Last one

Sunday was the last of the deepstacks for this series. After 12 weeks, anyone of 8 players had a chance of winning the 1st prize and taking home the 3 GUKPT packages. Ok, so I may have exaggerated when I said 8. First prize could only be won by one of 3 players. I mentioned the top 8 so I could include the scoreboard proving I wasn’t last. And yes, more than 8 different people had entered over the last 12 weeks.

Full Skalie Deepstack table

Things had not started well. I had actually slept in. You may wonder how someone can sleep in for a 4 pm event but I had been on a late one, I work nights you know. Kila (my wife) had gone shopping and didn’t return till after 5. Luckily the structure meant very little damage was done. Not true for Covmasonic, he’d forgot about the event and managed to log in just in time to see the last of his chips all in.

When the final table started, I was in fact the chip leader with 49,000 followed by:

DinRosin 45k
Shortyman 40k (2nd in the leaderboard)
Scun 39k
Rikstar 39k
ThePeite 26k
Madeinsweeden 25k (1st in the leaderboard)
Bannock1314 25k
2Easy4U 19k
Boomer797 16k.

Michelle1 had been knocked out before the final but had done enough to lock up 3rd place in the overall standings and win a GUKPT package.

Early on, with the blinds 400/800 I pick up pocket Queens and raised to 2400. Boomer797 re-raises to 4800. I plan to flat call and push on any small flop but I am forced to re-think when rikstar re-raises to 28,800. Painfully I am forced to throw them away but am relieved to see both my opponents holding pocket aces when boomer797 calls and chops the pot.

With only 2 players left in contention for the leaderboard I expected MadeInSweeden and shortyman to stay out of each others way. However, this simply was not the Swedes style. Raising to 2400 he is re-raised by shortyman. After a dwell he pushes his remaining chips in the middle knowing all but KK or better will probabaly have to fold in this unique situation. Unfortunately for him, shorty had better and his pocket rockets were crushing AQ and rightly held up giving shorty a massive stack of 70k. The 3 GUKPT packages was all but shorty’s to lose now. All he needed now was 6th place or better to lock the top spot in the leaderboard up. A consolation of 2 packages worth in excess of $3000 would be some help to MadeinSweden who, throughout the series was probably my favourite player. Though he did say he was routing for everyone else.

Back to business for the final and Shorty didn’t need aces to knock out his opponents. After getting everything in with AK vs Scun’s KK an ace on the river took him to over 100k and an unlucky scun was to go in 9th. Rikstar raised to 3000 and was quickly re-raised to 9k from shorty. I was holding pocket kings. I am not throwing these away until I’ve seen a flop and decide to just flat call. Rikstar passes and when the flop comes 4 5 J I just hope my Kings are still good. Shorty bets 9k and I push for 32k. He dwells for some time before calling with QQ. My kings survive and I had the lead again with 83k, shorty was back on 60k. With my new found stack I decided to push for the win. I raise (don’t ask what with, cudda been anything) only for Boomer to push all in, followed by a bigger re-push by 2Easy4u. Boomer gets no help with his AQ and the pocket kings give 2Easy over 50k.

I was bullying nicely and knowing Shorty needed 1 more exit to win the leaderboard I decided to target him. Sorry mate, but it was fun. I was the only player who had him covered and when he next raised I was going to re-raise regardless. This was with Q7. Unfortnately he called the re-raise and was a bit perplexed about what to do when the flop came Q 7 6. We both checked it. A jack on the turn was checked to me and I took a stab for about 12k. He called. Hmmmmmmmm. The river was a king and we were both happy to check. His pocket rockets were plenty and it was good to see the Skalie timing was working as well as ever, sigh!

It took what seemed an age for our next finisher. The chips had been passing back and forth all afternoon and any hands I picked up were cracked or no good. Eventually the stalemate broke with the blinds at 1500/3000, when 2easyforu and shorty got it all in with AQ and AK respectively. Shorty winning with AK to take the chip lead and finally lock up the leaderboard.

My aggressive tactics were to come back and haunt me. With a struggling stack I pushed with A10 and found the AJ of a quiet DinRosin making the brave call. No help for me (or money) and I could only be a spectator for the rest of the final table.

Bannock1314 had only played one hand in the final and that was pocket aces. It took him so long to call I swear he thought about passing them. Eventually he would need to make a stand and now he was in the money he pushed what chips he had left in the middle with Q3 from the small blind. However ThePeite had seen this move before and he called with A6. A flop of K 9 5 A 6 meant we were now down to 4.

Desite this Thepiete found himself short after a few conflicts and was next to go after pushing short stacked with Q7. An automatic call with 94 from DinRosin was enough when the board came 10 A A 4 4. Despite an impressive display it was not to be DinRosin’s day. Getting it all in with AJ v the A9 of shorty he must have fancied a double up, but when a miracle board of 5 K 6 8 7 came he would need to settle for 3rd.

Despite shortyman looking nailed on for the win, Rikstar fought well and took the lead. It was all over when the KJ of shortyman failed to improve against the pocket nines of Rikstar. It’s been a good few weeks and some great poker has been played.

If you made the top 18 don't forget the freeroll, there is still one more package up for grabs. Congratulations to Shortyman, MadeInSweden and Michelle1 for winning the GUKPT added packages. I will see you all soon.