December 15 was a roller coaster of a day for Sebastian Saffari (pictured), known on PocketFives as Seba29072. He began by busting an EPT Main event, a big live tournament, and promptly late registered for the PokerStars Sunday $100 Rebuy. He almost missed the late registration cutoff, meeting the deadline by a matter of minutes, and miraculously went on to win it for $58,000, his second largest tracked MTT to date.

“I’m feeling really good about it, as it’s coming off the back of a $100,000 downswing,” Saffari explained to PocketFives. “I went two months with only one win.” After barely sneaking into the tournament to begin with, Saffari won two key pots in the middle stages to keep his title hopes alive. In one, he jammed with 4-4 and won a race against A-K, saying, “I remember not liking my play. I made the 3bet without thinking about it and actually wanted to abort the plan, but decided to follow through. Maybe 3bet-folding was fine also.” That pot was worth 100 big blinds.

In another key hand during the Sunday $100 Rebuy, Saffari 4bet-jammed with Q-J and was fortunate to draw out on Q-Q after a jack hit on the river for trips. “The final table was good,” he added. “It had an awesome lineup for a Sunday with basically no regs. I managed to get a double with J-J against A-9 offsuit. Four-handed, I had a guy massively spack it to me. I had A-Q on the button and he defended his big blind. He donk-bet an A-A-5 flop, I bet a 5 on the turn, and he bet big on a river 10 with K-5 offsuit. It was one of the strangest hands I’ve seen.”

Additionally, Saffari managed to cooler a player with Q-J > A-A after the money went in on the turn of a J-5-2-Q board. The river was a blank and Saffari kept motoring toward victory. Heads-up was fairly brief, as Saffari had a sizable chip advantage on his opponent and never relinquished.

With his newfound $58,000, he plans to do what anyone coming off a six-figure downswing would do: replenish his bankroll.

On the second day of December, Saffari received his $3 million cash badgeon PocketFives and is since up to $3.1 million in tracked scores. “The badges show that whatever happens, I can’t ever fault myself for work put in. To reach $3 million shows I’ve had to win a lot of small stuff and put in a lot of volume.” His largest tracked score to date was worth $67,000 and came in March 2013 by virtue of a win in the PokerStars Sunday Supersonic.

“I live in London, so there’s a lot to enjoy in the city,” Saffari told PocketFives when asked what he partakes in outside of poker. “I have a good group of mates down here and we have a football team. I’ve been away from football for a couple of years, but now that I’m back, I remember how good it is. I’m massively into football; watching, playing, and talking about it are big parts of English life.” Speaking of English life, see what’s brewing in PocketFives’ England poker community.

He joined PocketFives in late 2008 and has since ascended to the top spot in Newcastle Upon Tyne. What would he be doing if he weren’t playing poker? “I’d have my own business,” he guessed. “I hope to do that soon anyway. My brain has always been suited to it. If I could do it again and poker weren’t around, I would like to be involved with finance and trading.”

The Sunday $100 Rebuy runs weekly on PokerStars. If you don’t already have an account on PokerStars, create one through PocketFives’ links to get a 100% deposit bonus up to $600 and one free month of PocketFives Training when you make a deposit. Get started here.

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