You need to be logged in to your Sky Poker account above to post discussions and comments.
You might need to refresh your page afterwards.
Sky Poker forums will be temporarily unavailable from 11pm Wednesday July 25th.
Sky Poker Forums is upgrading its look! Stay tuned for the big reveal!
Last night's Sky High Roller - as it happened
A start to finish timeline & summary of last night's Sky High Roller.
Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin. Who remembers what wireless programme those famous opening lines came from?
Comments
Last night saw the 2nd Sky High Roller. (£220 entry, with a £10,000 Guarantee, 5,000 starting chips).
Here’s a little run-down on the how, what, why & when of Sky High Roller, Edition 2.
It needed 50 entrants to cover the new increased Guarantee of £10,000. Last week, with an £8,000 Guarantee, it got 72, which was a bit of a surprise to many.
The volume of Comms, messages & general noise had been reduced considerably in week 2. Could it still make that increased Guarantee?
7pm
Just the 10 runners so far.
This is quite normal in poker – almost an oddity – that folks seem to prefer to enter very late, at the last minute or even during Late Reg.
8pm
Hugh sighs of relief at Sky Poker Towers, as the number of runners has shot up to….12.
8.30pm
15 now, needing 35 more to cover. Mr Mainwaring has been sent for, just in case anyone panics.
9pm – Shuffle Up & Deal
26 runners now, which means, allowing for Satellites still to complete, plus Late Reg & his mates who always poll up late, it won’t be far off.
9.03
Players were still taking their seats when the first big dust up went off, & after the dust settled, acd28 emerged with a full 2XUp, & so the first player to get over 10,000 chips.
And if you are wondering where you heard of this chap from, well 11 months ago, during the October 2015 UKOPS, he took down the 295 runner, £30,000 Guarantee Super Roller for £7,720.
28 runners now, of which – thanks to Mr Super Roller acd28 – 27 remain.
9.10pm
Cooking on gas now, with 36 runners.
9.15pm
oodaman spectacularly busts Ludovician, & we now have 35 remaining from 37.
Will this cover guarantee? It’ll be a close run thing.
9.30pm
43 runners now, of which 39 are still active, so the 50 runners needed to cover the Guarantee looks safe. Ish.
acd28 has yet to relinquish his chip lead, but looming up ominously in his rear view mirror were the likes of “King Jack Solack” a wily old veteran of Sky Poker , & Boy Wonder himself, the adolescent Nutter5932, who booked Wednesday morning off school so he could stay up late.
9.55pm, first break
There are still 1.5 levels for Late Reg & his pals to enter, but the Guarantee is hit with exactly 50 runners now, 8 of whom are on the sadly departed bus already.
Here’s how the Top 15 looked at this point;
10.18pm
Late Reg closes & there are now 51 entrants, so it stumbled over the line. Never in doubt. Ish.
And now we know the exact Prize Pool, & how many places to be paid…..
10.55pm, 2nd Break
The Tourney is moving into its middle stages now, chips are moving around, & we have lost 27 of the 51 entrants, with the chip topography now looking like this;
11.55pm, 3rd break
GAME ON, the field is whittled down to just 9, & we will follow these 9 all the way to the finishing post now, bust out for bust out.
12.03am
BIG Hand Alert
At this point, quite an eye opening hand went down, when DAVEMCDAID (9-9) & mattprawn (A-K) got their entire stacks in the middle for the classic flip.
mattprawn got instant service & flopped his K, only to see DACEMCDAID also flop his 2 outer 9 to forge ahead & be close to a lock.
But wait, 3 diamonds on the flop, & another on the turn. Does either of the players have a diamond?
NEITHER of them, so while mattprawn is praying GIVE ME A DIAMOND, opponent DAVEMCDAID is thinking PAIR THE BOARD, or NO DIAMOND
And the river was……a non-pairing diamond, for an all diamond board.
Chop chop.
Worth noting that after that flop, mattprawn had just a 1.6% chance of winning the hand, but he did a spectacular get.
12.25am
InsWinHere doubles up v that man DAVEMCDAID, A-K v K-10 on a super wet all paint board.
You may be wondering why the alias InsWinHere rings a bell, as he has played just 19 MTT’s on Sky Poker. He was the chap who persevered in the Punta Cana Package Pursuit after The Boy Nutter pipped him by just 20 minutes the previous week, eventually scraping home in Week 3. Goes by the name of Simon, & hails from sunny Southsea on the south coast. Seems like a lovely lad.
12.43am
Not much happening, as players eye the 6 money spots, the chips are just going round & round, & then, within seconds of each other, & on separate tables, we lose TommyD (he’ll be OK, 2pur5 won last night) & the aggro all action DAVEMCDAID.
7 left, which means double bubble trouble – Final Table AND cash bubbles.
00.18am
L 16 begins, 600-1200, average 36,429, so that’s a very playable 30 Bigs.
rubster96, in desperate trouble, gets a much needed 2xup, his K-K v besting the Q-10 of InsWinhere, AIPF, on what looked like an unfortunately timed steal attempt
BUBBLE BURSTER
Solack & DAVEMCDAID had been going at it hammer & tongs, DAVE hoped his top pair on a 3-3-Q-J-6 board was good, but old Solly had snuck in with the A-3, & BOOMIO, we have ourselves a final.
FINAL
Blinds are 600-1,200, the average stack is 42,000, or 35 Bigs. Plenty.
Here’s the Final Table line up & stacks;
Based on their field addresses, this was a 3-3 split between soft southerners & northern monkeys, with the boys listing Manchester, Hull, York, Basingstoke, Southsea & Royal Bognor Regis as their home town.
0030
Level 17, Blinds 800-1600, ave 42000, = 26 Bigs
We lose our first finalist as mattprawn – a remarkably personable guy considering he is an accountant – busts out, done over by InsWinHere, who has the Q of diamonds in his hand when the board 4 flushes. Matt takes home a most pleasing but equally disappointing £714. It’ll be exactly that, as Accountants always check these things.
With 5 left, here’s how the chips were distributed;
albania had been a proper pain, raise raise raise, but with “sticky” solack 2 to his left, & gadger happy to repeatedly jam the lot in, life was soon to get a little difficult for the Manchester man.
Average now was 51,000, or 32 Bigs.
0042
Level 18, Blinds 1,000-2,000, average stack 51,000, or 26 Bigs.
It’s nip & tuck now, with the field fairly closely bunched;
0050am
Level 19 starts, 1,250-2,500, & the average has plummeted to 20 Bigs as there have been no recent exits.
But its all change at the top, as rubster96, who was the shortie for so long, has rocketed to the top at the expense of albania, who drops down to 4th, with Solly grimly hanging in & being a pain in the whatsit, as per.
0055, 4th Break
Good poker this, the blinds are whizzing round, there is no tanking or dwelling, everyone is just getting on with it, & what will be will be. Even if chippie rubster busts next – unlikely – it’ll be far & away his biggest cash on Sky Poker.
01.08am
Level 20 begins, 1,500-3,000, with the average now just 17 Bigs, & shove poker must be imminent.
albania has the distinction of being placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th all in the space of 15 minutes. The boy has game, & some.
01.14am
Minutes later, halfway through Level 20, he is back at the bottom of the pile;
01.20am
Level 21 commences, 2k-4k, so the average is a puny 13 Bigs now. This’ll be all over before the next break.
01.23am
We lose the plucky albania in a shocker, as he gets in it with A-K v gadger who is in shocking shape with his dominated K-Q, but poker can be vicious at times & what looked like a bland run-out was terminated by a pesky rivered Queen, & albania became ex-albania. The hand played itself at these stacks & blinds, but that must have hurt.
Average now goes to 64,000, which is 16 Bigs.
Halfway through the level, InsWinHere becomes the first player to break the 100,000 barrier;
0132am
Level 22, 2,500-5,000, with the average at just 12.5 Bigs. Fireworks must be imminent, nobody can raise fold now.
Nothing much happening, it’s just jam-fold stuff, but one mistake & it’s all over baby.
Suddenly, gadger & solack get it all-in pre, & there’s just one spot between the 2 hands with A-9 v A-8. This will be painful for A-8 man who is a mere 23% to win, but the board runs out K-J-4-10-10. Choppity chop.
Crash Bang Wallop, what a rubster
Suddenly, with 4 left, THREE of the stacks are in the middle. rubster96 has the Jacks (“I hate jacks”), whilst solack & gadger both need to improve with their 10-10 & 2-2. InsWinHere was doubtless watching this with interest, hoping that rubster would do the SCOOPIO.
2-2 stood a chance with an all low flop & turn, but a paired 4 means they all have 2 pairs, with rubster’s Jacks taking two birds with one stone, & rocketing to a heads up chip lead v InsWinhere.
gadgerno1 takes home £1,122, & Basingstoke’s finest, solack, pockets £1,530.
0143am - It’s all over baby
Moments later in a south coast duel (Southsea v Bognor) all the chips are in the middle as InsWinHere hits his A with A-3, but rubster96 catches 2 pair with the Q-7.
The final hand went down at 0143, compared to 0126 last week when it had 40% more runners, make of that what you will.
Here’s the final standings;
Very well played to Bognor's finest, rubster96, who was short stacked for a very long time, but bided his time & eventually found the cards. This was his biggest win by a long long way, & he’ll have a precipitous Sharky graph this morning.
Great tourney, not a bit of bad blood, a real credit to the players, & to Sky Poker.
Same time, same place next week. Be there.
Took a bit of run good to make the FT, the boys last night were super aggressive, was a scary place at times. To add to my fortunate chop you describe above, I had also used up another of my 9 lives in an earlier hand against Mr acd28.
Holding QJ on a QxJ flop I shoved and was snap called by acd28, who had me covered. Showing a set of jacks, I was half way upstairs for an early night, when the Q hit the river for my house. Sometimes an "ul" in the chat box feels a bit inadequate...
Good stuff Matt, & I'm sure you know that some of my comments were a little tongue in cheek, to help make so many otherwise boring stats readable.
Accountants are not really dull & methodical at all, of course. Much.
And if I stick my elbow in someone's ribs, it's because I consider them a mate. I never speak ill of those I am less favourably inclined to, but mates are fair sport. Hence dear old Solly got a bit of it, too, God bless him. He outrageously busted me with K-J about 9 years ago somewhere - Leeds I seem to recall, in an SPT. Not that I harbour a grudge or anything, no no.