I visited Australia in August (winter there) and was greatly impressed. Sydney is an ultramodern, fast-paced, yet clean big city; it's scenic and highly civilized, and has modern architecture, rail and water transportation, abundant arts, and many fine restaurants. If Sydney is the New York City of Australia, Melbourne (Aussies pronounce it somewhere between "Melbon" and "Melbin") is its Paris, with its wonderful river walkways, nightlife, and cosmopolitan atmosphere. And Melbourne has the huge Crown Casino - rivaling Foxwoods in overall size.
Crown Casino has one of the largest and most magnificent poker rooms in the world, with large, plush, comfortable tables and chairs set in a recently refabricated modern decor. I first arrived there late on a Sunday night when they were spreading more than 40 tables of $4-$8, $6-$12, and $10-$20 limit hold'em games, $1-$2 ($60 minimum buy-in), $2-$3 ($100 minimum), and $2-$5 ($200 minimum) no-limit hold'em games, and two-card Manila games. Manila is essentially hold'em without a three-card flop (boardcards come one at a time).
While waiting for a seat, I watched the final table of one of the daily no-limit hold'em tournaments, which had started with 900-plus entrants (it was a freeroll with $50 rebuys). It paid two tables and had a $6,000-plus first prize. An Australian dollar is currently worth about 75 U.S. cents.
I played $10-$20 hold'em for a few minutes and won about $400 on the first hand when my 8-6 posting hand flopped trip sixes. Then, I took a seat at a $2-$5 no-limit hold'em table, where most players had more than $500 in chips and patiently waited for a big hand. Things are a bit different "down under." I ordered a bottle of water from a waitress and was about to tip her a dollar, but she asked me for $2 - because the drinks are not free there. When I won a small pot, I automatically threw the dealer a chip, but he returned it, saying that they are not allowed to take tips! And to conserve water, all toilets in Australia have the option of a half-flush or full flush.
After playing rather tight for about an hour, I finally picked up pocket kings in middle position. There was only one $5 caller to me, but many previous hands had been raised to $10 or $20 before the flop, and there were several active players in back of me. So, I just called - hoping. There was one other caller and then a late-position player raised to $20. Both blinds folded, and the crawler called. What would you do with my hand in this situation?
There are essentially four choices: smooth-call (to trap) and probably see the flop in four-way action with $87 in the pot; make a big reraise and probably win the $57 currently in the pot (prior to my call and reraise) or possibly get one caller (most likely the preflop raiser), who also had about $500 in chips; make a medium-size reraise, perhaps $40 more, which probably would get one or two callers; or, make a small reraise, perhaps $20 more, which everyone might call and bring the pot up to $167.
Since any raise tends to tip off the fact that I like my hand, I like either the medium-size reraise or the smooth call. I would like the big reraise much better if I had some reason to think that someone might call me. I chose to reraise $40. I got two callers - pretty much as expected.
With three-way action and $192 in the pot, the flop came J
6
3
. I had the K
. It was checked to me. What would you do here? I had about $450 in chips and the other two players had about the same amount.
I was pretty likely to have the best hand here, unless someone had flopped a set. So, I was pot-committed. I would not like it if the next card was an ace or even another heart or high card. I would be quite happy to win the pot now, and minimize the risk of losing the rest of my stack. I think it is correct to go all in here. If you disagree, feel free to e-mail your reason(s) to
[email protected].
I wish the story had a happy ending, but I got called by the A
Q
and a heart came on the river. Although I lost more than $500 on that one hand, I still ended up with a nice win for the night and the next couple of days. Pros, do you want to try an interesting business vacation? Check out Melbourne. You might even learn how to pronounce it.
