Rio Daily DeepStack Final Table

After a rough week in Vegas, I played the $235 Rio Daily DeepStack tournament on Friday. I had a good feeling about this tournament and was focused on playing my best. I had a weak starting table and was able to double my starting stack during the first 2 hours. I was moved to table 1 and knew that this table wouldn't be breaking for some time. I wanted to build a solid tight image to use once the blinds and antes went up. The players at this table were a little better, but very exploitable. There was a loose foreign guy that was the table CL. He was seeing probably 70% of flops and catching with weak hands. I thought I already had a read on him, but not sure. I knew if I got involved with him he could have any 2 and I would need to keep the pot small unless I had a big hand. I raise from ep with KK, button calls, CL calls from bb (obv). Flop comes J87. He checks and I gotta feeling he is strong. I check button checks. Turn K, bingo. He checks I bet, button calls, CL shoves. Could have 9T here, if so gg but I still got outs. I get it in, button folds he has J7..bink. I double and feel very confident at this point. The only hands I had been showing were strong and I have a very solid tight image.

The structure in this tournament is nice but if you're not careful you can find yourself suddenly short stacked. I was card dead and unable to find any good spots for a while when I found myself suddenly down to 15bbs. A new player at the table with a decent stack raised from mp. I didn't have any reads on him yet. I find 88 on the button and decide to get it in. He tanks for a good 4 minutes before I think he is finally folding. He then says "I just don't think I can lay this down" and says call while turning over his cards. QQ. I stand up and say "Really" what the hell. But I know that 8 is coming and of course I bink it on the river. Now I'm feelin like I'm gonna win this thing.

I find some good spots to maintain my stack but can't get anything going. I lose 1/3 when my AKs can't hold vs. A5o. I get a little back but lose 1/2 when my AK loses to QJ aipf. I'm a little frustrated but then my railbirds show up. Mike aka Ivan_Drago45 and his wife. I find AJs in lp and shove. Button wakes up with AKs. sigh....But I hit the J on the flop and another one on the turn. The table breaks soon after and we are down to three tables.

Love my new table. I can tell some of the players, most noticeably the older guy on my left, are hoping to move up the payscale and need to take advantage. At this point I have around 400k chips which is about avg. Time to change gears. Blinds were 15-30k with 5k ante. One of the first hands it is folded to me in the sb. I rs and take down the pot. The bb tells me to be careful as he mucks his cards. I then steal the blinds from the button w/k9s the next hand. He says now that time I know you had a monster. lol. The next orbit in my bb, utg looks at his cards and I see either a 9 or T (not purposely) when he looks at his cards. Folds around to me and I know if I have overs I'm shoving....I have Ak. I shove for most of his stack. He starts bitching about no skill involved here, don't you know how to play poker, is this your only move? Then folds.

Blinds up to 20-40k. I know have about 650k stack. Tight euro kid shoves 6bbs from hijack. I find ATs on the button and had a tough decision. The only hands he had shown were strong but he was short and I thought he had a wide range. The two stacks to my left were about 500k and 200k. I decide to shove and he turns over KK. fml. I flop a ten and a flush draw and bink the flush on the river. Up to 900k or so. At this point there are about 20 players left and I have a top five stack. 3 more players out and we are now down to 2 tables. Blinds are up to 30-60k 10k ante.

Scott Cook, aka Chipless Wonder from badbeatspoker stops by to wish me luck after his awesome day 1 of the ME before heading to bed.

A young agressive kid sits on my right and isolates 2 shorty shoves with qj and kt and wins with both. He then starts raising almost every hand. He has over 2mil chips. I know I'm going to have to confront him soon. I get a couple steals this level but my stack drops to 800k. Our table seems to get down to 5 players pretty quickly and 11 left overall. We go on break and I will only have 10bbs at the start of the next level and will be in the bb. Back from break, folds to agro kid in the sb. You think he can find a fold here? I know he is raising any 2. I have A6o. He actually takes a while and asks how much I started with and acting like it was a tough decision. He shoves and I almost call, but have a weird feeling he is strong here. If he woulda shoved immediately I probably call. Very next hand it folds to him on the button. He looks down and insta shoves. I find KQs in the sb and get it in. He turns over AT. Flop comes KQx. oh shit. but I sweat the J and hold.

We make the final table and the agro kid doubles up a shorty and is now short himself. I have about 1.5mil. Blinds at 40-80k with 15k ante. We lose two short stacks and are down to 8 players. Agro kid shoves from utg+1 I find TT next position and reship. It folds around and he has KQo. I hold and we are down to 7 players. At this point the prizepool info was taken off the nearest monitor and I'm not sure of the pay jumps. I know 7th place gets ~3500. There is a sheet of paper with the payouts but I don't want to make it look like I care what the payouts are. There are three short stacks at the table and all three have doubled at this point.

The blinds are now 60-120k w/20k ante lol. I have around 1.5m still and sitting around 3rd or 4th in chips. I look around and no one has more than 20bb or less than 9. No one has mentioned deal yet and I didn't want to be the one to bring it up. But damn, there is no "play" left here and 24k dif in 1st and 7th place. So I decided to do it. "Who wants to discuss a deal?" Turns out everyone did. They didn't want to bring it up either.

So we all agreed to a 7 way chop. Now we had to agree on who was signing for what place. They needed 5 players to sign. Two players couldn't sign. French guy wasn't sure about tax implications so we had to wait a while for floor to confirm he was good. So it was between me and the drunk biker to sign for 5th place. He didn't want to sign and neither did I. So I tell him to give me 1k of his prize and I will sign. He says deal. In the meantime, the drunk biker, who was drinking double rum n cokes all night, was about to ruin the deal because he thought the frenchman didn't want to deal. While we were waiting for confirmation for the frenchman, he slurs loudly the words "Fuck it lets play the gdamn thing out then. he don't want to deal let's play" and sits down. I quickly went over and calmed him down. Eventually the frenchman heard what he wanted to hear and we chopped.

I ended up getting more than 3rd place money with 7 players left. Pretty good deal imo. Thanks to everyone who followed me on twitter and wished me luck throughout the tournament!

What a day!