Friday, 29th March 2024 11:47
Home / Uncategorized / MicroMillions: furburger06 holds magic number in Event 13, $11 NLHE
micromillions-thumb-blog.png

Numbers are one way we humans make sense of the world around us. On their own, though, numbers don’t actually mean anything. Only when we give them context do they have the power to describe the world around us.

Take the number 15,831. In isolation it’s just a value, a string of digits with no inherent meaning. Add a dollar sign to the front and it’s the price of a new economy car. Tack the word “residents” on behind it and it becomes the population of a small town. And to make it a number that inspires glee in a poker player, just follow it with the word “entrants.”

The 15,831 players who entered Event #13 made this yet another MicroMillions tournament where the numbers took on big meaning. Through the magic of multiplication, the end of late registration saw a $75,000 guaranteed prize pool transformed into $158,310. The top 2,025 finishers would earn a payday, the top 108 would earn at least 10 times their buy-in, and the one player who outlasted them all was set to earn $19,798.85. All these numbers can set your head to spinning, if you’re not careful.

The home stretch

After eight hours and 40 minutes all but 27 players had been eliminated, including Team PokerStars Pro’s Toni Judet, who in 931st place ($33.24) was the last PokerStars player to be eliminated. That left three tables in play and Hungary’s pmkzs holding the lead. His 13.26M-chip stack was more than 6.2M ahead of the nearest player, Russia’s caani. The field dropped to just 20 players over the course of Levels 44 and 45, with both pmkzs and caani stacking up by leaning on the rest of their tables. It was a particularly good period for pmkzs, who knocked out Patsche09 (27th place, $296.03), Johnyk311 (21st place, $296.03), and Kollega84 (20th place, $296.03) and picked up plenty of uncontested pots along the way. Only the Netherlands’ scriptdude disrupted things at the top of the leaderboard, moving into second place by less than one big blind with 7.56M chips as the field dropped to 18.

With the structure now up to Level 46 (100K/200K/25K), the pressure continued to mount on the shorter stacks. Russia’s pronya21 (18th place, $332.45) and Germany’s SEEEDx (17th place, $332.45) would exit on this level, with Denmark’s Dr Seemann (16th place, $332.45), Spain’s palomo519 (15th place, $474.93) and Russia’s dreams2502 (14th place, $474.93) following on Level 47. Other than chipleader pmkzs, who continued to stack up, the biggest mover during this time was Qatar’s paythemoney, who grabbed a 6.3M-chip pot from Spain’s dorito2311 with a diamond flush on the river and was responsible for eliminating dreams2502.

Within minutes of Level 48 (150K/300K/37.5K) beginning the final table bubble had been reached after the eliminations of Portugal’s Articunah (13th place, $474.93), Denmark’s mrgreenfield7 (12th place, $633.24), and dorito2311 (11th place, $633.24). Both Canada’s Ls-Vtec123 and the Netherlands’ #1.RogerF managed to escape elimination on the bubble, while Poland’s kaskaders did even better by doubling through pmkzs with A♦ Aâ™  in the 15.96M-chip pot. There was also a double-up to 14.01M chips in the cards for caani, whose Aâ™  J♣ outraced paythemoney’s 9â™  9♦ . The bubble finally popped on Level 49 when Bulgarian Discworld fan rincewind_bg shoved all-in before the flop with K♥ 9♥ only to run into Ls-Vtec123’s A♦ K♦ . The A♥ 5♥ 8♣ flop was both good and bad news for rincewind_bg, but the 10â™  turn and 10♦ river were both of the latter variety. rincewind_bg left in 10th place ($633.24) and the final table was set.

Number nine, number nine, number nine…

MicroMillions Event 13 final table.jpg

Seat 1: pmkzs (9,797,886 in chips)
Seat 2: #1.RogerF (6,891,638 in chips)
Seat 3: magicjack888 (5,777,300 in chips)
Seat 4: caani (14,465,490 in chips)
Seat 5: kaskaders (15,880,130 in chips)
Seat 6: Scriptdude (4,339,242 in chips)
Seat 7: furburger06 (3,677,772 in chips)
Seat 8: Ls-Vtec123 (7,662,372 in chips)
Seat 9: paythemoney (10,663,170 in chips)

Six hands into the final table, caani seized the chip lead at the expense of pmkzs. After opening for a minimum raise in early position with J♥ J♣ the Russian player was happy to call when pmzks moved all-in for 9.44M chips. The Hungarian’s 5♦ 5♣ was climbing uphill all the way, and the Q♥ 10♣ A♣ 9â™  Q♦ board meant a 9th-place finish ($949.86). That left caani with 26M in chips and the momentary lead.

Two hands later #1.RogerF did his best poker imitation of his pro tennis namesake, scoring an ace by picking up K♣ K♥ and making an isolation raise after the short-stacked Scriptdude moved all-in for 3.28M chips. With Aâ™  9♦ the Dutch player’s hopes were slim, and they slimmed all the way to zero once the 4♦ Q♦ 6♥ 5♣ 8♥ board had run out, making Scriptdude the 8th-place finisher ($1,424.79).

The next big confrontation cost caani a third of those recently acquired chips, as is wont to happen when one picks up A♥ Kâ™  against another player’s A♣ Aâ™  .The United Kingdom’s furburger was the beneficiary of the aces in that hand, and would be again a few orbits later. In the meantime caani saw the end of the line after moving all-in for 12.03M chips on the button with Aâ™  9â™  and getting a call from kaskaders in the small blind with A♣ Q♥ . The 5♦ 6♥ K♦ 3♥ 4♣ board never came close to any of caani’s outs, leaving the Russian $2,770.42 richer in 7th place.

Time for a deal

Just a few hands later furburger06 picked up aces for the second time and doubled through paythemoney to 11.83M chips. That got paythemoney, who had been the one player to speak up and nix talk of a deal minutes earlier, a little gentle ribbing from kaskaders, who chimed in, “you made a good deal.” A few orbits later, with blinds and antes now up to 400K/800K/100K, kaskaders would put an end to paythemoney’s tournament. First paythemoney shoved all-in from middle position with Aâ™  9â™  , then kaskaders called with 7♥ 7♦ . One board of 3♦ 8â™  6♣ 5♥ Jâ™  later and it was a 6th-place finish ($4,274.37) for paythemoney.

With more than 53.41M in chips and no opponent within 43M of that stack, it was now kaskaders who was in a position to prevent a deal. After doubling a few of the shorter stacks up, though, kaskaders agreed to discuss a chop and the staff got to crunching the numbers. Once those came out, last-place magicjack888 opted to back out, noting that one double-up would be good for second place and even more money. That meant it was time to gamble, and as soon as play resumed magicjack888 took that gamble with K♥ 3♥ . The timing couldn’t have been much worse, though, as kaskaders held A♦ 3♦ . The 6â™  5♦ 4â™  flop held out hope of a chop, but the Q♥ 6♣ meant a 5th-place departure ($5,857.47) for the Belgian player.

As expected, the remaining four players agreed to a deal based on chip counts. After a round of congratulations they got back to play with $1,500 left on the table for the winner, blinds and antes at 500K/1M/125K, and the pace cranked up to near its maximum. A few orbits in furburger06 eliminated #1.RogerF in an A♥ J♥ -versus-Aâ™  5♦ confrontation, sending the tennis fan out in 4th place ($9,512.26). A few hands later furburger06 actually took a slim lead when Aâ™  K♣ outran kaskaders’ Qâ™  Q♥ thanks to an ace on the flop. Then kaskaders would fall back into third place on this hand:


RSS readers, click through for replay

Then furburger06 picked up another pair of pocket aces – and at an opportune time, too, as Ls_vtec123 held A♥ J♥ . All of the Canadian player’s chip went in the middle, but the 10â™  5â™  6♥ 9♦ Q♥ board was no help. Ls_Vtec123 exited in 3rd place ($9,715.42) and heads-up play had arrived.

A wild match

Seat 5: kaskaders (18,437,384 in chips)
Seat 7: furburger06 (60,717,616 in chips)

As soon as the final duel had begun it looked like it would all be over. On the very first hand kaskaders got all-in holding K♥ Jâ™  against furburger06’s Q♥ Q♣ , but the Kâ™  J♥ K♣ flop worked enough magic to keep things competitive. Now nearly even in chips, the two players start taking big swings at each other. Each would hold the lead multiple times during the 111-hand match, and each would stare down elimination multiple times as well. It was as even a battle as you’re likely to see at the end of a tournament.

The last time furburger06 would face elimination came on Hand #101. With a minimum raise to 2.8M from kaskaders, furburger06 shoved for 33.26M chips with K♦ Q♥ . That was behind kaskaders’ A♦ 9♣ , but a board of Kâ™  5♦ 7â™  K♣ 6â™  turned everything around. Down to just under 9 big blinds, kaskaders was unable to get a good enough hand for an all-in move until Hand #111:


RSS readers, click through for replay

It was a fitting ending to an unpredictable final match. And though kaskaders finished in 2nd, having held a big stack when the deal was made meant an outsized prize of $21,182.35. As for furburger06, the win added an extra $1,500 to the chip chop numbers, bringing total winnings up to $11,256.62, for a total return on investment of 102,332 percent. That’s a number anybody can get excited about.

MicroMillions Event 13, $11 No-Limit Hold’em
15,831 entrants, $158,310 prize pool

1st place – furburger06 (United Kingdom) – $11,256.62*
2nd place – kaskaders (Poland) – $21,182.35*
3rd place – Ls-Vtec123 (Canada) – $9,715.42*
4th place – #1.RogerF (Netherlands) – $9,512.26*
5th place – magicjack888 (Belgium) – $5,857.47
6th place – paythemoney (Qatar) – $4,274.37
7th place – caani (Russia) – $2,770.42
8th place – Scriptdude (Netherlands) – $1,424.79
9th place – pmkzs (Hungary) – $949.86
* – denotes results of a four-way deal

Here’s a final number for you: 8. That’s the number of days remaining in the MicroMillions schedule. And at 10 low-buy-in events per day, there are exactly zero reasons for you not to take a shot at some of the most incredible value in online tournament poker. Check out the MicroMillions page for everything you always wanted to know but were afraid to ask.

Study Poker with Pokerstars Learn, practice with the PokerStars app