WCOOP

I should have kept some hand histories as i can only remember about 7/8 hands from the whole tournament. I won a big coin flip with a flush draw v two pair after a few hours to put me in the top 100 in chips. From about level 6/7 i was in the top 30 in chips for the rest of the tournament. I won a massive pot to make me chip leader in this hand.

- Blinds were 5000/10000. Mid position made it 35000. I reraised with 55 to 100000. I had about 800000 and him 600000. We were both in the top 20 in chips. It flop J95. He checked, i bet 100000 into a pot of 220000 and he pushed in for his stack. I called of course and he had KK. That put me on $1.4 million in chips and the next highest was $1.1 million at the time and there were about 60 left.

I stayed in the top 3/4 all the way until we were down to two tables. I won another big pot with 99 v AQ when i called a reraise all in for about 900,000 chips. Then i lost about the same amount when the button pushed for 20bb an i called in the bb with 99 and he had TT.

Someone on my last entry asked me to comment about this hand here.

The last two orbits it had folded around the me in the small blind and each time i made up the SB he put in a big raise and i folded. So K9 was a tricky hand when they folded again. I decided to raise as obviously K9 is probably ahead against one random hand. With his stack being close to 1 million... i also didn't want to raise to 240000 and give him the chance to resteal or reraise me out of the pot with a genuine hand, which his stack size would have been perfect to do. So i opted to raise 5 big blinds to 400000. When he pushed in for another 590000... i obviously didn't like it very much. I had to call 590000 chips to potentially win $2 million.... so i needed to be over 30% for it to be the correct maths call. There was a chance he could have a smaller pair than 99 and it be a coin flip. Even AQ, AJ, AT would have been ok for me to call in this spot. As it happened he did a hand that dominated me with AK and i hit two nines on the flop. That was my luckiest hand in the tournament.... i can't remember another one anywhere near like that.

I made the final being only all in once with the worst hand... the flush draw against two pair that i mentioned earlier...

One guy busted and we were down to eight which is where i finished. The following hands sealed my exit.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?536961

This is how the action went.

PokerStars Game #6496413628: Tournament #40000018 $2500+$100 Hold'em No Limit - Level XXIII (50000/100000) - 2006/10/02 - 04:53:50 (ET)
Table '40000018 24' 9-max Seat #5 is the button
Seat 1: area23JC (4799937 in chips)
Seat 2: GODFATHER 72 (3639424 in chips)
Seat 3: Numie2 (2314416 in chips)
Seat 4: Annette_15 (1746499 in chips)
Seat 5: DEEZZZ_NUTS (1356882 in chips)
Seat 6: hannibalrex (6646227 in chips)
Seat 8: milkybarkid (2188523 in chips)
Seat 9: Lefort (2408092 in chips)
area23JC: posts the ante 10000
GODFATHER 72: posts the ante 10000
Numie2: posts the ante 10000
Annette_15: posts the ante 10000
DEEZZZ_NUTS: posts the ante 10000
hannibalrex: posts the ante 10000
milkybarkid: posts the ante 10000
Lefort: posts the ante 10000
hannibalrex: posts small blind 50000
milkybarkid: posts big blind 100000

Holecards:
FOLD Lefort
FOLD area23JC
FOLD GODFATHER 72
RAISE Numie2, 150000 to 250000
FOLD Annette_15
RAISE DEEZZZ_NUTS, 1096882 to 1346882 and is all-in
FOLD hannibalrex
CALL milkybarkid, 1246882
FOLD Numie2

Basically Numie2 had raised the last two pots so it was likely he could have any hand especially as he is raising in mid/late position. DEEZZZ_NUTS reraise on the button could be a resteal, or he could have a good, but not great hand like a small pair or weaker Ace. I thought his range was far too big for me to pass AK. Ideally i wanted him to turn over a weaker Ace. He had KK unfortunately and i didn't hit the Ace. No regrets over the call though. I wanted to win.

I can't find the link for the hand i busted on. It was one or two hands later. I had about 750,000 and was dealt TT. Facing another raise and reraise, i could have gone back over $2 million if my hand was good. My opponent had QQ though and i missed. Busted!

The guy who won it JC Tran played so well throughout. I was in his table for ages and i couldn't win a pot against him, luckily the rest of the table couldn't win a pot against me.

I am obviously happy to have had such a good cash. It was only my second online multi this year. Its actually just a bit higher than any live tournament cash that i have had. I really felt like i was going to come in the top 3 when we got down to the last 40.... so was gutted when i busted out. I am sure if i keep putting myself in these positions the really big result i want won't be too far away!

Next stop Baden on Friday for the next EPT event. I would settle for accumulating over 3 million chips again in that!