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So yeah, shipped the Warm Up on Sunday for $130k which was great. It was a strange one, for most of the night I had a better shot on Party and I was focusing more on that. When I busted Party in 18th there were still 80 players left in the Warm Up; the Party tournament only had 1,200 runners compared to 4,000 in the WU so it ran much quicker. From that point I grinded along until I suddenly won two flips to take me from 23/26 to 2/26 in five minutes.
Anyone in London knows how hot it is right now. I'm not an internet slob or anything, but at 2 am it was still 26 degrees in here with all the windows open, and I was reduced to sitting in my T-shirt and pants playing this tournament. I know, it's not a pretty picture. I made the final without much further incident - there was no FT bubble at all as 10th and 11th went out on the same hand.
Going in 5/9, the payout structure mandated very careful play against the bigger stacks, especially with the super-loose chip leader and a good 2+2 guy on my immediate left. The other players weren't great though and I knocked a couple of short stacks out; firstly a guy min-raised from 10BBs in the SB, I shipped QTs and he called with K3s (sick induce as someone rightly said in the 2+2 sweat thread). Rivered him for flush > two pair, then I called a short SB push with Q4s and "held" against JT. Those two hands might have been the other way round (as in Q4 > JT might have been earlier), whatever.
Four-handed was relatively deep with everyone having at least 35BBs IIRC. Even so I felt that it wouldn't be long before two of the other guys got it in, which they did when the chip leader shipped 9x against Aces on a 9 high board and then rivered another 9. I doubled through the 2+2 guy with TT > A8 completely standard, then he went out to the chip leader 44 < 55.
Heads up I was 3-1 down but chipped away at him pretty well. Being able to check-raise two pair and then split trips on the flop helped. I unloaded a sick bluff with T9 after I three-bet him pre and followed up the AQx flop. On the blank turn there was 14m in the pot and I had 11m left so I just thought "one for the crowd" and shipped it. He folded and said "nh", lol. Couple of hands later I raised with KK, he jammed 25BBs over it with K7s, gg wp.
I'm glad that's my biggest win now; when people ask in interviews about "greatest achievement" I'll say that, instead of second at the WSOP - as soon as you say the word "second" their eyes start to wander as if they're thinking "fuck this, let's find an actual winner to talk to". Can't say I blame them either.
So obviously confident going into the Main Event, without any unreasonable expectation. Without being too result-oriented, I'm pretty happy with my decision to skip the prelims anyway.
Read more of Andy Ward's blogs at www.secretsoftheamateurs.blogspot.com
Comments (5)
Grats on the score Brian, and I hope you're enjoying the new car. I think you need to play lower levels than 1/2 with that bankroll, though. Otherwise the variance is going to kill you.