Taking the 5th

It was Sunday and I fancied a go at the Sunday Million. I felt in reasonable tournament form.

However, the regular pokerstars schedule was affected by the WCOOP – a series of big online events over a 3week period. I didn’t take part in any of them, but I know they are/were a very important part of the calendar for the serious online players and for the pros who mix the online and live circuits. In fact the WCOOP has been an important challenge to some of the live festivals.

In any case, the regular $215 tournament had been replaced by a $1,050 2day marathon. I certainly wasn’t going to invest either the money or the time in tackling this one !

Back to reality. I entered the $150+12 $100k guarantee on gutshot.com – those MTTs are nice in that they have a few hundred runners (about 700 this time) and last a sensible few hours. The standard of play is also not spectacular. I also clicked on the Sunday 1/4-Million (the usual 28,000 runners and a chance at a huge payoff for the $11 entry) and a couple of other low stakes MTTs.

Earlier in the day I had final-tabled a HORSE event. In fact I was a bit disappointed not to win it as I came from 29/29 to a big lead with 10 players left. Still, my record in HORSE tournies is pretty good – cashed in over 50% of my starts and with an ROI of 800% (lol).

As the tournaments went on, I exited the $3R when my Aces did not hold up against J8 (standard ....) and then in the Gutshot $100k I self-destructed with 2pair on a very “wet” board where I probably should have escaped.

Meanwhile in the ¼-Million I cruised into the money places but making the top 10% (Aces no good again vs JJ aipf) was only good for about $10 in profit. These tournies pay so many places, but nearly all the worthwhile cash is at the very top end.

However, I was still in the $11 rebuy. I had made the freezeout stages with a modest $41 invested and was comfortable thanks to a nice triple up in the last hand of the rebuy period.

I don’t play enough MTTs on a regular enough basis to really know the individual structures but it was apparent this one was a real slow-burn. 12minute levels (that’s pretty long in online time) and a very gradual clock meant I was playing a 60-100bb stack all this time.

As the tournament grinded on, I had to stop playing my $1/2 PLO game and really concentrate. It was getting late and I was only just into the money places. Furthermore I wasn’t going to be very happy to finish in the lower money rungs ($55 to 495th place). However, at the sharp end it was $15k to first.

I was playing very tight by my standards, although there were still some H-bombs. In fact I hit the front after one such moment.

Raising with Q8 from early position, I faced a min raise from a large stack in the Big blind. It was an actual minimum raise – not even a raise to double my bet. Most peculiar. In any case, I could not fold. I flopped top pair but elected to play quite cautiously in position and when I rivered 2 pair I did not raise, but my opponent with Aces was still not happy !

He was clearly a bit tilted and that contributed to the very next hand where I raised UTG with pocket nines and called his shove from the Small blind. I figured his range was much wider because he was upset, and I also had in mind that this was a good time to take a race against a big Ace so I could go to bed if I lost !

Instead, it was even better as I was up against pocket 6s. There was a stream of abuse in the chatbox !

So, chipleader with 75 left. I don’t have a record of going really deep in pokerstars huge-field MTTs so I wasn’t too confident and at the same time I wanted to make the most of the opportunity.

I continued to pick up some good cards, race well and generally run pretty good. By the time we hit the last two tables, I was still amongst the top runners.

I made the final table – the first time I have ever done so – and eventually came in 5th for about $4,600. Overall I have to be happy with this. It’s among my top cashes in $$$ terms, and to make the top 5 from 3,500 runners is objectively a strong result.

As in any tournament, one is left with the feeling that one could have done better ! Lots of what-ifs, but I’ll take it.

I’m thinking of viewing it as a satellite, in effect, to the WSOPE £1,000 next weekend.