My $22,000 win at PokerStars $109 buy-in tournament

Yes you read it right. Early this morning I finished 1st playing $109 buy-in NL Hold'em tournament at PokerStars, which earned me an amazing $21,998.

Tournament lasted for 8 hours and I have to say this was definitely my best game ever ( well certainly the biggest profit ever made ).

There was nearly 1300 entrants with a prize pool of almost $130K. There was no re-buy's or add-on's.

Like I said i played my best game, was always placed in the top 30 and as the tournament progressed i started slowly climbing up the ladder.

At one point i was holding 2nd position with some 60 players left ( mind 162 places were paid in total ), but then my AA was beaten against the shortstack who got a set of 9s. That dropped me down to 7th or 8th position.

Then I decided to play tight and try to hold on to that spot and eventually get to the final table. Unfortunately I lost few more hands bumping me down to 17th place with some 30 left.

From there was bit of a scary ride but I was playing pretty well but was still no where near the top 9. With 15 players left i was holding 14 position and was my time to do some damage.

Suffice to say i won a few big pots and by the time the final table kicked in i was holding a strong 5th place with over 350,000 in chips. The chip leader had over 700,000, and there were two short stacked players with under 100,000 in chips.

The final table begun as expected, with everyone playing tight. I managed to knock out two short stacks and steal several blinds and antes, which resulted in me soon being the chip leader.

By that time there was 4 of us left, with me in the lead and Brazilian player close by. I was sticking to my game, trying to steal the blinds where I could ( but never with rubbish hands ) and finally with two good hands I knocked out the 2 short stack and it was a time for the heads up game.

The heads up game i entered almost as 2:1 in chip lead. Only at one point Brazilian managed to come to 200,000 chips in difference.

My winning hand was 92 where I hit the two pairs, 2 on the flop and 9 on the turn.

CONGRATULATIONS, Zuga!!!!!  That is f**king awesome!!!!!  I bet you must have just about crapped your pants with that turn!!!! 

Have you been able to wipe that smile off your face??!!!!  Enjoy the excitement, and of course all that money!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving/Holidays to all!!!

xoxo

kristi

Thanx bunch Kristi :)

to be perfectly honest I was pretty confident I had him but I must admit I was relieved when I saw him having A9 though he still had outs. I was relieved when I saw that K on the river.

He made a mistake putting me just on a low pair ( which was indeed true on the flop but thats when he had nothing ) or maybe just thought I was bluffing my way to steal the pot.

Unfortunately for him we both hit the 9 on the turn, and given that he had an Ace kicker ( and a straight draw ) he thought he had me beaten.

WTG Zuga, never won anything near that, not even close. From now I'll call you "Twiggy"  ;)

OMG OMG OMG  That is absolutely fantastic Zuga.  What a fabulous win.

I love the fact that you were 5th on the final table.  What a perfect position to be in to take down that win.

Huge HUGE congratulations.  I'm really chuffed for you.

yeah it is an amazing win. And it only hit me this morning when i got up,the excitement that is lol. 

Im actually quite surprised how cool and calm i was as I tend to make snap decision at times ( which usually is my doom ).

I was actually playing and watching TV at the same time throughout the tournament , except for the final table as the stakes were really high ;)

Congratulations Zuga  :D  wtg  :-bd

WOW Fantastic WIN zuga - very happy for you :)

great work :)

Way to go Zuga, congratulations!

yeah it is an amazing win. And it only hit me this morning when i got up,the excitement that is lol. 

 

Im actually quite surprised how cool and calm i was as I tend to make snap decision at times ( which usually is my doom ).

 

I was actually playing at watching TV at the same time throughout the tournament , except for the final table as the stakes were really high ;)

I don't know how I would have contained myself if it was me.  I'd have been jumping up and down like an idiot LOL

The best win ever on LPB - glad it was you.

I know the feeling when we get a big win like this :)

reminds me of my jackpot party progressive i had last year :)

Very happy for you Zuga, spend it wisely :)

I also took a video of the last tournament hand.

[ video was moved to the first post of this topic ]

Great! I've enjoyed watching this video. Congrats again. ;)

What an awesome win! Congrats Zuga. Wow $22K! :O

Congrats Zuga! Well played! Although it was a bit scary after seeing the flop, he needed just a 4 and you were out, or an ace on the river, lucky but still an amazing great win! I never managed to win something at PokerStars, maybe you're willing to give me some lessons lol! CONGRATS ONCE AGAIN, YOU DESERVE IT!

Holy shit! Contratulations Zuga! I am really happy for you!

thats amazing Zuga!!! very well done! and wtg a hard tourney indeed but you win it with a high level cheers! for you man!!!  8) im fell so happy when the lcb players win lots of money but fell better when our admins win tons! lol congrats!!!  8) :D <:-P

thanx guys !!

Congrats Zuga! Well played! Although it was a bit scary after seeing the flop, he needed just a 4 and you were out, or an ace on the river, lucky but still an amazing great win! I never managed to win something at PokerStars, maybe you're willing to give me some lessons lol! CONGRATS ONCE AGAIN, YOU DESERVE IT!

Yeah he had fair bit of outs but I was confident I had him beaten on the turn. And yes I suspected he had something or potentially drawing so why I tried to bet hard to scare him away. But as it turned out it all ended quite well for me :)

thats amazing Zuga!!! very well done! and wtg a hard tourney indeed but you win it with a high level cheers! for you man!!!  8) im fell so happy when the lcb players win lots of money but fell better when our admins win tons! lol congrats!!!  8) :D <:-P

Thanx for the kind words Mago, especially since they are coming from someone who is as experienced poker player as you are.

cheers

Zuga

Awesome win Zuga, congrats

Im re-posting the winning hand video as its easily missed on the first page ;)

lol i saw the video and u dont say a word when u won zuga :p where is the YES!!! OR EAT THAT!! LOL :p congrats man nice final hand u hit it right ;)

It was from the replay option when I took the video, that is why you can't hear me screaming LOL

22k, now u can buy that audi A8 u always wanted :)

or just lend me 20$ hehe :D

u really worked on your game seeing ur stats with just 7oo mtts count something u manage to win the intense pokerstars mtt is superb from now on i suppose other management member know in who's mtts they need to take some action :p congrats once again 

tbh the only improvement ( and yes it's a significant one ) in my game was in terms of patience and tilt. Patience was never a strong line of my character both in real life and online. So I guess I came a long way.

I have to stress out that I don't play poker regularly as sadly I do not have enough time to commit to playing poker full time and further improve my game. I tend to make breaks from poker for 4-5 months and then come back and play for a few weeks before taking a break again.

how long did u play this ?

Audi R8 V10 i suppose :D

22k, now u can buy that audi A8 u always wanted :)

or just lend me 20$ hehe :D

Im more of a beemer guy lol LOL

how long did u play this ?

Just over 8 hours.

then an old school e38*** should be fun for u, tune it up nicely !:) my fave lol

year 1998-2001

bro do post some pics how u enjoyed ur party we are keenly waiting for them :)

It was from the replay option when I took the video, that is why you can't hear me screaming LOL

 

 

lol thats remind me something :D

Zuga, OMG. how freaking coooooooooool is that!?!?  !! 8) $$

Congratulations on a hard earned win!!

          Wow !!  Congrats Zuga !  that's amazing.  I think I'm going to give up slots and concentrate on cards from now on.    Not  a bad return for $109.  Great job.

thanx guys :)

Mago that video is hilarious LOL It is safe to say that my screaming is nothing like that lol

bongo you'll definitely get the better odds on poker, given that you know what you are doing. At least the play time will be much longer.

OMG! That's awesome Zuga! OMG! Congrats!

thanx Froggy :)

Congrats! nice !

I am tinkled pink that you won Zuga! Without sounding cliche, when you do good for so many people in your life it comes back to you two-fold. I couldn't be more excited for you if i won myself!

Omggggggg I mean "tickled" pink! See i am so excited that i can't even spell  ;)

thanx for the kind words Lips

Omggggggg I mean "tickled" pink! See i am so excited that i can't even spell

now admit tinkled was what you really had in mind. :P

Well i have to admit it must of been subliminal cuz i about tinkled when i saw you won, i was so thrilled!  <:-P <:-P <:-P <:-P <:-P

Woww Zuga, that's a huge win  :D $$ $$

Congrats  :-bd

Thanx izi :)

yes indeed a huge win, and actually the biggest I ever won playing poker. Hopefully it won't be impossible to at least match it in near future ;)

Thanx izi :)

 

yes indeed a huge win, and actually the biggest I ever won playing poker. Hopefully it won't be impossible to at least match it in near future ;)

Good luck for the future poker games you play zuga - i hope u can match it :) or even beat it and make it a much bigger amount :)

we shall see  ;)

Wow Zuga!  What a great win.  Congrats!

Just curious, since you are not in the position of us U.S. people, do you just withdraw the whole amount and it goes into the wallet you use?  Then you can just withdraw all the money?

That is so great!!!

medtrans

thats amazing win, congratulations :) xgl for more big wins in poker like this one :)

 

Just curious, since you are not in the position of us U.S. people, do you just withdraw the whole amount and it goes into the wallet you use?  Then you can just withdraw all the money?

Since I use Skrill/Moneybookers I can only cashout $2,500 at a time ( I believe that is a daily limit for this e-wallet ).

I'm very jealous of that winning  :/(  good luck and win more  :-bd

Congratulations Zuga! That's amazing. $$ $$ $$