Up and Down, Up and Down
2007-05-28 12:07:15
By:
Gene Bromberg
Well, we didn't break last week's record field for the
$200,000 Sunday Guaranteed Tournament, and as always I have a plausible excuse. It's Memorial Day weekend. Folks were attending picnics, or they were traveling, or they were in fact attending memorial services for the soldiers and sailors who have given their lives protecting our freedom and liberty. Which is something more Americans should do, myself included.
Watching these big field
poker tournaments has taught me a lesson that's penetrated even my extra-thick skull--no chip lead is ever safe, no deficit is too big to overcome. When we were down to three-handed play FeedMEMunE had a bit less than twice as many chips as winnAA, who had a bit less than twice as many chips as raaazib. But one or two hands can turn the standing on their head, and that's what happened yet again last night.
Raaazib had enough chips to make a serious dent in the other two stacks, and he was able to chip up over the course of several hands until he was able to draw just ahead of winnAA. Who decided enough was enough and moved all-in with pocket threes. Only to find that, unfortunately, raaazib had pocket Queens. Making things extra-cruel was the fact that winnAA hit a three on the river, but raaazib had already made a flush by the turn. And that sent winnAA to the rail in third place, with 18,500 to console him.
So the heads-up battle was between two players with nearly identical stacks. And then something truly unfortunate happened. FeedMEMunE lost his internet connection, and kept losing it. That's happens to just about every
online poker player from time to time, and just about every online player prays it doesn't happen when they're playing heads-up for a major online title. The nightmare became real for FeedMEMunE last night.
And raaazib took advantage by quickly raising each hand and gobbling up the blinds. When he returned FeedMEMunE told raaazib he had "no class" by behaving in this way, and I guess this does raise some moral questions. I'll admit that I've stolen blinds from players in sit-n-goes when they've lost their hook-up and we're heads-up, but those were low-limit, one-table deals. There might've been thirty bucks on the line, not $18,000, as there was last night. Still, ethics are ethics, regardless of the dollar amounts involved.
I've seen good sportsmanship at final tables the last few months that really impressed me. And I'd like to think that if I was playing heads-up for a big title and the other player lost his connection, I'd stall as long as possible to give him a chance to get back. But then, in the past I HAVEN'T done that. I guess I'm saying that I won't be so quick to judge. Need to do more thinking about this.
When FeedMEMunE was whittled down to nearly nothing he pushed with A-6 and was called by K-J, and a King on the flop provided the
coup de grace. It's entirely possible FeedMEMunE might've finished in second-place anyway and still collected $27,000, but it's unfortunate his internet provider couldn't keep him connected so we could find out for sure. And after fighting his way through 865 players, it's not hard to imagine raaazib would've found a way to take down one more and still win the $45,000 first prize he collected.
The rest of our final table looked, and was paid, like this:
- 4th: KAZAG $13,000
- 5th: ParManD $11,000
- 6th: EL DEDO $9,000
- 7th: giboman $7,000
- 8th: AudiA3 $5,000
- 9th: Phil X $3,500
- 10th: clcktower $2,000
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