal hands like J8d, but the rest of the table had done their “homework”, knowing what an aggressive player he is and we were surely not going to let him bully us that easily. Actually I had stated to a couple of my closest friends that I would re-raise him the first time he would raise me. And that was what happened in hand 19. I had 120,000 chips and found A7h UTG and made a standard raise of 3 BB`s to 12,000. Bengt raised up to 30,000. The rest of the table folded including Bob Coombes understandably having to lay down 88 from the SB. I immediately announced all-in! Of course A7 is not normally a comfortable re-raise all-in hand, but more importantly it was a clear statement play, showing the table in general and Bengt in particular that I am not going to be bullied out of my bets and raises. Let us also look at the tournament mathematics: If I fold here that will leave me with 108,000 vs Bengt’s 189,000 chips, but if I can get him to lay down which I was quite confident of, I would have 156,000 vs Bengt`s 141,000 chips (a 96,000 chip swing between the two of us) with the rest of the table all below 100.000 chips! Just take a minute to think about what an amazing difference that is, especially in a winner-takes-all competition as our heat was. Why was I so confident Bengt would lay down? I had bet UTG which really is respected amongst good players and I came over the top of his raise. He really had to give me credit for a good hand. He needs at least QQ or AK to call my all-in here. Of course if he has a hand to call me and actually does call me I am in trouble but even against KK I have a statistical chance of 32.60% to double up to 246,000 chips. So it really was worth going for this “power-play”. The statement play surely made an immediate impact as I got a “walk” (all folded to my BB) in the very next hand, including Bob Coombes who folded A2 from the button. I also got a walk in the 3,000/6,000 level and to receive the odd walk is just a massive bonus in these tournaments.

In hand 26 Bob Coombes raised to 11,000 from the button. I find Q9 in the BB and many players would flat call here. I am not a big fan of that, especially as you are then playing out of position after the flop and after thinking of raising it up, I decided to play it conservatively and folded.

In hand 32 with blinds now at 3,000/6,000 Ariston limped his 2 4 SB into my 7 4 BB. The flop came Q56 giving him the gutshot 3 and me the open-ended straight draw. He checked to me and there would have been nothing wrong for me to also check and take the free card but I decided to try and rake the pot in right here and bet 12,000 which had the desired effect.

In hand 36 Ariston bet 14,000 with his 22. I made it 64.000 holding AK and won the pot right there.

After this little rush I had to wait until level 4 and hand 54 to win my next pot when an early position bet of 20,000 with an A7 won uncontestedly.

At this stage I really liked the look of the leaderboard:

Buzzer 180K, BC 127K, BS 115K, RC 96K, RB 56K, PA 26K

The alert reader surely has noted my tournament strategy so far. It is to be tight-aggressive to the absolute extreme. That means that I will play very little starting hands, but if I enter a pot I am almost always willing to “die” for my hand and will put my opponents to a real test. In the later levels I am still tight-aggressive but “play” more hands especially shorthanded. You might also have noticed that the hands that I “played” did not involve a turn or a river card. The reason is that I feel my strength is my pre-flop play and play on the flop. In formats like STTs or the BPO heats, the blinds are so big in comparison to the stacks that it is usually worth going for them immediately before or on the flop. Some experts and pros dislike that style of poker, but I compare it to Goran Ivanisevic`s tennis. Power Poker, Power Tennis. Like the comparison between grass court tennis and clay court tennis. It is all about adjusting to the format. Give me 50,000 starting chips like they recently had at the WPT final at the Bellagio and starting blinds of 25/50 and I will play differently. But in an winner-takes-all STT with 6 players remaining that have an average stack of 100,000 and blinds of 5,000/10,000, there is no time to limp in a 78 suited or a 33 etc. That’s the time to step it up and I won hands 57,58 and 59 due to big bets holding Q8, AT d and AJ respectively. That is a whopping 45,000 chips out of 600,000 chips in play!!!

Shortly before the end of the level, I made another massive 100,000 bet with A8 and Ariston took quite a while before he folded his AT from the BB. This was followed by Ariston`s usual “last warning - I will call you next time” and his ever so popular raised index finger. If he was a football referee I guess 18 of the 22 players would actually receive a yellow card. The truth is though that I have now played more than 7 hours live poker with him in St.Maarten and London and he has never ever called any of my big or all-in bets and has respected me every time that I have re-raised him. I prefer to let my chips do the talking.

At this stage only four of us were left as Ariston had earlier busted Peter Abela (55 vs J5) and Robert Burnside (A9 vs A4)

The current state of play was: Buzzer 195K, RC 177K, BC 128K, BS 100K

I was asked why I made those 100,000 bets instead of all-in bets.

(1) All-in often represents weakness.
(2) Every all-in bet was counted and took away playing time.
(3) Every all-in bet was announced and I did not want the opponents to know my exact chip count.
(4) My bets were so big that it was obvious that I would never fold to a raise anyway.

In level 5 with blinds of 7,000/15,000, Bob Coombes raised to 38,000 with 55. Ariston raised 113.000 with KT. 113K was exactly the amount of chips Bob had, so he asked him the question for his tournament life. Very tough to answer that question with “yes” holding 55 and Ariston got away with a very nice re-steal as Bob actually would have been a 53% / 47% favourite. I am not criticising Bob here, but that just shows you the main advantage of my “Buzzer Style”. If he would have bet 100,000 like I do, Ariston would surely have passed his KT and Bob would have nicked 22,000 chips instead of losing 38,000 (60,000 swing). The incident had decimated Bob`s chips so much that he soon after had to make a stand with T7 and busted out running into Ariston’s KK.

Down to the last 3 and I made my standard 100,000 bet holding K7 in the SB. Bengt who really had not seen any cards for hours decided to take a stand from the BB holding Q9. That made me a 58%/42% favourite but a board of 5 A 6 9 5 meant that Bengt doubled up.

RC 307K, BS 186K, Buzzer 107K

With the massive blinds I was still confident of being able to steal my way back into it.

RC 285K, Buzzer 158K, BS 157K was the leaderboard when I tempted fate again by betting 100,000 from the SB holding 4 7, Bengt put me all-in holding A6. 4 7 is surely not the cards that you want to have your tournament life depending on but then again it is only a 38.3% to 61.7% underdog to A6. The board of Q 6 6 Q 5 put me all but out though.

With 1 single chip (value 1,000) remaining and sitting on the button I decided to fold my 2 9. A move that TV commentator Roy Brindley seemingly surprised “This is the craziest and most ridiculuous thing I have ever seen in poker”. Well Roy, if that is the case you surely have not seen much yet. By the way it is also obviously the correct mathematical move as I had no money involved in the pot and a 29 is just about the most horrendous card combination that you can get if you have to take on 2 other players. Did I think I could win the tournament from here? Despite having won one on Betfair Poker coming from 7 chips (yes, seven) I felt winning was very unlikely but as I was still in it, I could just as well try it and keep playing the mathematically correct strategy. After all, maybe my next hand would be better? Well it sure was, as I found pocket aces!!!! That tripled me up to 3K, then I doubled up to 6K and again folded my button with no money involved holding 3 9. After again trippling up to 18,000 chips when my J 9 turned into a full house things were just about to get really interesting again. But as the blinds moved up to 10,000/20,000 I was basically comitted from my SB holding only 34 and running into Bengts A4 I was a 27% / 73% underdog. The board of 5 A 7 8 had given me a straight and flush draw but when the river was a blank I was finally out.

Bengt Sonnert received a last warning and a raised index finger from Ariston two hands later (when Bengt bullied him with 45 vs A2) but Bengt still managed to win the heat in the following hand when he trapped with QQ versus Ariston’s flopped top pair of 6’s.

Overall, our heat was marked by an absolute astonishing lack of big hands. There were seemingly no “classic matchups” like AK vs QQ etc. Having watched the videotape of the heat twice since, my opinion is that all 6 contenders played good and intersting poker. Everyone agreed that it was a great experience.

Betfair treated their qualifiers and guests with all the VIP treatment as per usual. If you try to win a package for any of the upcoming big events, especially the WSOP, Betfair Poker surely is the place to go for it. My next stop is the WSOP $10.000 buyin event in New Orleans (May 25th - 28th) for which I qualified through Betfair Poker. Then I will spend a full month from the middle of June to the middle of July at the “real” WSOP in Las Vegas. Apart from the main event I am really looking forward to the $1.500 NLH Shootout, which is played in an STT format on June 17th and 18th.

See you at the tables,

 Buzzer