Won in a Million

I've stayed away from the Pokerstars Sunday Million recently. One reason is that there are some other good events on Sunday night which are better value - the $11 "Two Hundred Grand" as well as the $11 rebuy and a couple of $10 large-field events. Those tournaments seem to offer the potential of a large cash with softer competition and rather less outlay.

At $215, the Million is not cheap !

However, after some respectable cash performances of late I decided at the last click to buy-in.

My previous best was a scrape into the cash at 1,032nd place (1,080 places paying, which is normal I think).

This weekend, I must say I had better than average cards. This, combined with a basically very tight approach, saw me set a new bar for me to try to beat -- I was 383/7,311 which scored $750 (the 4th payoff band).

The moment around the bubble is usually pretty tense. As we approached the critical 1,081st place, I was on 30k chips (a little less than half the average, with blinds 1,500/3,000/300). I determined that it was best to wait till the bubble passed before getting busy again.

Then, Aces under-the-gun ! Well .... I elected to limp and hope one of the big-stacks would push to take advantage of my presumed reluctance to call on the absolute bubble. As it happened, it was even better. A 27k stack in mid-position pushed and it folded to me. Now I could call with impunity. I obviously have the best hand and stand to more than double up BUT if I lose, then I will still pass the bubble with 7k left.

I call, he shows Tens. My Aces hold, and I now am positioned to make a run at the higher money. In fact it was good for another 700 places, as we now know.

The wheels finally came off when with about 88k chips (blinds 4,000/8,000 with an 800 ante by now), there was a min-raise in mid-position and I decided that KJ-suited was enough to push back from the big-blind - I had the raiser covered. Unfortunately he had Kings and those held.

This left me with just 12k and after posting the small blind, I had just 1 big blind left !

The button called and with 76o, I eyed the huge odds and put in my last 8k. The BB and button both called and checked it down. The board came 6-high so I was actually fairly confident, and indeed I picked up a 42k pot when they both showed KJ.

I picked up the blinds and antes one time to be on 59k when I made my fatal move.

In mid/early, I faced another min-raise in front of me. I had mentally decided that my KQo would have to be enough with only 7BB in my stack. I probably should have waited till I could move first, but I hoped that the raiser might well have a hand I was racing with.

Unfortunately he had AK. I perhaps should have waited as he had hardly raised a single hand.

I hit my Queen as it happens, but JT also fell so AK made broadway and I made for the exit.