PsychicSykes wrote:I was just about to post that we hadn't seen you in here in a while.
Congrats.
Yeah, well I was running about -$300 in cash games or something and was slowing down for a bit, to be honest
Right. Ok.
It was a 5% 2R1A, where you could rebuy any time you were under 1million chips, so obviously the chip average was going to be hugely inflated. I wasn't going to rebuy, but I found that in the first hour before the break I couldn't hit a hand, or even get one really. So I buckled and rebought twice and then added on at the break, thinking I could get quite deep for some reason. The break came and went, I still wasn't really hitting, but decided to keep paying attention, purely for the huge value in the tourney. Sat in 900 of 1700 after the first break, purely on the back of rebuys and addons.
I decided, as the blinds rose, to start opening up to stay alive. I stole in late position with marginal hands but still tried to play purely the percentage plays whilst the pack was still so big. A big hand came with TT. I raise, someone goes all in and someone else calls. It's not much more, so I call, and the flop comes 6T9, and I take down the all in and the other guy, who has AT.
I can't remember everything, but I started playing more tricky as I began to stay at the same tables for longer. I knew people's playing styles, and adapted according, playing some real quality poker and taking a lot of pots without showdown, whilst also folding in dangerous positions. As the last 100 approached, I believe I was i 40th or something, having taken a couple of hits with hands like QQ vs AA etc.
I'd played very solid poker to get to where I was, but got a sick run of hands going towards the last 40 or so, putting me in the chip lead. I had plenty of chances to donk away the chips, but I'm really proud of how disciplined and solidly I was playing. I'd stop leaking chips like I had earlier in the tourney (when Drummy was speccing).
Then there were two tables, and I got a bit lucky. I called an all in with 33 (pot committed after raise), against short stack with AQ. Flop is rag-ace-rag, turn is 3
. Then I pick up 89 suited, and call a raise on the button. Flop comes 668. I bet, raiser shoves it in with A9 and I call, and push my stack further. There was a hilarious guy called Klink or something. Here's the hand he gets really angry about, let me know what you think.
I saw no problem calling with high suited cards on the button, and wasn't too worried about the flop. I was getting just about 3:1 (implied odds helped that a bit), and then the turn gave me a gutshot and then a free card, which just so happened to help me out. He went mad (DICK BY NAME, DICK BY NATURE - line of the tournament
), but I felt those sort of hands win big tournies like this and I just played the odds statistically, so it was pretty auto for me, personally.
Anyway, I pretty much dominated the final tourney, 3 betting everywhere and playing powerfully on the flop. Everyone wanted the next cash stage, so whilst I initially wanted a chop, I found myself with a healthy chip lead and decided against it. HU didn't last long, he had 2m to my 12m by the time the chips went in - I called off a flush draw to finish him off
As far as I'm concerned, you certainly need a run of cards to win big tournaments like these, but it's the precise value bets, steals and reads that really make the difference in how much you win. I kept right on it throughout and felt I thoroughly deserved the result I got. I'd gotten deep in 4000+ tournies recently but then run into bad luck, so I knew I was capable. But after that 33 hand, I knew it was probably just destined to be
Incidentally, I'd made quite a few friends, and about 8 of them specced me after they went out
One sent me a dollar too