Got 2nd in MPCC Heads-Up!

If you've been following me on Twitter you should know that I won 2nd place in the Macau Poker Cup Championship Heads-Up tournament. It was the most fun I've had in a long time in a tournament.

Terrence and I took the 10:45am ferry to Macau, and we managed to get thru the Macau immigration by 12pm. We ended up being only 10 minutes late to the game, which is still way earlier than most of the other registered players. On the way to Macau we decided to do a $1k last longer bet (side bet #1). The game got going at about 12:30pm after waiting for people to show up and doing the seating draws etc. (Side event: my first opponent didn't show up. It turns out that Stars posted the wrong start time on the online registration so I was given another player to play with. All good.)

First and second round went pass pretty smoothly with me taking 2-0 in both. Terrence's Round 2 opponent was Raymond Wu, making it a very interesting match up. (Side bet #2: I took Terrence to win versus Celina taking Ray for $1k.) By the time I won Round 2 it was 5:30pm, and that's also when Terrence won his game 2-1 (Side bet #2 won!). Celina, Terrence, and I decided to go for a short walk for bubble tea before Round 3. It's great to actually get out of the casino once in a while and the weather was fantastic. The bubble tea was awesome as well. Fun.

Notable hand: In Round 2, the blinds 50/100, I had 6500 chips and the other guy 3500. He raised to 300 preflop and I called with 35o (very typical of my any-2-cards style). The flop comes Ac Tc 2d and we checked. The turned was a Qc and he bet out for 450. I made the call because I didn't think he hit the flop and I doubt he had a Queen so he's likely to be betting a flush draw. The river came another Ten, and I open-shoved for his remaining 2750. Knowing that I was leading 1-0 in sets he would be calling for his tournament life. He tanked for 8 minutes. Yes, eight whole minutes while I tried to keep focus and not give out a tell on my 5 high bluff. He ended up folding. *smiles*

My Round 3 opponent was a very unpredictable Hong Kong businessman. He claims this was his first ever heads-up tournament and I believed him. (Side bet #3: Celina wanted odds for this guy and I gave her 1.4 since I'm stupid confident. She took it for $500 to win $700.) He turned out to be more trouble than I thought as I honestly couldn't figure him out post-flop. He played a very limpy-reraisey style and he never bet with air. When he bet he at least had a pair but not necessarily the top pair. I adjusted to his style by playing a very limpy-cally game. I got very lucky to have won the first set. The second set ended with me losing a flip. The final set was long and I was behind in chips most of the time until I got very lucky to suckout twice and win. (Side bet #3 won!)

The final match is played best-of-5, and my opponent is none other than Terrence. It's quite funny as we traveled to Macau together and we ended up shipping the top two prizes. It couldn't have been more perfect. We decided to call off our last longer bet since there's already enough money to play for. (Side bet #1 cancelled.) The first set lasted only 7 minutes as Terrence's AA held up against my straight draw on a A79 board. (Note that this entire set is shorter than the tank time from the hand in round 2 lol.) The 2nd set got to the fifth level of 200/400, and it turned into a jam fest. I ended up winning with AJ vs AT. The 3rd set was quick with Terrence going a bit out of line trying to make a stand. He shoved with QJs for 5500 with blinds 50/100 and I called with KQ. He got down to very short and I finished him off quickly. The 4th set I played bad was carddead. I dwindled my stack down without much of a fight. Oh well. So much for trying to be aggressive with a 2-1 lead. Before the fifth and final set, we decided that since it's down to one game we should play for a little bit less. We moved $5k from top prize to second, making it a flatter payout. (YES I got a deal out of no-deal-Terrence.) This set was very similar to the last one, I just plain sucked. I went all-in being the 2-1 chip underdog with J9o on a 8Tx flop. Terrence snap called with TJo so I needed to hit the straight. The turn was a 9 so I gained the remaining two 9 as outs but downgraded the straight draw from win to chop. The river was a blank Ace and it's all over. Terrence Chan is our Heads-Up champ and I take 2nd.

In general, I was very happy about the result as despite being a loser mentality going five games against someone as good as Terrence almost felt like winning. The match ended at 12:30am and we were all starving. Celina suggested a Japanese place that's still open so off we went. And omg did this place exceed expectations. The food was SO good and the sashimi was SO fresh. We had a gigantic sashimi platter, California rolls, fried cod, tempura, foie gras, and much more. The damage was very reasonable and Terrence ended up taking the bill cuz he won so thanks Terrence.

Overall a very fun day and I would love to do it again!