Another TPC, another two time champ!

Hi guys,

It has been a while since I last posted something here. It has been rather busy lately. But yesterday another great edition of TPC! Already our 10th edition! And we wanted to do something special with this one. Each past champ had a bounty on his head, so if you would bust a former TPC champ you would get a small prize. Alongside that we yet again increased the starting stack, this time from 1500 to 2000 chips! And I really just loved it! More play in the early rounds which is nice for more experienced players.

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TPC IX: Quick exit and second bracelet for Maarten Jacobs!

Another succesfull edition of TPC had come and gone! First I would like to talk about my extremely short run. I drew like the worst table ever! I sat down with three players of my home game. Niels Blommaert, Michiel Maes and at my direct left side Jeroen Van Acker.

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TPC IX: Going for bracelet number two?

Currently I’m at the university and have some time to spare. So I thought too myself why not post a small blog on MCP about the upcoming TPC tournament. Already the ninth edition is coming up and we were sold out in a record time! It took less then a day before all places were filled in by eager players all hoping to catch a bit of TPC glory!

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TPC IX

On the 21st of February we are organizing what is already our ninth normal TPC tournament. After my recent win in the TPC PLO tournament I’m eager to yet again go deep into this edition. When you look at my TPC-stats, you have to agree with me that I’m doing rather well actually. I’ve participated in seven normal TPC tournaments and 2 side events. I’ve made 5 final tables in the normal events and took down the PLO event. I’m running hot in TPC tournaments.

A lot of my friends already have a TPC-bracelet and I’m very happy that I’ve won mine in PLO, but I really want to win a normal TPC tournament. And why not TPC IX? Really I don’t know what I’m doing right. I’m just getting my head clear before playing and always seem to make it deep. I believe that that is one of the most important things you have to do before playing a tournament. Get your head clear and focus only on winning. If you have other things on your mind you are not going to play as good as usual. I’ve seen it happen with some players I know pretty good. They start a TPC tournament focussed but with the long hours of play lose interest and start gambling too much. Or they start the tournament with no real intension of going deep, they just don’t care anymore. I’ve never had these problems and always seemed to pump myself up for another deep run. And to be honest I’m proud of it!

What’s different from the other TPC tournaments is the fact that you now get 1500 chips instead of 1000. Much more play! Where normally a small misstep in the early stages of the tourament could cost you your entire stack. You now can afford to shoot yourself in the foot. And still survive to make it deep. I was pretty adapted to the blinds and stack sizes of the TPC tournaments but now I will have to adapt. But I think that won’t be a problem.

I hope I’ll see you the 21st of February, good luck!

Mickey C

P.S.: You can enter the tournament through the TPC website.

TPC PLO: Mickey C claims first TPC-bracelet!

It still hasn’t sunk in that I’ve actually won a TPC-tournament. Most of the time I end deep in the TPC Main Event tournaments but I always donk of my chips in the last stage of the tournament, finishing at best 4th. But this time it was different!

We started out with the smallest TPC-field ever. We decided to cap the subscriptions for this event at 30. But only 23 players registered for the event, and 17 showed up. So a really small field for our first TPC PLO-event. The possibility of a rebuy/add on button gave the tournament a somewhat slow structure. Which in my opinion was a good thing. It gave you time to make plays and make a mistake you could correct.

My starting table had two familiar faces. Two to the left was Omaha-specialist Michiel Maes and in every form of poker a player you should keep an eye on. And to my immediate right was Tom De Jonghe. A player I already encountered in former TPC-tournaments, but didn’t know how good his Omaha game was. The other two players I didn’t know so I had to find out what they where made off during play.

It was a slow start for me, I didn’t get any cards, sometimes I took a small pot down. Until one major hand I played against Michiel Maes. At the break after the hand I realized my mistake. I didn’t even know what I was thinking. Classic Omaha-mistake. The flop read 3 3 3. So in order to have a full house you have to have a pocket-pair because you need to play two cards from your hand. I wasn’t thinking clearly so I only played one card from my hand in which I thought I had a full house. Classic Omaha mistake, and I’m not proud of it. Really something to be ashamed of.

But after that huge mistake I used my add on chip so I had around 2,5k in chips left. Nothing to worry about. Just play a standard Omaha-game and you’ll get them back I said to myself. Slowly the game went on. But nothing really serious happened. I kept on grinding my medium-stack. Until we came to the final two tables. Stijn Heyens came to sit to Michiel’s immediate left with a nice stack around 7,5k. On the first big hand I played against him I had Ks Kc 5s 4c. Not that great but he had been raising it up a lot lately so I thought I had to make a stand against him. He raised from late position and I called from the big blind. The flop came T T T. Now I wouldn’t make the same mistake I did earlier against Michiel Maes. I checked Stijn bet 1000 and I went over the top pushing all in. Stijn immediately folded. I collected a nice pot that brought my stack to about 5k.

A few hands later Stijn had already collected a nice stack again and he was playing good agressive Omaha. He had busted Michiel Maes in 11th place giving him the chiplead at my table. We again locked horns on the next hand, I had Ad Qd 7s x (can’t remember the last card). I flopped top two: Queens and sevens on a board with two hearts. I checked, Stijn bet and I called. The brought the 7h a full house for myself and a possible flush for Stijn. I bet Stijn insta-popped and I went all in. ‘Full house’ I said with a smile and he showed the flush but didn’t have any redraws left. Just what I needed. A nice double up for me to put me into the race for the title!

Just after that hand I watched Thomas Vanbrabants elimination. He had AAxx and all the money went in preflop. The other guy hit a 9 on the flop to make trips and send Thomas to the rail. I really feel sorry for him. Pot Limit Omaha is his game of choice. And he’s really good at it, but you have to win these flips to win the tournament.

That left us with 8 players. The final table was set. I made it once again to the final table and I was hoping to claim the first PLO-title. The chipleader at that time was Dimitri Van Loock. A hyper-agressive player. He had a huge amount of chips but overplayed a lot of his hands. Two players benefitted from his hyper-agressive play. Stijn Heyens and myself. We both took a huge chunk out of his chiplead and he finally ended in 7th place. The two big stacks at that time: Stijn Heyens and myself. We yet again locked horns when we were down to 5 players. I picked up Qs Qc 2c 2d  and thought of stealing the blinds. I only raised the minimum which was a tricky play. Stijn made the call. Flop was Qh Kh Qd. I just flopped quads and was figuring out how much chips I could extract from Stijn. I decided to check, hoping and almost knowing he would try to pick up the pot here, on a paired board with straight- and flushpossibilities. Stijn bet 1000 and I made the smooth call, slowplaying my quads. Turn brought the 8h. I was hoping he had the flush. I bet out Stijn insta-popped and I repopped putting him all in, Stijn called. I showed my quads and he had one out: the 9 of hearts to make him a straight-flush. A beautiful black 3 on the river ended Stijns TPC PLO run. The cards played themself on that hand, there was nothing he could have done to avoid going broke.

That left us four handed, with me as the massive chipleader. After a few hands it took me 3 consecutive hands to win the first TPC PLO-event. I first took out Bram Coppens with a better kicker for my trip Queens. On the next hand I busted Tom De Jonghe with a King high straight. The heads-up match against Jessica ended with my Aces and flushdraw holding up against her Jacks. I won my first TPC-bracelet! And I’m really happy I won the PLO-event!

I’m hoping one day we can yet again organize a PLO-tournament and I’m happy to defend my title!

Mickey C