>> EASTERNPOKERTOUR.COM

How Mark Colling Won the 2017 $36K

05-03-2017 12:43:39 AM

When Mark sat down at the Featured Table with blinds at 4k/8k and 1k ante, he had a healthy stack of 265k, second on the table. He wasn't under any pressure to play many hands and voluntarily put chips into just 12 pots before reaching the final table (final 8) and 23 more pots before heads up action. When he was in a hand, he always made sure to isolate and rarely went to showdown.

Below is a break-down of those 35 hands:

My YouTube compilation of his hands prior to the final table:

YouTube - Part 1
1. Limped Q♥T♠ and folded to a T♦T♣ shove pre-flop
2. Opened K♥9♦ and won pre-flop
3. Opened Q♥J♥ but folded to 9♠9♥ 3-bet and A♦9♦ all-in pre-flop
4. Called pre-flop raise with K♣7♣. Bet on flop and folded to 9♣9♦ all-in.
5. Three-way all in pre-flop K♦K♣ to AA and QQ. Hit a lucky set on river and a 786k pot.
6. Opened K♣T♦ and won pre-flop.
7. All in pre-flop K♦K♥ > J♣J♥
8. Limped J♣5♦ and won on flop.
9. Opened 2♦2♣ and won pre-flop.
10. Opened A♥2♥ and won pre-flop.
11. All in pre-flop 4♦4♣ > K♥Q♣
12. Opened 7♥7♠ and won pre-flop.

YouTube - Part 2
Final Table
13. Opened A♦K♦ and won pre-flop.
14. Opened K♠T♠ and won pre-flop.
15. Opened J♣T♦ and won on flop > A♣2♣.
16. All in pre-flop A♠K♣ > A♥J♠.
17. Opened A♦9♥ and folded to Q♦Q♣ 3-bet.
18. Called all in pre-flop K♦Q♥ > A♥Q♣.
19. Called pre-flop raise A♠K♣ and won on flop > Q♣T♦.
20. Limped A♠A♣ and won on flop against 2 players.
21. Limped J♣5♦ and won on flop > 8♠4♦.
22. Opened Q♠Q♦ and won pre-flop.
23. Called pre-flop raise J♥T♣ and folded to A♥A♣ pre-flop all-in.
24. Opened K♠9♣ and won pre-flop.
25. Limped 6♣3♣ and won on flop > 7♦6♥.
26. Opened A♠6♠ and won pre-flop.
27. Called pre-flop raise Q♣J♣ and bluffed on flop > 8♣3♣.
28. Limped K♥6♥ and won with 3-bet on turn > J♠5♦.
29. Opened A♠K♥ and folded after missing the flop to 9♦7♣ bluff.
30. All in pre-flop 6♠6♥ and won pre-flop.
31. Opened 4♠4♣ and won pre-flop.
32. Folded button pre-flop A♦2♠ to 9♣2♥
33. Called pre-flop raise Q♥T♦ and bluff all-in on flop to win > Q♠T♠.
34. Opened J♥3♥ and won pre-flop.
35. Called pre-flop all in K♥6♥ > A♥T♠.

Several observations can be made about Mark's play:
1) The winning % was amazing. He won EVERY fucken coin flip, including ones where he shouldn't have.
2) Pure aggression pre-flop and on the flop. Rarely did he win on the turn. If he won a showdown, it was because of a pre-flop shove. Pure aggression and lack of skilled plays. Even limping in with AA with the intention of maybe trapping didn't prevent him from stabbing at the flop.
3) He played his hands pretty much face-up and never once slow played or checked top pair. He also got dealt an extraordinarily high # of pocket pairs.
4) His opponents also pretty much played their hands face-up and made their bet sizes extremely predictable.
5) His opponents gave him way too much credit and let him walk all over them by stealing so many blinds pre-flop.
6) He stayed cool, calm, and collected throughout the tournament. Given his winning %, never once was he on tilt.

The heads up play wasn't much to comment on. He was a terrible heads up player and winning the two terrible shoves with 97 and T6 off suit ultimately made it impossible for his opponent to catch up.

So sadly I would have to say that Mark won the $36K Open via 1) tight but aggressive/scared? play and 2) PURE LUCK by winning every coin flip. His pre-flop aggression reminds me of playing with Paul Giroux from Framingham.