These big field tournaments are found on the tournaments page of the PokerStars site and usually have between 1000 and 5000 players. My best finish so far had been 61st in a field of 2600 which quadruples your buy-in but when you're only playing 50c, $1 or $2 tournaments, that's not a great return/result. Final table is where the money is at and I was keen to get deep.
Playing last night, $1 buy-in and 2133 players, my first aim in a tournament like this is to make the money. The first pay out essentially doubles your investment and its obviously good for your tournament stats. There's nothing worse than finishing just out of the money. So with the blinds going up and me with about ten blinds left, I get pocket jacks in early position. Not wanting to over-commit myself I just flat call. Two other callers and we see a flop, top card out is a jack, perfect ... but, there are two clubs on the board. Someone bets at it, I don't have enough chips to push him out by re-raising so I just call hoping he'll slow down or hoping I can see the board pair on the turn to give me my full house so I have nothing to worry about. The next card out isn't a club but the other person in the hand puts me all in. I know I'm of course ahead and I'm pretty sure I'm up against a flush draw so I call, praying for no club. Cards are shown, he's flush drawing so I have to sweat out a river but thankfully its not a club and I win. Bubble bursts, I make the money, phew.
I chip up a bit but am essentially waiting for a decent hand. With about 15K in chips and the blinds at 1K, someone raises my big blind, I have aces, shove and he calls showing ace queen off. Win that and double up. Shortly after, someone in early position doubles the blind and I just call with ace king in middle position. There are two other callers and we see a flop of 8, ace, 8. The big blind who's first to act bets but not strongly, the initial raiser thinks for a little while and calls also. By the time it gets to me, I don't think I'm up against an 8 and I'm pretty sure I'm not up against aces. I'm thinking someone has pockets and someone has a weaker ace, I'm willing to take a stand here so I shove to try and shut it down. The person yet to act folds and after a little while the big blind calls and the initial raiser folds (apparently lay down ace jack, nice fold). Big blind turns over ace 7 ... (really, you called me with that??) he's drawing slim and a king on the river essentially ends it.
A little later a short stack in the small blind shoves my big blind and I have him well and truly covered. I have ace king and just call and someone else calls as well. Flop comes king, king, jack with two diamonds on the board. I check to just knock out the short stack ... but the other guy bets. I'm quite sure he doesn't have jacks and to reveal the full strength of my hand I shove it all-in to get him off his. He has a massive stack and calls!! He shows jack 9, ace on the turn for my full house and the hand is over, the short-stack had nothing.
That hand takes me in to the top 10 chip stacks in the tournament with less than 100 players left and I'm starting to confidently think I can go very deep. I have the chip leader on my table and basically if he's in a hand, I make sure I'm not unless I have something strong or unless I really connect with a flop. It takes a while but we slowly drop players off and we get down to the final 3 tables. I'm keeping an eye on the payouts for each position and my aim after making the top 60 (my previous best finish) was to make top 18 which is about $10 and a better return. Being chipped up I do this quite easily and am then pleased to make top 12 which is an $18 pay out. I really want final table and the only major showdowns I have is my pocket queens vs ace ten suited and my pocket kings on the button vs pocket jacks in the small blind. I win both of those and proceed to the final table.
The final table forms and there are some massive stacks on it, I'm sitting in about 6th or 7th place and really want to stay out of trouble and just move up in the money. I get a few hands early but have no showdowns so just chip up gradually. It takes a while but we lose our first player and then even longer before we lose another. When we're down to 6 there's some massive stacks and there's myself and a Tasmanian as the short-stacks. Thankfully they have less of a stack than I do and by this stage I'm just eyeing off 5th which is the first of the 3 figure pay-outs. Things go my way, they get knocked out and shortly there after I do too.
Final result, FIFTH place and a $102 payout!! Very happy to breakthrough in a large tournament and make final table ... even tho I had to stay up until 3:30am to do so. Really happy with the way I played, obviously no suck-outs or bad beats which make it easier to go deep in such a game. I could've played it differently and tried to win the final table but that was a longshot with my stack and I really just wanted to put this result on the board ... and in the account.
Bankroll now at US$245 as I also 2nd placed another $1 90 man game last night.
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