Me? I was off Thursday night. You know how those first flights can be. Minimum participation. Hard to build a huge stack.
Well, Neal Liptak was one of the 64 players to play that flight and bagged not just the chip lead, but he had 1,038,000 in chips and the next closest stack of the eight that bagged was 370K in the bb8K level.
I came in Friday to make up stories that are almost worth reading to post dreaded Day 1 pre-dinner updates. We had 110 runners on Friday and 14 bagged up. Tiffany Wong won a big flip after dinner QQ vs AK backing into broadway after her opponent flopped top two. She took her stack from 450K after that hand to bag up overall chip lead on Friday with 1.13MM.
Luke Entwistle has played here before, as recently as the $2,200 MAPO Main back in January — he was hoping to late-reg Friday’s flight after dinner. The structure was a little different so he missed the boat on that, but was happy to jump into the $200 Milestone Friday night before its registration closed.
Caught up with Luke the next day and learned that he not only got a seat through the satellite, but he managed to run it up to a milestone stack in about 45 minutes. He parlays that into the Saturday Day 1C chip lead bagging 1.02MM and on Day 2 final table-bubbles for an $8K payday in 10th place off of just a $200 buy-in.
Fifty three mostly familiar faces were in the field when we cracked the bags open on Day 2 Sunday 11:15am. Some in better moods than others. Ask Jae Song why he was a few minutes late the next time you see him.
The players were never quite 100% sure if they were going to definitely play it out or definitely come back Monday for Day 3.
We stalled at seven left for what felt like an eternity.
An odd hand tested theories of fate and inevitability alongside random card theory and the butterfly effect. Dustin Wills flopped Schrödinger’s Set on a four-card flop after the dealer made a human error and accidentally put out four cards.
The players and dealer were certain they knew best and that the four “was supposed to be” the burn card, but this is why we have rules and standard procedures. Shift manager came over and assured the players that even if they thought they knew the “right” card, policy to jumble the four cards face down and randomly pick one to be the burn.
It didn’t help that hands had already been tabled because Tiffany Wong had Dustin all-in pre for his tournament life, her Ace Five sooted vs his 44.
Ace Queen Ten Four flop. Fate keeps the four on the flop and Wong’s A5 is drawing dead on the turn. Wills doubles.
Wong finds a way to make Ace Ten a better hand than Rute Jin’s Ace King an orbit or so later and she gets a good chunk of it back.
Wasn’t meant to be and she’s out a little later 99 to Jin’s QQ.
Valerie out in 6th AJ to AK.
Dustin’s TT is still an overpair on the flop, but Rute Jin flopped a set of treys to bust him in 5th.
In the midst of all this, Cameron had said he didn’t want to keep playing after we got down to six. He wanted to come back Monday.
We ran the ICM numbers at one point and at least two of the players left preferred to play it out.
We played four handed for awhile before Renna doubled Liptak and busted not long after.
Tahmasebi, Jin, and Liptak played three handed for a little and Cameron had them scratching their heads when he got a little … unorthodox.
After Cam put a big bluff on Rute (and showed), Neal crippled him flopping top pair and backing into a flush with the same card that gave Rute’s flopped lower pair three of a kind by the river. Jin check/raised river to double-up Liptak and later busted with an ace and a wheel card all-in pre vs Q7o of Cameron.
Even once we were heads up the players still were unsure if they were going to play it out tonight or come back tomorrow.
About 100 Big Blinds total in play and Cameron started with a 2:1 advantage over Neal. Once they were about even in chips, they struck a deal and Neal got the hardware and the title.
Oh, nice. I might get home before midnight tonight.
It’s been fun. I’m going back to dealing and flooring until the boss tricks me into blogging again for the next series.
Thank you for following along.
