Twelve players remain at the 7th break:

1 botpot 988 518
2 farish 789 804
3 Jakeslade11 748 913
4 ron147 698 286
5 stu21irv 501 148
6 PeterPeee 486 379
7 clagorat 442 512
8 Running_Joke 273 661
9 swaizey 253 101
10 mbendner 239 274
11 harli 136 599
12 jorgen17 1805

An under the gun player limps at 5000/10000 blinds, and botpot obliges calling from the button. The small blind folds and the big blind checks.

The board runs out 5 9 K and the action is checked to botpot on the button who overbets 59 000 into the 45 000 pot.

The under the gun limper then check raises all in for another 90 000. Botpot makes the call with KT for a pair of Kings ten kicker. The UTG limper tables K4 offsuit for top pair no kicker.

The turn and river bring a Queen and a Six and Botpot collects the pot to be the first player to break the 1 000 000 chip mark.

YouLoseAgain raises it up from the Hijack when action is folded to him. A shortstack in the cutoff shoves allin. The action is folded back to YLA and he calls the all in.

The shortstack tables 55 and YLA shows A7 for the coinflip.

Unfortunately YLA is unable to hit an ace or a seven and he takes a hit to his stack.

Very next hand there is a raising war between Jakeslade11 and Youloseagain, and the chips end up in the middle with YLA holding AT to Jakes' pocket Jacks. The board runs out Ten high, but that isn't enough for Youloseagain to take the 750k pot, and he is sent to the rail in 15th.

The 100k has been playing for over 7 and a half hours now, and we are down to our final 17 players.

All remaining players have secured an $850 payday off their $140 buyin!

We have 4 Canadians remaining to fight for the title.

In first is Botpot
6th is YouLoseAgain
15th is mbendner
16th is harli

There are a few players near the top, and all the bottom players are all very close in chips so harli and mbendner are anything but out of it with still a shot at winning with 20 big blinds each.

Botpot is atop of the leaderboard, but there are a few tough players nipping at his heels, should shape up to be a great final 2 tables!

I was railing a fellow Canadian player the other night in one of the larger guaranteed tournaments on 888. For the benefit of the player's privacy, I won't mention his name or the particular tournament as I wouldn't want to ruin his image or give too much personal insight into his style. I was also in the tournament but managed to bust my first hand :)

The tournament started rather normally for our Canadian friend - he built his stack rather quickly, as he does through his aggressive play. It's not unusual for me to look at the leaderboard and he is already on double or triple the average stack before I've played a hand. Unfortunately this often leads to rollercoaster or yo-yo like tournaments for him, with lots of quick ups and downs.

With about 40 players left (20 paid), he took a bad beat dropping him from upwards of 20 000 chips down to about 4100 as the blinds were fast approaching.

The Canadian player played a very good bubble on his short stack. He didn't nurse his short stack hoping to outlast other players so that he could limp into the money. However he was also careful to not tilt and throw away his remaining chips in a bad spot.

He was patient at first, folding a number of hands. This established a tight image, and perhaps convinced his opponents that he was only playing premium hands waiting to get into the money.

Once the bubble was close, 25 players remaining, he began his attack. He made sure his only move was to shove all in preflop, as he had approximately 4000 chips and the blinds were 250/500, meaning he had less than 10 big blinds in his stack. By only shoving preflop, and not raising or calling, he puts the maximum amount of pressure on his opponents and gives himself the best opportunity to take down the blinds uncontested.

When the action folded to him in late position he would shove his stack into the middle regardless of his cards, since the players behind him were on stacks only a slightly larger than his, so calling his all-in would mean they would essentially be putting their tournament on the line. If he picked up a good hand in early or middle position, he'd shove as well, so that if he is called by a player who thinks he is making a move, he has a big hand and a good opportunity to double up and get back in the game.

By effectively employing this strategy he built his stack from 4000 to 8000 chips without having to show a hand. This is the benefit of having an effective Bubble Strategy.

The bubble soon burst and the blinds were getting high once again.

Our player was down to 6000 chips and under the gun, where he decided to make a stand with a Suited Connector.

I am in 100% support of this play. When you are trying to make a stand with a short stack, there comes a point when you have to decide to push whatever hand you have and hope it holds up, or to wait until you're in the blinds and hopefully find a big hand.

When you are under-the-gun and decide that you have to play this hand, or the next one (big blind), I will take a suited connecting hand under the gun. Since you are on such a short stack, it's very likely you are going to be called at least once, and if you're going to be called more than once, you want a hand that is going to give you live cards and draws. A hand like A2 is a good hand to be staking your tournament life on when you know you're only going up against one opponent, say for example you're in Small blind versus big blind and the rest of the table has folded. A2 would be a pretty decent hand to push all in with here.

However under the gun, you still have the entire table left to act behind you, so if there are players who are going to play this hand against you, there is a good chance your A2 will be dominated and you'll be left with a small window of success.

Having a hand like 56s or 89s in this spot may not be your first choice, but it will, in the long run, give you more success against multiple opponents than a single ace or king.

This is what happened in this spot. Our Canadian player shoved T7 suited, he was called by 88 and JJ. The board ran out 3 4 6 T 7 and our Canuck tripled up and was back in the game.

Very shortly after he managed to get in a coin flip scenerio with KQ against 99, hit a King and got his much needed double up to get back above average.

From this point on our player managed to make a number of marginal calls that most average players would be afraid to make. One example of this type of play was when our player was in big blind on approximately 25 000 chips. The action folded around to the Cut Off (player before the button), who shoved all in for about 3500 chips.

The button and the small blind folded, and our player made the call from big blind with K2s. The Cut off short stack turned over QJ and our player won with his King high.

At this point, the table erupted. At least half a dozen players at the table were going crazy in the chat box talking about how lucky he was, and how poorly he was playing, that he couldn't miss, and hits all his draws.

The player had made aggressive raises and calls, playing his position very well, and all the opponents could focus on was the fact that he won a couple of pots with hands that were considered less than ideal, regardless of the circumstances that surrounded them.

Our player managed to storm his way to the final 3, when he ran into a couple of cold deck situations and was eliminated in the 3rd. Upon his elimination the remaining two players celebrated and commented on how lucky he was to get that far.

The next time you're sitting at a table and a player is seemingly winning every hand, take a step back and ask yourself "is this a case of short term variance? Or maybe there is more to this player's success than a lucky run of cards."

In an effort to be a gracious loser, I'll start by saying congrats to Team Papajac for winning the last longer competition for our tournament in Toronto yesterday.

Our 44 person tournament turned into a 35 runner game with a few last minute drop-outs, a member from Team Aaron included.

The structure of the tournament was a little fast for the first hour, but fell into pretty good shape after that. One aspect which was well done (and I'm a little embarassed to say I hadn't seen or thought of this before), was to have two decks in use so that while one player dealt, the cut-off could shuffle and prepare the deck for the next hand. Having the players deal in a tournament is always problematic in that it really slows the game down, however this really quickened the pace.

Unfortunately fast pace wasn't what Team Aaron was looking for as our first member Steve Soukas suffered as the third casualty of the tournament. After running into trouble a couple times with AK, Steve pushed his pocket Tens on a 3 5 9 flop. His opponent made the call with K5 and Steve was in great shape. A king hit the turn giving the opponent two pair and Steve was unable to hit a ten to save his tournament life. 1 down.

The tournament was structured with 20 minute blind levels and 10 minute breaks at the end of each hour, with a 10 000 starting stack of chips. At the end of the first hour I hadn't played a hand and was on about 9400 chips, while the other member of Team Aaron, Kevin Pick, was also waiting to play his first hand.

The second hour was no better for the team as Kevin suffered a similar fate to Steve losing with his Tens and eventually being eliminated by the same opponent. 2 down.

I was managing to keep my head above water, stealing the blinds once per round, never dropped below 9000, but also never climbing above 11 000. Finally I picked up a few pots with continuation bets following a pre flop raise, building up to about 14 000.

Then I picked up Tens, raised to 1600 on the 300/600 blinds picking up one caller.

The flop was 7 8 J and I checked to my opponent to see if I draw a bet out of him. He obliged and bet 2500. I figured I could probably get 1 more bet from him and smooth called.

The turn was a 4, I checked again and my opponent bet 2500 again. I pushed all in for what was approximately 5000 more. The opponent looked instantly upset about the push and folded soon thereafter.

Now having a playable stack and 17 people left in the tournament, I was a little more comfortable with the situation. The third break had just passed and I was in big blind with J9. The action folded to Jack on the button who raised (as he had done fairly often). I decided to defend with my J9 and called the raise.

The flop came 2 9 T and I checked to Jack looking to check-raise his continuation bet. Unfortunately he was more than happy to peel off a free turn card. At this point I'm fairly positive I'm ahead in the hand with my pair of 9s.

The turn came a meaningless 4, I lead into the pot for 3000 and Jack called without much hesitation.

The river came a King, not happy to see an overcard, but barring JQ, there really isn't a hand that I can put Jack on here with a King, so I check with the intent of check/calling any bet. Jack bets 3500, I make the call and Jack turns over Ace King for the pair of Kings and takes a pretty big pot.

Two hands later, Joe, a member of Team Papajac limps under the gun and the action is folded to me on the button. I consider shoving my 10 bb stack blind, but figure Joe's under the gun limp is probably a pretty strong hand, so I should double check to make sure I have at least 1 live card before I shove. I look down to see AJ suited, more than enough to push.

I shove, the action is folded to Joe who calls very quickly. At this point I'm expecting no less than AK. He turns over JJ and I'm about as good as I could hope for considering how fast he called. The board runs out queen high no hearts, and Team Aaron is busted out entirely in 17th.

It was Sunday afternoon in Toronto and the Blue Jays game had or was just about to finish, so I quickly went to find the members of Team Aaron so we didn't get stuck in downtown traffic making the trip back to Mississauga.

Jack ended up busting in 9th, and the last member of Team Papajac suffered the bubble in 7th.

So while Team Jack definitely wins this last longer bet, it's like I told him before I left, "it only counts if you make the money" ;)

See you guys at the next game!

Team Jack - 1
Team Aaron - 0

If you are Canadian and would like to make a trip to Calgary May 14th-17th for the Canadian Open to play against some of the biggest names in the poker world, what are you waiting for!??

There are satellites on 888 running right now for as little as $3.

Play in the $3 games and work your way through the $16 and the $65 step tournaments to get your way into the $320 qualifier on May 8th!

Check your lobby now as these games are running all day and your best opportunity to take advantage of some early bird small fields are running out!

An opportunity to travel to the new Stampede Casino, play for life changing money, and compete against the best and most entertaining players in the world, all for as little as $3.... doesn't get much better than that!

The challenge has been laid out by Jack "papajac" Hinchey and I accept!

At an unnamed location in Toronto, Jack and I will be participating in a 44 person tournament.

Each of us are bringing a group of players with us to participate in the tourney, so we will have Team Papajac against Team Aaronlt in a last longer competition.

I'm certain that the loser will be buying me beers ;)