UltimateBet.com $120,000 Guaranteed - April 17th, 2005

Patrick Jackson

April 18th, 2005

A tough field of 580 players paid $215 for UltimateBet.com's weekly 120k Guarantee tournament. For the second consecutive week, the tournament failed to meet the 600 entrants needed to cover the 120k guarantee, so UltimateBet had to once again cover the difference. The top 50 finishers would get paid for their efforts, but after close to five hours of play the following ten players still had a shot at the $32,000 first prize (chip counts in parenthesis):

Seat 1: sneaky1 (130,005)
Seat 2: D_M16 (126,960)
Seat 3: homer07 (85,565)
Seat 4: anakinso (601,610)
Seat 5: MikePlays (71,590)
Seat 6: perfectool (92,770)
Seat 7: The Mentor (51,560)
Seat 8: menexus (39,140)
Seat 9: scottieat (174,735)
Seat 10: Dizzzam (76,065)

From the very start of this final table, the chip leader anakinso used his massive chip lead to dictate the action. Raising almost every pot, anakinso was able to pick up the blinds countless times. With the blinds at 4k-8k, anakinso once again raised under-the-gun to 20k. The action was folded to menexus, who called the bet for his final 17k chips. In the end, anakinso's pocket jacks held up over menexus's A-8 offsuit and menexus exited the tournament in tenth place, earning themselves $1,200.

Continuing his aggressive approach, anakinso raised to 20k from the button once again. MikePlays called the raise from the small blind, which left him with 19k in chips. After a flop of As-2c-8c, MikePlays pushed his last 19k into the pot, which was called by anakinso. MikePlays showed A-4 offsuit for top pair, which was far ahead of anakinso's 27 offsuit for bottom pair. A seven on the turn and anakinso's stack grew again as he eliminated MikePlays in ninth place. The sting of losing to the worst hand in poker though was lessened a bit by the $1,440 MikePlays received for his effort.

With the blinds at 6k-12k, anakinso raised to 30k. The Mentor decided to make his stand with A-9 offsuit and called for the last of his chips. Proving once again to be his night, anakinso's A-4 offsuit was able to spike a four on the flop, and send The Mentor packing in eighth place with a pay out of $1,800.

A big hand developed when D_M16 decided to push his last 67k into the pot from early position with A-7 offsuit. Sitting right behind him though was homer07 with A-Q offsuit, who called the raise. After the dust settled, homer07's queen kicker held up and D_M16 had to settle for seventh place and $2,160.

With close to half his 25k in chips already in the 12k big blind, Dizzzam was forced to call sneaky1's raise and hope for the best. He was happy to see his Q-5 offsuit were live up against sneaky1's A-T offsuit, but a ten on the flop was all it took. Dizzzam was eliminated in sixth place, but not before taking home $3,360 for his solid play.

A classic confrontation took place to determine our fifth place finisher. With the blinds at 8k-16k, scottieat went all-in under-the-gun for 122k. Right behind him, sneaky1 went all-in for a little more then 127k. The rest of the table folded, and we had a race on our hands as scottieat showed pocket sixes and sneaky1 had A-K offsuit. The flop gave sneaky1 three aces, and scottieat couldn’t find any six to bail him out. He took fifth and was $5,280 richer.

A critical misstep was committed by homer07 when he tried to steal the blinds, only to have perfectool wake up in the small blind with pocket queens. No miracles for homer07's 9-5 offsuit, and he was down to just 5k. The end was not long in coming, as anakinso's pocket fours finished the job the very next hand when homer07's J-2 offsuit received no help. homer07 took fourth place and $8,640.

Shortly after homer07 was eliminated, perfectool pushed all-in from the small blind for 102k. Without much hesitation, sneaky1 called with A-T offsuit against perfectool's Jd-Td. No miracles appeared and sneaky1's ace kicker won the pot, eliminating perfectool in third place. perfectool took fourth and won $14,880 for his efforts.

Going into heads-up play, anakinso had over 1.1 million in comparison to sneaky1's 350k in chips, for over a three-to-one advantage. The action started as was expected, with anakinso winning the first two hands with big bets pre-flop.

However, the next two hands anakinso raised pre-flop, only to have sneaky1 reraise all-in, forcing anakinso to fold. Seemingly inspired by his success, suddenly sneaky1 was the aggressor. After a series of re-raises and a few big hands, sneaky1 had climbed all the way back and was now the chip leader.

The two players proceeded to go back and forth, with the chip lead changing hands numerous times. Finally it looked like the momentum had once again swung back to anakinso, as he won a large pot to take another sizeable lead.

The key hand of the tournament then took place. With the blinds at 15k-30k and trailing by 280k, sneaky1 limped in to the pot. After anakinso checked, both players saw the 4s-Td-Ah flop. It quickly was checked around, and the 7s came off on the turn. anakinso bet out 30k, which sneaky1 called. The Ac came out on the river, and anakinso put the decision on sneaky1 for all his chips by going all-in. sneaky1 called in an instant, showing A-Q offsuit for three aces. Stunned, all anakinso could show was J-3 offsuit for no pair.

Now it was sneaky1 with the massive chip lead, and it didn't take long to get another showdown. On the very next hand, anakinso pushed all in for 280k and sneaky1 called, showing pocket fours. anakinso had Kh8h, and the flop was 3c-8c-Js. anakinso’s constant good fortunes turned sour as two more clubs appeared, giving sneaky1 the flush with the 4c. anakinso was eliminated in second place and received $23,040 for his outstanding play. sneaky1 took home the $36,000 first prize, which was well deserved after such an impressive comeback.

Final Results:

1st - sneaky1 $36,000
2nd - anakinso $23,040
3rd - perfectool $14,880
4th - homer07 $8,640
5th - scottieat $5,280
6th - Dizzzam $3,360
7th - D_M16 $2,160
8th - The Mentor $1,800
9th - MikePlays$1,440
10th - menexus $1,200