The Wednesday Wildcard: Andrew Teng
Wednesday, 9 April 2014
GUKPT Edinburgh winner talks.
Despite mainly focusing his efforts on the online arena, Andrew 'tufat23' Teng continues to smash it in live tournaments, recently claiming his title of two-time GUKPT winner. We catch up with Andrew after his win at GUKPT Edinburgh for a chat.
Hi Andrew. Congratulations on the win – what did you do to celebrate?
Nothing yet. It finished at like 2.30am after almost three hours of heads-up play, so we were both pretty drained. Maybe tonight!
What was Jonny like as an opponent?
He was pretty tough, and put me in quite a lot of bad situations.
It’s been five years since you won your first GUKPT. What’s changed for you in that time?
Erm… I’m older? That’s pretty much it! I’m sure I’m more mature, but it’s not something I’ve really thought about.
You may be the same, but have the tournaments changed?
The fields are tougher, because the general standard of poker has improved. I think I’ve got a lot better, but so have a lot of my opponents.
What about the GUKPT?
Oh, this tournament was really soft. It also had overlay, which always helps.
Going into the final day with 11 left, Dominik Nitsche was chip leader. What was he like to play against given that you’re good friends?
Yeah, I actually live with Dominik. I think we both thought that the other players are weaker than us, so to some extent we avoided each other. There was definitely one spot against him where if it was anybody else, I would have three-bet them pre. But because I thought he was the best player on the table, it would’ve been a mistake to isolate him when I could just call and hope other people come in the pot as well. You don’t want to shut out the fish.
So you think it’s more +EV for you to wait for a spot against someone you have more of an edge on.
Yes. For that reason, we don’t generally look to play pots with each other when there are much weaker players at the table.
What would it have been like if you guys had made it to heads-up against each other?
I think we would’ve chopped it up and tried to get home to play on the internet as soon as possible!
Efficient! Do you play more online than you do live?
Yeah. I always have. I don’t really go to the casinos often at all. At the moment I’m mostly playing Open Face Chinese, as well as tournaments… actually, I play a little of everything.
Were there any hands in the tournament that you felt were pivotal in your success?
On Day 2 I had a 70,000 stack at 1,000/2,000 blinds. I played a hand where a guy limped, and I decided to limp the button with A-4 offsuit. We were three-way to the flop with the big blind, and the flop came 9-4-4 with two diamonds, and I had the Ace of diamonds. The big blind led out for 3,000, the original limper made it 7,000, and I made it 17,000. They both jammed – one had 6-8 of diamonds, while the other had 5-4, and I somehow managed to hold. They both had me slightly covered, so that was a nice triple-up to a little over 200,000.
You had to be feeling pretty happy about that flop. Were there any more spots that were slightly more marginal, or a difficult decision?
On the direct bubble of the tournament, I played a hand against Dominik where I raised Queens on his big blind. There was a Jack-high flop, and I thought he was going to try and bluff me, because he thought the fact that it was the bubble would make me fold. That’s what he ended up doing – he check-raised and then barrelled the turn. However, somehow David Vamplew – who I’m also pretty good friends with – managed to bust while we were still playing the hand. So it went from me thinking it was a really marginal spot to thinking, my hand’s really good now – sorry Dominik! He ended up bluffing off a large amount of chips to me.
Hands where you thought you made mistakes?
There were quite a few. Thankfully I won the tournament, so all the mistakes were negated! Heads-up against Jonny I played one hand really badly, where I flopped a straight flush and somehow managed to win the absolute minimum, which I was really unhappy about at the time.
He raised and I called with 8-9 of spades, and the flop came T-7-6 all spades. I checked, he bet and I just called, thinking he was quite strong. I think I should have check-shoved and he would have called, but I was just being an idiot. An off-suit 8 came on the turn, which sadly absolutely killed the action. I played it really badly. Guess I got away with it though.
Quite a few of your mates were playing, but was there anyone particularly making your life difficult?
Dominik and Ross [Loggie] were definitely having a go. On the start of Day 3 they were directly to my left, and they were probably the two best players of the remaining 11 players, so having them in that position was a huge problem.
Are you guys quite competitive?
Yeah, although we’re not competitive in the sense that we’ll make a point to try and bust each other. We’re happy for the others when they win.
Has it been a good year for you so far?
Yeah, I’ve had a good time. I enjoyed winning the tournament, anyway.
What’s the horizon for you at the moment – are you playing the World Series?
Yeah, the plan is to go to Vegas every summer. I’ll be staying in a house with David [Vamplew], Dominik [Nitsche] and a few other poker players. We do that pretty much every summer.
What’s it like with all of you guys in a house together?
It’s just like a holiday home, we’re all used to it now – we’ve lived in the same house for the last 3-4 years.
Are you quite sensible, or is it a party house?
I’d say a bit of a mixture! Some parties go on, but for the most part the people are pretty sensible, so nothing TOO crazy happens!
Glad to hear it. Thanks for talking to us, and good luck for the rest of the year.