An Instant Classic: Imper1um Leads the Way to Barcelona

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The Ongame Poker Classic began on Saturday with 270+ players putting $5,000 at risk in the biggest buy-in online tournament to date. The field would have been much larger if not for the legal developments in the United States which prompted Ongame to pull out of the U.S. market. Even with the smaller field, the prizepool was an inviting $1.3M, and the $280k first prize is nothing to sniff at.

After almost 8 hours of play, the tournament was frozen, and the remaining 45 players will finish the tournament in Barcelona. A number of Pocketfivers will be making the trip to Spain, and the chip leader is none other than Imper1um, who absolutely ran over the field on the bubble.

Other notable players who are guaranteed a payday as members of the final 45 are Brett-ho(13th), Broodog(14th), and MarvinGarden, who finished in the middle of the pack in 26th place. Ongame put up all the money for the trip to Spain and the deluxe accommodations in Barcelona, as well as adding $100,000 cash to the prizepool. Not a bad deal for those who were able to play.

The money bubble in this tournament played almost like a satellite, with everyone hoping to sneak into the money and get a free trip to Spain. However, Imper1um was hardly content to sit on his hands and wait for players to bust out. He got his hands on some chips in the middle stages of the tourney and turned the heat up on his opponents from there on out.

Lenny: What was the field like in this 5k event?

Imper1um: The field was very weak in the main event, just as it was in the qualifiers. A lot of people were limping in out of position and then calling huge raises, just praying to hit a flop.

Lenny: How did it compare to other big buy-in tourneys online?

Imper1um: One great thing about this tournament was that we started with 5000 in chips and 5/10 blinds which went up in small increments every 30 minutes. That gave me the opportunity to see a lot of cheap flops and try to crack big preflop hands with suited connectors and small pocket pairs.

Lenny: How did that strategy work out for you?

Imper1um: In the early stages of the tournament I was seeing almost every cheap flop that I could and every time that I had the best hand I felt I extracted the maximum value from it.

Lenny: Were you showing down many hands?

Imper1um: Well my very first double up I had Aces on a board of A77 and was lucky enough that my opponent had AK. I do think I played it in a way that would be hard for him to get away from it.

The second big showdown I had was when I turned an ace-high straight on a board of Q K 10 9 with 3 spades. I elected to check call him all the way down, which is something I rarely do, and he ended up showing 64 of clubs. That hand put me comfortably at 15,000 chips. Then it became no-showdown poker. I managed to climb to 40k in chips without showing many hands at all.

Lenny: Were you just running over the table?

Imper1um: During the middle stages of the tournament I wasn’t too crazy. I switched my game around a lot and picked spots where I could exploit weak players.

Lenny: Were you already the chip leader at this point?

Imper1um: When there were around 50 left I was lucky enough to be on a table with the chip leader on my right. I took a few pots away from him and turned the tables on him. Once I had the chip lead it was pretty much carnage from there. I was opening 9/10 pots preflop and every time the former chip leader raised in position I reraised him.

Lenny: Did he ever play back at you?

Imper1um: He was the only one at the table who would play back at me and the only one who could put a dent in my stack. He finally decided to take his stand and called all-in with Ace-deuce of all things. I had KQ suited but blanked out and doubled him up. This was with 46 players left!

Lenny: Do you plan to keep the pressure on live, or was that mostly big stack bubble play?

Imper1um: I think it depends. I want to maintain the pressure, but I have to realize that almost a third of the field is short stacked. It will depend on my table and I will choose my spots carefully.

I’ve never played like I did today, at least not to that extreme. Never before have I pushed all in with junk when people ahead of me had over 20 bb’s, but in this case I think it was the best thing I could do. The difference between finishing 46th and out of the money and 45th with a trip to Spain and a chance to win over 250k was huge. No one wanted to gamble even if they knew they were likely an 80% favorite.

It has only been 5 weeks since Imper1um outlasted 502 players to finish 10th in the Aruba Ultimate Poker Classic and now he is off to Spain in a few weeks as the chip leader of an event with a top prize over a quarter of a million dollars. In his young life Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi has already served two years in the Canadian Army reserves, been a part owner of a swank poker club in Toronto, and moved into the highest echelon of online poker players. He is studying for a real estate license in his spare time, but poker is his primary focus right now.

Imper1um’s dominance continues- as I was posting this he finished 2nd in the Stars Sunday Second Chance for 30k. Yawn…