Congratulations to 'jodeybabe' who won the fourth freeroll on June 5
Another Monday, and another avalanche of emails asking how to get hold of the password for the mighty Betfair Grand Prix freeroll.
Well you know the answer – in the magazine!
Freeroll 4 was was special. There was a $6,000 bounty on the head of the sheriff of the PokerPlayer Posse, and winner of the first Grand Prix, ‘K_Unknown’.
The $6,000 equated to a trip of a lifetime for two to Las Vegas at the expense of our generous hosts Betfair. And ‘K_Unknown’ did us proud, going deep into the tournament, with a successful ultra-tight strategy, but more of that later…
This bonus tourney was extended to 800 runners, meaning everyone had a fair crack at registration, with some regulars making into the field with only seconds to spare.
Obviously increased participation meant an increased breadth of experience and quality of play – but that’s freerolls, and it has to be good that everyone that wanted to play got to play.
With a larger field the opening play was fluid with pots being taken down with decidedly average hands. ‘darklord5’ fell into this trap, set up too loose, and soon the chips were drizzling away – let’s be honest, calling with middle pair all the way to the showdown is just rubbish cards.
‘darklord5’ managed to get paid with K-K though to keep going, but the vultures were circling. Down to 735 in chips which was the bare minimum as an all-in weapon, Q-Q arrived and he managed to triple through with a full house.
From there on the strategy should have tightened – but with comments from tablemates apearing in the chatbox such as “let’s hang him high, hehe” – ‘darklord5’ decided it was time for a stand.
What a pitiful stand it was. Holding J-Q with rags on the board an A appeared on the river and ‘darklord5’ called all-in representing an A. Unfortunately his opponent ‘ACEFAB’ had an A and it was goodnight cowboy in 361st. What’s worse was that the opponent’s nickname provided a obvious clue.
‘Dicey’ and ‘Shafty78’, who have turned in the best performances so far crashed out early in 552nd and 507th respectively – perhaps due to the larger field size and looser play.
The other PokerPlayers went deep however, but not close enough to the money. ‘Tallulah’ was next, out in 193rd, then ‘Dudek’ in 185th, and then ‘Hillyfish’ in a very creditable 125th – maybe the trip to the Bahamas was useful afterall.
And so it was just ‘K_Unknown’ left in. As forecast he was being called by absolutely anything, with $6,000 riding on it.
Cornered and out-gunned it was tough going, but he didn’t let his compadres down and put up a great fight:
“I couldn’t put anyone on any hand as I was getting called by everyone. Had a pair of Queens at one point with three undercards on the flop and got my all-in called with 3-4 offsuit, no straight draw, with him needing runner-runner to make two pair”
It worked to his advantage as well though, often being called by poor cards meant a steady stream of chips came his way.
It eventually came down to ‘K_Unknown’s’ A-A versus ‘Drunklkme’s’ 2-2 and a third 2 on the flop saw ‘Drunklkme’ packing her bags for Vegas, and Woods out in 82nd place.
‘Drunklkme’ continued strongly in tournament, going out on the final table bubble in 11th. Ten players did make it however, and it was down to heads-up with the blinds at a scary 8,000/16,000 just before 11pm.
It was set fair for a good tussle with ‘jodeybabe’ and ‘Zemm’ facing off with roughly the same size stacks.
It was nip and tuck, very cagey, with a good 20 hands being played without any hole cards been shown. But after about 15 minutes, with the blinds up to 12,000/24,000 it was all on the line with ‘Zemm’s’ K-K against ‘jodeybabe’s’ K-5. Although heavily dominated ‘jodeybabe’ found two 5s on the board and the automatic place in the live final was in the bag.
It is likely the tournament size will stay at 800 runners during the World Cup, so keep practicising for the bigger field and see you at the next one on June 19 – it’s Spain v Tunisa that night so there’s something to watch while folding those rags!
Updated leaderboard to follow…
