Australia Part 4: TV Table Draw From Hell

I began Day 3 of the 2008 Aussie Millions main event with $333k and the blinds at $1,500/$3,000 ($500 ante).

It was a very comfortable stack, with the average stack still around $150k.

Unfortunately, I also had my worst table draw of the tournament and one of the tougher table draws of my career.

Erik Seidel, Andy Black and Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul were all at my table with huge stacks. Oh, and to make things worse, they were all on my left.

With just over 100 players left and only 80 places paid, my original plan was to attack the money bubble and pick up some chips with little resistance. But with this lineup of great players who had no fear of bubbling, and who had position on me, I'd have to reconsider this plan.

I picked up a big pot early on against Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul. Although we're friends now, Kevin was once my online nemesis. If he didn't outplay me, he would put a bad beat on me... but one way or another he was getting my stack almost every time.

Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul: WPT title holder and one of the trickiest loose-aggressive players in the world.

I've evened the score a bit, but he is definitely still a player I'd rather not come across... until we're heading to the bar.

Eight-handed, with the blinds still at $1,500/$3,000 ($500 ante), I raised in late position to $8,000 with K J. Kevin called from the cut-off and the button and blinds folded. The flop came Q 10 5.

As Kevin continued to stare at me without looking at the flop, I continuation bet $12k into the pot of $24,500 with my open-ended straight draw. Kevin finally looked at the board, studied me for a moment and called.

When the beautiful 9 fell on the turn and gave me the stone-cold nuts, I led for $25k into the $48,500 pot. Again, he studied for a moment before calling.

A slightly dangerous card, the 3, fell on the river. I did not put him on a flush, but he is a tricky player - in fact, one of the trickiest loose-aggressive players in the world, imo.

This means it is very difficult to put him on a hand. He could very well have made a flush, and I knew he was also capable of trying to represent the rivered flush by bluffing.

I decided to make a value bet of $35k. I wanted to get value for my straight, but at the same time keep the pot small and leave myself the option to call in case Kevin did try to represent a flush on the river.

He spent about two minutes reviewing the hand, staring at me, and counting out chips before making the call. I tabled my hand and he mucked. He later told me he had Q-10, which is probably true.

Then the floorperson came and told us we'd be moving upstairs to the featured table. It was my first time playing on a featured table, and I knew I'd be getting $3k from Full Tilt Poker for wearing a patch on the TV broadcast. Initially, I was happy about this news.

However, I soon learned that if you think you'd like to be on a TV featured table... you're probably wrong. First, you skip your entire break to let them put makeup on you (did I really just admit that?), set up your microphone and get your life story.

Then you get to sit under blazingly hot lights and wait between each hand while they make adjustments and scold players for not properly exposing their cards to the hole cam.

Nordberg.

Thankfully, they finally broke the table after about two levels when we had reached the money. I was feeling great. I had managed to slowly build my stack up to $600k with the blinds at $3,000/$6,000 ($500 ante) at a very tough table and was the new chip leader.

I arrived at my new table to find only one familiar face: Peter "Nordberg" Feldman. Although I usually try to sit back and gather information at a new table, I immediately found myself in the middle of the action.

In the battle of the blinds, I made a good read when an opponent moved in over the top of my bet on a J 8 3 flop. I called with A 8 and he showed 8 6 and failed to improve.

Then, the table bully picked me as his target. On a K 5 7 5 7 board, I value bet Q J on the river because I put him on a king or a busted straight draw. However, he raised my $50k bet to $105k.

It was a very small raise which seemed to be begging for a call. Nonetheless, I stuck with my initial read and instantly made the call. He said "good call" and showed the 8 6.

This hand brought my stack to a cool million dollars with the blinds at $5,000/$10,000 ($1k ante). We were down to 36 players, and I was second in chips. Then, Tournament Director Matt Savage stopped play and made an announcement that came as a surprise to me...

To be continued next week...

Matt Stout

-- "All In at 420"

More Blogs from Matt Stout:

• Australia Part 1: Welcome to Melbourne
• Australia Part 2: AllInAt420 vs. JovialGent
• Australia Part 3: Patience Is a Virtue
• Australia Part 5: The Unfortunate Conclusion