On Friday, June 15, all eyes were on 2014 World Series of Poker Martin Jacobson. The 888poker Ambassador, who is also Sweden’s all-time money leader, was one of nine players to return for the final table of the 2018 WSOP Event #24: $2,620 The Marathon - a tournament that began with 1,637 players.
The tournament, which started players with 26,200 in chips and featured 100-minute levels, was a test of endurance for the finalists, who had already played four days of poker. Among those they outlasted were 888poker Ambassador, bracelet winner David Peters (108th - $5,166) and 2013 WSOP Main Event champ Ryan Riess (182nd - $4,198).
Jacobson’s Journey Through the Field
At the end of Day 1 of the Marathon, Jacobson bagged 63,200 in chips, which put him 223rd out of the 706 remaining players. On Day 2, the field was whittled down to 246 players, and Jacobson managed to work his stack up to 205,500, which put him in 86th place.
When players bagged and tagged on Day 3, just 60 remained with Jacobson sitting in 21st place with a stack of 811K. Finally, Day 4 played down to the final table of nine, and he sat second in chips with 7,345,000. The only player ahead of him was Mark Sleet with 7,725,000, while three players sat with under two million.
The final table lived up to its namesake plodding on for hours. It started off quick with Ihar Soika bowing out on just the sixth hand, and 19 hands afterwards, Cate Hall joined him on the rail in eighth place. One hand later, Jacobson took a hit when he flopped a spade flush draw but failed to get there against the top pair, top kicker of Ying Chan, who doubled through the Swede.
On Hand #72, Jacobson was left with less than 10 big blinds when he four-bet jammed holding the K♦Q♦, and Taylor Paur called off with the A♠K♣. The board ran out 10♥6♠5♣10♠7♠ and Jacobson was in dire straits. Fortunately for him, he tripled just two hands later to get back in the mix.
On Hand #109, Jacobson doubled holding the J♣J♥ against Anton Morgenstern, who held the 5♥5♣. Morgenstern would bust the very next hand, and he was followed out the door by Chan, the hand after that. They took home $86,631 and $115,244 respectively.
On Hand #114, Jacobson got his stack of 2.98 million all in preflop with the K♠K♥ and doubled when Paur called with the Q♠Q♦. At that point, Jacobson sat fourth in chips among the remaining five players but dropped to the short stack losing to a full house.
Then on Hand #127, which took place in Level 28 (50,000/100,000/10,000), Bart Lybaert raised to 250,000 from the cutoff and Jacobson three-bet to 1 million out of the big blind. Lybaert four-bet all-in and Jacobson snap-called off for around 5.5 million.
Lybaert: A♣A♥
Jacobson: J♠J♦
Jacobson only had a 19.36% chance of surviving the hand, which dropped to just 1.72% when the flop came down A♠K♦6♥ to give Lybaert a set of aces. The 10♦ turn was a great card for Jacobson as it gave him a gutshot Broadway draw to a queen, a card that would come 9.09% of the time on the river. Unfortunately, lady luck did not smile upon him as the useless 5♦ peeled off instead.
Jacobson finished the Marathon in fifth place for $155,062, which marked his fifth-biggest score at the WSOP slightly behind the $183,345 he took for placing fourth in the 2010 WSOP Event #30: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em.
The Marathon Tourney Was a True Marathon Run!
“I feel happy with my play overall, but there were some misplays, some good plays,” Jacobson said right after his bust. “The Marathon lived up to its name. It was brutally long, to be honest. It was fun. It was different because there was so much play in it compared to other events where the average stack is 25bb. Here the average stack was 70bb at least, even at the final table it was like 100bb.”
Jacobson continued: “Maybe they should speed it up early on, or maybe an escalator where the blinds increase faster the deeper you go. But overall it was a fun tournament. It was similar to my Main Event run. I don’t even know what day it is. I think it’s Day 5. It’s pretty likely to go to Day 6 as the final five are still so deep.”
Despite falling short of a second bracelet, Jacobson seemed optimistic. “It’s a good start,” he said pointing out there’s still plenty of tournaments to be had here at the 2018 WSOP."
