Sydney Mega Recap (with happy ending)

A total of 50 runners his week with 6 people winning seats, 7th-11th getting their money back and 12th getting the leftovers. I ended up failing to get a step 4 token for this one and bought in directly. If I missed I was gonna have to reload my account or not play these any more. I think I was probably willing to reload and take two more shots at it.

Early on in the first two levels pretty much every hand that I played I won with little resistance. I was picking up a lot of big aces along with the occasional pocket pair and had my starting stack of 3000 increased to 3850 at the end of level two. In the third level I played back-to back hands:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $200+$15 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t3480)
MP1 (t2640)
MP2 (t4650)
CO (t2490)
Button (t6340)
SB (t5030)
Hero (BB) (t3475)

Hero's M: 46.33

Preflop: Hero is BB with 8, 8
2 folds, MP2 bets t150, 3 folds, Hero calls t100

Flop: (t325) 10, 4, J (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t150, Hero calls t150

Turn: (t625) 9 (2 players)
Hero checks, MP2 bets t250, Hero calls t250

River: (t1125) J (2 players)
Hero bets t400, MP2 calls t400

Total pot: t1925

Results:
Hero had 8, 8 (two pair, Jacks and eights).
MP2 had A, A (two pair, Aces and Jacks).
Outcome: MP2 won t1925


and then:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $200+$15 Tournament, 25/50 Blinds (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

BB (t3480)
UTG (t2640)
MP1 (t5625)
MP2 (t2490)
CO (t6340)
Button (t5005)
Hero (SB) (t2525)

Hero's M: 33.67

Preflop: Hero is SB with J, 9
5 folds, Hero calls t25, BB checks

Flop: (t100) 7, 3, 9 (2 players)
Hero bets t100, BB calls t100

Turn: (t300) 8 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets t200, Hero calls t200

River: (t700) 2 (2 players)
Hero checks, BB bets t440, Hero calls t440

Total pot: t1580

Results:
Hero mucked J, 9 (one pair, nines).
BB had 3, 2 (two pair, threes and twos).
Outcome: BB won t1580


If these hands don't happen back-to-back I know that I make that bet on the turn and take it down. I had just lost a pot and wanted to minimize potential losses. Terrible play IMO. At the first break I was sitting on 1700 in chips.

Early into the 4th level (50/100) I picked-up AKss in the SB. The cutoff raised 9x to 800 and I shoved over the top. He did have the pocket pair I assumed he had, QQ. A little better than I assumed. I flopped the A and got my stack back up to 3600. For the rest of the 4th level I bounced everywhere. Up to 4600, down to 2900 and finally back to 5300 at the end of the level.
I basically played no hands in the 5th and 6th levels and at the end of the 2nd hour I was sitting on a 4400 stack. I believe there were around 20 people remaining +/- a few.

Right at the beginning of level 7 I was active. I won the blinds with QQ. The very next hand I get it all-in 3-ways with AK and was up against AK and 99. The A hit and I chopped-up a decent pot. The very next hand after that I get AQ and raise pre and end up taking it down with a cbet. Just like that I was up to 8200. I nitted it up the rest of the level and did not play a single hand and was blinded down to around 6300.

In level 8 I won a couple decent pots to get my stack back above but then proceeded to bleed it down in the 6k range by the end of the level. When I was in the level I was sitting at 13/5 but still had over 20 bb's so I was in plenty good shape and felt really good about my chances. Early on at the 200/400 level is when I got the double:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $200+$15 Tournament, 200/400 Blinds 50 Ante (6 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

UTG (t8786)
MP (t24174)
CO (t12696)
Button (t7674)
SB (t11117)
Hero (BB) (t5920)

Hero's M: 6.58

Preflop: Hero is BB with 9, 9
3 folds, Button bets t1000, SB raises to t7200, Hero calls t5470 (All-In), 1 fold

Flop: (t13040) Q, 8, 8 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Turn: (t13040) 4 (2 players, 1 all-in)

River: (t13040) 7 (2 players, 1 all-in)

Total pot: t13040

Results:
SB had J, K (one pair, eights).
Hero had 9, 9 (two pair, nines and eights).
Outcome: Hero won t13040

The big shove was a strange play on his part. With the blinds just increasing and a 15bb stack I was willing to go for the double there and had the cards fall good. less than a lap later it was folded to the same player who shoved his last 10bb's in and I had an easy call with A9hh. I outran his 22 and all of a sudden I had a 17k stack.

At the start of the final table, with a redo locked-up here is what the stacks looked like in chip count order:

Seat 2: dave798111 (31345 in chips)
Seat 5: tecracy (26103 in chips)
Seat 9: scottc25 (17237 in chips)
Seat 4: JBW1983 (16889 in chips)
Seat 3: MR BIG TT (14544 in chips)
Seat 1: PokerDomeAA (13910 in chips)
Seat 8: Jackovich (12477 in chips)
Seat 6: Londolozi (11696 in chips)
Seat 7: VHDTGP3 (5799 in chips)

I was in a really odd chip count position. I really can't play too much but can't afford to get blinded down or before too long I could be a short stack on the bubble. I really want to see a couple quick bustouts. On the very first hand of the FT the short stack ran his QQ into AA and was busted. Sick hand as the flop contained a Q but the river A knocked him out. Down to 8 handed.

We stuck at 8 handed for quite a while. There was one massive pot where someone bluffed with air on a very scary board. The other player in the hand made a hero call on the end and his TPMK was good. All of a sudden we had another short stack. That didn't last long as the shorty doubled twice to get back to a top 4 stack. At the end of level 9 we had 8 people remaining. Two to go till the seat. Here were the stacks to start the next level:

Seat 5: tecracy (33952 in chips)
Seat 2: dave798111 (31470 in chips)
Seat 9: scottc25 (16287 in chips)
Seat 4: JBW1983 (15939 in chips)
Seat 3: MR BIG TT (13994 in chips)
Seat 8: Jackovich (13182 in chips)
Seat 6: Londolozi (12871 in chips)
Seat 1: PokerDomeAA (12305 in chips)

Now 3rd - 8th are tightly bunched. One of the CL's said "Support, two coolers please." It didn't take too long for that to happen. The CL KK took out 1010 all-in pre and we were on the bubble. Notice how I haven't mentioned my name at all. I ended up playing a total of two hands at the FT.

And finally the last hand of the tourney:

PokerStars No-Limit Hold'em, $200+$15 Tournament, 300/600 Blinds 50 Ante (7 handed) - Poker-Stars Converter Tool from FlopTurnRiver.com

SB (t33440)
BB (t15093)
UTG (t14544)
MP1 (t27658)
MP2 (t36051)
CO (t10727)
Hero (Button) (t12487)

Hero's M: 9.99

Preflop: Hero is Button with 7, J
3 folds, CO bets t10677 (All-In), 1 fold, SB raises to t33390 (All-In), 1 fold

Flop: (t22304) 10, 7, Q (2 players, 2 all-in)

Turn: (t22304) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

River: (t22304) 3 (2 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: t22304

Results:
SB had A, Q (two pair, Queens and threes).
CO had 9, 9 (two pair, nines and threes).
Outcome: SB won t22304

I was starting to sweat a bit there towards the end. I was sitting 6th in chips when the last hand was played. The way other people were playing I had some time to find a hand if need be.

Here is the real reason why I won:

Hello scottc25,

We have transferred $0.06 from your account to 'KidPoker' as per your request.

Good luck to you both.

Regards,
PokerStars Cashier

$0.06 in order to make it into the top 6. Boomswitch activiated

I am planning on leaving 4/22 (arriving 4/24, ugh) and coming home the day after the FT on 5/4. They have a number of $300 - $500 aus prelim events and mega-satellites that I would like to play in.

Thanks again to NZ, Zooks and Blaz for the early morning rail yesterday.