Its all over. Team USA have outclassed us. We just weren’t good enough today. But, it was a great match, and it will be great TV. Our soccer player was out of sorts a bit today, and made a few mistakes, folding a couple hands he could have checked. But, ultimately it was a great match.
Kenna James was out of sorts also for Team USA, as he was crippled very early on. Our man Damon Rasheed was the first out, when he misplayed Jack Ten against Mike Sexton, but what can you do….he was the first to go. Kenna was quickly next out, he got a bit unlucky, but he was pretty short stacked.
We were down to two players for each team. Our football player, Mark Boznich, and the American Soccer player, me and Mike Sexton. We fought back to pretty even. We played pretty good poker against them. The next guy to go was the American soccer player, who got a bit unlucky. Then it was down to two Aussies versus Mike Sexton, but Sexton had about 55% of the chips.
Then, our guy decided to go all in out of turn. He was in the big blind, Mike was on the button, and before anyone acted, he said ‘I’m all in’. A bit strange. He was last to speak, but he spoke first. Mike found Aces on the button, and he knocked our guy out, and won a lot of chips.
So, it was down to heads up, me and Mike Sexton. I had about 140,000, and he had 560,000 chips. What a battle. It was great to be in that situation, but I wish I had more chips. I needed a bit of help to get even.
We played a few hands, nothing happening. Next hand, Mike limps in on the button, and I have K 7 suited. There’s 30,000 in the middle, because the blinds were equal in this tournament, so we both had 15,000 in. I have 112,000 left. Obviously, I’m going all in here. Mike found Aces, and was very happy. He flopped and Ace, and the turn paired the board, and that was it – I was drawing dead. He must have had Aces five times in the tournament, what an amazing run of cards he had.
Team USA, too classy, too good for us today. I put my hand up, and say they are a brilliant team. They go up against Gus Hansen, and the Danish Vikings in the Semi-Finals.
I was very happy with my game. I bluffed out a lot of pots, and made a lot of good plays. I put Mike off the best hand several times with complicated plays, and I was very happy with how I played.
I won’t make it to Foxwoods now. A bit too much to get there now. I’ll go straight to Bellagio tomorrow. I hope to play a few tournaments, and warm up for the main event. That’s going to be exciting, on the 19th of April. $25,000 WPT Championship.
Thanks to PartyPoker, who did a good job adding money to the tournament, and bringing sponsors to the event. See you all at Bellagio.
