Familiarity Breeds Success
2008-02-11 20:55:43
By: Gene Bromberg
It amazes me that the same names keep popping up over and over at the final table of our $200,000 Sunday Guaranteed Tournament. The last few weeks we've had fields over 1,000 players strong (last night we fell just short, with 989) but the players who went the furthest Sunday night have made a habit of staying up late at UB.
Our final three had all gone deep in this event before. Heck, we should charge Christian "charder30" Harder rent--this was his third Sunday Guaranteed final table in the last three months. But while Harder was able to improve on his previous 6th- and 5th-place finishes, he wasn't able to go all the way and take it down...this time. He went out in third place and we'll be sure to set a chair aside for him next week, just in case.
That saw the start of the heads-up battle between raaazib and 8balldeluxe. Now, raaazib DOES know what it's like to win the $200K Sunday Guaranteed, having managed that amazing feat back on May 27th. He also final-tabled UBOC event #11 back in December, so he had to be confident that he could continue his UB success. Though if you asked 8balldeluxe if raaazib was destined to win, he doubtless would've answered, "Outlook Not So Good".
Because 8balldeluxe had a sizeable chip lead and proceeded to batter raaazib with a series of all-in shoves preflop that whittled away at raaazib's stack. He managed to double-up with A-J against A-8, but a few hands later 8balldeluxe's unimproved pocket fours held up in another all-in pot and he took down the the title and the $45,000 first prize. This was 8balldeluxe's biggest tournament score, after falling just short of a Sunday Guaranteed final table back on January 6th and placing 18th in UBOC Event # 9. The more often you play, the deeper you go, the better your chances of returning time and time again to the promised land. And they say it's all luck.
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