Tick, Tock

Cape Town, February 2003. It’s the opening game of the cricket world cup - hosts South Africa are chasing a West Indies target of 287 and are in deep trouble. The South African top order are back in the pavillion, and the hopes of the host nation rest squarely on the shoulders of Lance Klusener, the big hitting all rounder who excelled in the 1999 edition of the tournament, but who has since been in and out of the side. The West Indians are aware that the sands of time are against the hosts, and have almost their entire team placed on the boundaries. Boundaries are required to reach the target, and singles simply won’t do. Klusener makes a great fist of it, but eventually tries to knock the skin off the ball, mistimes it and it is pouched by Hooper in the deep. Game over.

This is a poker blog right? It is indeed - I think a good analogy can be made between the heads up session at the end of a multi table tournament and the closing stages of a one day cricket match. In this example, the balls remaining are the blinds, forcing the short stacked South Africa to act. West Indies are the big stack, quietly biding their time, making it hard for the South Africans to make significant inroads by manning the boundaries and not worrying about singles.

It was the latest instalment of the League at the Loose Cannon on Tuesday night. The tournament had a distinctly lop-sided feel to it. Tony, a very aggressive player, was playing well and knocking people out left, right and centre. The Volcano overplayed pocket Jacks, Dan pushed into Tony with AQ and lost a race, and Fluke’s push with Ace rag when short stacked found Tony waking up with Kings behind him. Almost all the action passed me by, but I found myself heads up with Tony with only 6k in chips to Tony’s 44k.

At this point Tony should have strangled the life out of the game, and allowed the ever increasing blinds to push me into a rash decision (as South Africa were forced to do in the cricket). However, Tony is an extremely aggressive player, and doesn’t have a gear downchange. As a result I won a key hand when we both had pocket pairs (my 77 against Tony’s 22) and then Tony ran a succession of sizeable river bluffs which enabled me to claw my way back into contention when I called with middle or top pair.

Finally I seized the momentum and found myself in the dominant position of a three to one chip lead, with bigger blinds to boot. I took my foot off the gas at this point, allowing Tony’s agression to take the pots when I had a mediocre holding, but waiting for my chance to end the game. I didn’t want to let him back in unnessarily and hoped his aggression would eventually turn into frustration at the wrong time.

Eventually the chance came.

Tony raised double my big blind. I called with 4♥6♥ (I’d rather make the call in this spot than with a hand that can be dominated like K9, for example).

Flop 2, 5, 9 (2 diamonds)

Check Check

Turn 3 spades making my straight

Check Check

River 9 diamonds

Tony pushes for his last 8k. The river is a horrible card - completes flush and (admittedly unlikely given the betting) full house. However, Tony has been so aggressive throughout the tournament that he is just a likely to be representing the flush here, so I call and win the tournament for £375 and some valuable league points.

If the West Indians had crowded fielders around Klusener’s bat in the cricket, I wonder if the outcome would have been different?

A £148 win in the cash game completed a good night. I’m having a week off now, so my next game will be Tuesday for the League. I feel like a recharge of the batteries, because the next month is likely to be 3 nights a week of poker, as I build up to the Irish Open.

Until then friends…