On a fairly quiet day in terms of chances for the Allies, the main two hopes came in the form of Puggy 82 and chazmanchaz, in the 848 turbo for Puggy and the Party major for chaz.

The first in to the mix was Puggy as he and another Ally, Sufur, began to get deep in the $200 turbo on 848. With 2 tables left, as you would expect with a turbo, the action became very much shove or fold and it became vital to try and pick up the right spots to be aggressive. Unfortunately as the numbers continued to dwindle, Jason picked a spot to shove with 92 with less than 10bb’s and was called in the bb by J10 and couldn’t get there to finish 13th and pick up $550. Puggy on the other hand was able to get shoves through when he needed to and with 10 players left, on the bubble of the FT, he was able to get two important shoves through, picking up a fair amount of chips in the process, giving him some breathing room as they reached the final table. When the tables broke, and the final table popped up, there were only 7 players remaining and Puggy was lying 4/7 but with a stack that had plenty of fold equity in shoving spots.
Fortunately for Puggy though, the final table started very well, picking up aces on the button just a few hands in and rather than shoving his 13bb stack decided to min raise, feeling that the bb would shove wider than he would call, and shove he did with A8 giving Puggy a timely double up. We quickly saw a ladder and then Puggy pick up AJs and call the buttons shove and be up against A4 and hold to pick up more chips and get down to 5 handed. Then there were a flurry of all ins, the first of which didn’t result in any ladders and also saw Puggy lose 22 v 78, to lose ground slightly but then picked up a huge pot with A6 v 94 blind v blind to get down to 4 handed. Another player was knocked out to get us down to 3 handed and when the other two players in the trio clashed with even stacks, Puggy was Heads up with an even chip count and a great chance at a big score. They were playing for around $4k heads up and it didn’t last very long, with Puggy applying a lot of pressure to his opponent, who definitely seemed to go in to his shell and appear to settle for second place somewhat. He was put out of his misery quickly when they got it all in pre flop with Puggy’s 33 faring better than his opponents A5 on a board of 3 4 2 7 2, giving Puggy the victory and the $12k along with it! Great score and a great start to any Sunday!

The other Ally to have a deep run this Sunday was chazmanchaz in the Party major. Chaz picked up a couple of key doubles in the mid/late stages of the tournament to propel himself from a fairly small stack to one of around 50bb’s with roughly 100 players left. He then was able to accumulate chips and stay up with the blinds at regular intervals. He picked up a nice pot opening 88 from the cut off with the BB short and the loose/aggressive button, shoving A3 on him, his 88 holding to boost his stack once again. He then picked up quite a sizeable pot on a board of K 2 2, he clicked it back 3 bet, with A2, feeling that his opponent, once he had raised the flop would go with any value hands he had and this proved to be the case, shoving his extra 45k in with KQ, giving chaz a big pot and one to boost his stack to the chip lead with around 50 left. Chaz remained in and around the chip lead as the number of player continued to fall, accumulating chips in several small pots, only losing chips on rare occasions. As the tournament got down to the final 2 tables, the play as it always does in these majors became a lot nittier and chaz had to adapt his game to incorporate this, but with 19 left he r/called with AQ and held v his opponents A10 to boost his chip count again. At this stage his stack began to fluctuate anywhere from 7th to 15th as all the players began to exchange chips and hand for hand play slowed the play down.
The key hand for chaz came with 15 left. UTG opens off a sizeable stack and chaz 3 bets in mid with AK, his opponent flatting out of position. The flop brought a board of 6 7 8 and the action went check, check. The turn brought a King and again the action went check, check. The river brought chaz two pair, with an Ace coming, but when his opponent lead for 105k in to 140k, alarm bells was ringing. Chaz felt his only play was to call in this spot as if he was to shove, would effectively be turning his 2 pair in to a bluff and he didn’t feel like he could fold his top two pair. However, his opponent turned over 88 to scoop the pot and put a serious dent in chaz’s stack. Chaz had to tread water for a while after this and then jammed his 15bb stack in the sb only to be called by A3 and see no improvement to be sent to the rail in 12th place for $2.3k and just miss out on that Sunday major FT!
Elsewhere this Sunday it was slim pickings for the Allies, but thanks to Puggy’s victory, a certain amount of gloss was retained and is definitely something to aspire towards for next week!!