The $3,000 Guarantee Final Table Takedown

After having a brutal unlucky downswing in Lock Poker multi-table tournaments, I finally booked a win in a $3 rebuy buy-in turbo $3,000 guarantee good for $672.22.

I also played a total of 33 other tournaments today with a total of $ 2,668.87 in profit after the evening was over.

This was my best day of online tournament poker to date.

I treat poker as a business venture, and this investment netted me a ROI (return-on-investment) of 7,369.11%. I invested a total of $9 into this tournament. The tournament saw 339 players register, rebuy, and add-on creating a total prize pool of ~$3,200 exceeding the $3,000 guarantee from Lock.

We start with 1,500 chips and blinds of 15/30. You are allowed to add-on an additional 1,500 chips at any time you are at 1,500 chips or below for another $3. At the first tournament break, you are allowed to add-on an additional 2,000 chips for $3.  I always take this option immediately before the tournament starts, and I always take the rebuy option at the break. If you are trying to win one of these wild turbo tournaments, you would be stupid not to.

There was actually one time where I folded POCKET ACES in the small blind when it was folded all the way around to me in the small blind. I did this because I don’t think the big blind ever has much of a hand and he will probably fold if raise giving me a meager 30 chips that will prevent me from being able to add-on another 1,500.

Since a lot of players usually add-on right at the start, I think this option should be take 100% of the time.

With a 3,000 stack, I can potentially double up early with a big hand and be sitting with 6,000.

When I have the biggest stack at the table, I like to play SUPER aggressive to slowly build my stack for the money bubble where I can exploit that aggression even more. I want a big stack because I can steal a lot of blinds and force players to play hands and play back at me. When they play back at me, my hope is to eventually have a big hand where I can bust them.

Because my table image is that of a maniac, I can steal blinds frequently and get paid big on my good cards. This is ABSOLUTELY essential if you want to be a good tournament player and make deep runs to the final table.

It was a pretty wild tournament and I can say I definitely got lucky in a lot of spots but that is because I like to take gambles for a big stack. I don’t mind ever losing a tournament because I feel I need to take calculated risks to have a big stack for the final table.

I am only interested in first place and the big pay out, anything else is just a nice consolation prize.

This is the mentality you MUST have if you want to be a long-term winner in large MTTs (multi-table tournaments).

I went into the final table with about 250,000 in chips and the blinds already at 10,000/20,000. In this scenario, it is basically shove all-in or fold pre-flop. I never got any sort of hand to shove all-in with in the early stages and I was down to about 130,000 at one point.

I was able to get lucky and double up with K-Q vs A-4 by hitting a king on the turn and getting back to 250,000. At this point there was six players left with the biggest stack having ~450,000 chips.

The blinds were moving up rapidly every 7 minutes because it was a turbo tournament. Usually, the blinds increase every 10 minutes or every 15 minutes for bigger buy-in events.

You simply have to get very lucky in these tournaments to win due to the fast blind structure. I played solid the whole tournament not ever getting out of line and picking good spots to get my chips in on the way to the final six.

I was able to add to my 250,000 stack by knocking out a player with 180,000 with A-10 vs A-4 to bring us down to the final 4. The blinds were now at 15,000/30,000 with a 1,500 chip ante each hand.

The fourth player was quickly eliminated and we were down to the final 3 when I was dealt A-K of hearts in the small blind. The button shoved K-9 of diamonds for a bout ~420,000 chips and I snap re-shoved all-in and caught an ace on the flop.

I was now sitting with over 900,000 chips and my remaining opponent had about ~500,000 chips left.

Blinds were now at 20,000/40,000 with a 2,000 chip ante so this was going to be a quick heads-up match with us most likely getting all the chips of the tournament into the middle pre-flop.

After 4 hands of all-in shoves and folds, I was sitting with 1,000,000 chips for my first time ever in a MTT. If I lost this, I wouldn’t care, one of my goals was to hit this milestone this year.

On the fifth hand, I was dealt A-4 of hearts on the button. My opponent shoved his remaining chips in with Q-10 off-suit and I snap called hoping Lock Poker would make it quick with an ace on the flop. I got my wish, and I hit an ace in the window. The board ran dry, and I was left with all the chips in play and the first-place payout of $672.22.

It was a fun tournament no doubt, but I was also able to reach another one of my goals which was to take a small buy-in rebuy event down. These tournaments have been my bread and butter on Lock Poker due to the fact that the action is extremely wild and if you are patient, you have a good chance at building a good stack for the late high blind levels and eventually the final table.

I have finished 3rd and also 2nd in a $3 rebuy for $300 and $500 respectively over the course of this year.

I knew eventually I was going to take one of these crap-shoots down.

For now, I am satisfied with my play but my tournament game needs further improvement.

I have noticed myself losing focus on some tables when I am playing a dozen or so at a time.

I will usually always have a tournament with a big chip stack and I tend to focus too much on that one rather than building in the other ones. I will have to take more time for decisions and start making better plays if I want to maximize my profit in the long-run.

I won a satellite ticket to the $215 high-roller event and I will probably be stabbing at that tomorrow afternoon in hopes of an even larger score.

A score that would define my tournament poker career.