Aussie Millions, State Final Hard Luck Stories.

[gundog]

Your right Garth, but my ploy was that I had been shoving so much, I thought a double the blind would represent that I was strong, and scare off the limpers which it did. I hindsight even if I shoved straight away I think benny the cunt would have called anyway because of his position.

But it was benny the cunt aw $hit

[Garth Kay]

Look up fold equity.

If you shove there the pressure is on benny the cunt to make the call. By leaving yourself open in that position (and believe me that move looks either very weak or very strong) benny the cunt is able to force you to the decision.

Never put yourself in the position were you are deciding your tournament fate, unless you're trapping but in that case it isn't really your tournament life is it?

[bennymacca]

gundog, folding to you there would have left me with 1500 in chips, and 400 of that to go in next hand for blinds/antes

i felt that i had to gamble sooner or later, and your min raise didn't scream Aces at me, so i figured i am in a position to take a race here.

[BigPete33]

I cannot help but agree.

That's a shocking raise.

[bennymacca]

all in all, i felt like i had a pretty good state finals, but i was completely card dead the whole time

i think i saw 3 sets of pockets, and AJ once, and that was about it.

i didn't even get any of what i would classify as limping hands, like 109 suited, or even 56 suited

i felt pretty confident all day, and i felt i was playing well, but things just didn't seem to happen - i think i played 3 or 4 non-blinded hands in the first 90 mins.

i think this was probably my only mistake - when things weren't working, i suppose i had to try to make something happen - my image was uber tight, so when i did wake up with kings in late pos and put in a 2.5BB raise, the 4 previous callers all folded.

in the end i had about 10K when the blinds hit 500/1000, so i was looking for a double up. i ended up picking up [as] [8s] and flat calling. the flop came [7s] [6c] [3s]

another guy with 500 less than me jammed the flop, and i thought wth 2 overs and a flush draw it was worth a gamble. the other guy turned [7d] [5c], and when he turned the straight, i was after a 5 or a spade. but no luck, and that was me gone.

but i guess i should have made my move earlier. the tight image was good as i managed to steal a few pots, but later in the tournament i was just playing too few hands to build a decent stack.

[BigPete33]

I'd say that's exactly the move you wanted him to make and you just didn't get the luck you needed on that hand.

I also found myself extremely card dead over both days. My biggest problems were maintaining concentration (whilst coming down with the flu) and trying to pick the right spots to steal some pots whilst still magically maintaining a tight image.

Very mentally drained by the end of Sunday.

[bennymacca]

I'd say that's exactly the move you wanted him to make and you just didn't get the luck you needed on that hand.

exactly - i am making that move every time with my stack as it was

I also found myself extremely card dead over both days. My biggest problems were maintaining concentration (whilst coming down with the flu) and trying to pick the right spots to steal some pots whilst still magically maintaining a tight image.

i found i was picking the right spots to steal pots, but my problem was i wasn't getting any actual hands to win some big pots

most of the people on my table were loose passive, so i was just waiting for a 2 pair or even top pair to be able to get some chips out of them, but it just never seemed to happen.

i got knocked out like a minute before the shootout rego closed, so i raced down and registered for that. in the shootout, i decided i would create a lot more action. i was raising or calling most hands, and it was working well - i got caught once bluffing, but it didn't really hurt my stack that much.

i was up and down a fair bit, as i was involved in most pots. in the end i had JJ and decided to jam from UTG+1, when there was an UTG caller

turns out that the UTG caller who was the big stack was trapping with QQ and i was gone.

it was an excellent move by him, because i was playing a lot of hands, and he was probably expecting a raise form me. so i was completely outplayed on that hand

Very mentally drained by the end of Sunday.

although i didn't play as much poker as i wanted, i still felt pretty tired. but i would do it all again, the big tournaments are so much fun

[Garth Kay]

What did everyone think of the secondary shootout format?

[BigPete33]

Well I'm glad to say I didn't feel the need to play in it

Great idea though, helps keep players involved - especially if they have come from the regional areas and might have previously felt it was 'all that way for nothing'.

I reckon a whole weekend of events would be great, bit like the WSOP where there's lots of things to keep players interested and involved.

I know a live reporter or two

[bennymacca]

i thought the shootout format was good - smart move by the organisers as well, because it only really takes 1 staff member to run it - no need to worry about breaking and balancing tables

blinds were racing along though, but i guess that was to be expected

all in all a good idea