Tags:
Events/live poker, Tournament reports
Eamon 'bumbumbum ' McNamee and James Sudworth get ready to rumble.
After a few days spent relaxing, Team PKR settled down to some serious poker action today with 5 players taking their seats for Day 1A of the APT Macau, amongst a field of 133 runners set for 10 hours of play.
Day 1a players included...
zlatan35 - Adrien Allain
Waswini – Marc Bariller
bumbumbum – Eamon McNamee
kingkai84 – Kai Danilo Paulsen
james666 – James Sudworth
The seat draws saw james666 and bumbumbum on the same table sat next to each other and kingkai84 next to UK pro Ian Frazer.
With 10K starting stacks and blinds starting at 25/50, Waswini found himself in a difficult spot in level 1. After raising to 150 from under the gun, one call was followed by the small blind re-raising to 500. The big blind and both players called the bet to see a T-8-x flop. A bet and raise from the original caller and small blind was enough to convince Wawini he was in trouble. He folded his Queens, to see both opponents reach a showdown each with pocket Kings.
By level 2, bumbumbum’s stack had depleted to around 6K, after seeing several strong pre-flop hands lead him into difficulty with opponents refusing to lay down, then catching cards on the board.
By the first break, 126 players remained after 2 hours of play. Waswini & james666 had stacks around the 10K mark, bumbumbum and kingkai84 had lost around 30-40% of their initial chips, with zlatan35 making headway with 14K.
Adrien Allain is cool as a cucumber - check out this profile we wrote about him last month.
Following the break, bumbumbum was unfortunate to find himself out of the tournament. With his stack down to 4K, he made a standard sized preflop raise with QQ from mid position. One caller was followed by a re-raise from the small blind. Bumbumbum considered his options before pushing the rest of his stack in the middle (slightly more than the raise). The initial caller pushed all-in, as did the player on the small blind who was now committed. He correctly figured to be ahead of the small blind, who flipped over pocket 7s, but the third opponent turned over a slowplayed KK which took down the pot and eliminated both players.
james666 took down a large pot soon after when he came over the top of a button raise with TT, only to be re-raised by the same player putting in 6K (half of his stack). James came back over the top to put his opponent to a decision for his entire stack who decided against facing an all-in showdown.
After 4 hours of play james666 and zlatan35 had doubled their starting stacks, whilst kingkai84 and Waswini had approximately 8K each. 102 players remained with the blinds moving to 150/300 with a 25 ante.
Another PKR player was felted during the 5th level, this time the turn of PKR’s most successful live tournament player - kingkai84. With a stack of 7K, the action was folded around to him in late position. With KQ suited, a raise of 900 was called by a big stack in the small blind, followed by a T-5-3 flop with two spades. His opponent bet 1500, and with two overcards and a flush draw, Kai raised to 3500. His opponent’s reaction was to move all-in and with Kai committed at this stage, the rest of his chips went in. His opponent turned over 4-2 for an open ended straight draw – but a blank on the turn, then a non-spade Ace on the river brought an unfortunate exit.
Not much later Waswini found A-T in the cut-off and raised an unopened pot to 800. The player on the button had both a big stack and an extremely aggressive style, so when faced with a re-raise from him, elected to fight back and shoved for a significant re-raise. However, his timing was off as he faced an all-in showdown against pocket Kings which held strong to send Waswini to the rail.
The two remaining PKR players both continued to steadily grow their stacks, with zlatan35 on 29K and james666 on 37K by the dinner break (end of level 6). At this point the average stack was 21K, 63 players remained for day 1A, and the blinds were moving to 250/50 +50. James had faced few showdowns, and has been gradually building up his stack with aggressive well timed moves.
By the 8th level, zlatan found pocket jacks and was happy to see the short stacked player to his right push all-in for his last 8K. He faced K-5 in the showdown and was frustrated to see a King on the turn put a dent in his stack, although still alive with a healthy 20K+. At this time James was sat on the next table with a commanding 47K in chips.
By the next break the PKR chip lead had switched to the young Frenchman, zlatan35 – now with 40K. James had recently faced his first flip of the tournament with standard pre-flop play resulting in an all-in against a short stack where his AK failed to overtake pocket 8’s for a 25K+ pot. With 48 left, the average stack was now 28K so both remaining PKR players were still looking healthy.
Both players survived the 10 hour marathon session to the end of the day. With the final average stack at 36K, james666 will return with 59K after continuing to gradually build his stack up with few major confrontations. zlatan35 returns with 41K after being wronged again against an all-in short stack with AK vs AT for a pot of 40K+.
We have now been joined by pokey85, MATILJA and Beyne who will return tomorrow at midday to attempt to better the performance of James and zlatan. Marlon67, F4llout and jorgal72 will also by flying the PKR flag.
Commiserations to those who didn’t survive the day, but we look forward to seeing at least two members of Team PKR in Day 2.