On Sunday, January 10, 2010 Neil Channing finished second in the iPoker Monthly Million, taking home an impressive $104,000. This was Black Belt Poker’s first ever Monthly Million, so it was a fitting result for Black Belt Poker’s co-founder to finish so high. Today, Neil takes you through 10 of the key hands that helped him towards his second place finish.
(1) I could have had a better start because I went down to 7,000 from my starting stack of 10,000 pretty early on. In truth, though, I was pretty fortunate because there was one hand where my opponent saved me a lot of money by slowplaying his hand too much. I had jacks against his queens, and he managed to hit a set on a queen high flop. We both checked the flop, and also the turn, and on the river he bet a tiny amount which I called. This hand could have been a lot different if he’d put some money in to the pot at an earlier stage, or even just bet more on the river. In the end, though, I got away about as cheaply as possible.
(2) I shared a table with Ian Frazer for a while. We didn’t play many hands together, but there was one key pot that saw me double up to 38,000 when the average stack was only 16,000. Perhaps the key to this hand was the absence of the big blind. The event starts at 18.00, but I think people have word blindness and read that as 8pm because a lot of players tend to turn up two hours late. Either way, the big blind was up for grabs, and I think the initial raiser was looking to take advantage of that when he raised to 1,000 from under-the-gun with blinds of 150/300. I also think that Frazer was aware of this and that the initial raiser could be just trying to steal the blinds, and so when he made it 3,400 from middle position (there was also a caller before him), I thought this was a great spot to make a move, so I pushed all in for around 17,000 in the small blind with 9-7 suited, which isn't the worst hand to have if I do run into a premium hand. The initial raiser folded, but Frazer, who had about the same amount of chips as me decided to call with Q-J suited. Thankfully the first card was an eight and the rest of the board bricked out. I was surprised that Frazer called, but he said that he knew I was ‘at it’.
(3) After this, I seemed to run well. I played a solid game, but my big hands were standing up. I wasn’t lucky in the sense that I outdrew people, but if you have A-K versus A-Q and it’s going in anyway, then I suppose that’s fortunate too as it’s situational luck. Anyhow, I had a few of these where I avoided a bad beat. I recall winning hands with A-T versus A-8, and A-K versus A-x. No particular hand stood out, but collectively they were important in helping me get into the top 10 with 3-400 players remaining.
(4) Five tables out I did get lucky in one hand when I spiked an ace with A-J versus Q-Q. I rarely got it in behind, but this was one of those occasions where it worked out well for me and helped keep me in a strong position in the tournament.
(5) I had a few minor setbacks along the way, but with 30 left I saw my aces bust by eights. I had 1.8 million to his 500,000 and I think the blinds were 10,000/20,000. I raised to 55,000 and he shoved for 500,000. Of course, I called, but he turned a set to take the pot. Obviously I wasn’t pleased about losing the hand, but I didn’t feel too bad. I was playing well and had done little wrong, so was still upbeat and confident of doing well.
(6) One really crucial hand was when I raised under-the-gun with A-K. Another player three-bet, and so I pushed all in. He made the call and turned over A-K, but I was suited and managed to turn a flush to take the pot. I had a decent amount of chips when I pushed all in and I couldn’t decide whether it was best for me to four-bet (which would have basically committed me anyhow) or moved all in. David ‘sexygee’ Gent was at the table. I played a lot with him and he seemed like he knew what he was doing in, so I asked what he thought. He used this the term CIB, which means ‘clicked it back’, but I thought it meant ‘checked in the blind’ or something, so I said, ‘No, he wasn’t in the blinds.’ Jeff Kimber was watching on the rail and he said that I’d been looking like a real pro until that point, but now my image was ruined it and I was back to being a live dinosaur.
(7) I didn’t have a great start to the final. My image was blown and I’d been three-bet a few times and folded. Having been in a strong position, I was now seventh out of nine. When we got to five-handed though, I decided to pick things up and play more aggressively. At one point, I raised the button with pocket fours and the small blind three-bet. I thought he could have a lot of hands here so shoved all in and he folded. This gave me the chip lead again.
(8) Short-handed again, I decided to limp A-8 suited from the button, mainly because I didn’t want to be reraised from the blinds, but still wanted to play the hand. By the turn I had the nut flush and managed to take one player to value town when he made a straight. This added a welcome amount of chips to my stack.
(9) Everything was looking pretty good for me with four left, but then suddenly I lost a big pot that left me with just a few chips and virtually out of the event. I had 8-7 of spades this time and decided to limp again. The flop came 5s-6-6s, which was obviously great for my hand, so I was more than happy to get it all in. My opponent had A-6 though and I missed all my draws. This left me with 135,000 with 16 million in play. I believe the blinds were 25,000/50,000, so I basically had less than three big blinds. I pushed the next few hands, hit a bit of form and won a couple of races to put me back in contention.
(10) Heads-up I was in great shape with a 10:6 million chip advantage. My opponent was a Greek chap who’d won the first ECOOP event. He seemed OK and had played pretty well from what I’d seen. Both of us were playing aggressive preflop: I was raising virtually all my buttons to 480,000 and he was raising his button to 444,000 around, I would say, 70 percent of the time. On the previous three hands I’d three-bet his preflop raise and on all three occasions he’d folded, so when I got A-Q on the next hand, I sensed this was a great chance to do the same again and for him to push all in with a weak hand. So, when he made his standard raise, I reraised to 1.1 million and he duly shoved all in. I quickly called to see I was in commanding shape against A-5. I just needed to survive this hand to win the event and take the $200,000.20 first prize. Frustratingly, though, the first card out was a five, and by the river he’d made a four-card flush. This left me with around a million and a hand or two later I was out.
Neil Channing is a sponsored pro at Black Belt Pro. To join Neil in next year’s Monthly Million, then why not play the event with Black Belt Poker. There are also a number of satellites available meaning that players of all bankrolls can qualify for the event.