First PPM worst beat

WINNER of the worst bad beat in the first PPM last night, had to be, the 10th place finisher.

Pocket AA against AK. The AK makes 4 of suit to his Ace for the win with a flush (after AA got "all in" on the hand).


Mind you, blinds and limit so huge here, even mediocre hands had to be played aggressively or even the big stacks would be blinded out. Average stack size was only about 2 1/2 Big bets. Biggest stack varied around 4 to 6 big bets.


321 players in the tourney, 8 final table players to be awarded the cruise, the package, the big tourney entry, $7K plus value etc. Guy knocked off his AA by an AK for booby prize, 2 away from the win, when players were being forced to play hands like A,6 or K,10 positionally to survive to the final 8. It was nasty.

Sounds like the second PPM cruise tournament will again be a great value for the big players who pay for the entry in cash. With the finals being this much of a crapshoot, there isn't much to ensure that only the best win their way through.


If my bankroll is healthy enough, I think I'll buy in and bring my wife and maybe our little daughter for a nice vacation.


Later, Greg Raymer (FossilMan)

Yes, I think this structure favors maniac aggressives, and penalizes tourney pro tight aggressives, a lot more than a normally structured tourney of it's size would. (I noticed that Tom McEvoy was knocked out of this fairly early once the ridiculousy quick blind escalations began, with way too few hands played).


Of course, most of these loose aggressives are going to get bumped out early on, but a few survive along with a few rapidly adapting solid tourney strategists.


Overall, I think the main shipboard tourney may be more loaded with loose agressives due to this structure, relative to a typical large event.