Breaking through.
Finally. Finally beat the stupid bubble.
I had an unofficial goal of making the top 2% of a field (which generally constitutes the 'good' money from just the bubble money) six times this year in large multi-table tourneys. Chalk up #1. After seemingly an incredible number of top 15-25% finishes with no money, I broke through the bubble in style and finished 2nd out of 159 in a $30 tourney. I understand this is how multi-tables generally play out, and that even good players have huge dry streaks as it is very hard to get into the very top, simply because of so much luck and statistical variance in coinflip situations. Finally, I was able to get enough chips by mid-tourney to ride out the few coin-flips of the short-stacks I lost on, and to double up on some of the chip leaders. I had an opportunity to finish on the bubble once again on this hand:
me: 9,10s
2 others in hand, min-raised pot.
flop: 7,8,10
A terrific flop for me, open ended straight draw and top pair. I make a pot sized bet and i'm now in for 40% of my chips in this hand. Fold by the initial raiser, and then an all-in by a guy who had me covered by less than 0.5%, which blows. I stared hard for the whole time limit, trying to calculate how likely a set is. I decided finally that he indeed had to have a set or the straight, and that my 5 outs from the 9 and 10 were out, and made a tough fold (considering how huge the pot was). He flashed 77 as I folded, and I didn't feel bad.
Once you get past the bubble, things progress a lot faster (and kudos to Ultimatebet for doing a hand-by-hand deal when it gets close to the money, as it eliminates stalling). People kept getting knocked out like woah, and I was at the final table. 75k, 90k, 25k, 9k, 20k (me), 15k were the stacks. Now this 90k guy, was insane. He proceeded to knock out the 75k, and two other people out in about 5 minutes, using a dazzling array of two outers on the river (he outdrew each person badly). So now he's sitting near 190k, and me and the other guy are miniscule stacks, and just want to take 2nd. After a seemingly endless time (30 minutes online 3 way w/ noone being busted in a NL game w/ short stacks is ridiculous), I bust the 3rd guy and go heads up. I come back from the 10:1 chip lead to where i'm leading, lose it when we both had top pair, come back, then lose on his straight flush to my higher flush. No shame in that, my chances were pretty much shot after having such a small stack. Final result $954, and a top 2% finish.
I had an unofficial goal of making the top 2% of a field (which generally constitutes the 'good' money from just the bubble money) six times this year in large multi-table tourneys. Chalk up #1. After seemingly an incredible number of top 15-25% finishes with no money, I broke through the bubble in style and finished 2nd out of 159 in a $30 tourney. I understand this is how multi-tables generally play out, and that even good players have huge dry streaks as it is very hard to get into the very top, simply because of so much luck and statistical variance in coinflip situations. Finally, I was able to get enough chips by mid-tourney to ride out the few coin-flips of the short-stacks I lost on, and to double up on some of the chip leaders. I had an opportunity to finish on the bubble once again on this hand:
me: 9,10s
2 others in hand, min-raised pot.
flop: 7,8,10
A terrific flop for me, open ended straight draw and top pair. I make a pot sized bet and i'm now in for 40% of my chips in this hand. Fold by the initial raiser, and then an all-in by a guy who had me covered by less than 0.5%, which blows. I stared hard for the whole time limit, trying to calculate how likely a set is. I decided finally that he indeed had to have a set or the straight, and that my 5 outs from the 9 and 10 were out, and made a tough fold (considering how huge the pot was). He flashed 77 as I folded, and I didn't feel bad.
Once you get past the bubble, things progress a lot faster (and kudos to Ultimatebet for doing a hand-by-hand deal when it gets close to the money, as it eliminates stalling). People kept getting knocked out like woah, and I was at the final table. 75k, 90k, 25k, 9k, 20k (me), 15k were the stacks. Now this 90k guy, was insane. He proceeded to knock out the 75k, and two other people out in about 5 minutes, using a dazzling array of two outers on the river (he outdrew each person badly). So now he's sitting near 190k, and me and the other guy are miniscule stacks, and just want to take 2nd. After a seemingly endless time (30 minutes online 3 way w/ noone being busted in a NL game w/ short stacks is ridiculous), I bust the 3rd guy and go heads up. I come back from the 10:1 chip lead to where i'm leading, lose it when we both had top pair, come back, then lose on his straight flush to my higher flush. No shame in that, my chances were pretty much shot after having such a small stack. Final result $954, and a top 2% finish.