$40k Victory !!!

Hey guys. So last night, I final tabled the 40k guar on UB and ended up taking First for 10k cash. It was amazing. I planned my strategy from six-handed play and was able to use my image and stack to do a lot of reraising. Like all tournaments, I got lucky at a few of the right times.

NorthKato, the player that I eventually got Heads Up with was a very good player. He made a crucial fold aagainst me with JJ. This is how the hand played out. We were playing four handed, I was 2nd in chips with 390k, he was first in chips with 450k and blinds were 5k 10k. He is utg and I am in sb. he raises to 25k. The other two players have 90k in chips. I reriase to 130k. he insta mucks and shows JJ. I coincidentally held AK hh and showed also.

The morale of the story is that he utilized strategy, information, and intelligence to make that fold. Was he folding the best hand pre? Yes. Could he have doubled up and won a monster pot and move up one spot in the money? Absolutely. So why did he fold? One reason, if he shoves and gets called by QQ KK AA AK AQ, he is ahead of only two of four hands, and he is racing his entire tourney, the difference between $3100 (4th) and $10k (first). Second if he folds, even if its the best hand, he protects his stack and moves on to next hand. Third and most importantly, bc the other two stacks have 9 bbs, it is very likely those two will bust in the next few min and now he is guaranteed at least 2nd place money ($6k) which is the biggest reason of all to fold. And even if he wouldve won that pot, he does not need to win that particular pot against other monster stack four handed to lock up 2nd place money. All he has to do is get it in good against one of short stacks or wait for me to knock them out. Another EXCELLENT reason for him to fold is that he knows that I cannot re-raise him without a big hand there, and, for the very same reasons, I would not raise a big stack without a very strong hand. It was, I believe a brilliant fold, and one very few online players in that particular tournament would be capable of. If I were in that spot, I do not know what I wouldve done to be honest.

Interestingly, the above posts relates directly to my previous post of making the best decision throughout different portions of a hand in poker. NorthKato properly folded JJ there, not because he thought he was beat, but because it was a smart play for various other reasons listed above.

I also came in 14th in the 50 50 on stars last night, I ran qq into the nuts, AK and lost flip pre flop. I almost folded but that hand wouldve put me in top 5 of tourney so I decided to take race right there. In that tourney, $$ is so top heavy that it is worth it to take race for big stack with 25-30 players left. So I really thought I was gonna have a double big cash, but I take what I can get!

Good money and peace,

Lucky C and Ace.