ItalianoGACKT Official Blog update. Translation below:
Today is the day of the APL【Asian Poker League】
that’s held in Beijing, China.
As a part of Team Japan,
Team Japan has been invited to Beijing for this tournament
so I came here for just one day.
Of course,
I’m not just here to participate,
there’s no reason to purposely invite me
unless I deliver a decent result.
Having my results acknowledged bit by bit, and one by one,
by those around me makes me happy.
After doing my training, I got prepared.
With the team challenge starting at night, there’s no time for dinner at all.
I first had lunch with everyone,
and then we played in the competition all the way until nighttime.
It was said the Chinese restaurant in Four Seasons
was a restaurant that served rather delicious dim sum, so that’s where we went.
While the 3 of us slowly took our time eating,
we discussed about tonight’s team competition.
In the team competition, play progresses with each team
having decided their own rules and their unique signs that they decided on.
For example,
when one person in the team has their chips drastically reduced,
that person will give their team mate a heads up,
and the team mate will raise an all-in towards them,
deliberately passing their chips to the other person.
With 3 people in a team,
the team will lose even if only one person has a huge amount of chips,
while the other two teammates are out.
You can’t go against your own teammates or aim to take them out.
You can only play catch ball with the chips.
While having our meal and talking about these in detail,
we confirmed over and over again the things that we can’t get wrong in the real thing.
Then,
after finishing our meal, TAKUMI, and our teammate nicknamed Buddha,
went out for other meetings.
For me,
I had tea in the cafe until it was time to go,
and finished my work that was left over.
And a few hours later,
it’s finally time to enter the venue.
This time,
there are over 1000 people participating
in APL’s main event.
Wouldn’t expect anything less from China!!
The sheer number of people here is impressive!!
We came all the way here
just to get the trophy.
I wonder how far can we go.
The famous Chinese players are definitely
gathered among the powerhouses from the Asian countries so
I do wonder how far can we go.
Both TAKUMI and me have no experience in team competitions
but based on instinct, I don’t think that it’s that difficult.
While smoothly crushing the teams from the other countries,
we managed to survive the preliminary round.
At the table where Korea, China, and Japan are seated together,
the Chinese team kept attacking hard.
It might be the character of the people here,
but the strength of their push is impressive.
However,
while we dodged dangerous situations,
the Chinese and Koreans lost one member each,
and we were standing in a favourable position.
TAKUMI went head on with a female player from the Chinese team.
TAKUMI went all in against the female player.
The female player was in doubt and at last went with a call.
When the cards were opened,
TAKUMI had 🔶A and K.
Of course, as expected, it was a good hand.
When her hand was opened, she had ♣️7 and 9,
and she made an unbelievable call.
Of course,
since TAKUMI is low on chips,
it means that his risk is still exceptionally high with the call.
However,
upon revealing the flop, it was 7, 7, and 9,
suddenly landing him in a situation where his opponent got a full house.
In the end,
TAKUMI was kicked out, and each country was left with 2 players in the game.
Having decided to aim for the Chinese team,
when the opponent came with a raise in,
I called with a hearts 4 and 6.
The table suddenly had 2 hearts cards
and I got a flush draw.
However the boat had two A’s.
If I tried going up against them,
there’s a pretty high chance that an A will appear.
They came hitting.
I called.
Then a K of a different suit appeared.
My flush draw remains.
The opponent checked.
I checked too.
Then the last card that appeared was a heart suit.
My flush is complete.
The opponent checked.
I hit in with around a third of the pod, 20,000 points.
The opponent raised it to 60,000.
At this point, there’s a risk that they have a full house.
But I have no choice but to go for it.
I went all in.
The opponent opened their cards, and have 3 A’s.
I won quite a large amount of chips from them,
and like that, China team A was defeated.
Then,
the remaining Korean team too,
again was splendidly destroyed with a flush.
From then, we impressivly crushed the other teams one by one,
and somehow,
with our spectacular and overwhelming strength,
we managed to arrive in the finals.
However,
the number of chips that the other teams in the finals have
is way more than our team’s.
In the 3-team finals,
there are 2 teams from China
and our Japan team, and us 3 teams will be going against each other.
The finals started at 3 in the middle of the night.
Honestly, my fatigue was at it’s limit.
A wonderful game, befitting of the finals table,
unfolded here.
I lost in an all in battle.
Honestly,
I couldn’t read my opponent’s hand at all.
Such an interesting battle rarely happens.
From here on, technical words will be used so
only those who know poker will understand but
for those who understand,
please visualise it because it’s a rather interesting match.
My position was in BT (dealer button).
I looked around.
HJ (hijack position) raised 8,000.
I, in BT, had 8 in the pocket so I called.
Then unexpectedly, the SB came in with a raise.
A re-raise of 23,000 points.
According to my guess, he has something above JJ in the pocket or an AK suited.
Another person was troubled, then at last decided to put it down.
I called to look at the flop.
In terms of the amount of money, it’s quite large but
the probability of my opponent having an AK is not low either.
There’s about a 25％ chance of this hand.
But if high cards are in the flop,
then the fight gets interesting.
At this point in time, my guess was
that the opponent either has something bigger than Jacks
or an AK suit…
Well, that’s what I felt.
The flop’s 3 cards were opened.
2, 8, 9 rainbow (all 3 cards were of different suits).
No flush draw.
Even with a straight draw, it’s difficult to think of it if my opponent has a 10 and J.
The opponent checks.
I’m have an 8 set.
10,000 dollars bet.
Against that, the opponent raises it to 30,000.
I immediately went all in.
My opponent also called without hesitation.
I felt that my opponent didn’t want to call,
If he called with an overpair,
I think it would be good if he worried more too.
We opened our hands
and with my 8 set,
Team Japan got excited.
Then,
the opponent team opened their hand.
Unexpectedly, they had a 9 set.
Such a thing can even happen… I thought,
it’s a situation where I can’t do anything and I’m at the mercy of the hand.
Since my opponent’s raise, I couldn’t clearly read their hand at all so
in the end, I was knocked out and Team G Japan
was left with 2 people in the battle.
After this, with the steady advancement of those two,
they remained as part of the last 4 players but
for some reason, the more TAKUMI’s chip count increases
the more the opponent worked to thwart the exchange of chips between our team members,
and in the end, they produced a straight and we lost.
We were so close to 1st place.
And it didn’t matter that our total chip amount was more.
Through the subtle tactics in the team competition,
TAKUMI was knocked out and we lost.
I’m overflowing with fatigue.
By the time we ended, it was around 5 in the morning.
Fatigue was hitting at me like waves.
The joy of being in 2nd place was very much overwhelmed
by the disappointment of losing when the goal was right in front of us.
Poker is deep.
That’s why it’s fun.
And I’m disappointed to death.
I wanted to win comfortably, and then sleep soundly but
tonight… no, it’s already morning…
It seems like I can’t sleep until my flight, which is a few hours later.
This is poker.
There’s a mountain load of huge lessons to be learnt in life.
Today as well, while learning those lessons, it seems like I definitely can’t sleep from the disappointment.
Damn it…
It was just one more step too.
Just one more step.
Source: GACKT Blog
Translation: GACKT ITALIA Team
Translation © GACKT ITALIA