S6 Tournament 5

It started innocently enough with a simple coin flip to decide whether we'd split into two tables or start the game 9-handed. With DiceMan out sick, SlimChance out of town, and DoctorLove non existent again, we'd start the night with just nine. Mojo flipped a coin and it came up tails, which on this evening meant we'd one-table.

By the end of the night we'd see one emerge victorious in the biggest heads-up comeback in the history of the league. Switching to third-person as per usual because it makes the writing easier.

Surprisingly, the rebuy period did not lack in aggression, all-ins, and what seemed like a rebuy on every hand. In a particularly brutal hand, CMoney picked off a massive bluff by Coopzilla with the board showing AJJT2. With only around 3,000 in the pot Coopzilla made a massive overbet, pushing all in with his 14K stack. CMoney with A6o eventually made the call based mostly on the size of the bet. In this situation, all-in either means "nothing" or "quads". Coopzilla didn't have quads, and showed 77. By the end of the rebuy period, CMoney was the overwhelming chip leader. But don't forget folks, his last two wins came after ending the rebuy with zero chips and starting the late rounds with the minimum. The big stack rarely wins, and that trend would continue. One other thing of note during the rebuy - HumpinHorses was dealt deuces twice but didn't bank the DD bonus, getting picked off both times.

Not to worry though, because he'd get pocket deuces not once, or twice more, but THREE more times during the night. It's no surprise then that he ended up taking the $20 bonus on either the third or forth time it was dealt.

First to bust was Mojo. CMoney sent him on his way with nothing to show for it but a 2nd Early Retirement achievement. From the big blind CMoney was priced into the pot with Q7o and Mojo showed 44. The flop came AA5. He survived the flop, but the paired aces is bad news for an underpair as it can be counterfeited easily. The ace on the turn didn't change anything, but the 7 on the river gave CMoney the edge and the stack (however small and pitiful). The 7 on the river would be a theme of the night, being pivotal in two more hands before it was over.

Next to go was HumpinHorses who has been on a decent run lately, cashing three consecutive before not cashing in the last two events. With the board showing TT88 he put in a bold bluff all in and TheCanuck made a ballsy call with a bare ace. With the board paired, HumpinHorses would need to show a T,8, or pair bigger than 8 to be ahead. He had 44 and was drawing thin, needing a 4. The river was a 7 (hmmm... strange), and he's out in 8th.

Shortly after that, the pivotal hand of the night came down between CMoney who was still enjoying the chip lead, and Motown who was playing his usual aggressive style. Looking down to find QQ, CMoney raised from mid position. With a stack size about 60% of CMoney's, Motown re-raised. This is just the type of situation the chip leader hates to put a lot of chips in the pot. With the third best starting hand, however, it was time to put Motown to the test. CMoney re-raised all in and Motown called fairly quickly. Usually not a great sign, but in this case he flipped over 77 and the queens were looking good. Motown was on his phone, one foot out the door when a miracle 7 landed on the river to give him a huge pot. It's probably good the queens didn't hold up - CMoney's stack would have been insurmountable.

Falling out in 7th was Jodizzle after a relatively quiet night. Getting short stacked she decided to make a stand with JT. Behind her with a monster stack was Motown, happily calling with AQ. The board ran all blanks and Jodizzle's chips added to the growing army sitting in front of Motown.

A funny hand happened around this time that is worth mentioning (if for no other reason than making fun of a Canadian). In a hand that was raised by TheCanuck, Cobalt re-raised. One person folded and as TheCanuck said "I call" and started putting chips in, Cobalt accidentally showed his hand. Aces. Now, interesting situation - because TheCanuck has already called and we're going to the flop with an exposed hand. I had gotten a peak at his hand, which was JTs. This hand was all but over, until the flop came down AJT. Remember, the entire table has seen Cobalt's aces, and knows he just flopped top set. I have seen TheCanuck's hand and assume he'll be folding as soon as is humanly possible. Not so fast. With top set, Cobalt bets 4,000. TheCanuck decides to call. What? At this point I knew that either: 1) TheCanuck doesn't realize he's basically drawing dead. Any J or T will give them both full houses, but give Cobalt a bigger full house. Or 2) He's going to try to bluff him if the turn is scary. I definitely don't advise action #2 against Cobalt, who's definitely not folding no matter what comes. The turn, in fact, came K which is a really scary card for Cobalt because now any queen makes a straight. If any "bluff worthy" card was to come, that was it. He went all in this time and TheCanuck was forced to fold. It was obvious later that he was in camp #1 and assumed a J or T would give him the win.

Remember folks, when you flop a set with a high pocket pair, you don't really have to worry about under pairs, under two pairs, or under sets unless quads or something crazy comes. If you're up against top set with two pair - run as fast as you can to the nearest exit. One more bit of advice. This is illustrative how important it is to watch the action on the table. If Cobalt had not exposed his hand, this certainly would have shown down. TheCanuck would not have folded JT after that flop, and would have busted in 6th. Cobalt would have had a much bigger stack to play with.

Motown would start using the big stack and a good run of cards to make short work of the rest of the field. Up first was a double bust hand. Chuckles (who endured another unbelievably bad night of watching his pocket kings go down TWICE to underpairs, and even folded JJ preflop only to watch two jacks fall on the flop), was severely short stacked and put all his chips in preflop. Cobalt came along for the ride, as did Motown. The flop came two hearts and was checked around. The turn was a blank, checked around again. The river had another heart. Cobalt decided it was time to make a play, and pushed all his chips into the pot. Motown couldn't have been loving life more, stating "I call with the nuts!!" and showing Ah7h. Chuckles started the hand with less chips and ends up 6th, while Cobalt goes out in 5th.

With four players left Motown had a huge stack, followed by TheCanuck, then CMoney and with a somewhat short stack Coopzilla. After a lot of four-handed play CMoney looked down at AhKh and decided it was time to make a stand. Before he could get a chance, TheCanuck pushed all in. CMoney happily called, and much to his dismay Coopzilla decided to call.

Before going forward, let's break this down for a second. TheCanuck has CMoney out-chipped, so if his hand holds up, CMoney busts in 4th. Coopzilla automatically makes the money, guaranteeing at least a third place finish. When he decides to call in this situation, it would have to be a very big hand (AA/KK/QQ/AK) given that two people in front of him have already pushed.

The hands are revealed. TheCanuck shows JJ, followed by the AhKh of CMoney, and a sheepish K2o from Coopzilla. I don't know if he was tired, or just decided to play the hand in honor of Quin and Tony (only funny if you worked at K2 Information Services). Two hearts on the flop gave CMoney a ton of outs, but nothing came. This hand made two consecutive eliminations where multiple players went out at once. Coopzilla, starting the hand with less chips gets the 4th place (and bubble achievement), while CMoney lucks his way into third place by virtue of Coopzilla making an "interesting" call with K2 against two all in opponents. TheCanuck takes down the $50 bounty for busting CMoney.

The largish pot gave TheCanuck plenty of ammunition to go up against Motown's stack. Having finished 2nd in the previous tournament, TheCanuck was ready to take down a victory. The heads up battle seemed to be going quickly at first, with TheCanuck chipping away at Motown's stack. There was a huge hand that I didn't write down for some reason. All I know is the stacks were basically even and the chips went in on the flop. When the dust settled, TheCanuck won the hand and Motown couldn't bear watching his chips being counted down. He went to the bathroom and when he returned, found 4,500 in chips left in front of him.

And thus would begin the biggest comeback in DDR tournament history. Facing a massive chip deficit (4,500 - 125,000) and blinds at 1000-2000, it was time for fast action. I wish I had chronicled all of these hands, but frankly at the time this tournament seemed over with only a few inconsequential hands remaining. TheCanuck was forced to play any two cards against Motown's tiny stack. Motown doubled up. Now at 9,000 chips, it was still do or die time and another all-in happened immediately. TheCanuck correctly called any two cards again, and Motown's hand held up and he was moved to 18,000 in chips. He opted to fold the next hand, but pushed again after that. There was a short period of time when neither player wanted to call the other, and Motown was winning most of those battles. TheCanuck was a little shell-shocked that this thing hadn't already ended.

Motown worked his stack to the 24K range and made another stand. TheCanuck came along for the ride and Motown survived again, now moving to nearly 50K in chips. This was already an insane comeback, and Motown was only a few chips away from taking a chip lead. What started two hours earlier with a river 7 over CMoney's pocket queens continued into the "hand heard round the world."

With close to 50K, Motown raised to 6K preflop with 96o. He was playing his aggressive style and not letting many cheap flops fall. TheCanuck re-raised to 12K. Deciding that 96o and position were good enough to roll with, he called. The flop came down KT9. I had been watching Motown's hole cards and knew that he'd have a tough time folding (even though it was only bottom pair, he hadn't seen a lot of pairs lately). TheCanuck pushed all in without much thought and Motown went into the tank. All I could think was "you have to fold here - he's got you beat." But Motown knew something I didn't, and calls. TheCanuck shows about the worst hand you could be up against, KT for a flopped top two pair. It was a great comeback, and he almost made it, but this appeared to be the end for Motown. A seemingly innocent 8 fell on the turn. Nobody really paid attention to the fact that this gave Motown a few more outs. When a seven fell on the river, Motown back-doored his way into an ass-ended straight but it was good enough to take down the top two from TheCanuck.

This hand tipped the scales way in Motown's favor, now holding a nice 4:1 chip lead. From there he was able to grind TheCanuck down enough to put him at risk for all his chips in a dominated situation, 87 vs 75. The flop couldn't have been more interesting, A86. No straight came for TheCanuck and the miracle was completed. Motown, down to his last card at least three times during the evening takes down his 2nd win in DDR history. Given his extremely bad luck during the last three or four, it was good to see some cards finally fall his way. He also earned his second Worst to First achievement after finishing last in the previous tournament. Amazingly, he's the only player in the league to ever achieve this, and has done it twice. TheCanuck goes home one shy of the win for the second straight tournament, but puts himself in prime position to vie for 2nd place in the league championship.

With a 600 point cushion, CMoney won't be caught for the championship, but 2nd place an another $100 is up for grabs. TheCanuck took over 2nd place in points, but Cobalt is hot on his trail. There are at least four players with legitimate shots at taking 2nd, with one or two more having outside shots.

Just like SlimChance did in the previous season, Motown is showing that in the end money is what matters. Winning a single tournament can make all the difference in a season. Even at 10th place overall in the points standings, he stands in 4th place on total money won.

Stay tuned for the season finale, and watch for an underground to be scheduled in June. Congrats Motown on the win, and TheCanuck on a decent run including the bounty. For the rest, gear up for the next round in May.