Party Poker.com $500k Guarantee - September 18th, 2005
Jeff Henry
September 18th, 2005
Alfred622 wins the $106,000 first prize; Shrike takes second, Luna_Sea robbed
Even the best players can’t overcome extreme luck. With 16 players left from an original 2,650 entrants, Luna_Sea was the chip leader, and was using his stack well, bullying and building as some players played conservatively as they approached the final table. Alfred rode a sick beat from near extinction to the first prize. Raising with ace rag often, Alfred was among the small stacks when he raised under the gun with A8 off-suit. Luna_Sea, holding pocket aces, raised Alfred the minimum, a sure sign of a powerhouse in that situation as far as I was concerned. But Alfred stubbornly or stupidly re-raised all in with his A8 off-suit. Alfred sucked out about as badly as you see anywhere, as the dealer gave him a 9765 board to stay alive and double up.
Shortly thereafter, CodaKing, who had been the low stack for what seemed hours, finally ran out of lives. Yours truly, who many of you know as The Shrike on most sites (but azazel2177 on PartyPoker), was the victim of one of Coda’s survival hands. With Coda in the big blind, I was under the gun with pocket kings with six or seven at the table and I was a bit below average but had a little more than twice the stack Coda had. I decided to raise all in, hoping someone would think I didn’t want a call, so I could double up and get above average for that push to the final table. Coda had a quarter of his chips or so in the pot from posting his big blind and pushed the rest of them in with his QT off-suit. The board gave Coda a queen and a ten, and he doubled up. But his nine lives ended the very next hand. I had him covered, but not by a ton. Now I was the big blind and Coda was the small blind. After it folded around to Coda, he decided to push all in with his A7 off-suit. After debating, I called with my A8 of spades, which held. I got all my chips back, and Coda finished in 12th.
Grace_YYQ was next to depart. After pushing all in preflop often and taking some blinds down, she finally pushed one time too often, got caught, and exited in 11th. A few other players were forced to take chances due to low stacks, and soon it was down to eight.
Prncharming was next to go. Once the chip leader by a long shot, prn started limping in with weak hands and then folding to raises. This happened perhaps one of every three or four hands. Occasionally we would see his hands when a short stack would push all in and Prn was committed to call. The hands were things like A6 off-suit, K9 off-suit, and Q9 off-suit. As soon as we reached the final table Prn changed tactic and started pushing all in from all positions. The first time we saw it was quite a sight. He was on the button and the small blind called with aces. Prn had 32 off-suit. After doing it again with QJ off-suit and losing, Prn called an all in from ck1117 (and her AK off-suit) with his KJ off-suit and was eliminated in eight.
Bob1dds was next to leave. Low for a while, and playing very few hands, Bob doubled up with AK off-suit, then raised again and showed AK. As he started to blind down again, Bob found himself in the small blind and I was the big blind. He pushed all in with A7 off-suit, and I called from the big blind with AT suited, which held. I had Bob well covered, so Bob finished seventh. Alfred out drew Luna_Sea again, calling Luna’s AQ all in with King high. Luna, who had played quite well, was gone sixth.
JRSS1322PSU, who had been low for a while, did well to last until fifth, but ran out of options and ran into my aces.
Bbangsoon, who had been as reckless as Alfred, ran into the Alfred “draw out machine,” losing with a dominating hand and being eliminated in fourth place.
Ck1117 was short stacked from when there were three tables, but benefited from bad folds. At one point she had just about 9,000 chips with blinds at 3,000 and 6,000. It was folded around to the small blind, Luna at that point, who inexplicably folded. Ck won no further pots until the blinds came around to her again, and again Luna folded to her. Later, Ck benefited from Prncharming’s collapse, and then impressively scratched and clawed her way to third. There wasn’t much she could do from there, though. I had nearly a million and a half chips and Alfred had over 2 million. Ck had just over 300,000. I minimum raised her and minimum bet her, hoping to grind her down. It worked, and she also folded to huge bets from Alfred. Then she called one with just over 200,000 chips left, but Alfred, for once, had the best hand and it held. Ck finished a well-earned third, and earned a healthy $39,220. Alfred and I were now heads up.
After an uneventful few minutes, the blinds went up to 100,000 and 200,000. Alfred had 2.8 million chips and I had 1.2 million. Alfred, in the small blind for 100,000, limped in, calling my big blind of 200,000. I had A3 off-suit and pushed my remaining million chips in for a total bet of 1.2 million. Alfred called with K8. If he folded, Alfred would have had 2.6 million chips to my 1.4 million. If Alfred called and I won the pot I would have been chip leader with 2.4 million to his 1.6 million. As it turned out, Alfred hit a king, and won the tournament. Alfred622 received for $106,000 for nine hours of play, and I got $53,000.
