I have copied athis from the pokerplayer newspaper site - hope my boss doesn't mind
Just a great day!
by Peter Costa filed under Misc. [Originally appeared in the February 6, 2006 issue of Poker Player]
Having to miss Australia as well as the start of Tunica - I have had to do with playing the daily Bellagio events. But even then things seemed to go downhill as far as poker was concerned, by becoming the victim of a heavy cold. In the past, this did not deter me from going and playing tournaments. However, (as I have mentioned in past articles) feeling rundown and poker do not mix. In fact, my only series of losses came during a period when I tried to defy similar conditions. I therefore made a promise that I would never play poker when unwell. However......
I did not mention anything about online poker. So...I log on to Partypoker for the Sunday $500K event. Having transferred almost all that I had in the account to a friend - I needed to make a deposit. But wait a minute....there's still $40 in the account. I know this is not enough but lets just see what I can do with this before I make the transaction. Within a few minutes in a small PLO game - I have won enough to play the tournament and some spare to mess about with. With nearly 2200 players in these events - I tend to play three or four tables at a time (helps me to play tight and also not to lose interest). Anyway....we are down to the last 400 in the tournament and in the money. Meanwhile....
The loose change was now at over $800 and just enough for a $400 S&G as well as a minimum sit down in the 10-20 PLO. The one table was won with ease as the random number generator hit me in the face. But that's not all. Within 6-8 hands in the PLO, my stack is at over $8K. As for the tournament - I struggled to keep pace and was bordering on the desperation. The fact that everything else was turning to gold - seemed to be the main reason why I was still hanging on as a low stack. In the meantime, my dear wife is running back and forth with tea or soup as well as medicine. The head is now hot as three boxes of tissues take their toll. But I'm a pro, and there's a tournament to be won! Yeah right! My only thought at the time was to try and make as far as I could before collapsing. But before long, I am at the final table.
Suddenly, a great day has the possibility to become even better! My wife had been constantly looking at the pay structure and seeing it go up in the hundreds. But now at the final, it was jumping up by the thousands! Before we knew it, we found ourselves in the final three. Then the other two go to war and I am now guaranteed $50K with a chance of $100K. Is this really happening? I have hardly had a hand in 5 hours and I am heads-up!
OK...very much out-stacked, but still in with a chance. Within ten minutes, my opponent is asking for a deal. WOW! We are almost level in chips! Luckily, neither of us knew the procedure for making a deal online and we decided to play.
The end was sweet as well as totally unexpected. And you would think that this was enough. However, I needed to chill out after such a long session. It just so happens that I like to chill by playing PLO. After another quick $15K profit, I decided that I now had the material for my next article.
As poker players, we tend to suffer a lot during the year - so days like this are very welcome. And as any player will tell you - one really great day can keep you going for a long time.
Until next time - play well, get lucky and don't deposit unless you need it!
This article was restricted to 600 words and therefore, not enough to go into any deatail cocnerning that final - so here goes!
Once we made the money, I hovered around the low stacks. With having an enforced tight image, my raises largely went by unchallenge (though not really sure if people take note of such things online,especially when they multi-task) . However, when I did get called, it was always by the small task, always with a worst hand and always lost. My only savor was that I was left with enough chips to protect my hand, or simply perhaps they never had a hand when I pushed. Either way, I progress in this manner all the way to the final. Lowest stack by a fair way, it cool to see someone else bust in tenth place, allowing me to make the first big jump in money.
With blinds at 15K-30K, my first all-in for about 95K receievd respectand grew to about 150K. Suddenly there is three way cation and the big stack cleans up - seven handed. Hehe, this is fun! But before I could even think about the next stepo on the ladder, an enforced all-in loooms. With anout 100K in chips, my A-6 has no choice but to gamble. Luckily for me at least, a re-raise forces the blinds out and gives massive value. As fully expected, the worst hand flops an A and 6 to leave the 7-7 trailing. Played one - won one. Before the 7-7 had to to type in you lucky f***, another three way pot develops. All-in, all-in, all-in, and stil no flop in sight. Down to five-handed as again the biggest stack takes it down. Now short-handed and no hands to play, the pressure increases. It's that time again whne any decent hand will suffice. Wow! 4-4,my first pair in the final. Get an obvious call now as the blinds of 20-40K put my tiny raise of 120K into value-call land. The A-Q says nice hand to the tiny winning pair and I now border 300K. Played two - won two. Easy game!
Gets a little hazy here but in double quick time and before the blinds come to me, we lose one then another. Jesus Christ! Three-handed and my best hand has been 4-4! Suddenly my phone rings and a friend who had been watching for the last couple of hours finally feels safe to say congrats. As I was just about to say thanks,my wife nudges me to tell me that the other had gone all-in after the flop. Notsure who had the most but I knew it was close between them. When the hands are are shown, we see a major bluff by one and a great call by the other. The great call had the bigger stack and we were heads-up. 2.2M v 300k. In all my years of playing this game, nothing could come close to this. Never could I get heads-up like this in the real world of poker and in this fashion. Although, once at the Vic, I did win a one-table by playing just three hands - this was beyond anything.
Anyway, where was I? Ah! yes, the match cotinued and I increased my stack to about 650K - worrying times for our friend. With simply raising the minimum each time by both players, we allowed ourselves a lot of play. Within about ten minutes, a break arrives and my stack of 1.5m encourages call from my opponenet to do a deal. At the time, although Party had just begun to introduced the deal feature, it was not avaliable for this event. Anyway, I now had an edge in terms of running well. So Mr Noel Edmunds....NO DEAL! Before too long, the chip situation was reveresed. And the final hand? Playing 30K-60K, I raise the minimum with
-8h. He calls as usual and we see a flop of
-5h-3h. The comulsary check to the raiser (who loves this f*****
hand btw), bets 180K. Holding T-5, our friend senses my steal bet and quickly calls. The blank turn brings the same exact action. Another harmless river brings carefull thought after his check. Giving a running cometary to the wife; I exaplin that if I just bet small again. our oppenent may to try to bluff. Even though we had missed the flush, we still had the best hand. I called the 7800K re-raise as fast as the net allowed, and that was that! Jesus, I feel that I did more work in writing about it than I did in playing!
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