Interesting hands of the ANC – 3/5

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When monsters meet

While we have already seen total team chip scores ranging by over 30000 chips in a single hand, here is an example of a range of just 400.  Since players are completely isolated from their team mates and play at other tables, it is impossible to know by how much their own decisions will affect the team overall. The moral is that “every chip counts” and this hand scores just as heavily as any other.  Not a single team managed to escape the confrontation of their QQ against KK, but the real story is in the detail. Australia, India and Mongolia lost out in the hand by simply getting involved in the seat 2 position. CPG, Israel and Japan were joint winners as they eked out marginally bigger wins with their kings. Play in seats 1,4,5 and 6 was almost identical across the board.

Hand_No62

Unexpected fireworks

Suited connectors and pocket pairs are pretty, but it is still surprising that this hand played out anything other than just the classic QQ v AK in seats 4 and 5. Could it be that teams were trying to finish Day One with a flourish? Was there some exploration going on strategy-wise, with an opportunity shortly forthcoming to review play overnight? Were some teams reacting to the in-running scoreboard and panicking? Is it simply human nature to want to push chips into the middle of the table, knowing that in Match Poker you get them back again in the next hand regardless? Three of the top scoring four teams in this hand didn’t get too carried away with their AK in seat 5. The losing teams once again got embroiled in big pots in multiple positions.

Hand_No99