dave murray- master or muppet

pokergenius.com

ive been reading boards and antes up for the past week or so and have seen everyone raving about how good dave murray is blah blah blah, and he does deserve credit for getting as far as he did.

but he absolutely gave chips away in the last 2 days. that call with the a5 was unreal bad and pushing in utg with deuces when he still almost 30 bbs left was ridiculous. surely any decent player in that position would have used their chips far more wisely.....

any1 agree or is this just the murray fan club..........?????????????

ZZR1100

brave post... on first impression the plays seem very bad but we have no idea how the play/players were at his table at the time.dave was bullying alll the way to get where he eventually finished and he must be doing something right.

Rnger

Eh... hes a legend! That 22 sounds a bit dodgey but im sure there was a half decent reason. He was a few yrs ahead of moi in school and shaved his head for charity out the front one day. Headmaster went mental. Legend!

Brendygg

Coming in the top 50 of 8700 players ,lastin longer than ivey, negreanu and hellmuth, muppet isnt a word dat springs to mind.

Rnger

the word jealous does spring to mind tho

delanec8

pokergenius.com wrote:

ive been reading boards and antes up for the past week or so and have seen everyone raving about how good dave murray is blah blah blah, and he does deserve credit for getting as far as he did.

but he absolutely gave chips away in the last 2 days. that call with the a5 was unreal bad and pushing in utg with deuces when he still almost 30 bbs left was ridiculous. surely any decent player in that position would have used their chips far more wisely.....

any1 agree or is this just the murray fan club..........?????????????

So youre basing your judgement on two hands that he played. Im not sure how much more he had to call with the A5 but he may well have been priced in if he opened for a raise before being reraised. As far as the deuces hand im sure he will explain it himself but from the sidelines it sounded a little bit like a blowup. In saying that he was one of the shortstacks in the tourney at the time.

Regardless i dont think you can say he is a muppet because of two hands that happened to be reported on cardplayer. Im sure he played a lot of great poker to get so deep. I certainly dont think that people supporting a fellow Irishman should really warrant any sort of retort like this. I mean does it really bother you that much?

Shortstack

I am sure Dave will be on to explain his move. It does look like a bad decision but knowing Dave he will have full justification for doing it. I have seen a lot worse plays over here and throughout the 5 days he played a master class. Bad moves are only bad when you get called.

I would say that most posters on here probaly do not make that move, but we probably also don't make the plays that get us that far in the WSOP either. If it was a rush of blood to the head then it is understandable after 5 days of poker in such an intense environment. No one who is left has not made a major mistake at some point during the event. They either got lucky when they made it or they had chips left over.

Scotty #

A push with 22 does sound "iffy" and yes its a good question as to why he did it but "poker genius" please answer why YOUR post is so sinister??? If you would like to know his motives why not ask it in a reasonable manner??

pokergenius.com

lol, not meant to sound sinister. not trying to be controversial or start huge arguments but to me those plays are horrible.

i dont buy the we dont know how the table was playing etc, its never right to do those things imo. what was he in good shape against with the a5??? pocket 4's, kq????

maybe he saw the size of the other stacks and felt he had to move but 22 utg is not the place or the hand to do it with im afraid

after getting so far and having a chance to win it its a waste of chips imho

and im sure if a lot of you are truthful you think the same

Norwich Fan Rob

Playing for 12 hours+ a day in such a tense atmosphere , with very little rest can put an incredible strain on a player.
Towards the end of day 4, i was fighting a lot of inner demons that kept telling me to do some stupid, and over play a hand.
Despite having plenty of BBs in my stack, i felt short looking at the massive towers of the likes of Jamie Gold etc.
Its so easy crack at this stage, and this tourney takes an unreal amount of patience as well as skill.
Im sure Dave will explain the 22 hand, but its almost impossible to play for as long as we had to , in those conditions without making some sort of mistake.
And over the first few days, seeing off over 8500 of the best players takes some doing, and i saw Dave playing some extremely brave and well judged poker. Yes, he got lucky a couple of times, but show me one of the last 3 champions that didnt.

Scotty #

pokergenius.com wrote:

MASTER OR MUPPET

Sinister!!

pokergenius.com wrote:

everyone raving about how good dave murray is blah blah blah

Sinister!!

pokergenius.com wrote:

is this just the murray fan club..........?????????????

Sinister!!

pokergenius.com wrote:

ive been reading boards and antes up for the past week or so

And you decide your first post is going to be one having a go at one of the regulars who has just finished 48th in the Wsop main event??? I think you should wait till you achieve similar OR......be big enough to start the thread with your usual username!!

If you are indeed a poker genius than you can appreciate all the variables that come into account when you make a decision. Dave obviously felt, at the time, that to push was the right thing to do. He may have regretted it after but that's poker :cool:

Marq

Ken Powell, who was on Dave Murray's table for almost all of day two, said that Dave was the only player who impressed him in the whole tournament. Dave himself said to me last night that he's not sure if he made the right play with the ace five, but was quite happy with the deuces push. I imagine that over 68 hours and about 1700 hands of hold'em, there were only a handfull of pots where he felt that he could have played better.

He is still, however, a Wildly Autistic Luckbox.

OilBeefHooked2

Marq wrote:

Ken Powell, who was on Dave Murray's table for almost all of day two, said that Dave was the only player who impressed him in the whole tournament. Dave himself said to me last night that he's not sure if he made the right play with the ace five, but was quite happy with the deuces push. I imagine that over 68 hours and about 1700 hands of hold'em, there were only a handfull of pots where he felt that he could have played better.

He is still, however, a Wildly Autistic Luckbox.

Post of the year!;)

Marq

I'm considering opening a book on whether pokergenius.com is Dave Murray.

antomadness

Didnt he hit trips on the flop in the 22 hand?
If he managed to see the flop cheaply in this hand, it was going all in regardless.
I think its incredibly poor form to attempt to slag off a guy who performed brilliantly over the course of the 5 days.
cheap shot if u ask me.

ntlbell

pokergenius.com wrote:

ive been reading boards and antes up for the past week or so and have seen everyone raving about how good dave murray is blah blah blah, and he does deserve credit for getting as far as he did.

but he absolutely gave chips away in the last 2 days. that call with the a5 was unreal bad and pushing in utg with deuces when he still almost 30 bbs left was ridiculous. surely any decent player in that position would have used their chips far more wisely.....

any1 agree or is this just the murray fan club..........?????????????

Another nonsense thread.

I'm not a "fan" of Dave Murray as a person, but I don't think anyone can doubt what an achievement it is to get as far as he did and from what I hear he played some great poker in a long grueling stressful few days of poker.

How did you get on in the wsop?

Sinfonia

ahem...who is dave murray?
:eek:

El Stuntman

this thread is an absolute joke imho

the guy outlasts more than 99% of the WSOP ME field and we get someone calling him a fish?? WTF?:mad:

Hitman Actual

Marq wrote:

I'm considering opening a book on whether pokergenius.com is Dave Murray.

I was thinking the same!

Both the A5 and the 22 hands seem shaky alright; I'd really like to hear the action in the A5 hand. For the 22 hand, my initial thinking was that with blinds and antes, every pot was well worth winning preflop, but still, 22 UTG??? But that's just two hands out of 1700 as was said

I think a lot of people dislike RTs posting style; it's definately in the HJ style of telling it like it is, but their posts are almost always spot on.

Dub13

Maybe the Admins could run an IP check on pokergenius.com and see if anything interesting pops up.

slegs

Marq wrote:

I'm considering opening a book on whether pokergenius.com is Dave Murray.

agreed...not the kind of post that a newbie opens up with.....either Dave himself or someone very experienced stirring the sh1t

cooker3

El Stuntman wrote:

this thread is an absolute joke imho

the guy outlasts more than 99% of the WSOP ME field and we get someone calling him a fish?? WTF?:mad:

In fairness if you go to antes up, people will have no problem ripping into jamie gold the current chip leader and others who are still left and calling them donkies, whats the differance, the fact he is irish?

Just because you get so late in WSOP doesn't mean your a great poker player.
This is more general point though, not saying Dave is a fish btw.

El Stuntman

cooker3 wrote:

In fairness if you go to antes up, people will have no problem ripping into jamie gold the current chip leader and others who are still left and calling them donkies, whats the differance, the fact he is irish?

Just because you get so late in WSOP doesn't mean your a great poker player.
This is more general point though, not saying Dave is a fish btw.

`

sorry cooker but i see this as a case of Tall Poppy Syndrome, unfortunately very prevalent in Ireland!

btw I think they're ripping into Jamie Gold because he's an arrogant twat!

Fatboydim

I think Dave can give you a hundred and sixty five thousand reasons why he's not a muppet.

As for the plays mentioned... is pushing with 22 that bad under the circumstances? He was obviously trying to represent a bigger hand and could only be called by either a bigger pair or a high ace. He was unlucky to find a bigger pair out there. And even more unlucky to hit bottom set. Had the other guy had pocket jacks instead Dave would have doubled up.

At that stage in the contest I would imagine Dave was happy with the money he was guaranteed and wanted the title more than twenty or thirty grand extra he’d have got for being blinded out a few places later. If he just took the blinds down then he had another free circuit to get a better hand.

cooker3

El Stuntman wrote:

`

sorry cooker but i see this as a case of Tall Poppy Syndrome, unfortunately very prevalent in Ireland!

btw I think they're ripping into Jamie Gold because he's an arrogant twat!

I think Tom said he was a donkey but anyway
I am just saying that I get sense that people here are like how dare you have a go at him, he did well in world series and is irish, yet at same time would happily have a go at others who are still in the tournament saying what donkies they are.
Nothing against Dave as I don't know him so really couldn't comment either way

hoooooooot

Fatboydim wrote:

I think Dave can give you a hundred and sixty five thousand reasons why he's not a muppet.

As for the plays mentioned... is pushing with 22 that bad under the circumstances? He was obviously trying to represent a bigger hand and could only be called by either a bigger pair or a high ace. He was unlucky to find a bigger pair out there. And even more unlucky to hit bottom set. Had the other guy had pocket jacks instead Dave would have doubled up.

At that stage in the contest I would imagine Dave was happy with the money he was guaranteed and wanted the title more than twenty or thirty grand extra he’d have got for being blinded out a few places later. If he just took the blinds down then he had another free circuit to get a better hand.

i followed the updates religiously and i think its fairly obvious that dave played quality aggressive and im positive he was priced in wit the a5, but the 22 was a blowup no question its reckless he didn need to risk 30bbs in that spot, not saying it wasn understandable under the circumstances but u cant defend this play imo

MrPillowTalk

I spent a good number of hours railing Dave and Ken over the past week, everyone plays the odd hand badly, however his play was very impressive he ran over every table I saw him sit at.

At one point toward the end of day 2 Ken and Dave were on the same table, there was a 100 ante i(.e. black chip) on every hand, Dave at one point had every black chip in play on his table in his stack. This shows just how much he was running over the table. It was interesting watching Dave and Ken play, Dave plays a loose game extremely well and Ken plays a tight game extremely well. Daves aggression toward the end of day 2 picked him up over 50K (when the average at the end of day 2 was 70) in uncontested stolen blinds and antes building him to a day 2 final mark of 170K. Thats how to play winning poker.

Two of my favourite moments of the trip
1) Dave Callaghan and myself railing Murray during day4, Murray has 1.1 million and the average is about 280k. MP player raises to 20k Dave reraises to 80k button moves all in for 110k total, folded to Dave who obviously calls. Dave flips up poket tens and the other guy does nothing "must be good" I think to myself.

After about a minute or two the dealer asks to see the other guys cards, he then nonchalantly flips up AA and Im thinking what a slow rolling asshat.

The dealer obviously feels the same and obliges Dave with two tens on the flop LOL karma baby.

Dave turns to us on the rail and calmly says "what does he expect when he slowrolls.....to win?"

Quality.

2) Day 2 and Ken manages to get all in with KK vs a guys AQ they both have 50k. This is normally no problem but we are talking about Ken "the unluckiest player in Ireland" Powell and it allmost feels like a 50/50. As the dealer turns the flop Masters, Rob and myself start shouting "no Ace no Ace" on the turn we again shout "no Ace no Ace" and on the river when no ace arrives we all go mental like Ken just won the whole tournament, we are jumping up and down and making a general show of ourselves when all of a sudden I realise Im jumping in celebration on the back of the guy who Ken just eliminated

I saw enough of Dave Murrays play this week and talked with him enough to know that the guy is no muppet, finding a lower gear might help him a bit but the guy will probably play the wsop 30 more times in his life, you dont have to get it perfect first time out.

Hitman Actual

MrPillowTalk wrote:

I spent a good number of hours railing Dave and Ken over the past week, everyone plays the odd hand badly, however his play was very impressive he ran over every table I saw him sit at.

At one point toward the end of day 2 Ken and Dave were on the same table, there was a 100 ante i(.e. black chip) on every hand, Dave at one point had every black chip in play on his table in his stack. This shows just how much he was running over the table. It was interesting watching Dave and Ken play, Dave plays a loose game extremely well and Ken plays a tight game extremely well. Daves aggression toward the end of day 2 picked him up over 50K (when the average at the end of day 2 was 70) in uncontested stolen blinds and antes building him to a day 2 final mark of 170K. Thats how to play winning poker.

Two of my favourite moments of the trip
1) Dave Callaghan and myself railing Murray during day4, Murray has 1.1 million and the average is about 280k. MP player raises to 20k Dave reraises to 80k button moves all in for 110k total, folded to Dave who obviously calls. Dave flips up poket tens and the other guy does nothing "must be good" I think to myself.

After about a minute or two the dealer asks to see the other guys cards, he then nonchalantly flips up AA and Im thinking what a slow rolling asshat.

The dealer obviously feels the same and obliges Dave with two tens on the flop LOL karma baby.

Dave turns to us on the rail and calmly says "what does he expect when he slowrolls.....to win?"

Quality.

2) Day 2 and Ken manages to get all in with KK vs a guys AQ they both have 50k. This is normally no problem but we are talking about Ken "the unluckiest player in Ireland" Powell and it allmost feels like a 50/50. As the dealer turns the flop Masters, Rob and myself start shouting "no Ace no Ace" on the turn we again shout "no Ace no Ace" and on the river when no ace arrives we all go mental like Ken just won the whole tournament, we are jumping up and down and making a general show of ourselves when all of a sudden I realise Im jumping in celebration on the back of the guy who Ken just eliminated

I saw enough of Dave Murrays play this week and talked with him enough to know that the guy is no muppet, finding a lower gear might help him a bit but the guy will probably play the wsop 30 more times in his life, you dont have to get it perfect first time out.

Good post. From following the event over here, one of the things I was impressed with was that RT seemed to play a very good bubble game, even if that big bluff was picked off to knock him back to 60K. And then managed to get back to 170K by the end of that day.

MrPillowTalk

lenny_leonard wrote:

Good post. From following the event over here, one of the things I was impressed with was that RT seemed to play a very good bubble game, even if that big bluff was picked off to knock him back to 60K. And then managed to get back to 170K by the end of that day.

The bluff theat knocked him back to 60 was at the start of the follwing day to the one I was describing but the fact that he built back up again is another testament to how fearless he played. That particular three barrel bluff may have been a bit of a brain fart though.

Bp!

Its a shame this thread even started on Boards, jealousy in its purest form no doubt

Well done Dave on a very impressive result!

willis

Hmm, Dave = $186k richer, cant see him giving a fcuk bout some randomer dissing his play...I certainly wouldnt

Hitman Actual

MrPillowTalk wrote:

The bluff theat knocked him back to 60 was at the start of the follwing day to the one I was describing but the fact that he built back up again is another testament to how fearless he played. That particular three barrel bluff may have been a bit of a brain fart though.

OK; this is the one I'm talking about, but I'm not sure how the hand played out. http://www.antesup.com/boards/showthread.php?t=535&page=13

Goodluck2me

cooker3 wrote:

I think Tom said he was a donkey but anyway
I am just saying that I get sense that people here are like how dare you have a go at him, he did well in world series and is irish, yet at same time would happily have a go at others who are still in the tournament saying what donkies they are.
Nothing against Dave as I don't know him so really couldn't comment either way

i agree, i think dave has done excellently well to get so far in such a prestigious and difficult tournament, and can obviosuly play, but it is still fair to critique a few of his hands thats what we are hear for.

secondly just because there was a 2 on the flop changes nothign its when the money went in, otherwise its just results based thinking.

finally wp dave great finish.

RoundTower

I hope this is my only post on this topic.

I think the A5 was a bad push, and if I had played with Dmitri for 1 hour more I would not have pushed there.

I think the 22 was a good push. If you are not sure about this, you should try the maths problem. How often do I need to get through for the push to be correct?

roryc

no need to explain yourself.

congrats

RoundTower

also I think I played the T7 hand bad on all streets. Not sure whether I should push or c/f the river, after the hand I thought I should have pushed but I have the nagging feeling he would call me anyway.

Mostly I think I played well especially day 1 and 2. I believe it is vital to pick up a lot of chips those days: that would be my advice to anyone playing this tourney, then just play well for the rest.

Dub13

Again Dave no need to explain yourself.

wp and enjoy a good brake.

BIG-SLICK-POKER

RoundTower wrote:

I hope this is my only post on this topic.

I think the A5 was a bad push, and if I had played with Dmitri for 1 hour more I would not have pushed there.

I think the 22 was a good push. If you are not sure about this, you should try the maths problem. How often do I need to get through for the push to be correct?

Hey Dave m8 Neill here from Big Slick Waterford , Listen there will always be begrudgers in Ireland and i have to say i am not one of them, u may be proud of your performance of skill and luck at times probably , I have followed the progress from day 1 and i could not get away from the computer and it was a pleasure to follow u and the rest of the Irish this year ,

From all down south of Ireland Congarts on a fantastic performance , And as for the way u played the last few hands it was your 10k entry fee they were your cards and it was up to u no one else ....

People who post after the hands are finished here have no balls to play this sort of event..... Hope to see you at one of our events down south soon m8

WELL DONE

NEILL KELLY
BSP

BIG-SLICK-POKER

MrPillowTalk wrote:

I spent a good number of hours railing Dave and Ken over the past week, everyone plays the odd hand badly, however his play was very impressive he ran over every table I saw him sit at.

At one point toward the end of day 2 Ken and Dave were on the same table, there was a 100 ante i(.e. black chip) on every hand, Dave at one point had every black chip in play on his table in his stack. This shows just how much he was running over the table. It was interesting watching Dave and Ken play, Dave plays a loose game extremely well and Ken plays a tight game extremely well. Daves aggression toward the end of day 2 picked him up over 50K (when the average at the end of day 2 was 70) in uncontested stolen blinds and antes building him to a day 2 final mark of 170K. Thats how to play winning poker.

Two of my favourite moments of the trip
1) Dave Callaghan and myself railing Murray during day4, Murray has 1.1 million and the average is about 280k. MP player raises to 20k Dave reraises to 80k button moves all in for 110k total, folded to Dave who obviously calls. Dave flips up poket tens and the other guy does nothing "must be good" I think to myself.

After about a minute or two the dealer asks to see the other guys cards, he then nonchalantly flips up AA and Im thinking what a slow rolling asshat.

The dealer obviously feels the same and obliges Dave with two tens on the flop LOL karma baby.

Dave turns to us on the rail and calmly says "what does he expect when he slowrolls.....to win?"

Quality.

2) Day 2 and Ken manages to get all in with KK vs a guys AQ they both have 50k. This is normally no problem but we are talking about Ken "the unluckiest player in Ireland" Powell and it allmost feels like a 50/50. As the dealer turns the flop Masters, Rob and myself start shouting "no Ace no Ace" on the turn we again shout "no Ace no Ace" and on the river when no ace arrives we all go mental like Ken just won the whole tournament, we are jumping up and down and making a general show of ourselves when all of a sudden I realise Im jumping in celebration on the back of the guy who Ken just eliminated

I saw enough of Dave Murrays play this week and talked with him enough to know that the guy is no muppet, finding a lower gear might help him a bit but the guy will probably play the wsop 30 more times in his life, you dont have to get it perfect first time out.

Really taught u would go deep in the event this year eoin..... Good post m8

The Snapper

pokergenius.com wrote:

ive been reading boards and antes up for the past week or so and have seen everyone raving about how good dave murray is blah blah blah, and he does deserve credit for getting as far as he did.

but he absolutely gave chips away in the last 2 days. that call with the a5 was unreal bad and pushing in utg with deuces when he still almost 30 bbs left was ridiculous. surely any decent player in that position would have used their chips far more wisely.....

any1 agree or is this just the murray fan club..........?????????????

Neither master nor muppet. But a very very good winning and improving player.

I for one got some buzz from following his WSOP exploits.:D

I certainly hope RT does not respond to this provocative post.:mad:

Daithio

I can't believe this post was put up. What a ****ing insult. The best performance of an Irish player since Andy Black last year, and in his first major tournament too, which he got into for SIXTEEN ****ing DOLLARS. He's 160k richer than he was ten days ago and anybody that has a problem with how he played is purely ****ing bitter.

jbravado

Just want to say Congrats aswell.Brilliant achievement.

Goodluck2me

Daithio wrote:

I can't believe this post was put up. What a ****ing insult. The best performance of an Irish player since Andy Black last year, and in his first major tournament too, which he got into for SIXTEEN ****ing DOLLARS. He's 160k richer than he was ten days ago and anybody that has a problem with how he played is purely ****ing bitter.

now thats a return on investment! 16 dollars into 160,000....verdict...master...

White Knight

Master! Great performance .. hope he stands back, takes a holiday, takes stock of the whole thing and then come out firing on the back of the success!!

Played with him once in a cash game in the Fitz .. I was in seat 10 and he was in seat 1. I did not know who he was and he was sitting quietly back in his seat. He took control of the table as soon as he sat down and looked ultra comfortable. Straight away I knew to stay away when he was in a pot.

Keep it up!

Brendygg

Daithio wrote:

I can't believe this post was put up. What a ****ing insult. The best performance of an Irish player since Andy Black last year, and in his first major tournament too, which he got into for SIXTEEN ****ing DOLLARS. He's 160k richer than he was ten days ago and anybody that has a problem with how he played is purely ****ing bitter.

well said

Hitman Actual

Daithio wrote:

I can't believe this post was put up. What a ****ing insult. The best performance of an Irish player since Andy Black last year, and in his first major tournament too, which he got into for SIXTEEN ****ing DOLLARS. He's 160k richer than he was ten days ago and anybody that has a problem with how he played is purely ****ing bitter.

Totally agree Dave, and the OP is just a trolling idiot.

At the same time, while Roundtower shouldn't have to come on here to defend any of his plays, I for one am interested in his reasons for making whatever plays he does make. He's one of the best players/posters on here, so it's good to know where he's coming from. The 22 UTG hand for example: I wouldn't dream of making a move like that before now, but I'm starting to think now of the merits of the push.

RichieLawlor

RoundTower wrote:

I think the 22 was a good push. If you are not sure about this, you should try the maths problem. How often do I need to get through for the push to be correct?

ok 1st of all im not attacking or defending the play, i have no opinion because i dont know the full situation.

but as regards the maths problem, i dont understand ur reasoning here, Blinds $15k and $30k with $5k ante so 90k in the pot before the cards are dealt, you push for $825k (90 into 825 = 9.1) so for this to be correct it has to get thru 9 times out of 10 to break even. Someone correct me if im wrong please.

point being whatever u reasons were and im sure they were good it was not a good mathematical play imo.

That being said Congrats to Dave for finishing 48th in the biggest poker tournament ever played.

RoundTower

OK here's the maths version. I've thought about this hand quite a lot as you can imagine. I don't feel I need to defend my play - as I said I can think of several bad plays I made - but I don't mind explaining my logic.

There is 85k in the pot and I push for 825.

x % of the time I get through and win 85k.

y % of the time I get called by a big pair or AK and I am 33% to win the hand. The pot will be 1.73 million and I expect to get back 600k out of it, so on average I lose 225k when I get called. This is where Richie's post above is wrong, even when you get called you win the hand quite a lot of the time.

This means I need to get through about 70% of the time for the play to be profitable, in pure chip terms. Plenty of people were folding TT/AK there to me, only Molina and Gold would have considered calling with 88/AQ IMO. After all this was the last level of the day, anyone with a 2 million stack is thinking they will try to finish the day with about that and be very happy. On the other hand if it is close I should fold because we are approaching an 80k prize jump.

Maybe it is even better to raise to 100 or limp or something with that hand there, but I still think pushing is better than folding.

Incidentally this is a good spot where A2 is a better pushing hand than 22, because most of the hands that call me will not be AK/AQ, they will be big pairs.

sikes

wp dave,

i was watching from the rail on sunday, was only there for a couple of hours. not sure if you saw/recognised me and we all got ushered out before the break. anyway enjoy the winnings. a nice br to have.

marius

RoundTower wrote:

OK here's the maths version. I've thought about this hand quite a lot as you can imagine. I don't feel I need to defend my play - as I said I can think of several bad plays I made - but I don't mind explaining my logic.

There is 85k in the pot and I push for 825.

x % of the time I get through and win 85k.

y % of the time I get called by a big pair or AK and I am 33% to win the hand. The pot will be 1.73 million and I expect to get back 600k out of it, so on average I lose 225k when I get called. This is where Richie's post above is wrong, even when you get called you win the hand quite a lot of the time.

This means I need to get through about 70% of the time for the play to be profitable, in pure chip terms. Plenty of people were folding TT/AK there to me, only Molina and Gold would have considered calling with 88/AQ IMO. After all this was the last level of the day, anyone with a 2 million stack is thinking they will try to finish the day with about that and be very happy. On the other hand if it is close I should fold because we are approaching an 80k prize jump.

Maybe it is even better to raise to 100 or limp or something with that hand there, but I still think pushing is better than folding.

Incidentally this is a good spot where A2 is a better pushing hand than 22, because most of the hands that call me will not be AK/AQ, they will be big pairs.

I'd like to add my voice to the well played brigade, but I do have one question....you just won $160.000 for a stake of $16......how the hell are you sober?

Fatboydim

You see this is why poker is not just about maths or the two cards you have in the hole. There is nothing wrong with the move Roundtower made with pocket twos. Against anything other than a higher pair it's a coin flip. Clearly Dave is playing the players and not the cards and that's what the great players do. If Brunson, Negreanu, Hanson etc made this move we'd all be saying great poker. This was great poker.