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#005 – Break Time in FTOPS #1 – Update
The stats: we started with 1,922. First place pays over $70,000. Over 300 will cash. 1,510 players are left. The average stack is 3,818. Sadie leads with 16,975.
13 pros started in the field. Rafe Furst went out 1,912th, Barny Boatman 1,682. 11 still in. Mike Matusow leads the pros in the field with 6,290. He’s 171st. He benefited from a necessary turn card and a helpful river on separate hands to get there.
About half hour in, he was dealt Ks-Qs in the big blind. A player in middle position with 8-8 raised, Matusow called. The flop was one of those where, in the Old West, someone would have gotten shot. 8h-Kc-Qh. Mike check-raised his top-two, the other player moved all-in with his set, and Mike hit a king on the turn for a full house. That brought him to 5,370.
His table broke up one hand later – Jen Creason was also at that table, not playing many hands. At the new table, less than 10 minutes before the break, Mike, from late position, follows a limper by calling with Qd-8d. The player after him on the button, with K-Q, also calls.
The flop is 2d-6h-Qc. Mike bets, the button calls. The turn is the 9d, which further ties Matusow to the hand – top pair, flush draw. He checks. His opponent makes a not-very-big bet, which Mike calls. The turn card is 8s. Mike checks, no doubt hoping for a check-raise, but the button checks and Mike takes it down, moving up to 6,200.
I watched host Erik Seidel play three hands in the first hour. (He might have played a few more, but I checked the stats for my table and I’d seen 41% of the flops.) The first time, he had J-J v. 7-7 and moved up to 4,800. The second hand was when a player with 30 chips in the small blind was all in. Erik, in the big blind, had A-3o. The All-in player had Q-8 and hit a queen. In the third hand, Seidel raised and was called by the big blind. The flop was 3c4c4d. Erik bet 550, and the big blind raised to 1,200. Erik folded. That brought him down to 3,500, which was where he was at the break.
I was offered 5-to-1 on Matusow to outlast all the pros in the field. I’d have taken it but I wanted a proviso that there was no action if I outlasted Mike. My table is super, super, super tight. I’m playing a lot of mediocre hands and hitting miracle cards. I have 4,655 at 10 minutes after the first break.
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