Chocolate Man wins as 4 clinches NM berth

THE SKJERVE SHACK, IS A LITTLE OLD PLACE WHERE...
17 players gathered around the two tables at The Skjerve Shack to compete in the last Freezeout tournament of the season. And the competition is getting more fierce as the season comes to an end. In theory all 17 starters had a chance to qualify for one of the 10 NM-spots before shuffling up last night. After the tournament, some were still in contention, others not so much.

NO ROOM FOR SUCK OUTS
As the tournament began, it was clear that all players were more focused than usual. There was no room for error, no room for mistakes, misjudgements, or suck outs... However, one cannot guard for the luck of the cards. At table 1 Dan Emil got off to a great start, while over at table 2 Petter and Magnus started accumulating big stacks. The first to be eliminated was last years Season winner, Kenneth. With AK he hit top pair and found it hard to fold to an all-in. A classic lower trips sent him to the rails. Trond was next to go in what proved to be one of the nights worst beats. UTG called, UTG+1 limit raised, and Trond went all-in. Thomas folded AcJc in dealer button, and UTG+1 which was Dan Emil called. Trond showed KK and Dan Emil QQc. The flop was three low clubs. The turn another club and Dan Emil had drawn a flush to crack Trond's pocket kings.

BAD BEATING THE HOST
Then Tsair and Øyvind was eliminated before Lars got busted on another bad beat. His newly acquired tight tournament style gave him no extra chips last night. So when he picked up QQ with no action in front, he raised 1,500 from the dealer button. Thomas in small blind reraised to 4,500 and Lars went all-in with 7,000. Thomas called with 88 and proclaimed he thought Lars was stealing / didn't have a pair. Yeah sure... An 8 hit the board as the second card and Lars was out. Then Espen, Olaf (ghostoso) and Christian were eliminated in subsequent order. It was all set for the Final Table.

TIGHT FINAL TABLE
Dan Emil, Petter and Magnus came into the Final Table with approximately 30K in chips. The rest were stuck at 10-20K. And although the chip lead varied during the final hours, it was always one of these two in the lead. Of the top rankers only Thomas (3rd), Magnus (7th), and Petter (10th) were still in the game. The others were all battling for points, and this extra "value" made the FT tighter than usual. Thomas took advantage of this, as he started out aggressively and found a lot of chips in the beginning. Morten then took over and found himself second-chippie for a while. However, he was on a massive rollercoaster ride for the most part. First to leave the final table was Vegard, and then Peter went railbirding after his K3 suit got beat. Both Magnus and Morten called and Magnus hit an 8 on the river with his 8T to beat Peter, whilst Morten claimed to have a pocket pair.

THE BUBBLE BOYS
Stig Maddog went out in 7th place, a familiar spot for him after collecting one 6th and one 7th from before. Then it was time for The Bubble Boy to burst. Thomas had collected a massive 3 bubbles before this tournament and managed as per usual to go out in 5th again. His 69 suit allin from UTG got called by Dan Emil in BB. Dan Emil showed K7 as the flop came 66K. Turn was another heartbreaking K and Thomas was eliminated with a lower house. Tobias was next out as his AT lost to Petters KQ. Both hit, Tobias a Ten, Petter a King. Then Dan Emil went out after hitting his low card and going allin on flop. Petter called and won with another King on the turn.

ITS, LIKE, THE TOP TWO PLAYERS IN HEADS-UP...!
The heads up between Petter and Magnus was an interesting battle. Petter had won the last Freezeout and could be the first to win back-to-back this season. Magnus had won the last tournament, which was the heads up at Puls. The two players are without argument SPKKs best tournament players at the moment. And when it came to an end, Petter had grinded Magnus down. A very impressive win for the Chocolate Man.

THE RECIPIE FOR VICTORY?
Get a kid, go on maternity leave, let your beard grow out, play the tournament as it counts for two (Petter cannot make the final as he turns 30 that day!), and basically play with heart and conviction. GG!

1. Petter A 30,0
2. Magnus B 24,0
3. Dan Emil E 21,0
4. Tobias L 18,0
5. Thomas U 15,0
6. Morten R 12,0
7. Stig T 9,0
8. Peter L 6,0
9. Vegard R 3,0
10. Christian N 2,4
11. Olaf (ghostoso) 2,1
12. Espen N 1,8
13. Lars S 1,5
14. Øyvind A 1,2
15. Tsair T 0,9
16. Trond A 0,6
17. Kenneth J 0,3

PRE-FINAL REPORT:
Thomas is back on top of the rankings. He leads in front of Øyvind, Trond and Espen, and these four players all clinched their NM seats yesterday. WP! Petter, Christian, Magnus and Knut Magne, placed in 5th to 8th, all have 80+ points, but are still not secure. The last two players in the Top 10, Dan Emil with 71,88 and Tobias with 63,13, are even more in need of a strong showing in the last tournament.

Why? We have 6 players in the "back field" all challenging these 6 players in the Top 10. Lars is only 1,33 points behind Tobias, and Kenneth in 12th is only 2,58 points from the 10th spot. Behind them, Vegard, Morten, Peter and Stig can all clinch a Top 10 spot by finishing in the top 3 in the last tournament.

Why? The last tournament is a 200 kr unlimited rebuy tournament. Its Tournament Value is then 200kr (buy-in) + 200kr (rebuy) + (200kr) addon = 600 kr, which makes it a 2 category tournament. Its Player Value is the same. Right now 16 players are registered for the tournament, which gives it a PV of 2. If 19 or more players PV increases to 2,5. The ranking points gathered are Place x TV x PV. First place right now is worth 40 points (10 x 2 x 2). If more than 19 players join (very likely) then first place is worth 50 points. By comparison 5th place with 19-24 players is worth 25 points (5 x 2 x 2,5). GL!