I found out less than a week ago that Full Tilt was running a $500 HU tournament on Mother's Day. I really wanted to play (I RARELY get this urge for any tourney), but assumed I couldn't because of Mother's Day plans. We ended up going to breakfast, so I was able to get back and register for the 2 PM tournament. I played 4 quick $100 HU SNGs beforehand to prepare myself.
I was frustrated when I found out my 1st round opponent was a very good MTT player: RandALLIN. He ended up being good, but as the tournament progressed, I realized that having a match against MTT players wasn't a bad thing. I faced four "big-name" MTT pros, but the other three were not good at HU. They tried 3 betting way too much and keeping the entire match preflop, even though we often had 75BB stacks or more. They also clearly didn't know how to play postflop... I guess that's not shocking, though.
I had a ton of fun. My stepdad sat next to me for every match. I analyzed the hands and the flow of each match out loud, and it greatly helped assure I stayed on my A-game. One match I was making quick decisions and not thinking methodicially in the beginning, and my stepdad told me I was losing focus. It was great to have him as a reality check, and I quickly reset back to my better game.
I understand that I am very, very fortunate to win the event. I won 4 major coinflips over the course of the tournament, and put a few coolers on people. I didn't suck out in any large pot, though, and take some pride in that. With 512 entrants, even with the good structure, I win this event MAYBE 1 in 200 times. That being said, I don't feel I was a dog in any match I played. There were lots of high stakes cash game players in the field, but I didn't draw any of them.
I don't have any exciting plans for the money. I'm going to wire a big chunk of money off Full Tilt and begin investing. I'm going to become a partner in my stepdad's real estate investment company, which has been making great returns, even in a shitty market. As for poker, I am just going to continue to play 2/4 to 5/10 NL. It is really important I continue to grind, and treat this score as strictly a bonus. I remember when SamH (the 25/50 NL grinder) won a WCOOP event and immediately just went back to grinding cash games, and I respected him a lot for having that great work ethic.
8 years ago
9 comments:
First of all, congratulations on this win. It must be a great feeling winning a monster tournament like this. For someone who does not like donkaments, you sure have been doing well in them lately.
Which leads me to my first question, while in Vegas for the summer what are you going to play? I do not remember there being HU side cash games, so are you going to be playing the donkaments or the side games? or a little bit of both?
My second question is about a comment you made on your post. You said that you were going to bank wire your winnings off of FTP, I had a big score last month and it has taken me forever to get the money off-line from doing the 2500 bank transfers and 5000 check withdrawals, so my question is is there a way to withdraw a ton of money at one time, or are you just going to do the same thing I did?
Sorry that this post was so long and by the way this is SoCal if you didn't know.
Congrats dude! That is a really nice win for ya.
Just saw this via btimm's page; sick win, congrats! I actually am from around Pgh myself origially (Greensburg), but went to PSU myself. Keep up the good work.
Congrats. Always super awesome to see an actual poker player win a donkament and restore a little faith in the fact that tourneys can be won by a skillful player.
Congrats on the win, well deserved!
Very nice, congrats.
holy shit, congrats
Danny,
I'm still going to play online more than anything else when I'm in Vegas. I am going mainly to be around other serious poker players. That being said, I will still put a lot of hours in probably playing 5/10 NL live games. (Yes I like HU best and HU is my best game, but I can tolerate full ring occassionally.) I also plan on buying into the $2500 six handed event, and trying to satellite into 2 (or so) other events.
As for your other question - I haven't looked into it yet, but apparently Full Tilt does have a bank wire option you have to email them for. Just contact cashier@fulltiltpoker.com and they'll tell you what steps you need to take to be able to wire it out.
Congratu-fucking-lations!!! By the way this post surpasses your "best post" by 2 million miles.
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