Your Greatest Poker Comeback - My Christmas Eve Miracle

So, what is your greatest poker comeback? I’d be interested to hear
about yours. I had mine today.

Prior to today, mine was a 10 player sitngo at Party Poker about
12 years ago. Was down to 15 chips with 10 players left. Came back to take the chip
lead with 4 players left. They paid the top 3. Of course I finished fourth in that one.

Still after that one I learned that if you can keep on grinding no matter how down you
are that good things can come your way. That and a little luck.

Today I played a 100 player nl tournament. To set the stage I’ve been playing on replay
since Sept. of 2015. I’ve won four tournaments like the one I played in today so am
no stranger to wading through a mine field. Those wins required a certain amount of luck.
Today was different. Today required a ridiculous amount of luck.

The nice thing about replay is that you can rewatch the hands from the games you play.
So, below you can rewatch my greatest comeback. Then tell me about yours.

2nd hand of the game

On the second hand of the game I flopped 2 pair j6, and bet the flop and the turn when
the other player MikeF7 went all in. A queen had hit and I wasn’t sure if he just made his queen
or had something bigger like qj or a set so I debated til the end and finally called. When
the queen hit he had made two pair q7 and I was left with a chip and a chair and needed a prayer.
That hand left me with 90 chips.

But wait it gets worse. By the 3rd or 4th hand of the tourney I was down to 70 chips.
At that point there were probably 99 players left and I was dead last and seemingly dead
in the water.

Start of the comeback. I’m all in with pocket 10s and 70 chips
The miracles start:

The miracles continue. I’m allin with AJ and 285 chips. I get 3 callers.:

Aces help:

Building a stack with pocket 8’s:

A Spyke to the Heart:

Slow playing AK costs me. Flop comes K 10 3 and
Spyker66 checks his K 10 and I
do something I rarely do - shove with one pair. Bad move
and I’m short stacked again.

Down to 800 chips Harlandheat raises behind me and I shove all in
with ducks. Harlandheat has queens and I’m packing my bags when
I hit a duece on the turn. The miracle continues.

Picking up the blinds with an AJ allin:

Another allin - this time q 10 suited. Frankly just trying to
pick up the blinds but whs200e calls with kq and super short spyker
is allin with 5 10. He flops 2 pair and I pick up a bigger two pair on
the turn. Up to 5200 chips and The miracle continues.

Another miracle
Now I’m short stacked with 1900 chips and go allin with A 5 suited hoping
to catch a flush or an ace. Unfortunately, my hand is the 4th best from the
four callers I get. I make a straight on the river and 8,000+ chips are shoved
my way! https://www.replaypoker.com/hand/replay/180237344
At this point I think we are down to the final 2 tables and 18 players left. Top 20
are in the money in this 100 player tourney.

Another cautious AK play then I shove when the K flops. Pick up some more chips.

Q7 suited picks me up some chips. Up to 11,000+

More timid play and I pick up 10,000 chips. From 70 at one point to 19,000+.
Woohoo. Hand #180238997 · Replay Poker

I’ll be honest, at the end I was so stunned to still be there that I was folding
AK and AQ while the big stacks battled. Not something I would usually do that deep.
But I was angling to finish as high as possible. Not the best strategy if you want
to win but then again it was working.

Final Table - 9 left and I’m in 9th
I’m short stacked with 4,000 chips. Blinds have been chewing me up as I wait for
a hand. I’m in 9th out of 9. I shove allin with pocket 10s and get 4 callers. Hit a
boat on the turn and I’m back in the chips - 22k!

6 Left and I’m in 6th
Short stacked I shove with J6 suited and pick up the blinds

4 Left and I’m in 4th - time for another miracle. TGFH raises with AQ and I shove
allin with A9. I catch a 9 on the flop and the miracle comeback keeps rolling!

From a low of 70 chips to Chip Leader with 4 players Left
I slow play a flopped str8 to become chip leader!

Scrapdog69 cripples Papawheelie to take the chip lead. TGFH has
left the building.

Final Two:
Heads Up with Scrapdog69. He has a good chip lead.

The Final Hand
I shove with A9d vs Scrapdog’s K7d. Two diamonds on the flop and I’m ahead.
Scrap catches a 7 on the turn and I’m hoping for a diamond on the river to
take the chip lead. Alas it wasn’t to be and Scrapdog takes the hand and the
tourney. Congrats.

Final tourney results.
https://www.replaypoker.com/tournaments/567250

So, in over 10 years of play that is my biggest comeback ever. Down to just 70 chips 3 or 4 hands in and managed
to come almost all the way back. Frustrating to get so close and not win after a miraculous comeback. However, I’m under no
illusions that that was anything but a miracle. But then again, if you keep grinding miracles can happen.

It reminds me a little of the high school football
comeback on youtube entitled the Greatest Comeback that Never Was. So close…

Anyway, what was your greatest comeback?

Keep on grinding!

zanvanyen

2 Likes

Dag man, that’s quite a wild ride! Thanks for sharing that. I’m amazed you remember the one from twelve years ago too. Thanks for the replay links – watching them alongside your descriptions was great.

Not sure it’s my biggest come back (I think it was my 1st free roll MTT win, I had 5BB at some point in the beginning and I won the tournament ^^) but I found this recent one where I finished 2nd:

It’s hand by hand and starts at 15BB (100 chips BB at this point) so still early, 25 minutes from the tourney start something like that.
I was reviewing it mainly to get the history before my last hand, maybe I’ll create a hand review topic on that one because it’s fairly interesting and I’d need to pick the community’s brain out :smile:

By the way it also provides a preview of a cool tool the Replay team could introduce at the end of a session, the summary of your stack in BB throughout the session.

Anyway as with any come back when you’re short stacked there was a fair amount of shoves so obviously an almost equal amount of luck. Funny thing is I thought I was out of the woods but then dropped to 7,5BB (400 chips BB) and had to climb back up again!

I believe, as you seem to do, that you have to grind when you’re short stacked because good things can happen. It’s a bit boring since you’re basically playing fold or shove and not poker but you can climb back up quickly and then have some fun.
At times it almost feels easier to do well in a MTT when you’re short stacked in the beginning in comparison to being the big stack bully early on.

1 Like

got to keep playing
I often lose a big pot after sitting on a large pile of chips…
never give up… sometimes i bounce back…sometimes not
BUT its the game we all enjoy
mel98

That is a very cool visualization. Where did you get the data? Did you review each hand?

I can’t give you the full details as above ZANVANYEN’s impressive information, all I can remember was i had 54 chips left and it was like going fishing, waiting and waiting 'til I felt the Force, like in Star Wars (lol gut feelings), it was pretty much all in all the way, well I came back for

2ND place , haha, how about that?

It was an exhilarating ride, oh yeah!!! :sunglasses:

I wish I had some script but yeah I reviewed each hand. It doesn’t take that much time once you’re used to it. Plus I wanted to study this MTT so one shot two stones.

thats what you said about your last girlfriend baa haa haa

norte Harley, i dont kiss and tell, i will report you to blueyes, lol

i didnt do it

thats not what she said lol

I was in a sit and go (another site) and was knocked down to 10 chips; I came back and took first place

Happened the other day, I lost down to 55 chips on first hand in Freeroll and came back to finish 6th

I won the bounty brawl after being reduced to 30 chips a couple of hands in.

1 Like

Someone won against me in one of the 3Max Turbos after going down to 1 chip :rage: