During the final day, there was a player that did pique our interest. He was proudly wearing a hoodie that had an online poker logo on and wore a glass and covered his face fully which totally hid his identity. 

Was he an online player? The reason we suspected as such as there were two hands that really baffled us.

The first incident

The blinds at this level were at 2,500/5,000 ante of 5,000.

To make it easier for reference sake we shall call our subject “Mister”

As everyone folded to the small blind. The small blind flatly called while the big blind(Mister) suddenly Jam.

The small blind snap-called revealing pocket queen, while the big blind reveals an A8 off.

As luck would have it. the ace came out on the turn which knock out the small blind holding pocket queens

What shocked us was that both had more than 150,000 chips.

Mister doubled up with such a move.

The second incident.

The blinds at this level were at 6,000/12,000 ante of 12,000.

button raise with 26k

Mister was on the big blind decided to raise it to 96k.

The action went back to the button and the button raise to all-in with 260k.

Mister took his time and calls.

Button reveals he had pockets kings while mister reveals he had only KQ off.

This time mister run out of luck and pockets kind held.

From the outside looking in.

As we never got to know who the player was, or even if we knew we would have not revealed him. We did want to get his side of the story.

Our resident poker player/writer felt that the player was either an online player or a new player.

Was he?

Why did our writer believe he was an online player. the blind levels were adjusted before the start of day 2. The blinds went up after 30 minutes instead of 20 minutes.

The first incident was really confusing as to shove with an A8 offsuit.

He was not short stack. he did not have a big hand. a sufficient raise to protect his blind would have been enough. but to risk it all for the pot. (5k(small blind) + 5k (big blind + 5k Ante) against his stack of 150k. was a considerable risk.

but based on the action of the second incident. even if in the first incident. Even if he had raised instead of going all-in he would have probably met with a shove and Mister might have called an all-in

As we will have a hard time funding his side of the story. It does really made us think.

How things have changed

As our resident poker contributor is an old-school player. During the event, we have noticed the ranges of the players during the tournament were different. 

We have seen players shoved all-in with k9 offsuit. A huge difference from the time our players were playing. 

As online tournaments are faster than live. It is understandable that players must increase their shove range online or else be at risk of being short stack and callable,

Is this really the state of poker players now?

The results speak for themselves.

The final table was filled with old players. Although Elmo Celli (the champion) and Jason Ambata have both started in Pokerstars. The rest of the players have more than 5 years of experience and would never play such a way unless they are shortstack. 

There were a lot of online players on the felt during that day. Even the best online player of the Philippines which we have covered have never played like that. 

Although new online players do not like long structures. The best still love the long hours because it gives them more chances to more favorable spots. 

As we would never hear the other side of the story or find out who the player is. We hope to one day hear his side of the story.

but for now to us. From the way he played, the risk was not worth taking.