Yorky Pud

At this year's World Series of Poker Phil Hellmuth seemed to have a unique and rather unwanted ability to finish as runner-up in some big events. At this year's Grand Series of Poker (GSOP) a number of Team Betfair players have been suffering the same fate. Who was a bridesmaid this time around? Keep reading to find out.

GSOP Event #11: $50+$4 No Limit Hold'em Short-handed Rebuys $100,000 Guaranteed

Regular readers of these recaps will have realised that I am not a fan of rebuy tournaments, especially rebuy tournaments that I cannot really afford to rebuy in. Before the GSOP I said to myself that I would give my all in the rebuy games but unless the rebuy was within my bankroll management constraints I would not be rebuying. Usually $54 buy-in games are outside of those bankroll restrictions so this was another event where I was trying to get through with just one bullet.

The problem with playing with just a single shot is that you sometimes play a little too tightly in order to preserve your chips and that is exactly what happened in this event. Looking back through my Holdem Manager database I missed several raising and three-betting opportunities but failed to pull the trigger. Thankfully at the 80/160 level, when I was down to 1,380 chips, I picked up KsKh and open shoved from UTG. The action folded to TRAOULOS1 in the big blind and thanks to him having more than 12,000 in his stack he made the call with Ad2s. The Qs-7s-8d flop missed him, the 2h turn hit him but the 9c on the river was not one of his outs and I bought myself a little breathing room.

Not long afterwards, during the same level, I found AsKs under the gun and min-raised to 320. Nobody wanted to play until the action was on Sejan in the small blind and he three-bet to 960, exactly three-times my raise. The big blind got out of the way and I decideed to ship in my remaining 2,280 chips and villain snap-called with pocket jacks. Great, time to lose yet another flop and that looked like it would be the case as by the turn the board read 3s-4d-Qh-7d but the ace of clubs showed its beautiful face on the river to double me again. [ ] Skill game

I was starting to feel pretty good about another GSOP cash as I was starting to run well and I started to run even better when I picked up AhAc during the next level, 100/200. Houen 7 opened to 500 from under the gun and when it folded to me in the big blind I three-bet to 1,400. Villain called and it was off to the fantastic looking 5d-2d-As flop. With 2,900 in the pot and just 3,360 behind I simply shoved like the money I am and villain called with AdQh. No drama on the turn or river and my stack was touching 10,000! Who needs to rebuy?!

Then the ride became a little bumpier. I'd win 1,200-2,500 chips, lose the same out, win them back and so on and so forth. That was until MswatiIII open-shoved for 4,607 with blinds of 250/500/50a with what turned out to be Ah5d, a much lesser hand than the AsJc I called with in the big blind. It was only the best hand for the first two cards on the flop because the final board read 8d-4h-5c-5h-3c to leave me in shoving territory with 7,645 chips.

Two hands later it was all over. The action folded to me on the button and I thought the best play for my 7,295 chips was to move in with my Ac6d. Unfortunately for me the villain from the last hand woke up with KdKc, which held, to send me to the rail 215/757. From hero to zero in two hands. That as they say is poker.

Commiserations to dalemark70 of the UK who busted out in 108th with 105 paid, a much more disappointing, to him, feeling than my bust out I am sure. He was followed to the virtual rail shortly afterwards by Chris "NigDawG" Brammer in 93rd, Brammer being the number one ranked online tournament player in the entire world! In total 17 Betfair players made it through into the money place but only one made it through to the final table, Rand0mD0nk, whose name obviously is not true! Rand0mD0nk eventually finished as runner-up for a score of $12,481.01, narrowly missing out on the magic that occurs when you take down a GSOP event. An amazing performance from the dinkish one and I am sure it will not be his last major cash.

Event #11 in numbers

Total entrants: 757
Total prize pool: $103,600
Total Team Betfair entrants: 121 (15.98% of field)
Total Team Betfair cashes: 17
Total Team Betfair winnings: $17,520.71

Mini-GSOP Event #11: $5+$0.50 No Limit Hold'em Short-Handed rebuys $15,000 Guaranteed

The mini-event was one where I said I was going to splash around early doors and try to build a stack up and it seemed to pay off as my donkey plays were rewarded! As early as the 15/30 level I managed to double up! Lukas V76 opened to 90 on the button then called when I three-bet to 240 with a pair of sevens. The Ad-Qh-6d flop saw me lead for 380 and villain call. The turn was the 7h gifting me an unlikely set and I bet 960 and villain simply called again, which was strange because that bet only left me with 450 behind! These obviously went into the middle when the river was the 5s and villain called the mucked. I was now on 4,090.

Unfortunately that is where the good fortune ended as it was a rapid downward slide from that very point. At 80/160 I opened to 320 with Kh10h from the cutoff and only the small blind, mole666, called. We both checked the Jd-4c-Jc flop but villain lead for 560 into 800 on the Kc turn. I didn't believe him and called and I didn't believe him when he bet 960 into 1,920 on the arrival of the 8c on the river. There is no way he has a king that I am not chopping with and he hasn't got the flush but he did have Js8s for a full house. Yeah, that beats my hand too! Oops.

So I went back to treading water for the next 10 minutes when I found a nice little re-steal spot. _ASDASDASD min-raised to 400 from the cutoff, I shoved for 2,885 on the button with Ac4h and villain called. A flop reading Jc-Kc-Ks was all that was needed to bust me because the turn and river missed me by miles and another tournament void of winnings was mine; 706/1,115.

Thankfully not all Betfair players were feeling as fishy as me and 20 of the 159 who entered made it into the money places. The first to collect some cash was Eyeball Kid_ of Russia and his in the money finish paved the way for more players to receive money. If the tournament had been played to a full ring format then DRK HRT would have made it to the final table with their ninth place finish but alas this was six-max. Which also means daianov of Bulgaria missed out on a final table appearance but they did make it into seventh place for $412.08 which in itself is a great result.

Mini Event #11 in numbers

Total entrants: 1,115
Total prize pool: $16,085
Total Team Betfair entrants: 159 (14.26% of field)
Total Team Betfair cashes: 20
Total Team Betfair winnings: $1,369.69

So what are the running totals after the 11th events? Well, in the GSOP Team Betfair players have cashed a total of of 304 times for winnings of $413,335.33 whilst our mini heroes have made it into the money 334 times for prize money worth $31,541.50.

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