My point is that I think that hand is likely the exception rather than the rule. We don’t have context; I expect it was some kind of leveling war.
Maybe they really do play like that all the time way up in the nosebleeds, but I’m hopeful this is not the case 
Hell, I hope it is the case! Then my next goal can be 100 billion! =-P
I think you have to put a hand like that in context. It was a 1 million dollar Big blind and Gamer Girl probably had north of 20 billion chips in her bankroll (might have been closer to 35 billion.) So the 381 million chips in her stack only represented 0.1 to 0.2% of her bankroll. She committed to a bluff when she tried to punish the limpers in front of her in the BB and raised 17 x BB. So shoving there is telling a good story that she had a very strong hand and a 200+ million chip reraise should be tough to call. But two did and that’s poker. It is like Bill Gates losing a 1 million dollar bet to Elon Musk, it might be life changing money to you and me but it is pocket change to them.
@southwestmba also a great point
counterpoint: wth is 17bb raise lmao
further counterpoint: doing this with, say, 67s is one thing… no one is going to provide any reasoning that makes this particular play not a massive, massive punt
I make plays like this at a low frequency in TOURNAMENTS. I’d NEVER do it in a ring game. There is simply no reason to do so. It’s a very, very bad play.
GOALS UPDATE:
He’s a truly remarkable player and it’s going to take all I’ve got to catch him! But what are we here for, if not to challenge ourselves? 
-BR is hovering around 930M; playing about breakeven in tournaments due to ongoing runbad in the 5M events. Without those I’d be slowly climbing, but I am trying to remind myself that it just takes one win to wipe out all the losses… stay the course, keep the faith, insert motivational platitude [here]
-hardly played Ring at all the past couple weeks. I think I will refocus on the 1B chip goal once RPOS ends, and just put most of my energy into tournaments meanwhile. It can be a bit of a mind-twist alternating between those formats anyway, so maybe it’s for the best.
-speaking of RPOS, I was beginning to lose hope when I failed to win any of the first 8 events I played, but I finally broke through this weekend! TOC here we come!
-@_snowman is near the top of BOTH of the RPOS leaderboards, because he is some kind of shark on steroids. My 1 RPOS win came in a 105-person field, so I got boosted all the way up from #22 to #2 on the Highrollers leaderboard… was not my goal to top the LB but now that it’s remotely possible, I’m adding that to the list! Should be fun (and tense, aka even more fun) coming down the home stretch with 5 or 6 players very near the top of that list.
-in both of my deepest RPOS runs (1st and 4th), I ran a complete airball bluff to keep my stack in contention down the stretch. when blinds are so big that a multi-way single-raised pot is already bigger than your stack, there’s huge incentive to go for it when everyone else in the pot shows weakness. had either of those bluffs not gotten through I would have instantly busted out of the money. then again, had I not made those bluffs, I would likely have busted anyway as my stack was less than 10bb. in general I’ve had to tighten up to survive the volatility of these big, unpredictable fields—but I YAM WHAT I YAM, zebra can’t change stripes, insert authenticity platitude [here]. anyway, I’m glad I was able to have some success without totally abandoning the way I play (read: monkey tilt overbluffer)
what an exciting time to play here. I’m already looking forward to RPOS next year, it really has a different flavor and brings a level of drama that I’ve yet to experience on Replay <3
I’ll post this here to not muck up the other thread since I think it has an impact on how to get to 1 billion chips. @lihiue had mentioned earlier to use ROI to tell me which strategy was working better for me and I had only been doing that month to month to see if any changes had a positive effect. But after you @Younguru inquired about your yearly ROI, I became curious as to which games I performed best in, interesting results below.
I’m not sure if this reveals the softer games people should be playing or just the softer games I should be playing however, I do find it very interesting that I perform the worst in the 1 Million entry by quite a bit.
FWIW, I think 1M, 2.5M and 5M are the toughest fields on average. So for me that tracks.
Due to scheduling quirks, the 500k is often populated with a lot of players who busted the 1M early (speaking from personal experience 
) so those fields tend to be comparatively softer.
These results also align with my sense that Omaha and OHL/O8 are the easiest games to have a big edge in, as many opponents will simply have no theoretical background AT ALL versus NLHE where most players at least know which hands they should play preflop. I mean, people will go all in for 50bb with nothing but a non-nut DRAW. I think 30 minutes browsing any pro-approved guide to Omaha fundamentals will put a player automatically in the top 20% of the field in terms of strategic foundations.
Psyched for you that you played only one 5M and cashed big 
Oh! And maybe ROI is lower at 250k/100k because starting stacks are smaller? The field will generally be weaker so you’d expect ROI to be higher, but it’s harder to leverage a skill edge when stacks are shallower.
I think I agree with everything you said, except I don’t have the experience in 2.5/5m games to say much about them. The larger games 1, 2.5 and 5m are all structured to be much longer games usually around 3 hours to win and I don’t like to join a game I don’t intend to try to win. I usually play the PKO Solar Eclipse and then the Full Moon versions of the 1m due to the time and my schedule. The PKO version is a much more rowdy game then the other 1m MTT’s and I think I try to hard in the Full Moon game bluffing way more than usual, possibly because of the start time and field size.
Full Moon probably one of the toughest ones on average due to who usually shows up.
Would it be accurate then to say that you try so hard, and get so far, but in the end, it doesn’t even matter?
lol it would but I don’t usually get to far
Yes! and it makes me feel better when I combine the big ones, crazy how much one mtt can change the numbers.
you only get one shot! do not miss your chance to blow! this opportunity comes once in a lifetime!
EDIT: …until the next 5M tournament, 24 hours later
Won the 2.5M Praying Mantis tonight. Up to 982M, new peak.
Light… tunnel… etc…
Poker gods teaching patience tonight. Played 4 hours at 20/40k, down 4 buy-ins and quit as my mindset was beginning to feel the strain.
I was only all-in and at risk twice, once with QQ on J-high flop and once with TT on T-high flop. River A killed me both times (AJ, then AA).
It had to happen sometime! I’m glad it was at 20/40k and not 250/500k
Back down to 965M. Stay the course…
I’m sure you’ll win a few more during the TOC to get even closer to 1 billion!
Joe, you’re hilarious. Thanks, mate.
2nd place in 5M Widow’s Bite. Back up to 970M wheeeee
Going to limit variance for a while and limit Ring to 20/40k with a stop-loss at 2 buy-ins. I just wanna see 10 digits next to my name mannnnnn
2nd place in 1M Full Moon, could not overcome the mighty @AlmostLive headsup
974M and counting…
I played the Full Moon, was at your table. I took a shot at it to practice for TOC. I cashed in 4th place for a 2.5 mil cash after getting bad beat out in 4th. That stake level is as hard as you say. Had to play best, A game, etc.
Well done! Yes, it’s a tough field. @AlmostLive, @tribeguy120, other top MTT players regularly participate.
