Biggest.
Tournament win.
Ever.
The night started poorly enough. I sorta convinced Bob and Drizz to jump in the $50 O8 Limit tourney on PokerStars. That's so -EV they've dropped the E. It's just plain negative value. Of course, thrice-confirmed-huge-junk Bob is the 860th Greatest Poker Player in the World as of June 3, 2005 and Drizz actually knows how to play Omaha (I heard he's gotten lessons from Felicia).
Somehow, seeing 68% of the flops was a bad idea, and despite a big early stack, I was the first of the three amigos to get slain by El Guapo. I couldn't even say something fancy like, "I was counterfeited on the turn." I thought I had the "wrap" once, but Drizz informed me I had no idea what I was talking about.
Soon thereafter, Bob fell. I cried. Finally, our hero, Drizz, fell to the whims of variance (not really, he was just kinda shortstacked and his naked A2 didn't hold up... HA! Like I know what a naked A2 is!!!!).
Drizz decided to make up his losses at the PLO8 tables, which he did in short order. He also cashed in a huge PokerStars MTT, for I think $2.84. I'm serious.
Bob went to bed, to The Blonde's dismay.
I went in search of more action. It started at Pacific. Earlier this week I was handed $10 free to come back and use their horrible software. I won a $5 SNG and was up to $29.
So tonight I jumped in a $10 SNG, won that and was up to $65. That's when I eyed a MTT $5000 guarantee with a $25 entry fee and only 12 entrants. It started in just over a half hour. I mentioned to Drizz that it may not fill. He assured me it would, but I decided to keep an eye on it anyway.
In the meantime, I opened up UB (don't kill me GRob, I'm working off a bonus), and promptly won a $10 SNG.
Before that run was over, I decided to go ahead and sign up for that MTT at Pacific. After all, I'm going to need the practice if I'm going to win an XBox!!!
When the tourney opened, I was right and Drizz was wrong. There was a huge overlay. Instead of the 200 players necessary to hit five grand, a measley 198 signed up.
Things didn't go well early. In fact, I should have been eliminated. With TT, I raised to 3x the BB and got called by the BB. The flop came down 9-7-2. I pushed all in and got called. By 77. A miracle T on the river and I was still alive.
From there, I decided that on occasion, I would channel GRob. It really goes back to this post and a conversation I had with Heather yesterday. On some hands, I opted for unbridled aggression. I picked players I perceived as weak and punished them. I avoided confrontation with big stacks but abused the small and medium ones.
When we got down to 22 players, I was in 3rd, but well behind 1st. In fact, I was a lot closer to 22nd than 1st. Top 20 paid and, frankly, I was just happy to be doubling my money.
That's about when I pinged Austin April. A trend I've sensed in UFP MTT cashes is some rail-birding from April. Unfortunately, she couldn't stop in to watch, but she gave me her best, "Good luck" and made me promise to tell her first how it went (check your Yahoo IM).
When we got down to 20, I was well behind 3 stacks, well ahead of 3 and bunched with everyone else. I picked my spots here and there and managed to get to the final table. Suddenly I was in line for at least $100. I was excited!
Unfortunately the blinds were rather high and there wasn't much post-flop action. It was a lot of pre-flop raises with folds or all-in calls. I caught just enough good cards to get to the final three in really good shape.
Sitting in the small blind with a marginal hand, I decided to limp and see how the players reacted. The player to my left immediately pushed all in. I had him significantly covered, but I didn't have the cards to call. Nonetheless, I learned something.
Very next hand, on the button, and I look at Rockets. Any guess what I did? I limped again, and predictably, the player to my left pushed all in. I called and he was easily dispatched.
I had a huge chip lead now, but an ill-advised all-in call brought us back to even. It was clear to me I was the better heads up player and I channeled even more GRob here and applied as much pressure as I could.
He allowed to get himself to get virtually blinded down to about 4x the BB. He made a move against my AJ and never improved.
I won.
I couldn't believe it.
I've never won a tournament with so many players and certainly not with as big of a first prize. This money goes right into the Vegas fund! Look out! UFP is on a roll!