DEEPStack 12 Results

well, well well...how about this, i won!

even haley's comet streaks by every 76 years so waking up realizing i DID actually win a tournament shouldnt feel so "wow" but feeling like i was in a major slump this year and finding a way to get out of it with a DEEPStack win feels pretty nice. actually, the fact we had 16 players and a $650 first place prize feels more than nice. its my 2nd outright DEEPStack win and 3rd overall (one chopped with Eman).

lets see a picture of my beautiful face :

(pay no attention to the ugliness in the background)

now because i won ill recap how things went for me.

things started well. i won a number of small pots to get up to ~30,000 (we started this week with 25,000TC). then i was involved in a big pot relative to the blinds and i played it pretty piss poorly.

blinds are 150/300 and i raise to 900 in EP with AT and got two callers, Dave and Eitan. flop comes AQx and all three of us check. im certain i have the best hand and i tried to be a bit tricky here which would have worked if i followed through with a raise on the turn., but when the K came on the turn i simply called Dave's bet of 2500 when my instinct was to raise...i guess i thought i could get Dave to bluff the river if a blank hit. anyway, a lovely T hits the river giving me two terrible pair. the board shows AQxKT and Dave goes all-in for 8700. the way he acted and the wauy the betting went i struggled to find a way he could have a Jack. i wondered out loud what he could have that included a Jack and then reluctantly called. he flipped over QJ which was a reasonable holding given we all checked the flop. my stack of ~30,000 was now down to around 17,000. good thing for me was the fact Dave was in a giving mood and would later give me a present that set me up nicely for the final table.

as we neared the final table a hand developed at table #1 that had involved way too many chips. to start, Bob was a bit short and made a standard raise preflop that was called by Dave and myself. i had the button and pocket 3s. the flop came 743 and Dave bet 11,100, enough to put Bob all-in. Bob made the call with JJ and i was left to decide what to do here. i chose to just shove it all in for another 29,900 and let dave make a decision. amazingly Dave deduced i had nothing and called with....A4! thank you Mr Dave Abbott. a miracle J hit the turn saving Bob's ass and when the river blanked i had ~60,000 and Bob scooped close to 40,000.

i think that set us up for the final table.

the first two hands i get at the FT are 22 and AK. i raise both hands and win one without a flop and the other when John and i check it down on a 67376 board.

John would be the first to leave us, followed by Kent, Bob, Julia and George.

with a healthy stack i chose to engage in some butt-play and raised a few limpers with K2. Niall in the SB decided 77 was the hand he was looking for and shoved for almost the same amount i had raised. i called, not because i liked my hand but because there was so much dead money in there. his 77 held up and i had used up all of my "playing" chips and had to gear down for a while. it helped that i went card dead but the blinds were beginning to eat me up.

when we hit 5-handed play the post flop action slowly deteriorated as the blinds increased. i found myself the shortstack with roughly 30,000 with blinds at 2000/4000/400 ante and finally i found a hand to play. i was happy to shove over top of a EP raise with AJ. he called with A9 and i was able to grab close to 65,000TC.

Niall, myself, Sean, Ryan and Paul were playing 5-handed for quite some time before we lost Niall. stacks were fluctuating quickly and a few of us took turns on the short stack. Niall went out in 5th but i cant remember what he lost with, i think Ryan took him down (but im not totally sure of that).

the key hand when we hit the money was between myself and Sean. i had AA UTG and raised to 20,000 with blinds at 3,000/6,000. Sean went Sly Stallone on me and i didnt hesitate to flip over my bullets after he tabled QQ. a few seconds later, for comedic effect, i announced "i call". Sean wasnt too happy to see my hand and he bounced around a bit before coming back to deal the board. winning this hand put me well over 100,000TC and Sean, the chip leader for the final table from the start was down to ~50,000.

i think the next hand i was dealt TT and as i was stacking the chips i went all-in. thats when Paul called me with AKcc and he hit a K on the flop and he was back in the game.

Sean was the shorty now when he had the button and moved in with KJss. yan in the BB called with AT but when the board showed KTxKx Sean was out of the doldrums. this loss meant Ryan only had about 10,000TC and he blindly put them in on the next hand. his 96ss was up vs Sean's AA. he flopped a pair and turn a flush draw but couldnt get there on the river and Ryan was terminated in 4th.

we lost Sean in 3rd after i called his preflop raise holding 97cc. i checked the 763 flop and when he moved in i called quickly knowing only an overpair was beating me. odds are he didnt have one so when i saw the flop i was not going to go away. he showed K6ss for middle pair. i made a straight on the river to get to heads-up against Paul.

stacks were about 65%-35% for me and i offered Paul $400 to go home. i needed to finish the game as fast as possible becaus my babysitter was probably passed out upstairs. $300 was guaranteed to 2nd place so i was really hoping he would take the generous offer. he chose to play it out and when he took a chip lead on me after he shoved with K9 or KT and i had AQ i was worried. he won the hand after hitting a pair of Kings and i was cursing AQ yet again. but as quickly as i lost the lead i got it all back plus bit when i picked off a couple bluffs.

the final hand he shoved preflop with 9T and i woke up with JJ. he flopped a gutterball on a KQx board but my 2 Jacks were what he needed. he missed the turn and river and finally after 5.5 hours or so i had finally won a tournament!

lets see my pretty face again:

see you next week, im out!