He reached the final table right in the middle of the pack, although not having the greatest seat, with 2 or 3 big stacks on his left. There were a fairly quick couple of ladders and they were down to 8 handed, Ahurazor still floating between 5 and 6 of 8, getting the occasional open through but with his stack fluctuating between 25-30bbs, there wasn’t a huge amount of play. Due to his stack size and the stacks around him, he changed his style slightly and became a 3 bet jam/4bet jamming machine! 3bet jamming on the guy on his right and 4 bet jamming on the chip leader who he knew was very wide on his 3 bets.

Another few players fell by the way side, during which Ahurazor chopped a pot where he 3bet jammed on the chip leader with AJs, to see his opponent call with AJ also and they split the chips.
Unfortunately the structure on Microgaming at this point raises the blinds by 50%, so the number of BB’s Ahurazor had kept dropping, giving him less and less room for manoeuvre. 6 handed our Hero was down to 18bbs, opened 77 in 2nd position and the chip leader on his direct left 3 bet. The Hero thought for a while and due to the dynamics decided to jam, to see his opponent snap fold and scoop a very nice pot.

The pattern of the FT remained quite similar throughout, mainly due to the poor structure, Ahurazor waiting for spots to re-shove and get bets through without a showdown, and it was working, the stacks became all quite similar and 6handed he was 2/6. A further ladder saw him pretty much equal first of five and then he called off a 10bb button jam with A10, his opponent holding 98o, the A flopped and that was that, down to 4 handed with Ahurazor and the guy on his direct right holding around ¾ of the chips left in play, with the other two players, dwindling on or around 10BB’s. It became 3 handed very quickly and this is where the play became a lot more ‘cat and mouse’, with the pay-out structure determining that ICM became a fairly big factor in each player’s decision.

Unfortunately at this point, Ahurazor arguably had the worst of it, he had the big CL on his right and the shorter stack on his left, with the shorter stack looking to shove fairly wide on opens and the big stack, knowing that with the short stack still in, Ahurazor would be a lot less likely to mess around, opening a lot, with ICM, it became a bit of a nightmare to hold on to his chips. Fortunately though, the way it was going, the two other players would get in to it themselves and sure enough they did, only for the short stack to double, making things all very even again.

There was a 5 minute break shortly after the short stack doubled and it all became very even and when the player came back, the blinds had been upped and it now was really a bit of a lottery, with no player having more than 30BB’s! Ahurazor’s stack had started to dwindle slightly, as it was very difficult to get his chips in, but just as he felt he was becoming desperate the button opened and Ahurazor jammed to see his opponent snap call. His opponent held 44, but somehow Ahurazor held 99 and held to double and get right back in to it! Shortly after this his two opponents clashed in consecutive hands and finally one of them was knocked out in a flip and Ahurazor was Heads up, all be it with a 3-1 chip deficit, but that last ladder was worth €6k, so not all bad!

When Heads up play started, there was a bit of a dynamic with his opponent as Ahurazor had 3 bet jammed and 4bet jammed on him a few times during the final table but as it was still fairly shallow, it wouldn’t have too much of an impact. The action was happening quite quickly, as his opponent was acting within seconds every time, so it was hard to keep up! Ahurazor was pretty much raising every button and his opponent was walking him occasionally, so he was picking up chips most orbits. Ahurazor grabbed the chip lead when they got it in pre and his AQ held up v KJ and now the rail was fairly confident that the win would follow too. And so it seemed, as after a another few minutes, they got it all in pre with Ahurazors A10 leading v his opponents J9s. The flop was T 7 3, a good one we thought, until the turn brought the killer 8 and we were drawing dead!! So the chip lead swung again and it became a case of one or the other either shoving or walking from the button, eventually Ahurazor calling off with QJ to see it chopped up, as his opponent held QJ too.
Our hero now only had 12-13bb’s and shoved K6s from the button, to see his opponent call with K8s and unfortunately hold! Sigh……..but a great performance and a great score, nice work Trent!

In other news this Sunday, the only other FT’s of note were Puggy and Beej in the Party 20K speed, coming 7th and 5th respectively, both losing huge all ins pre with AJ, Puggy v the chip leaders TT and Beej, blind v blind v 34o!!

A pretty good Sunday thanks to the Ahurazor and again congratulation’s. Who will it be next!?

With 30 left, JarethtGK, as Jason is known on Ongame, was never outside the top 5 stacks, constantly pressurising the smaller stacks at his table, and as most of them were playing scared at this stage of such a big tournament, he was getting a lot of joy out of this tactic.

With around 20 players left Jason got in to what turned out to be quite a disgusting spot pre flop! JarethtGK opens utg off a big stack with QQ, a known bad player flats off ~25bbs in mid and the BB, who Jaret had been battling with on and off 3bets. This isn’t the nicest spot as it is, so Jaret decided to flat with his Queens, only to see the bad player jam the last of his chips in on a 4 bet and then to make matters worse, the BB, who is also a big stack and has Jaret covered, 5 bet clicks it back!! After throwing up a little, Jason composed himself, thought about his options and decided to take a calculated risk, knowing that he was very likely good v the known bad player and that the big stack could just be trying to isolate the bad player, so he jammed his remaining chips in, the BB folded fairly quickly and he was HU v the bad players AJ. The flop was good, all low, but the turn brought the Jd, which along with the Jack brought his opponent a flush draw and a whole load more outs, but the river was a brick and JarethtGK scooped a monster pot!
This hand was quickly followed by getting AA and knocking out another opponent to take the chip lead and he would alternate between that and 2nd place until the final table was decided.
The final table was a mix of fairly solid players and pretty poor players and the stack sizes ranged from monster stacks nearing 100bbs (one of whom was Jaret!) to 10bb stacks.
As with most major FT’s, the early stages were quite cagey, with most players vying for position, but after 10-15 mins there was a quick rush of bust outs, giving Jason a few great ladders up the pay scale, and thinning the field, with a few of the decent players being knocked out too.

There were a few hands that Jaret played at the final table v the Big CL, one where he called two streets on a K high board and then raised the river with AK when his opponent had KQ and called his 3x raise. But then 3 handed, called a double barrel with A5s only to have to fold when the river bricked, which knocked him back slightly.
The next hand of any note that he played, unfortunately was the hand that saw him knocked out, when he jammed ~20bb’swith A6o blind v blind on the big stacks open, who called it off with a9 and held to send JarethtGK to the rail in third but with a $20k consolation prize! Great effort from Jason and a score for us all to aspire towards!

Other action from the Allies came mainly from Jim_Jimothy in the 848 $200, where he came 14th. His stack was very up and down with 2 tables left and he got in to a bit of a battle with the 2 guys on his right, 3 betting, 4 betting and 5 betting In certain spots. He won a big pot with AK v JJ to get up to 370k but then lost a few smaller pots to drop down to around 200k. At this point he 5b jammed 55 in to his opponents AA and could not hit a spade or a 5 on the river and was sent to the rail in a disappointing 14th place……unlucky Justin, the tide will turn soon!!
Ahurazor got a 27th place finish in the iPoker major and I couldn’t write an article without mentioning Fett, who took 2nd in the Canadian 50 for $1k!

Not a bad week for the Allies and congrats again to JarethtGK!!

His 1^st final table came in the new 848 $200 10k Turbo where he came 6th  for around $700  , losing with 55 v TT for a big pot. His 2^nd final table came on Bwin and was the 10kgtd Venice Final. He got to 3 handed play without too many scares and as with most of the final table, it was quite deep, allowing him to use his superior skills to manoeuvre the chips in his favour. The player on his left had most of the chips when they got to 3 handed, but this slowly changed as chips exchanged hands fairly readily and Neil was able to get stuck in to most pots, in and out of position. He had to remain patient as it became clear quite quickly, that it was not in his best interests to bluff his two opponents, but it was however important to try to get the most value out of his strong hands, which he did a couple of times with over pairs to the board. He entered HU play after a long stretch of being 3 handed, with the chip lead and a strong feeling of inevitability about it, however nothing is for certain and he had to approach it with due care and consideration. He duly booked his place in Venice after 15 minutes of HU play, he had whittled his opponent down to under 20bb’s and got his hand to hold over his opponents, to ship the $10k package, great win Neil and good luck in Venice!

The Party turbo was the scene for his 2^nd best result of the evening, finishing 2^nd for $6k, coming through a fairly solid final table, just to be pipped for the win by Pokerccini. When the players got to the final table, the stacks we’re quite even and obviously quite shallow, and with the number of solid players on show, it was always going to take a little bit of good fortune and good timing to finish in the top 3. Neil received his little bit of good luck, getting there a couple of times in standard spots and was able to ride this luck to a very tidy second place finish, to add to his other good scores for the evening.

His final deepsih run came in the $200 $50k gtd new tournament on 848, which has an early start and a great structure, allowing the better players to rise to the top and is a great addition to our Sunday schedule.
He got a stack in it fairly early on and while he was obviously deep in a couple of other tournaments, he was treading water slightly. He won a couple of key hands in the mid stages to give his stack another, much needed boost. The tournament itself can draw out, like the major on the same site, due to the structure and as the tournament got deeper, Neil’s stack started to fluctuate between 20-30bb’s and he was looking for spots to either shove or 3 bet shove. He got a couple of opportunities to do this and was able to keep his head above water, but as the tournament got down to 2 tables, he lost a big pot with K9dd, in which he raised pre, the bb calling, flopping a flush draw, turning the flush but his opponent leading the river on a paired board giving Neil a difficult decision, eventually deciding to shove his remaining chips, to see his opponent holding J5, for flopped 2 pair and rivered boat, sigh! His stack couldn’t recover from this point and was sent to the rail in 16^th place.  Good night all round for the Visionary, leading the way for the Allies yet again!

There wasn’t a lot of action elsewhere on the tables for the Allies, there were a few other cashes in majors and chazmanchaz had some good runs going on Stars, and was top 5 stack in the Sunday Million for long periods before he got it in with nut flush draw v QQ and couldn’t get there to be crippled……sigh!

There is always next week for the Allies and hopefully we can continue the good start to 2012!

“Paul McTaggart
Reminded today why I stopped playing on PartyPoker. FML I hate you! “

With this in mind and the final table drawing ever closer, I’m sure Fett was waiting for the bad beat to come to send him to the rail, but it never did. He reached the final table 4/10 and in a good position. As with most final tables, the action halted in the early stages with no bust outs for the first 15 minutes.  After a couple of ladders and a few spots where Fett had to raise/fold off around 25bb’s he got a key double up when his 66 held v his opponents AJ, flopping the 6 for good measure and giving himself a great platform for a real assault on the rest of the final table. He then went on to win a sizeable pot with AQ v AJ and got to 3 handed play with all 3 players being fairly even, one of his opponents on the more aggressive side and the other being quite passive. There was a fair bit of sparring between Fett and his more aggressive opponent and the chip counts swung back and forth mainly between those 2 players, with Fett getting unlucky several times before finally completing the job when he got it in with 88 v 77, his opponent flopping a set, but Fett rivering a straight to get to HU with almost a 2-1 chip lead. However, it wasn’t all plane sailing for Fett and his chip lead slowly evaporated, losing a couple of big 3 and 4b pots pre flop. His opponent had started to jam on any preflop action that allowed him the last bet, but Fett, wise to this now, 3b/called with A9 and held v QJ, to get back his chiplead and then quickly finished off his opponent to grab his 2^nd tournament win in 5 days, the $13k prize and more importantly the chance for another MatchBall!! Great work mate……pleasure to watch.

The other really deep run this Sunday came from our newest MatchBall winner, Ahurazor. He managed an 11^th place finish in the Champion Chip on Ongame, but was unfortunate as he was in and around the top 5 stacks for long periods of the tournament. As it neared the bubble of the final table the structure seemed to shallow and a lot of the players, not being in this scenario often, really tightened up, desperately wanting to make the final 10. Ahurazor’s stack was anywhere between 10 and 30bbs at this pont, and it was at 15bb’s with 11 player left, when he decided to 3b jam A4 on an early King_Dirk open, but unfortunately the BB woke up with AK and that, as they say, was the end of that………unlucky Trent, would have been a great end to a great week, but plenty more to come and a $2.5k consolation prize!

A few of our other players had deepish runs this Sunday, the ‘best of the rest’ was Merge, who took 17^th in the Entraction major, which was the inevitable crapshoot at the end and Olly was just unable to win that vital flip to take him to the FT. Puggy82’s day showed lots of promise early on, but sadly petered out with around 50^th place finishes in ipoker, Party and the Ongame 100k.

All in all not a bad Sunday for the Allies that was topped off with Fett’s re-kindled love for Party! Good luck for the rest of the week!