Assassinato - SUPER Tuesday

It was a rough festive season for Alex Fitzgerald (aka Assassinato), if you read his blog you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

The poker tables hadn't been any better for him but over the last week or so he's been taking caring of business, sorting sh*t out and getting his head back in the game. I'm sure last week he even mentioned that he felt there was a big score just around the corner for him.

It began with a 2nd place in a $22 rebuy on Full Tilt Poker on Sunday, earning him $11.5K for his efforts. For most that would be a substantial prize but for Alex that essentially covers his buy-ins for a couple of days, especially when you take in to account the horses he has working for him. Yesterday tho was the real "cream". Another second place finish, this time in the Super Tuesday tournament on PokerStars, good for a $51K payday!! $51K ... just a crazy number when you think about it. I haven't asked him but I believe that's his biggest payday, check his blog later today or tomorrow as I'm sure there will be some mention of it.

I watched the tournament from about 100 players down. The rail was restricted to players that had a buy-in for the tournament which was $1000 so that ruled me out. So while I couldn't actually comment, I watched closely as Alex went from a short-stack with about 55 to go and then doubled up again and again until he was in a strong position.

There was some clown/heckler on the rail, RedDogPoker giving him and a few others shit for the way they were playing. I'm sure RedDog's favourite player is Phil Helmuth because it sounds like he just waits for aces and anything less is bad play.

With 3 players left Alex several times was short-stack but took down a huge pot from the chip leader and had a dominant stack. Unfortunately one of the players got their stack back up a little by catching a card on the river to stop Alex's 10 high winning the hand (yes, you read that right) and knocking him out. When it actually came to heads-up, Assassinato had a 4:1 chip lead but his opponent slowly climbed his way back up and soon had the lead. Several times Alex 3 or 4-bet folded pre-flop so things weren't going his way. I had to head out before the battle was over but saw the result on Facebook that he had come in second.

I'm sure he's a little disappointed to finish second again when he had a great shot at the win, but really ... $51K, hard to be unhappy. Well done Alex, I'm guessing there was some celebrations in Costa Rica last night!!