August 25-6, 2012: Pocket 10s crush pocket 4s.
August 25-6, 2012: Pocket 10s crush pocket 4s.
This was a freeroll that began at 23.00 London time on August 25, 2012 and ended – for me – just after 2.30am the following day. There was a $250 prize pool, 8,641 runners and 1,100 places paid, so it wasn’t too difficult to make the money. It became even easier when a muppet with a massive stack insisted on giving me all his chips by raising all-in every hand. After that I was on a table with 8 sleepers, so was able to pick up thousands of chips before we got too deep into the tournament. I was almost a racing certainty to cash.
August 25-6, 2012: AK suited holds up against two pair after flopping top straight.
August 25-6, 2012: Pocket 10s hold up with a straight on the turn.
Below is my final hand. The big stack raised to 160,000 with pocket 10s, which meant all-in or fold for me. I figured he probably had ace something; with AK or AQ I’m slight favourite though in practice, it’s a coin flip. Ace rag, and I’m big favourite. When I shoved and he called I almost heaved a sign of relief on seeing his pocket 10s. I say almost, the flop killed that.
August 25-6, 2012: The final hand for our hero; massive favourite, he is outdrawn by the raiser. Winning this hand would probably have seen me finish at least ten places higher and maybe much more than that.
As you can see, I finished 57th, not a bad showing; if I’d won that hand though, I would have been in line for a shot at the final table, or even first prize.
Was it worth it? Well, I’m seldom in bed before 1am, and I was multitasking, but like the man said, don’t give up the day job.
[The above article was published originally as a blog August 26, 2012. All the screengrabs are dated because on that site they can be used in other articles. Assuming they are not deleted].
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