Thursday, 28th March 2024 20:47
Home / Uncategorized / MicroMillions: Ireland’s fivebetbluf3 blasts to victory in Event #8
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Yesterday afternoon, PokerStars Blog’s Tweeter In Chief (that’s quite a job by the way; stay in school kids) announced to the world that we had a Micro Millions Series on our hands.

“Sooo… rebuys ended after 20 mins. 71,420 players, 635,689 rebuys, 27,171 add-ons, prize pool $73,428 (was $25K guaranteed).”

Those were the breathtaking stats for Event #1 of this ten-day jamboree, an 11 cent re-buy tournament, eventually won by SunTzee for $3,800.55.

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Paging all tweeps…

We’re now into day two of the awesome silliness, and Event #8 has just wrapped. To the surprise of no one at all, the guarantee was smashed yet again and we have another player on the podium with a tale of precipitous profit.

Our first Friday winner is fivebetbluf3 from Ireland, who has just earned $4,738.11 – or, to put it another way, $4,735 and a his buy in back. This tournament was the $3.30 No Limit Hold’em, 6-Max (with rebuys) and fivebetbluf3 outlasted 3,630 others to clinch victory.

HOW HE DID IT

A rule of thumb about multi-table tournaments: the more additions to the basic title of the thing is directly proportional to the craziness of the action. And so with both 6-Max and Rebuys lobbed on to the end of the standard No Limit Hold ‘Em event, there was scope for a whole lot of action.

The final table – the passage of play that took us from six to one – lasted only 60 minutes. Although this wasn’t officially a turbo, it certainly felt like it.

THE MAN FROM KZKHSTN

For long, long periods in the run up to the final table, one player’s name seemed permanently glued to the top of the leader board. Despite having a name containing nt engh vwls dbnfkdq from Kazakhstan was the dominant chip leader even when there were more than 200 players remaining.

He was the first through the 10 million chip mark and when the tournament was down to its final two tables, dbnfkdq had more than double the chips of his closest challenger. But he wouldn’t make it to the final. pin8chile sent him packing in eighth for $336.07, and it was the Chilean who took an enormous lead into the final stretch.

(Spare a thought too for glasheadboy, from Canada, who went out on the bubble. His countryman, blazedhobo, who went out one position later in 480th won $14.35.)

With the notable exception of the man from the Emerald Isle, the final was a straight match-up between South and North America. Two Canadians were battling representatives of Chile, Brazil and Argentina.

Here’s how the final six stacked up:

pin8chile (Chile): 18,738,075
realsharp (Canada): 10,369,422
fivebetbluf3 (Ireland): 7,940,696
Potcleaner99 (Canada): 7,726,308
Ch1PGuY BruP (Brazil): 5,657,097
gero0846 (Argentina): 5,535,904

Or in pictorial form:

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IN THE MOOD TO GAMBLE

On the very first hand at the final table, realsharp was all in. No callers. On the second, Potcleaner99 shoved. No takers either.

pin8chile took the opportunity to point out “have 20bb comn you can bet”, but in truth it was really only him who could feel in any way confident about playing through the streets. With blinds at 150,000-300,000 the others were pretty much playing for stacks if they got anywhere close to a flop.

However with that monstrous stack, pin8chile was the man in the crosshairs of all his opponents, particularly if they fancied playing any big pots. And one monster within the first ten minutes swung the final table over the Atlantic to Ireland.

pin8chile flopped top pair with his 7♥ 6♦ , but fivebetbluf3 had hit a set with his pocket fours. When the river paired the board, fivebetbluf3 was happy to call all in, doubling up to close to 17 million.


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However fivebetbluf3 would soon (temporarily) fall victim to the curse of the chip leader. He immediately gave a huge chunk to Ch1PGuY BruP when J♥ K♣ couldn’t beat Aâ™  5♥ . And suddenly all the stacks were near enough even again, suggesting this might continue a while longer.

MIN-RAISE ONE MILLION

Not so, of course. With the blinds going up to 250,000-500,000 a min-raise would cost a million chips, which encouraged some mighty big betting. fivebetbluf3 had to get his last six million in over the top of Ch1PGuY BruP’s open raise. The Irishman won the race with his 10♦ Q♥ against Ch1PGuY BruP’s 3♥ 3♣ .

Racing became the order of the day as only a couple of hands later, realsharp and pin8chile played out the most traditional race of them all. pin8chile’s Aâ™  K♥ couldn’t hit against realsharp’s Q♣ Q♦ . The ladies won the day.

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pin8chile was down to three big blinds, got them in soon after, and ran into gero0846’s big slick. The leader coming into the final was out in sixth.

RACING TO RAPID-FIRE ELIMINATIONS

With the first man down, play loosened up – also a symptom of rapidly escalating blinds. At this stage, a pocket pair was a shoving pair, and Ch1PGuY BruP found 4♥ 4♦ and moved in for 3,394,825 from the button. It was a routine call for Potcleaner99, who had found 9â™  9♣ and was unthreatened by the board.

That sent ChiPGuY BruO to the cashier’s cage, asking for $980.10 for fifth. And it also left the South American team looking a little sorry for itself. Only gero0846, from Argentina, was left to take on two Canadians and an Irishman.

Make that one Canadian.

After some short-handed jousting, it was realsharp’s turn to find two high cards against a pocket pair. realsharp opened to 2,400,000 and then under-called after Potcleaner99 shoved. Potcleaner99’s 6♣ 6♦ stayed good as realsharp’s A♣ Q♣ didn’t connect with a 2♦ 5♦ 3♦ Kâ™  5♥ board.

We were down to three, and in desperate need of the five-minute break.

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NO ROOM FOR NEGOTIATION

When the three players returned from the break, fivebetbluf3 got busy in the chat box, offering a split of the money. He would take the lion’s share and the other two would settle for something considerably less.

gero0846’s response – “lol” – spoke volumes, even before he expanded it with the simple observation that he had the same amount of chips as fivebetbluf3, so wasn’t prepared to go anywhere. fivebetbluf3 retorted with the claim he was the better heads up player. gero0846 remained silent.

In order to book that heads up tussle, however, Potcleaner99 had to hit the road. His stack had dwindled to a little more than five million when he opted to open shove from the small blind with 8♦ 9♠ .

He was still alive, even when gero0846 called with Q♦ 10♦ . But the board only helped gero0846. It came J♥ K♦ 6♣ K♥ 3♠ and Potcleaner99 was done. With a $2,535.81 payday, he can take a break from scrubbing those pots for a while.

DESTINY

And lo it came to pass that gero0846 would have his chance to show fivebetbluf3 that he could beat him heads-up. The stacks were pretty even — 29,148,738 for fivebetbluf3 against gero0846’s 26,818,762 — but the early running all went in favour of the Irishman. fivebetbluf3 won the first five hands of heads up play and in a flash had more than a two-to-one advantage.

gero0486 won a couple of small ones back, though, and after ten hands of heads-up play, the stacks were all but even again. Then there came a moment of ill fortune for gero0846. He opened to 2 million, fivebetbluf3 three-bet to 6 million and then gero0486 shoved for more than 25 million. Call!

fivebetbluf3 wasn’t exactly bluffing with his A♣ 4♣ , but he was still significantly behind gero0486’s A♥ 10♣ for a pot of more than 52 million and, essentially, the title.

This is where poker is a strange game sometimes because when the board ran 3♥ J♣ 3♣ A♦ A♠ both players had made the same full house, and were forced to chop it up.

We knew by now that neither of the players were shy of getting their chips in, but it still seemed likely that we might take a little while to crown a champion. However there were a grand total of six more hands to be played, the decisive five of which went to fivebetbluf3.

It takes a certain kind of player to let go any ace or any pocket pair in a heads up duel, and neither of these players had shown much inclination to take their foot off the gas. That explains the following hand, which swung the entire contest back to fivebetbluf3.


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fivebetbluf3 got it started, raising to 2.4 million. gero0846 three bet to 8.4 million, and fivebetbluf3 shoved all in for his 23,373,738 total stack. gero0846 called.

gero0846: 8♠ 8♥
fivebetbluf3: A♦ 7♣

The Argentinian player needed his pocket pair to hold and in particular was hoping to avoid an ace. But you can never be sure in this game, and the flop came K♠ A♠ 3♦ , leaving his hopes for the title in shreds.

Only three more hands were necessary for fivebetbluf3 to turn his five-to-one chip advantage into the winner’s prize. The final hand was an other ace-verus-bigger-ace encounter, but fivebetbluf3’s A♦ 5♥ beat gero0846’s A♥ 4♣ when a five flopped.

That was that. In all, the final table took only one hour, but the tournament itself played for close to ten. Ireland emerged triumphant from what had seemed to be a battle of the Americas.

fivebetbluf3 parlayed an initial outlay of $3.30 into $4,738.11. They are very good odds indeed.

Event #8 $3.30+R NL Hold’em [6-Max] – $10,000 Guarantee Final Table results:

1 – fivebetbluf3 (Ireland) – $4,738.11
2 – gero0846 (Argentina) – $3,452.37
3 – Potcleaner99 (Canada) – $2,535.81
4 – realsharp (Canada) – $1,619.25
5 – Ch1PGuY BruP (Brazil) – $980.10
6 – pin8chile (Chile) – $534.66

Congratulations to all players making the money. The MicroMillions has only just begun! You can find information on what events remain along with satellites on the main MicroMillions page.

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