Santo Domingo Peter Poker Nov 2016
After losing two satellites for the Punta Cana Poker Classic, I decided to head over to Santo Domingo for the November 2016 edition of Peter Poker at the Casino Malecon Palace. Two German friends of mine, Reiner and Guenther (who bought 40% of my action) are also playing.
This is a $100.000 guaranteed, $500 buy-in tournament. They tournament has for first day flights, starting Wednesday, November 2nd. Each day, the flight plays until 20% of the starters are left. We got in on day 1C, with a total of 43 players participating. Days 1A and 1B also had only around 40 players, and the list of day 2 players had 17 names on it, with a top stack of 230.000.
With a starting stack of 25.000, I managed to go up to 35.000 within the first two hours. Meanwhile, my buddies Guenther and Rainer (we were all seated at the same table) were all-in against each other when Guenther had 66 against Reiner's 77, with a flop of 67A, an A on the turn and a blank on the river. Guenther fired another bullet, but stacked off again 2 hours later. Reiner built a stack of 75.000 early on, but then lost two all-ins in a row - including losing with a set of kings on the flop to an opponent who had flopped a straight.
So far, I did not exactly get great cards, but had some great flops, including one flopped straight, one set of 9s and two top pairs with AQo. Anyway, my stack was at 70 000 when I got reseated to the other table (5 hours after start, we were down to 20 players). Unfortunately, at the new table I did not get any playable hand for almost 3 hours and my chipstack went down to 7 BB. My turn to post the Big Blind, and everyone folds to the button, who has 12 BB and makes it 2,5 BB. I feel he is stealing, shove all-in with 96o and he folds. Two hands later, the same guy goes all in, and I am holding AQs on the button. I call, he shows JJ but I catch an ace right on the flop and double up.
At this point, the blinds are 2500/5000 with 500 antes, and I now have app. 100.000 chips. Half an hour later, I 3bet with 99 against two limpers and now I am up to 140.000 and we have are down to one table of ten players. Play will be suspended when there are only nine players left and we have one short stack with only 2 BB remaining. But he manages to double up three times in a row. After that, three all-in situations did not eliminate anyone. Being chip leader and with everyone playing very tight I manage to steal two pots (blings are now 3.000/6.000 with 1.000 antes!), so up to 170k. Then, I catch JJ on the Big Blinds and everyone folds to the Button who had been shoving in almost every unraised pot when he was in position. The button shoves with 40k chips and I call instantly. He flips over 44, and my jacks wi the final hand of the day.
There are 26 players on the day 2 list now, with me in second position with 212.000 chips. Assuming that the day 1D flight will have no more than 50 players playing, the final day 2 on Sunday will probably have around 35-36 players - a nice overlay! Around 18 players will be paid. We'll start day 2 with 1.500/3.000 blinds, 400 ante, so I am guessing that my 70 BB is a very decent stack to work with on that final day.
