Thanks very much everyone. Feeling on cloud nine this morning
A quick report on how it played out!
I ran so hot from 19 until the final 8, think I busted 5 of those 11 people and had a big chip lead going into the final 8 with 2.5m out of 7.5m in play.
Once the final started I had so much momentum and thought with my chip lead I could put so much pressure on but it didn't work out that way at all. I tried to force things too much and everyone was still pretty deep which makes it actually tougher to put pressure on. I lost my head a bit and played two or three hands really poorly.
The dinner break came at the perfect time. I was tilted at myself and ruing my mistakes. I needed to snap out of it and have a completely different approach. A halftime team talk with Deadman really helped from a strategy point of view, and a FaceTime with Victoria really helped from a morale point of view.
After dinner I had a totally different approach, the strategy being to just sit back and let people bust themselves, then apply pressure once short handed. And that's exactly how it worked out. A real key pot was busting Zohair to go 4 handed. Even though the pot wasn't that big, it was still crucial because he was the best player left in and had direct position on me, and it gave me a decent chip lead again and I could put real pressure on 4 handed.
This was when I really feel happy with how I played, I relaxed more and started enjoying myself for the first time on the final. I pressed pretty hard and again although I didn't win any big pot, the luck was the others knocking each other out and I didn't take any hits, went into heads up 4.8m to 2.7m and feeling great.
I turned down a deal so we played on for 32k difference. I really enjoy heads up and felt I played my absolute best during this match.
I got him allin with my AQ vs 88 and I thought this must be fate. 2014 started off with me losing AQ vs 88 for chunks in EPT Deauville to come 11th. So I thought it would a fitting end of the year to win the tournament with the same flip.
Alas, that didn't happen, but I grinded him back to even again, then took a slight lead when the sick one took place...
We got it all in with my
vs his
on a Q229r board. I was 95% to win the lot there and then. But alas, the brutal queen on the river crippled me. That was a pretty brutal beat to take for such a huge amount of money. But I actually felt fine, I really was determined to not let it bother me and to play on unfazed.
I had 800k at 50/100k and got some shoves through, then won 66 vs QJ to double to around 2.5m. At this point it seemed like a deal would be a good idea now that we were much shallower. So we deal a chip count deal and played for the trophy. Whether it would've played out the same I don't know, he says he would have done some things different but as you know I take my trophies very seriously! I ended up winning A6 vs KJ for a huge double to have him 5.5:2m and then the last one A8>KT to finish it.
It was immensely satisfying. To have that mental setback early on in the final and then have the support of my friends and girlfriend to help me snap out of it. And then to recover from that sick hand to get it all back and win. I feel like it was my proudest accomplishment in poker.
I couldn't bare Victoria being in Barcelona on her own, so flown her out today and gonna skip the Eureka to spend time with her in this amazing city. Open Face Chinese World Championship tomorrow, absolutely buzzing for this. Gonna do a charity auction for 10% of my action where I'll match whatever the winning bid is. See the staking boards shortly!
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