$109 NL HE MTT: Sunday Million deep run review - 271 / 10.000+ players

[dallam]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Table Format

MTT

Buy-in

109

Game Options

1. Bounty

Currency

$

I was blessed to have such a deep run in a very famous MTT. I made it from a sattie, so it cost me 2.2$ to get to the main event. Any bounty could bring me in profit, but my aim was to play great that I could be proud of.
Unfortunately I played the first hour from my phone, so no hands from that period. All-in-all I longed for 5.5 hours and reached 271st place.

Hand 1-2 (fun fact these were followed by each other):
1

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Made an UTG raise to 2.2bbs with 10-10, get called by two and BB pushed into all-in with 53bbs. We just covered this person, but ain't see any chance to having worse pocket, so it would be way too risky to call this off.

2

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As he became a monster stack, in the next hand he opened 2.2bbs from early position. Button just went 21bbs to all-in, which was a low stack at this point. We were sitting on BB having 22. Call here is not an option so fold or shove to maybe isolate the table chipleader. As we expect to see him opening light, and only one bounty could put us into profit, I went for my guts, and it luckily worked.


Hand 3: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/1255wn9Tt
3 Made an UTG raise to 2.2bbs with AQo, and once again the same person answered - now with a re-raise. As much as it was a strong one, I decided simply let a chance for myself to see the flop, and if not connected, obviously fold. Flop brought us top pair, and BB made a weak raise we could just follow with a call. On turn we were facing with a continuation bet, and this time I decided to go for a safe min-raise. Interested what you think here, did it stop us from getting max-value, or was it important to defend top pair best kicker here? Should we be afraid of seeing higher pockets with these min-bets?


Hand 4: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/1255wuopO
4 Incredibely agressive outplay of the 99 on my side. As we covered our opponent, I saw some boxes to making fold very massive hands, and on turn we did get rid of villain.


Hand 5: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/1255wxNmP
5 SB-BB situation against now well-known opponent. Called the streeets till we found top pair, and we luckily punished these low bets by a shove.


Hand 6, 7
6

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2.3bb raise, and after a passive outplay on flop, we pulled the triger on turn, and this bluff took down.

7

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Succesful defence.


Hand 8: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/1255wF4e2
8 In the money, and there's nothing to loose. A bounty came in the picture, and I made this to two low stacks fight. We found a flush, lol.


Hand 9: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/1255wF9Wc
9 This is the next hand, and getting along the fact that they may saw me weak by my last hand, and there was an UTG raise and just a call, I really expect to see an all-in here to pick-up the dead-chips and happily call with my KK. To my suprise, we held in a 3-way all-in and gaining a monster stack (top50 from 1300 left) also picking up a bootie too.


Hand 10: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/1255wFsrW
10 99 again in a different view but same success.


Hand 11: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/8255wFWAK
11 KK were with us once again, another bounty and now a fantastic night no matter what.


Hand 12, 13
12

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Overdominating small stacks with J5s.

13

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Overdoing 56s from position but still working.


Hand 14: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/8255wLmmH
14
Covered this person, and our weaker hand hold against low stack, another bounty.


Hand 15: https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/8255wOUQK
15 22bb-s on my side, and a guy who had 250$ in bounties went all-in. For a day I thought it was a right call, eversince I don't. Maybe you can help me out in my elimination hand.


Thanks if you read it through, it was an amazing ride for me, but here to learn, so have a comment if you think you have some additional opinions about hands from here. Good luck!

 

[Andyreas]

First of all congratulations to make the entry to the Sunday million for just 2,2$! 👏

What was your final payout, if I may ask?

I'll look at the hands later on my PC and try to give some feedback.

 

[dallam]

First of all congratulations to make the entry to the Sunday million for just 2,2$! 👏

What was your final payout, if I may ask?

I'll look at the hands later on my PC and try to give some feedback.

Thank you Andyreas

483$ in total, bounties worth 263$ from it.

 

[weezy1312]

what a great run <3 congrats mate on a great result !!! wish you would have found the fold button on the last hand and went even deeper ! but still congrats was a great run i think you played it really well using your nitty image to steal few pots ( i guessed you were nitty a bit since there wasn't players calling the cbet or contesting it ) and exploiting well the fact to be the bigger stack putting pressure on the shortstacks and gambling for their bounty which i think was the right thing to do, just the last hand i didn't understand it at all maybe you got carried away by the run good feeling and had a good feeling about that hand going your way or maybe got tired but i don't think the big stack will bet that big to isolate the bounty from middle position with many players to act behind him that have a close stack to him with a weak hand that he might fold to a shove or be behind if called, very unlikely, again congrats mate and hopefully this is a series of many to come of great wins at the sunday million )

 

[300HPGOD]

I did not look through all the hands but only some. I will give my 2 cents on two of them below

Hand 7: Defending is something I am working on so I wanted to see this hand but was thinking you would be in the BB and not the SB. I am not a huge fan of this play since the BB has a re jam stack so depending on how they are playing you could just be giving up 2.4 BBs here when you call. Plus you are out of position with a hand that looks sexy but can give you trouble if facing an aggressive opponent and you only get one pair. I like the play pre if you are fairly sure villain in the BB doesnt get out of line and doesnt rejam as often as they should. Maybe at this point (depending on how long they have been under 20 BBs) we dont know that yet so I would tread lightly even with a good looking hand like 109 suited. Post flop you played it well and I really like the check on the river as I think you knew at that point you were probably ahead but nothing worse would call a bet by you (probably) so let them have a chance to bluff.

Hand 15: I really dont get this one. I know its a knockout tournament but chips are essential as well not just for pay jumps but also for future bounties that will be even bigger. KQ off is not a monster hand by any means so even if you are ahead of 2nd villain it would not be by much unless they have a smaller Kx or Qx and you still have the initial jammer that is about 1/3rd of your stack and doubt you are ahead of them often but could be in a decent 40% spot solely against them. However, again we have to still protect our stacks in bounty tourneys and on top of that you were not closing the action. Sick hand though where it was AA vs KK vs KQ vs and of Q10 gets the flush.

Congrats on the deep run!

 

[dallam]

Thank you for the contributive comments both of you.

Hand 7: 109s - it was a very early open, I think in my range many good cards even up to JJ maybe could represented. This deep I may don't want to gamble it away against an AQ f.e. and call looks fine to me, even SB position is risky. My plan was obviously no matter what, this hand can be a bluff catcher easily. And as you see flop favoured us, all J, 10, nuts like KQ, flush draws are in my hand, even sets too. On river the check look weak but opp just couldn't isolate me now,cause I would call it either way if I see a chance for bluffing which would be the case.

About the last hand you're totally right, in normal circumstances its a fold no doubt. I could relate to Weezy's words 100% percent, the run good feeling mixed with tiredness to represent myself against all of these pros made me to see maybe a weak pocket to jump for this huge bounty.

It was still unexpected to see a move from SB or BB unless they just have a premium which was mathematically not the case for me as already 3 of us show big determination about thos action. As you can see it was a big set up, we were blocking each others hands so dirty. A huge factor that leaded me to do this all-in was if big stack not have the obvious Aces, KQ blocking a K and a Q as well, maybe a pocket like 77-JJ doing this, so we are gambling to collect this massive bounty - and as the blinds would end up 100K / 200K on day one, there will be fireworks in the last period and I actually needed more chips to moving on to the next one. Cause my stack is worth 5.5bbs now.

With that glass I made this elimination, the biggest mistake I see in this is that I had the privilage to know that if I'm gonna loose this flip-inthebestcase-party, I will be out. So next time its really worthy to wait for a situation, where I'm actually leading the party, and not getting into a cardinal moment like here.

 

[fundiver199]

Congrats with the deep run. Its a bit much to go over all the hands in one reply, so I will start with the first ones and then maybe pick it up later.

Hand 1 TT
When BB jam it in for 50 bigs, I actually dont think, his range contain a lot big pairs. If he had QQ+, he would probably go smaller to get more action, and if he had JJ, its an overplay, where he is risking a lot of chips and mostly getting called, when he is crushed or flipping. But by the same token 22-99 makes even less sense. The only hand, where this line kind of makes sense, is AK exactly, because that hand dont particularly want action OOP, and it block AA and KK. So the question is, do you want to play a huge flip for all your chips against most likely AK, unless the opponent is a spew fish? The players flatting could have JJ or QQ, since you opened from UTG. So I think, this is a fine fold, and seeing the results you obviously dodged a bullet there. Well played.

Hand 2 22
Here I would also have folded, unless his bounty was very large. I think, the starting stack in Sunday Million is 25.000 chips, and if the guy only had a starting bounty, then its worth 6.250 chips. Thats definitely something, but 22 is behind his range, so even if you were closing action, this is very borderline. And here you were not closing action. Sometimes MP will call, and thats a disaster for you. This time you managed to bluff MP out of the hand, but 22 is not a good hand for doing that. Its much better to have any AX hand, because then you block hands like AA and AK, which are part of his calling range.

I also dont like the tought process of hunting a bounty, because it will put you in profit relative to the price of the satellite. When I satellite into a tournament, the way I look at it, is, that I played for instance an 11$ tournament and won 109$. Because of the rules of satellites I am now forced to play a 109$ tournament, and I will not do that any different than, if I had bought in directly. A 25$ bounty is not exactly life changing money, and if 25$ is super important to your bankroll, you should probably not have played the satellite in the first place.

 

[dallam]

Thanks Fundiver

On hand two in my eyes only shove or fold existing no matter what I have, when there's such a significant amount of my stack (21bbs from 56bbs). So even with AA I would shove here, not mentioning other strong combinations, so it did bluff out him, and even took down the bounty, luckily. I was playing on this table for 2 hours, so hoped I painted a picture which making the fold easier too.

I'm playing micro level MTTs, I looked some payouts to show how MTTs award places, and what 25$ means for a 2.2$ tourney:

- 06:00 CET Big 2.2 500$ gtd : 415 players, the 8th get 28.63$
- 22:30 CET Bounty Builder 2.2 5000$ gtd : 2743 players, the 9th get 25.49$ (not including bouties)
- 20:15 CET Hot 2.2 1500$ gtd : 967 players, the 8th get 29.07$

So its not about how important it is to my bankroll, you have to go really deep for even this prize in a regular MTT.

 

[fundiver199]

As for hand 2 with 22 I agree, that you cant just call. You need to either fold or overjam to try and push the original raiser out of the pot. But I would have folded.

Hand 3 AQo
Preflop and flop is standard, although against especially nitty players we could consider folding to the 3-bet. This is the tightest possible configuration for 3-betting with you being UTG (although only 8-handed) and him being in BB. Its definitely not crazy to put him on a range as tight as AA, KK, maybe QQ, AK and maybe an occational bluff like AJs or A5s. This mean, that on the flop you beat AK and the occational bluffs, so you are definitely not folding, but there is no point in raising either.

And that is also the case on the turn. When you raise here, you take away his ability to bluff the river, and you make sure, you lose the maximum against his QQ-AA. There is nothing to protect against, since the only bad card for you is a K, and if he has one, there are only three more left in the deck. Backdoor spades are not important, and they are not folding to a min-raise, so you cant protect against them. You also block them with Q of spades, reducing him to pretty much AX of it, and maybe only AK of it.

I would call again here, mainly because he can have all 12 combos of AK and maybe just not want to give up. And then my plan would be to call all rivers other than a K. You only beat a bluff, but this is pretty much the top of your range, and in a 109$ MTT I will assume, that people are able to run big bluffs. I would definitely not fold on a spade river, because I think, its tempting for him to run a bluff on it, and you have the blocker. And if he check the river, I would just check back and take a showdown. I dont think, there are enough hands in his range, if any at all, that you can get value from by betting the river.

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 4 99
Its also fine to defend by calling, but I dont mind the 3-bet. If he jam or 4-bet in some way, you will need to fold though, and thats the main argument for just calling. As played I think, you are committed with an overpair and an SPR of less than 3. And you definitely dont want to give him free cards, so bet flop, bet turn is pretty mandatory. If he raise at some point, you would not be loving it, but you would have to stack off.

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 5 T8s
You definitely need to defend a decent suited 1-gapper against a SB raise. I also like calling the flop, even though you only have T high. This is a perfect situation to float, because you have some equity with overcards and a BDFD, and you are not calling only to hit. You are also calling with the intention to bluff, if he check the turn, which he likely will do quite often. He can have all the overpairs here, but he rarely have a 2 or 5, and he also have a lot of hands like A high, K high etc, that have missed completely.

On the turn you improve to top pair, and of course you should not fold now, even though you are still behind to overpairs. But I am not a huge fan of jamming either. You do get protection from random overcards, he can have, and maybe he even fold a flushdraw, since its a raise for full pot on a paired board. But overall I think, you are forcing him to play a little to perfect with this line. He is never folding a better hand, and he is rarely calling with worse either. If he has a hand like A5 or 66-77 and play it this way, he is probably letting it go, when you force him to make a decision for stacks.

So like in hand 3 I would just call the turn again and take a river in position. If he check, maybe you can put out a small bet for value, especially on a low brick. On an overcard most likely just check back and take your showdown. And if he fire again, make a decision. Most likely call, but maybe fold to a large bet on particular bad cards like an A.

 

[Rajten]

Hand 1, it is very close it depends on dynamic of table and images. It is a lot of dead many. He probably don't have many bigger overpairs. I probably go broke here.

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 6 QJo
The first thing to note here is, that CO should not have a range for just calling with his 14BB stack. So either he is a recreational player clicking buttons, or he is a shark trying to induce a squeeze from the players behind with some kind of monster like KK or AA. If you had a HUD running, it should give you the answer, which of these two it was. Assuming that CO is a fish, I like firing a small C-bet here. Even though you have the nut nothing and a gutshot, your hand is not strong enough to check-call, and your range absolutely smash this board.

All his small pairs and setmines are toast on this board and will likely fold to even a small bet. If he raise, you will need to fold, but you are only really giving up a gutshot, so its not that big of a deal. As played I agree with the delayed C-bet. It weakens his range, that he checked back, and you can still represent some strongish hands like A5 or KQ, that would take this line, or even a slowplayed monster like AK, AA or KK. If he have 44, he is toast to all those hands, and he will likely fold, as in fact he did.

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 7 T9s
I am not a big fan of defending my BB by calling, and especially not against an EP open with a marginal hand like this. So I would just fold pre and not worry to much about it. As played flop and turn are standard. The river is a bit of a decision, if you want to go for a check-call line or lead out for value. With a better kicker I would lead for value. But here the issue is, you lose to a lot of hands, that might take this line for pot control, like AT, KT or QT as well as some weak JX hands. So I think, its a bit to thin, and apart from preflop I think, you played this hand perfect.

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 8 K7s
I would not open worse than K9s from HJ, and I would also not call the 3-bet, unless his bounty was very significant. Most important here is your comment, that you are in the money with "nothing to lose". That is not true. You have 6 times the starting stack, which is worth something like 400$ in future payjumps and bounties. The reason, its not 600$, is because some money have already been distributed in bounties and min-cashes.

But 400$ is a significant amount of money, so if anything you want to be even more focused now, than you were in the beginning of the tournament. It sounds like, you are very focused on things like making a profit on your satellite buyin or reaching the payouts. But those are largely false achiements. You want to focus on maximizing EV, and you want to do that even more, because its a much bigger MTT, than you normally play.

The only situation, where I think, its acceptable to make a small deviation, is by avoiding marginal EV high variance spots near the bubble or a payjump. But you should definitely not feel, that just because you have mincashed, now you can just donk the rest of your chips away. Just imagine how amazing it would be, if you actually reached the final table. Yes its only a very small chance, but you want to keep it alive as long as possible.

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 9 KK
With all those reshove stacks behind just calling with KK is a pretty cool play, and it worked out perfectly for you

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 10 99
Definitely best to just call against an UTG open. If you 3-bet, he play way to perfect by mainly giving you action, when you dont want it. The flop is an interesting situation, where I think, there could be an argument for donk betting. You have a huge nut advantage here, because you can have a flopped straight, you can have two pair, and you can have all the sets. He on the other hand can probably not even have all the sets, and his best hands are hands like AA and KK.

For this reason he will likely not C-bet very often, so there is some argument, that when you check here, you are just giving him a free card. It would suck to get raised, but maybe we can actually just bet-fold knowing, we are in poor shave against his range, if that happen. I dont think, its to exploitable, because 99 will be near the bottom of your donk betting range, and then you can continue with your nut hands and your best draws. As played definitely need to bet turn to not give him yet another free card.

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 11 KK
This one played itself. Good job fading his outs

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 12 J5s
As a big stack you are allowed to widen your range, but here I would not go to crazy, since you had another big stack directly to your left. For this to be a good open, he need to be on the passive side and not contest you to often. On the flop I would jam to pressure the short stack. I think, if he liked the flop, he would most likely have run a stop-and-go. So I think, you have a lot of fold equity and at least some equity when called. As played delayed C-bet did the same job.

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 13 65s
This is a little marginal preflop, and I would definitely not open any wider than this. Flop is also a marginal decision against two opponents. You have absolutely no showdown value, but you also have almost no equity if called, and the question is, if you have enough fold equity. I probably lean towards checking back and simply giving up, but its close, and this time the C-bet worked.

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 14 A7o
We dont have a raise-fold range against a 6BB stack not even in regular MTTs without bounties, and even less so in a PKO. So this was just an unfortunate spot. Good for him, that he managed to wake up with QQ, before he blinded out.

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 15 KQo
If it had folded around to you after the UTG jam, I think, it would be completely fine to overjam to isolate him and try to win his bounty. But when MP+1 has already put in an isolation raise, you need to just pass. Running into AA and then also someone behind with KK is pretty unlucky, but you dont have enough equity against MP+1s entire range to justify this.

 

[fundiver199]

Conclusion
Definitely a lot of interesting hands, which I think, both you and others can learn from. So thanks a lot for taking the time to share them. I think, the hands show some potential leaks, that you might want to focus on, not just for Sunday Million but for MTTs in general:

1) Not getting to carried away with chasing bounties at the expense of overall EV.
2) Just calling rather than raising the turn in position with medium strong hands like top pair.
3) Maintaining focus and concentration, when you find yourself with a relatively short stack after the bubble.

 

[fundiver199]

Hand 7 T9s
I am not a big fan of defending my BB by calling, and especially not against an EP open with a marginal hand like this.

I meant SB of course. From BB this would be a mandatory defend.

 

[DaMooca]

A few days ago the Sunday million winner at one point in the tournament was left with 4 blinds.
23 blinds at sunday million is a lot of chips to shove KQ into a spot like this with one guy shoving from utg and the other raising.
Also because it's not every day that we play the sunday million, I'm going to play for the first time because I got a ticket through a satellite.
But Congratulations for making it this far, because the field is huge.