#674 – King of the Eleven Dollar Zoo

ZERO TO 3,498,000 – WORLD RECORD PERFORMANCE EXPLAINED

Insanity Plea in the Midnight Madness

From Coroner to Coronation

I regularly play the Midnight Madness on Full Tilt, the $10 + $1 NLHE $15,000 Guarantee tournament that, because it starts at 12 AM ET starts at 10 PM local time. I’ve now won the Madness, which regularly draws more than 2,000 players a night, twice: the first time I played it and on Tuesday night.

The story the first time was it was the first week of the Midnight Madness. (I’ve won several tournaments during their first week … before the good players learn about them.) The story this time was about The Comeback. Until someone gives me a reason to say otherwise, I consider The Comeback to be the greatest comeback in the history of online tournament poker.

I always ask myself why I play the Midnight Madness. The early part of the tournament is an exercise in terrible poker. There a large quantity of really miserable people in the field, who take some joy in being nasty to a red pro. And it offers, at the lowest levels, one of the worst payouts at Full Tilt. The tournament pays 15% of the field, so you have to make the final three tables just to earn baby-sitting money. Then you have to make the final table to earn more than pizza-delivery money. It takes only about two hours to make the money, but you can play four hours and make bottle-deposit money.

But ….

All these things have corollaries. First, the top prize regularly exceeds$4,000. There is something irresistible about turning ten bucks into four thousand, making 400:1 on my money. Second, there are a lot of nice people in the field who genuinely consider playing poker with me to be a positive part of their experience on Full Tilt. I think that’s cool and want to encourage that. Third, I’ll put up with a lot worse if I can occasionally have an experience like I had late Tuesday night.

Here is how it all went down.

The tournament guarantee is based on 1,500 players and the Midnight Madness exceeds that every night. There were about 1,800 players registered when we started (10 PM local time) and registration was open for the first level, ten minutes. By the time registration ended, 2,332 players had entered, but it looked highly unlikely I’d make it to the end of the first level.

On the second hand, I had Q-Q in the cut-off. The player two head of me limped for 30 so I raised to 135. The player on the button reraised to 444. The limper called. I pushed all-in for 1,500. The button called and so, remarkably, did the limper. The button had K-K. The limper, in typical Midnight Madness fashion, had Jc-8c. I had my original 1,500 chips as did the limper. The button, because he had the small blind on the first hand, had 15 chips less.

The limper never came within a mile of a hand and I didn’t improve, so the limper busted and the button tripled up to 4,500. Because I had the winner covered by 15 chips, I got 15 chips back, plus the 15 I won from Mr. Jackate. The player who busted went out in 1,868th. At that moment, there were 1,867 players left. At the bottom of that heap, with 30 chips – in 1,867th out of 1,867 remaining (though the number was quickly rising) – was me.

It was 10:02 PM. From there, with those 30 chips, I went on to win the tournament and over $4,200, eventually finishing at the top of a field of over 2,300 players.

Amazingly, I was chip leader at the table before the end of the first level. That hand I lost with the queens was #2 of the tournament.

Hand #3 -  Fourth to act, I was dealt pocket aces. The player in front of me called the big blind (30). I, of course, called. After the small blind called 15, the big blind raised to 400. The others folded and the big blind showed Tc-8h. He hit an eight on the turn but that’s as close as he came. I was up to 120 chips. (So what was Ateten’s response to losing? “Figures.” He later accused the game of being rigged.)

Hand #4 – Dealt K-5o, the player ahead of me raised and I folded.

Hand #5 – Second to act with Q-2o, I folded.

Hand #6 – I folded K-6o. (Because of players eliminated and arriving, I was again second to act.)

Hand #7 – Under the gun, I was dealt Ks-Td. I moved all-in for my last 120, hoping some bounty hunter with a worse hand would go crazy. Come to think of it, with K-T, I’d have at least a 30% chance against most legitimate hands. The player behind me reraised to 356 and the player behind HIM called the 356. After a flop of 9c-Ac-Th, the reraiser bet 1,111. The caller folded and the reraiser showed Q-Jo, for an open-ended straight draw (and two overcards to my pair of tens). But I had one of his straight outs and he didn’t hit the seven others or one of the six queens/jacks. With the blinds, I near quadrupled up to 405.

Hand #8 – I was dealt 5-4o in the big blind. Two players limped, the small blind called 15, and I checked. The flop of 6h-7s-Ts showed some promise, giving me the bottom end of and open-ended straight draw. (I had one spade.) It was checked around and the turn was the three of diamonds, making my straight. I bet 90 and got one call. The river was the eight of spades. That created a possible flush and higher straights but this was no time to worry about saving bets. I pushed all-in. The remaining player folded. I was now up to 585.

Hand #9 – I received K-Qo in the small blind. The cut-off limped. The button raised to 120. I pushed all-in for 585. Both players called. (They call it Midnight Madness for a reason.) It was checked down to the river on a board that read 6c-2s-5h-Ts-Ks. The player on the button moved all-in for 780 and the cut-off folded. The bettor had a king, but it was only K-J. My kicker played and my stack was up to 1,785, actually above average.

It wasn’t until the last two tables that I was again under the chip average. But it gets better. Although I really wanted to sit back and wait for good situations and not take any risks now that I restored my stack, I couldn’t help myself – especially when there was no way to figure out what hands these guys were pushing.

Hand #10 – I was dealt A-Qo on the button. Two players limped for 30 so I, seeing how much these guys wanted to try to bust me, made it expensive to chase, raising to 270. The small blind pushed all-in for over 4,500 (he had all those chips he won from me and Jackate on hand #2). The big blind called with his last 885. I wouldn’t do this in every situation but it felt right to call, so I did. The big stack had 6-6 and the short-stack had A-To.

The board came 8s-2d-3s … Tc … Qs.

That pair of queens took my stack up to 4,545, nearly triple the chip average. I folded the next two hands and that ended the first level of the Midnight Madness.

From the moment that queen hit on the river, I knew I was going to play my absolute best game for the remainder of the tournament. I was sure of that because a single thought dominated my mind: YOU HAVE TO WIN TO BE ABLE TO TELL THIS STORY.

For four hours, I never looked back. At the first break, I had over 12,000 chips, 9th out of 944 remaining. When I crossed over 100,000 chips with 139 left – this was long after we reached the money, the tournament paying 351 places, half of whom received less than $20 – I took the chip lead for the first time. I held it most of the way to the last two tables. (19th out of over 2,300 paid just $90.)

With two tables left, I twice made mistakes evaluating my opponents’ unwillingness to fold mediocre hands after the flop and fell toward middle chip position. In fact, I had to fold J-T after a ten-high flop when we were ten-handed because a bigger stack pushed all-in for several times the size of the pot. I had to play most of the final table with some restraint because I just didn’t have a big enough stack to push anyone around. But I played smart, busted a couple players, and dominated the short-handed endgame.

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