Genting Poker Tournament

I recently joined a poker tournament at Genting Casino. Went up with my wife, a fren, and a cousin over the weekend.

Managed to squeezed into the final table of 10. Came out 6th, out of a field of 300 contestants.

Prize money is a tiny RM3,000... :). Well, considering that the entry fee was RM500, and that included a complimentary room at the Resort Hotel, plus another complimentary room if one got into the semi-finals, I think thats not too bad a deal at all!

For your info, the first prize was RM75,000, second: RM30,000, Third: RM15,000, 4th to 5th: RM5,000, 6th to 10th: RM3,000. So you can see that i just missed out on 5th, which would have netted me another RM2k.

In fact, there was very little I could do at the final table, due to the fact that I was short-stacked all the way, and that the blinds were exceedingly high. I won the first hand, with an all-in with Ace-Jack, the flop came Ace-Jack-something, in the end I managed to KO 2 players with Jacks full of Aces. Not a bad start. Thereafter, I din have cards to even call the big blinds. Hence I folded and folded, whenever anyone at the table showed any strength. I gave them the benefit of doubt.

My final hand played out like this: first player folded, player 2 limped in just calling the big blind, player 3 folded, Me: after eye-balling player 2 and sizing him up for 6 seconds, I pushed all my stack all-in with Ace-Jack (and silently hoping others behind me fold) I gathered I have a better chance of heads-up with player 2, since he has been calling with rags many a times. Also, other players have been playing very tight. Even if someone behind called with any pairs less than jacks i would still be even-money. True enough, all players behind me folded to Player 2.

Now, i would be happy if player 2 folded at this point, cos my Ace-jack would be a severe underdog against ace queen or ace king (which I dun think he had since he just called the big blind), or just a coin flip with 10pairs or below. On the other hand, knowing player 2, I would not have minded if he called me, because he would have called me with Ace-10 or something worse, which by then I would be a super over-dog over him.

As it turned out, Player 2 called me. And true enough my read on him was correct. He had Ace-6 suited (diamonds). For the maths-inclined, that means I am 66% favourite to win, over his 27%, with approx 7% ending in a tie. I'm a favourite to win. Flop came out rainbow rags. By this time I'm in an even better position to win (80%). Player 2 can only win with a 6, or a runner runner diamond flush. Guess what... of course he caught the runner runner flush!!

Well, i told myself before the final table that I would go out with a bang. And a bang I did went out with. I guessed I could have played very very tight, and maybe I could have gotten 5th or 4th, and thus an additional RM2k. But I know I would not be satisfied if I had not play to the best of my judgment and ability, which I did when I pushed all-in with Ace-Jack against Player 2. The downside was that this "correct play" costed me RM2k.

Overall it has been a very good experience. I won some more at the tables. And of course my wife was with me all the while, which was the most important of all :)