My 50k Weekend

As ever, I wasn’t expecting much of a reward from the weekend tournaments on PokerStars (it’s hard to be disappointed with such an attitude), but the onset of dark winter nights and the lure of some tasty events saw me return to my favourite site for the first time since its World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) a month ago.

Despite hurrying home after a local fireworks display the Sunday Million, which I chopped three months ago for $75,000, came and went uneventfully so I registered for the $200 $15 HORSE event and also the big $100 $9 no limit holdem rebuy event to raise my sprits, both starting at 12.30am London time.

Never have two such different events sat side by side – the standard of play in the former is laughable (so, unfortunately, is the structure), whereas the latter is often dubbed ‘the toughest tournament on the net’.

True to form, one starting table consisted of maniacs willing to raise every hand, and the other featured the likes of Thorladen, GB2005, -BBJ-, pbdrunks and mig.com - who happily were also willing to raise every hand (for the rebuy period at least).

In both tourneys I was able to steadily accumulate chips in the early stages, but whereas I was atop the leader board of the HORSE for most of the way, the $100 rebuy saw some fallback and then a late surge, ironically due to one particular manic doubling me up twice with A-Q vs Q-7 and 10-10 vs A-9 after he consistently open shoved his huge stack on my right.

By the time the money came around I was chip leader in the $100 rebuy event and used the position to full effect, but with 36 players getting paid there was some distance to go to the final whereas the HORSE event was reaching a critical stage.

Most players fail to understand the implications of blind vs ante games in tournaments (and particularly in crapshoot tournaments) and so, while I managed to surf the wave to an average chip stack for the final, the subsequent lemming like exits of the rest of the field were somewhat in contrast to my humble struggle to maintain that position.

In fact, in the HORSE I almost never had above the initial final table average due to a cold run of cards and some hyper aggressive players on my right, and so was more than content to see them crucify each other on the torturous structure until, amazingly, I was left heads up with a 10-1 chip deficit and ultimately a very nice $7,296 prize for second.

The $100 rebuy went much more according to plan, however, and I rode my chip lead to the final table with the application of more than a little aggression and some decent cards, making a decisive leap early on when another large stack somehow contrived to give me all his chips with A-Q vs A-3 all-in preflop. Things continued to go my way down to three-handed, by which time it was about 6am and I was still out in front by a distance – a great point at which to take advantage of the vagaries of the chip count chop, which saw me locking up $32,055.

Added to the HORSE result and a nice run in a few cash games and SNGs, I was happy to retire to bed around 7.30am on Monday morning $50,000 or so richer - just as the sun was coming up and the neighbours were turning their lights on and preparing for their daily commute into the City. Whoever said playing poker beats working for a living had, I felt, surely experienced similar moments.

May the flop be with you,

Phil Shaw aka Jackal69

8 November 2006