PartyPoker.com Quarter Million Guaranteed - April 24th, 2005

Patrick Jackson

April 25th, 2005

The Sunday Quarter Million Guaranteed tournament on PartyPoker.com had 1,912 players sign up for a total prize pool of $382,400. After close to seven hours of poker, the field had been reduced to the following ten players with a shot at the $80,304 first prize (chip counts in parenthesis):

Seat 1: syjohnse (376172)
Seat 2: rose1530 (254416)
Seat 3: Aceshighxx (402828)
Seat 4: acegoldberg (351160)
Seat 5: weenie1 (328092)
Seat 6: Aston_DB9 (290656)
Seat 7: hatinJacks (276818)
Seat 8: scarface_79 (311566)
Seat 9: BIGSkkY (191364)
Seat 10: highyield6 (84928)

Arriving at the final table with a very short stack, highyield6 became the first to exit. In the big blind for 20k of his short stack, highyield6 called BIGSkkY's raise that put him all-in with K-3 offsuit. BIGSkkY had A-8 offsuit, and an ace on the flop sealed highyield6's fate as he finished the tournament in tenth place for $3,824.

BIGSkkY received another boost to his cause when Aceshighxx called his all-in with K-T offsuit. BIGSkkY had a pocket pair of queens, which held up after no king came on the flop.

With the blinds at 15k-30k, acegoldberg made a costly mistake. With the action folded to him in the small blind, he raised all-in for 336k with K-9 offsuit. weenie1 woke up in the big blind with A-K and quickly called. Neither hand received help from the board, so weenie1 took the pot with ace high. For his ninth place finish, acegoldberg took in $5,736.

Shortly after acegoldberg's exit, another confrontation took place between Aceshighxx and hatinJacks. hatinJacks raised from third position to 80k. The action was folded to Aceshighxx in the big blind, and he re-raised all-in. With only a little under 140k left, hatinJacks put his tournament life at risk and called. Aceshighxx showed a pocket pair of eights, which had a slight edge over hatinJacks' JT offsuit. This time the race was won by Aceshighxx’s eights, and hatinJacks had to settle for an eighth place finish and $7,648.

Now the short stack at the table, Aston_DB9 needed to make a move or see himself blinded off. With the blind at 15k-30k, weenie1 raised to 100k from mid position. With only 129k left, Aston_DB9 went all-in with A-Q offsuit. weenie1 made the call of the small raise, and Aston_DB9 was happy to see weenie1's Kh-Qh. A king on the flop though gave weenie1 the pot, and Aston_DB9 was eliminated in seventh place and earned $11,472 for his efforts.

Another short stack bit the dust when rose1530 raised all-in from the button. Sitting on a lot of chips and in the big blind, it wasn't a tough call for weenie1 with Ac-Tc. All rose1530 could show was Kd-7d. After no help from the board, rose1530 was eliminated in sixth place with a cash of $15,296.

Aceshighxx won a critical pot from syjohnse when his A-J offsuit flopped an ace against syjohnse's pocket kings, crippling syjohnse. A few hands later, Aceshighxx went in for the kill, as he called the now short stacked syjohnse's all-in with K-J offsuit. syjohnse was ahead with his pocket tens until the jack on the turn. syjohnse ended the tournament in fifth place and $19,120 richer.

Once again, a player moving in from the button ran into big slick. This time it was scarface_79, who raised all-in for 296k from the button only to be called by Aceshighxx in the small blind with A-K offsuit. All scarface_79 could show was Q-9 offsuit, and an ace on the flop put him out in 4th place, earning him a nice $22,944 pay day.

Down to three handed, the action settled down a bit. The players were using their position to steal the sizeable blinds from each other, with no real confrontations taking place.

With the blinds at 30k-60k, BIGSkkY raised under the gun to 120k. Aceshighxx re-raised all in for close to 730k. After a lengthy pause, BIGSkky called, and his pocket nines were way out ahead of Aceshighxx's Q-9 offsuit. The final board read Jh-Jc-Js-5c-6d, and Aceshighxx was eliminated in third place, but not before collecting $30,592.

Down to heads up play, both players were playing very tight. After a scheduled break, both players came back with just about 1.3 million in chips. They discussed a straight 50/50 chop of chips, and after some delay in finding out how they could do this, they finally agreed. PartyPoker.com does not have support for deals like some sites do (PokerStars), but the two players decided the winner would transfer the remaining prize money to the second place finisher to complete the deal. Perhaps not the smartest thing to trust that much money in someone else's care, but both players didn't seem to mind the risk they were taking.

After this, both players went all-in on consecutive hands until BIGSkky emerged the eventual winner. With the deal that had been made previously, the finish did not matter since both players would be splitting the remaining $120,838. Keeping that in mind, here were the final results:

1st BIGSkky - $60,419
1st weenie1 - $60,419
3rd Aceshighxx - $30,592
4th scarface_79 - $22,944
5th syjohnse - $19,120
6th rose1530 - $15,296
7th Aston_DB9 - $11,472
8th hatinJacks - $7,648
9th acegoldberg - $5,736
10th highyield6 - $3,824