Well, the FTOPS ME finally arrived. Although, I don't think it has the same prestige as the annual PokerStars' WCOOP, I love that Full Tilt provides us with a quarterly tourney series that has multiple events with life changing money to be awarded.
Being that a major portion of my bankroll is generated from satellite wins, the FTOPS is great because there are a ton of satellites available to help pad my bankroll. I was able to win multiple seats to Event #10, three seats into the ME and a few others here and there. So in a sense, the ME itself was a "freeroll" because I was up from winning multiple seats.
I went to bed on Saturday at a reasonable time for me, 2am, in order to get enough sleep so that I would be energized for a long night of poker on Sunday. Well, I woke up at around 10am and took care of some house work before plopping into my office chair. After playing for about 5 hours and only winning one seat to the FTOPS Event #24, I decided to chill for a couple of hours before the ME began.
6pm arrived. Showtime.
Not much happened during the first hour. We started with at 5k chip stack, but at the first break I was down to 4890 in chips.
I tried my best to stick with my small ball approach. The blinds were low and no antes were involved so I just wanted to steadily build up my stack without getting into any difficult decisions for my tourney life. During the second hour, the first hand that I was dealt was AA. Fortunately for me, another player was dealt KK. He had me covered. We got all of the chips in pre-flop and my hand held. Unfortunately for me, in the last hand before the second break, I was in a pot with the same guy. This time I held KK and he held AA. What are the odds of that happening? After that loss, I was still sitting on about 10k in chips at the second break.
A lot of fireworks happened during the third hour. I picked up a few hands and got paid off. At break #3, I had just under 26k in chips. Not much happened during the fourth hour. I was at pretty much the same stack as at the last break, but lost a big pot just before the fourth break. Now I had just over 16k.
During the fifth hour, the money bubble was burst. I was very short during this bubble. So my stack prevented me from gaining any "free chips". I had to basically sit back and watch the big stacks steal all of the pots. Patience grasshopper. I knew it would be ON as soon as the bubble burst. It didn't take too long for the bubble to burst. When it did, I was sitting on about $9k. An orbit and a half later, I was sitting on an average stack of 40k without a single showdown. At the fifth break, I had 48k in chips. I managed to chip up some more and had about 129k at the sixth break. I wouldn't last long enough to see the seventh break. My stacked peaked at about 180k. I really like the way I was able to chip up from break to break for the most part. This is an area of my game which I would like to become very good, chipping up, without playing huge pots.
The tourney paid out the top 648 players. #1 got $430k and #665 got $725. 4880 people began with dreams of a $430k payday. From about 1000 players on to the end of my tourney, I just went completely card dead. It was pretty painful. I had to rely on a bunch of moves in order to march on. A couple of hands deep into the tourney I sucked out pretty good. Here they are:
Hand #1:
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Seat 1: Tsc02 ($21,288)
Seat 2: Fzth1 ($84,508)
Seat 3: Kid_Chino ($43,358)
Seat 5: aka_advanced ($112,937) -
Seat 6: TheJunkie ($41,195) -
Seat 7: m_reed05 ($76,351)
Seat 8: jeystyle ($126,062)
Seat 9: The Lipton Kid ($132,005)
PRE-FLOP:
aka_advanced posts small blind $1200
TheJunkie posts BIG blind $2400
Dealt To: TheJunkie
ANTE Tsc02 ($300)
ANTE Fzth1 ($300)
ANTE Kid_Chino ($300)
ANTE aka_advanced ($300)
ANTE TheJunkie ($300)
ANTE m_reed05 ($300)
ANTE jeystyle ($300)
ANTE The Lipton Kid ($300)
FOLD m_reed05
FOLD jeystyle
FOLD The Lipton Kid
FOLD Tsc02
FOLD Fzth1
RAISE Kid_Chino ($7200)
FOLD aka_advanced
RAISE TheJunkie ($40895)
CALL Kid_Chino ($33695)
FLOP:
Pot: $85390
TURN:
Pot: $85390
RIVER:
Pot: $85390
SHOWDOWN:
TheJunkie:
Kid_Chino:
TheJunkie collected $85390 from main pot with a flush, Ace high
SUMMARY:
Total pot: $85 Rake: $0
Final Board:
Seat 1: Tsc02 folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-300)
Seat 2: Fzth1 folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-300)
Seat 3: Kid_Chino showed [9c 9h] and lost with three of a kind, Nines - Net Gain/Loss: ($-41195)
Seat 5: aka_advanced small blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-1500)
Seat 6: TheJunkie big blind showed [Td Kc] and won 85,390 with a flush, Ace high - Net Gain/Loss: ($44195)
Seat 7: m_reed05 folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-300)
Seat 8: jeystyle folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-300)
Seat 9: The Lipton Kid folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-300)
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Hand #2:
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Seat 1: NaStEE_Nas ($75,050)
Seat 2: Fzth1 ($97,488)
Seat 3: stensture ($96,909)
Seat 4: Not da MaMa ($68,762)
Seat 5: aka_advanced ($130,286)
Seat 6: TheJunkie ($88,239) -
Seat 7: m_reed05 ($80,333) -
Seat 8: jeystyle ($130,512) -
Seat 9: The Lipton Kid ($73,088)
PRE-FLOP:
m_reed05 posts small blind $1700
jeystyle posts BIG blind $3400
Dealt To: TheJunkie
ANTE NaStEE_Nas ($400)
ANTE Fzth1 ($400)
ANTE stensture ($400)
ANTE Not da MaMa ($400)
ANTE aka_advanced ($400)
ANTE TheJunkie ($400)
ANTE m_reed05 ($400)
ANTE jeystyle ($400)
ANTE The Lipton Kid ($400)
FOLD The Lipton Kid
FOLD NaStEE_Nas
FOLD Fzth1
FOLD stensture
FOLD Not da MaMa
FOLD aka_advanced
RAISE TheJunkie ($8500)
FOLD m_reed05
RAISE jeystyle ($13600)
CALL TheJunkie ($5100)
FLOP:
Pot: $32500
BET jeystyle ($17000)
RAISE TheJunkie ($74239)
CALL jeystyle ($57239)
TURN:
Pot: $180978
RIVER:
Pot: $180978
SHOWDOWN:
TheJunkie:
jeystyle:
TheJunkie collected $180978 from main pot with a flush, King high
SUMMARY:
Total pot: $180 Rake: $0
Final Board:
Seat 1: NaStEE_Nas folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-400)
Seat 2: Fzth1 folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-400)
Seat 3: stensture folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-400)
Seat 4: Not da MaMa folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-400)
Seat 5: aka_advanced folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-400)
Seat 6: TheJunkie button showed [7c 5c] and won 180,978 with a flush, King high - Net Gain/Loss: ($92739)
Seat 7: m_reed05 small blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-2100)
Seat 8: jeystyle big blind showed [Ks Jh] and lost with two pair, Kings and Jacks - Net Gain/Loss: ($-88239)
Seat 9: The Lipton Kid folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-400)
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Yeah I got my money in bad, but I don't think these were horrible spots to takes these lines. It just worked out for me this time. Of course I'm not used to getting this deep in a huge MTT field and definitely not used to having lady luck on my side in a MTT. Thank you lady luck. BTW, I learned a new chat expression during this tourney. "fist pump". You will be seeing that a lot from me. Hopefully, I will be giving a lot more fist pumps and a lot less "donks rule".
Here is my bust out hand. I took some heat for making this call from the railbirds. It kind of made me question my decision. I couldn't even sleep well that night. Look at the hand and then I will give you some insight into my thought process.
Hand #3 aka The Bust Out Hand:
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Seat 1: xcaptain84x ($38,474)
Seat 2: Fzth1 ($266,782)
Seat 3: stensture ($48,976)
Seat 4: Not da MaMa ($90,517)
Seat 5: aka_advanced ($102,475) -
Seat 6: TheJunkie ($109,278) -
Seat 7: m_reed05 ($51,033) -
Seat 8: jeystyle ($228,012)
Seat 9: MUPokerPlayer ($237,192)
PRE-FLOP:
TheJunkie posts small blind $2500
m_reed05 posts BIG blind $5000
Dealt To: TheJunkie
ANTE xcaptain84x ($600)
ANTE Fzth1 ($600)
ANTE stensture ($600)
ANTE Not da MaMa ($600)
ANTE aka_advanced ($600)
ANTE TheJunkie ($600)
ANTE m_reed05 ($600)
ANTE jeystyle ($600)
ANTE MUPokerPlayer ($600)
FOLD jeystyle
FOLD MUPokerPlayer
FOLD xcaptain84x
FOLD Fzth1
RAISE stensture ($14444)
FOLD Not da MaMa
RAISE aka_advanced ($101875)
RAISE TheJunkie ($108678)
FOLD m_reed05
FOLD stensture
UNCALLED TheJunkie ($6803)
FLOP:
Pot: $228594
TURN:
Pot: $228594
RIVER:
Pot: $228594
SHOWDOWN:
TheJunkie:
aka_advanced:
aka_advanced collected $228594 from main pot with three of a kind, Fives
SUMMARY:
Total pot: $228 Rake: $0
Final Board:
Seat 1: xcaptain84x folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-600)
Seat 2: Fzth1 folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-600)
Seat 3: stensture folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-15044)
Seat 4: Not da MaMa folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-600)
Seat 5: aka_advanced button showed [5d 5s] and won 228,594 with three of a kind, Fives - Net Gain/Loss: ($126119)
Seat 6: TheJunkie small blind showed [As Kd] and lost with Ace King high - Net Gain/Loss: ($-102475)
Seat 7: m_reed05 big blind folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-5600)
Seat 8: jeystyle folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-600)
Seat 9: MUPokerPlayer folded before the Flop - Net Gain/Loss: ($-600)
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The initial raiser was very short. His raise and from playing with him, seemed more like he was trying to steal the BB from another short stack. He either had a monster or nothing. (BTW, I thought his play in this hand was pretty bad. FWIW) I had a hand that was strong enough to shove on him, but after the button shoved All-in, I had to pause. Why would this guy be shoving on a small stack when I have plenty of chips for him to try and take? At this point, I was more focused on the big stack and less so on the short stack. Even if the short stack had me crushed, there would be plenty of chips in the side pot. The range that I gave to the big stack was TT-55, AJ+, KQ+. With 20BBs and not many good spots to open, I decided that this spot was as good as any to try and double up which would result in me having a Top 25 chip stack. In order to win tourneys, you have to win these flips. (At least that's what I've heard and read, given that I haven't won jack shit. LOL) So, I called and lost the flip. GG me. Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya.
Afterwards, I opened pokerstove and saw that I was actually a 58% - 42% favorite over his range. So I felt a little better, but wanted to hear the thoughts of my fellow PoketFivers. Here are some of the responses that I received:
"If he is shoving 55 then he's shoving AQ and AJ i imagine. Pretty standard call for you i say."
"I think its standard. Big field, 20bb, you need to chip up soon. Here's a great spot. And you have the chance to win a huge pot if original raiser calls. EVen if he doesn't, lots of dead money in there with his bet, blinds and antes. Now ur getting fantastic odds to take a coin flip. Don't think twice about this imo.
Unless theraiser was opening like every other pot, then that shove wtih 55 is atrocious, eh?"
The most important response came from AJKHoosier1. He is currently ranked by PocketFives as the #1 online player in the world. This was his response:
"i was actually watching this table and obv ur call was super standard. i can see the reason for fear being the fact that aka_advanced is reshoving on a guy with 10 total bbs who raised to almost 3x (fwiw really dont love the 55 shove), but especially if stens had shown a tendency to raise/fold in donkish fashion, then you gotta imagine aka is shoving AJ+ etc. which is more than enough to justify ur AKs... along with the fact that it's, well, AKs"
All in all, I was at ease with the payout, but by no means satisfied with the outcome. Finishing 160th out of 4800 and a $1700 check will help out my bankroll rather nicely, but that isn't why I play in MTTs. #1 or bust.
This tourney was the deepest that I've finished in a Sunday Major so far and it was the biggest payout that I've won in a MTT. More importantly, this tourney added massive amounts of octane to my poker fire. Good luck at the tables and thanks for reading.
Congrats to my tablemates!
Not da Mama(24th), jeystyle(30th), MUPokerPlayer(34th) and aka_advanced(39th)
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