My adventure at the China Poker Carnival has come to a premature end! About 10 minutes earlier Poker Portal Asia’s Adam Smith had strolled by. I casually remarked, “I’ll either be out or 45k by the end of the level.” I was right.
It was the third level, the blinds were 75/150, a guy (who I had dubbed “Mr Blue”, due to the colour of his shirt) raises from early position to 500, six players see the flop (yes six!) including me with TT in late position. This is very typical of my table which is playing very wild and very loose.
The flop comes Kh Th 9d. A blind (who I had dubbed “Mr Spikey”, due to his hair) leads out for 1,500, Mr Blue pops it to 3,000, finally three people actually fold! Now, I have an awkward stack of about 12k, I’m going to have to call off my stack on any raise of my re-raise, and it’s a draw-heavy board, so I just shove for the whole 12k. Mr Spikey says “raise” but only puts 15k in. I call the tournament director Lloyd Fontillas over and force Mr Spikey to put all his chips in the middle, as per the rules. Why? Because I’m in a great spot, I know this guy doesn’t have KK (he would have re-raised pre-flop for sure) and the only possible hand that beats me is QJ, but even against that I have repeater redraws. I have his range most likely at QJ, 99, KT or K9. He could even have KQ, KJ, 87 or two random hearts. These guys think top pair is the nuts! So I want him to re-raise to isolate, making it impossible (or at least very difficult) for Mr Blue to call on a draw.
Mr Blue folds (that’s a relief, because he can have KK, but I don’t think so as he’s in there raising and betting every second hand) and the cards go on their backs. Mr Spikey has QJhh, the worst possible hand I can see. He flopped a straight with a redraw to the flush. Turn comes – wait for it – 9 of hearts!!! I hit my full house but this guy hits a straight flush! I’m drawing dead on the river, not even the case T for quads can save me.
The one and only time these guys folded was when I hit a Q on the turn for a 22xQ board when I was holding QQ. I bet the turn and loosey goosey, who can usually be relied upon to throw his chips in the middle, tank-mucks. Aiya!
Thanks, Sanya! That was the weirdest poker tournament I have ever played, bar none. Even tiny little low stakes ones.
But it’s a great thing that poker is being played in China in this way with TV coverage and we’ll be reporting on the China Poker Carnival in more depth in the next issue of WGM.
