Likey wins the $11 MTT - $15K GTD (4032 runners)

Likey wins the $11 MTT - $15K GTD (4032 runners)

This isn’t a tournament I usually play, nor did I take it too seriously - mainly because I had already ‘donked off’ on all of my other regular tournaments such as the $3 rebuy and the $20 cubed.  After busting out of those I only had this $11 MTT left so I had to one table it like a live pro.

Laura kept bugging me to pack because we were going on holiday the next day; it should have already been done and I really shouldn’t have been playing any tournaments the night before - or so Laura kept telling me!  I kept saying I would pack as soon as I busted out.  There were a few spots where I should have been out but kept winning my races and even shown her my laptop screen every time I shoved but kept hitting my Ace on the river which she found amusing, but she then followed it up with “can’t you just lose so you can pack?”  My response was “I’m trying, I’m trying… I just can’t lose a race today!”

Eventually, with this care-free attitude, I made it into the money just by shoving when I was down to between 8-15BB, then decided not to go crazy once I was in the money as I thought I may as well wait for a good double up spot.  Laura, however, had given up on the packing front and had long gone to bed, muttering something or the other!

With a bit of peace and quiet, I was able to play short stacked poker throughout the money stage then the next thing I remembered was being 32 out of 38 players from the original 4032 runners.  The key hand was when I had TT with 10BB on the Big Blind, I had already decided I was not going to fold.  UTG+1 limped 12K and had a monster stack of 626K, CO shoved for 93K so I stuck in all my chips.  UTG+1 then called with KK whilst the other guy had A7s.  The flop came 25A so at this point I was ready to start packing… but the Ten dropped on the Turn and another Ten dropped on the River.  I received a call from my mate and I couldn’t speak properly because of my astonishment but managed to mutter “how did I hold up there and hit Quads?!” then said I’m going to try win this as I have a good chance then abruptly ended the call.

I had 361K chips with just over 30BB with just 4 tables left, sitting 17 out of 36 and in decent shape to get to the final table.  I was later moved to another table where I was dealt Aces UTG so I made a small raise and called BB’s shove and sitting with 510K.  That was the only occasion I had Aces in the whole tournament.

Now I am just slowing trying to grind my way to the final table but also maintaining my stack, we shortly busted down to 2 tables and I have quite a few big stacks on my table with over 1 million chips, I was on around 600K with a few short stacks in the mix.

My plan was to get reads on all the remaining players by using OPR and from the way they were playing. There was an aggressive player two to my right I felt I had to be careful of as it felt - I could have been wrong though - like they were getting a little help from someone due to their pro-like bet sizes but poor OPR results.

The aggressive player is now chip leader and bullying the table, she’s raising plenty and did it when I was on the BB with AQo.  I shoved my 20BB stack and she folded and said in the chatbox that she’s called with QJ before.  I then told her to “call quicker” and said she “folded like a girl”.  I was hoping this sets me up for a nice double up off her later in the game.

My stack went down quite rapidly due to the blinds going up, it was now 17.5K/35K and I had 434K sitting last. The chip leader raises yet again and we are now on the final table bubble with 10 left.  I had KTs on the button and was about to shove on her but I had the other table open and saw that one of the players had just busted out.  I thought it was better to fold as I’d have a better spot to shove when we were 9-handed.

During the final table I waited patiently for a hand to double up with, I was getting rather short and had 330K on the button when the blinds were 20K/40K, the CO min-raised 40K but he seemed like a ‘clueless donk’ so I shoved A8o thinking it was the best hand.  He called with KTo and I held up for a 765K pot.

A couple of players dropped out but I was still sitting 7 out of 7 with a 500K stack. The next guy above me had 1.3M chips.  Blinds were 30K/60K and I had AKo on the button so I shoved and the tight player on the BB calls me with A7o with his 1.8M stack, my hand held up so now I had over ONE MIRRION chips - but still last!

Another key hand was against the previously mentioned aggressive player who was now chip leader with 2.8M chips, blinds were 30K/60K still and I had A7o on the BB.  She raised 140K from the SB and I thought about what to do with my 1.2M stack because I wouldn’t get any value if I re-raise but A7o was too strong to fold.  I opted to call and hope to hit an Ace so I could trap her.  The flop was 93A rainbow, she checked so I trap-checked.  The turn was a K which was a great card to represent, she bet 178K and I re-raised 366K leaving 766K in hope that she thinks there’s fold equity.  She tanks and then shoves, I snapped called her so fast and typed “YOU’LL BE ALRIGHT” in the chatbox when I saw her table T8o.  She tried to bluff me with ‘fresh air’ and now I’m sitting with 2.5M chips and very close to the chip lead.

I am now guaranteed 4 figures and decided to go for the win. A few players eventually dropped out including the aggressive player.  A deal was mentioned 3-way but nothing was agreed so we carried on, one guy busted out the other guy so we were now heads-up.  He instantly asked to do a deal whilst he had 2M more chips than me.  I decided to play on: he was a weak HU player and I soon took over the chip lead and slowly grinded him down.  He wanted to see flops a lot so I decided to see it too; I then took pots off him post-flop.  It went on like this for a while and eventually I changed gears by shoving everything to see what he does as he was getting short, the final hand was him thinking he trapped me by limping KTs and I shoved with a real hand this time of A6o and got a full house by the river.  Good game!

As this was the Sunday tournament it had a larger amount of runners (4032) giving me a nice prize of $5241.61, usually it would only get around 2800 runners.

After the win I still hadn’t packed and had given up on the idea.  Instead, I stuck a Post-it note on Laura’s alarm clock saying “Wake me up at 11am I’ll pack then. I just won $5200″.

When her alarm went off, I got a nudge in the ribs with her saying “you idiot, you stayed up all that time to win 52 dollars?”  I was like “WTF?!  There’s no decimal, I won it you donk!” and went back to sleep.