Poker Articles

By Lenny

Early this month we gave the Pocketfives community the heads up on Mansion Poker’s generous $250k money added promotion. As usual, when Pocketfivers show up to play, they come home with the goods. We haven’t been tracking anything officially; I’ve just watched out for threads on the boards and spoken with a few who have been playing these. Among those who have made final tables this month are P5ers snaggyb, weirdrash, steely, and Arevirr. Snaggyb won the second $5k added tourney offered on December 5th, and steely and Arevirr actually battled it out at the same final table of a Sunday 20k added.

The 250k added promotion, which started on December 4th and runs through New Year’s Day, featured daily tournaments with 100 buy-ins added directly to each one. This means that every week night, they added $5,000 to the $50 buy-in, and on weekends, they added $10k and $20k to the $100 and $200 tournaments respectively. This Sunday is the last of the $20k added tournaments, and the capstone to the whole promotion is on New Year’s Day with a $300 buy-in and $30k added directly to the prizepool. None of the tournaments in this promotion had any satellites, so the fields have been relatively small for events offering such value.  

The first P5er to report a cash in one of these tournaments was snaggyb. He had to say about the win:

“On a whim I decided to take a break from a strict diet of Omaha cash games and threw a couple hundred onto Mansion to change things up.  I got donked out of Monday's tourney early but I redeemed myself by taking down last night's $5,000 added for $4,300!

I never would have played if it wasn't for Pocketfives letting me know, thanks.”

A regular at Pokerstars and Full Tilt, snaggyb took a chance on Mansion and it paid off big time. He plays about 3-4 times a week, putting in a few hours each session and treats poker as a serious hobby, which he happens to enjoy a great deal (especially when he is winning).

Lenny: How long have you been playing poker, how did you start out?

snaggyb: My family played a lot of poker growing up, although I wasn't allowed to play until I was 18. I played a lot of hearts in college for average stakes and played poker for the first time live at Mohegan Sun Casino around 1995.  

I got hooked on 7 card stud and I used to play online at Paradise in the early days of online poker. I first played hold'em online and I gradually built my way up to playing $100 - $200 sitngos. I really got hooked on multi tables when they were finally introduced.

Lenny: Is this your biggest cash? If not, what is?

snaggyb: For a MTT, pretty much. I’ve had similar scores before, but it was a nice accomplishment to finish first.

Lenny: What do you plan to do with your winnings, add it to your roll or treat yourself and your family?

snaggyb: I spent about half on home appliances and the rest goes into my bankroll.

Lenny: How long have you been coming to Pocketfives and what has it meant for you, other than finding out about slick promos like this one?

snaggyb: I had been checking out the promos and poker articles at Pocketfives since near the beginning off and on. I finally signed up to be eligible to post this year after I found that collaborating with others in the poker community could really help my game.  I joined PokerXFactor this summer and really plugged up some leaks in my tournament play by watching the videos and posting on their board.

I usually play live at Foxwoods in addition to mostly cash games online. This year has been a really successful year for my game. Instead of making quick hits and cashing out, I have stuck to a serious bankroll management system and I feel like things have been steadily moving to the next level.

With 3 daughters, a wife and a successful career as a financial consultant, you probably won’t see snaggyb “going pro” any time soon, but if the midlife crisis does hit, he could do worse than playing cards for a living. He’s definitely got the chops.

The other P5ers to cash in these events were weirdrash, who also won a $5k added tourney, steely and Arevirr. Steely actually came in 2nd in a $5k, as well as his Sunday final table. He and Arevirr were both made the same FT and were looking to end up heads up for the win, until Arevirr’s QQ ran into steely’s AA and Arevirr ended up 5th. Unfortunately steely couldn’t put his chips to good use, but 3rd place still earned him a healthy 3k. Steely had this to say about his 2nd and 3rd place finishes, "I've been the anti-closer lately."

If you want to get in on the action, there are still two big money added tournaments left- the last Sunday $200/20k added and the $300 grand finale on New Year’s Day with $30,000 added. We also just learned that Mansion has upped the ante again by introducing a $100k guaranteed tournament they will be running daily. On a site of Mansion’s size with the only satellites available being a $10 rebuy and $20 freezeout, this $100 buy-in 100k tourney will be offering huge overlays on a daily basis. Mansion is determined to move up the poker food chain, and with promotions like these, I expect they will.