Hi everyone, back to blogging after a good break. Since my last blog, there has been steady progress. I have been focusing a lot on grinding during this time, especially when the variance is in my favor. I have been taking at least one hour out every day to study.
I have been doing consistently well in MTT’s, but the breakout victory came in the AOPS Mini Main Event, which I shipped for my biggest ever online score worth 30 Lakhs last Sunday.
I managed to bag chip lead in one of the flights going into day 2, and it was smooth sailing for the most part, winning small pots here and there. The main move came during the final 2 tables, where I managed to win a couple of crucial flips to get that chip lead going into the final table.
Then came the FT, and as I was the chip lead by a margin, I kept putting pressure on everyone. There were 2 outstanding players on my table, Sanat “mehro” Mehrotra and Sriharsha “Ivey” Doddapaneni. Sanat was short in the beginning, so it didn’t matter much. Sriharsha was second in chips and I rate him in the top 3 if not the best player in India. So, I decided to attack everyone else and play tight against him and not give him any chips.
My plan worked as I had hoped and I kept knocking players out and soon had a monster chip lead with me, Harsha and Sanat left. Then came the hand which pretty much handed me the victory. Harsha limped from SB, and I checked my BB with 9T HH. The flop came 46T rainbow, Harsha checks, I bet 1.5 bigs. Harsha c/r to 5.5 bigs with around 23 bigs behind. I decided to flat. The turn was a King. Harsha continues with 7.5 bigs. I call again thinking to call off most rivers. The river came 4, and Harsha jammed the rest of his 15 bb stack, and I called it off. Harsha had 78 HH and missed his up and down straight draws, and we won the hand and got heads-up with a 6:1 CL.
It was just a matter of time after that. The winning hand was 77>q9s pre-flop all in, and I held.
IMO, this was the best final table I have ever played in my career and I was really proud of myself to have come out on top of that in such a big event where it mattered the most. The feeling of winning the event was amazing as I had come close to winning a big one a couple of times before but didn’t quite make it. Trusting the process and consistent hard work does pay off.
Now, I am motivated as ever to bank on the momentum and continue crushing.
That’s it for now. Until next time…