Thursday, 28th March 2024 23:46
Home / News / SCOOP 2020: First one out, last one standing – ‘MarkBang’ wins #11-M

The reentry format can sometimes create some curious poker tournament storylines as players who get eliminated come back and in some cases successfully earn some measure of revenge.

“‘MarkBang” of Hungary has just such a story to tell regarding 2020 Spring Championship of Online Poker Event No. 11-M ($109 NL 5-Card Draw PKO).

“As a friend noticed, I was the first who was eliminated from the tourney,” he points out. “My second entry was the one that got me to the other side of the leaderboard.”

He’s right. If you check the results of Event #11-M, you’ll see “MarkBang [2]” at the top in first position and winning $3,284.71 in bounties plus the $3,532.23 first prize. And you’ll also see “MarkBang” in 461st position — dead last!

“I got a stack fast after re-entering and was building consistently until we were well into the money. Then I got short but got back to average, then at the final table there were several good opponents.”

Indeed, a quick glance shows Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna (who finished third) among a tough line-up of frequently seen final table foes.

“I knew three or four regulars at the FT,” says “MarkBang.” “It wasn’t that soft!”

He describes a couple of key hands, one being a blind-versus-blind hand in which he was dealt a pair of queens and drew a second pair, then correctly called a bluff from his opponent who had no pair, just air.

The other came heads-up versus “falafel2” of Poland.

“My opponent raised from the button, I three-bet with an open-ended draw, and ‘falafel2’ called,” explains “MarkBang.” They both drew one and “MarkBang” made his straight, and after he shoved all in for about 60% pot, “falafel2” called and lost with two pair.

Eventually “MarkBang” was able to grind down “falafel2” until they finally got it in predraw in a spot where “MarkBang” had aces up versus his opponent’s lone pair of aces, and “falafel2” couldn’t improve.

Over 15 years of poker playing, “MarkBang” has collected several nice scores, among them a third-place in a Sunday Million and four previous ‘COOP final tables, including three wins.

“Those ‘COOP wins were from non-hold’em games, as I remember — NLO8 and 5-card draw.”

Despite playing for a while and enjoying some success, he describes himself as having really just started to study poker as a professional a couple of years ago.

“I realized that the field had gotten stronger,” he says. “Now I am in a group with backers, learning the NLHE cash game. The non-hold’em games I only play now when there are series on PokerStars. Now I’m determined to win a NLHE title, too… I love these series!”

Congrats to “MarkBang,” and nice job not only winning Event #11-M, but pulling off the rare, hard-to-achieve feat of finishing both first and last in the same event!


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