Came 2nd in the PokerStars Wednesday Quarter Million today for $53,000! Holy shit! By far my biggest score ever and it literally just doubled my online bankroll. Maybe these MTT donks are onto something! To be honest I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t close it out though, especially as I managed to turn a slight chip deficit at the start of heads-up into a 2-1 chip lead at one stage, but I guess I can’t have everything. To be fair, I only got to that lead as I was flopping monsters everywhere and getting paid off. Once the monsters stopped showing up, I literally couldn’t make a pair and was bled to death slowly, albeit with a couple of hemorrhages along the way (ironically, all due to big postflop bluffs that failed). Anyway, 50K is 50K so I’m definitely going to be able to sleep easy tonight!
Long Version
I woke up today just before 1PM intending to one table FTOPS I. However, I noticed that the 6-Max 100R on FTP and the Quarter Million on Stars were starting at the same time so I decided to join them as well.
FTOPS I
I got off to a great start in FTOPS I, getting my 5000 starting stack to 11000 in a matter of orbits. I doubled up with 77 versus KT on a K76QQ board versus quite possibly the biggest fish I’ve seen in an MTT ever. His VPIP was something like 88% which is quite an impressive feat in a full ring game.
Anyway my stack peaked at 13000 before taking a 5000 chip hit when my QQ failed to hold versus JJ all-in on an 852r flop. If I had won that pot I would’ve been in great shape with 18000 in chips with the average at 8000.
I lost another big pot soon after which all but knocked me out of contention. The small blind open limped and I checked my option with J5s. The board came J72r and he led out for pot and I called. The turn brought a Q and a flush draw and he potted it again and I called. I think this call is pretty standard as once he pots the Q turn his value range becomes infinitely more polarised to QJ, 22 and maybe Jxd although I think most Jxd will check/call the turn since their hand is probably good, they want to keep the pot small on the Q turn, and they don’t want to get blown off their flush draw by having to bet/fold the turn if I shove. The river brought an 8 which completed the backdoor flush and he instantly potted it again. I think calling here is pretty standard in cash but I think it’s probably better to opt for the safe route in a tournament and fold. It’s probably only slightly +cEV and the times you’re wrong you’re virtually out of the tournament entirely. Anyway I called and got shown QJo. It’s one of those really common and annoying spots in poker where your opponent’s value range is tiny and his bluff range is huge but his tendencies are such that he probably has the goods anyway. I didn’t know this opponent well enough so I had to rely on pure combinatorics but against someone who you knew was basically a nit I think you could find a fold.
Anyway this left me with 2400 chips and I open shipped 98o from the button soon after with 10bb’s, got called by 44 in the small blind and lost the race. Oh well.
6-Max 100R
In the 6-Max 100R, nothing too eventful happened and I had a decent stack the whole way through until my bust out hand. The cutoff opened and I 3-bet about 40bb’s deep on the button with K9s. When it was folded back to him he quickly clicked it back and suddenly I found myself in a fairly tricky spot. My initial intention was obviously to fold to a 4-bet but since his re-raise was so small I decided to see a flop. The flop came a beautiful K9T rainbow and he open jammed for about pot. I snapped and he showed up with the dreaded JJ. Of course a jack fell on the turn and I was out.
* * *
This left me one tabling the Quarter Million on Stars and I was honestly not paying attention at all. I had lost 90% of my chips in the first half hour after somehow running KK into QTo on a KJAss board (he raised UTG and called my 3-bet out of position; must be nice) and was down to 330 in chips with the blinds at 15/30. In fact so devoid of hope was I that I actually typed the FTOPS I and 100R recaps above while waiting to bust out of the Quarter Million. Some things obviously went my way though (I don’t remember at all) and I soon realised that I probably would be playing for quite a while longer. So I fired up some cash tables to keep me occupied and soon had five cash tables running alongside the Quarter Million.
* * *
Aside: I actually completely forgot that I played cash today until just then. I closed the cash tables as I neared the final table and never had the chance to see how I went in HEM. Anyway, I just checked my results then and I made 4.4K! Freaking unbelievable! You know it’s a good day when you make 4.4K on the side and completely forget about it!
* * *
Fast forward several hours and suddenly I found myself heads-up at the final table of the Quarter Million. I had 1.8M chips versus my opponent’s 2.2M to begin heads-up but soon turned that around into a 2.5M to 1.5M chip lead after I made two pair, a boat and a set in three different hands and won pretty decent sized pots with all of them.
The momentum turned however when I double barreled J9o as the preflop raiser on a T842 board and got check-raised all in on the turn. I had to fold, giving up not only a lot of chips but also a lot of the equity I had in that particular pot. A little while later I led the turn out of position in a limped pot on a 7h9x4h6x with J5 after the flop checked through. He called and the turn brought another 6. I checked fully intending to give up on the pot as I thought he would call me down light if I bet as all the draws missed. However when he bet himself something didn’t feel right as there is pretty much no way he can have something worth value betting here. He’d bet a nine or a seven for sure, but on such a wet flop I thought he would’ve bet those on the flop. The running 6’s are basically blanks unless they made him a straight (in which case he would’ve raised the turn) or trips (possible, but obviously unlikely) so the only other pair he could have here is a 4 which I don’t think he’d bet with on this river. So I decided that a missed draw was a sufficiently large part of his range to make a small check-raise bluff. Unfortunately, he quickly called with A6o.
The next to last significant hand that occurred I raised T4h from the button and he called. The flop came 779ss and gave me a backdoor flush draw. I made a continuation bet and he min-check-raised. He’d already done this once before on a paired flop and on that occasion I gave it to him without a fight despite how narrow a range he was representing. This time though I decided enough was enough and 3-bet him back. If he raised more I probably would have let it go as a larger raise would be consistent with a much wider range of hands – flush draws, trips, JT etc. But a min-click-it-back really only represented trip 7’s (he’d 3-bet 99 preflop I assume) and even then there aren’t that many 7’s he can have; he was very tight out of position to a raise so I didn’t think he’d even show up here with 87o ever. It was a suited seven or nothing, and there simply weren’t enough of those to go around. Unfortunately my opponent called my re-raise and I had to shut down, not even getting a chance to see his cards as he led the river after we checked through the 9 turn.
This left me crippled and three hands later, on the first hand of 25000/50000 blinds, I jammed K7s for 840K from the small blind. He called with AQo and although I flopped a 7 he turned a Q. All over red rover!
Anyway, it’s obviously been a great day for me. $57,200 days don’t come around too often and I’ll definitely make sure that I savour it.
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