Another early start and I was off to the airport to head to Adelaide for the ANZPT. After meeting up with Kirsty at our gate, we were soon joined by Tony Hachem and on our way to the city of Churches via Qantas.

Once on land, we all split a cab to the Hyatt Regency and checked into our rooms before Tony informed me of the $450 Pot Limit Omaha SkyCity Adelaide Championships event that was on in less than 20 minutes. Off we went to register and before we knew it we were getting dealt four cards.

With 30 minute levels and a 4,000 starting bank I started off playing tight until around level three where I loosened up (for no real reason mind you). Faced with four limpers ahead of me I potted to 750 holding A♣ A♦ 4♦ 7♣ and found four callers including Matt, a crown HD in the big blind, who open-jammed on a flop of J♦ 8♦ 5♣. Steve Topakas threw in his last thousand and with the action back on me I gambled and slid the last of my 3,000 in.

With Matt tabling J♣ J♠ Q♦ 9♦ and Steve some rubbish, Eric Assadourian stood up and stated to me, “Watch . . . you’ll win this!” and like a lightning bolt the A♠ fell on the turn and 8♣ on the river. Raking in the pot to send me up to around 13,000 Eric offered a swap of 5% even though he had nearly twice as many chips as me. Similar to how quick that Ace fell, I agreed . . . Me – Omaha donk, Eric – Three Omaha titles . . . pretty fair IMO.

ANZPT Adelaide
weeeeeeee final table here we come!

I grinded away for a while before doubling up with a turned full-house and then against Crown supervisor ‘Dutchy’. I potted under-the-gun with A♠ 8♠ 8♣ 6♣ and found three callers including Dutchy. He open-shipped on a flop of J♦ 7♣ 5♣, and after 60 seconds or so of looking at my stack and the 25 players that lay ahead of me before a winner would be crowned I pushed all in with Dutchy calling an additional few thousand. I was in absolutely terrible shape against his A♣ A♦ 4♣ 2♥ but would find bingo on the river seeing the 8♦ landing to see me double into a great position as we approached the final table.

Tony got moved to my right and we had some fun until I offered a deal of taking $400 off first and slapping it to the eleventh place bubble boy. With all in agreement we slowly but surely made the final table where action was quick and fast losing three players before the first level was complete. Tony would fall in fifth place but a swap of 5% with each other kept him interested until a very interesting hand came up.

ANZPT Adelaide
ANZPT Adelaide Pot Limit Omaha final table

With blinds at 2,000 – 4,000 the chip leader limped in under the gun and Raemin ‘The Moose’ Alexander potted to 16,000 from the small blind; leaving himself 15,000 or so behind. I look down at A♣ K♣ K♦ J♦ and am put to a real decision. Now I think that 70% of the time here I’m up against aces and I’m pretty sure that the limper might even have some of my outs. Even though I have a strong hand and sit second in chips with around 60,000, I eventually muck my hand.

The under the gun limper flashes his hand which contained the K♠ and Alexander proves to me I made a great fold by showing A♠ A♦ K♦ 3♠. Whether or not this fold is correct or not four-handed, it made me a further $800 when a player was knocked out a few hands later.

ANZPT Adelaide
Tim Duckworth eliminated in third place for $2,970 (just taking a dig at how I write bust-out captions for PokerNews and PokerNetwork)

I would go on to finish 3rd for $2,970 before paying out my swaps with Tony and Eric to see me record my first Pot Limit Omaha tournament cash as well as my first cash for 2009. Feeling good about tournament poker it also puts me in the lead of, The Race to 10k; a competition between me and Heath ‘Tassie Devil’ Chick to see who can reach AUD$10,000 in tournament cashes. There may only be $100 on the line, but pride stands between the both of us.

Current Standings
thkcduckworth – $2,970
Tassie Devil – $896.60