Event #5 is o-fish-al

Ingram - Event #5 got started a little bit late. There were two no-shows, so we started the tournament with 17 players. But the late start didn't dampen the fireworks early as there were plenty of big pots and big busts. Quad kings were flopped at the red table (Anita) and quad aces were flopped at the black table (Kevin An.).

Eric Wel. was felted first followed by Jason T., both from the red table. After moving Mike T. over, the black table saw a run of busts that ended the evenings for Jim S., Angie S. and Jim O. Nick G. was the only player able to massage a rebuy at least a little while, but he came up short in 12th place, his only non-final table finish of the season. Jeff R. got a PokerStars like bad beat when his pocket queens lost to pocket jacks with a river jack and he ended up 11th. The final table bubble burst when Anita dropped in 10th place.

Keith K. started the final table with the chip lead and quickly added to it with a win in a three-way all in, eliminating Lolly O. and Jim H. on the same hand. The table played 7-handed through the rest of the blind level, but the schedule had reached the oppressive blinds and antes and the players expanded their starting ranges. Kevin An. pushed all in against me, and ended up on the short end, earning a respectable 6th place finish. The money bubble burst when Keith K. lost to the always dangerous Mike T., taking 5th place.

Pat M. managed to take a short stack into the money, at times pushing and taking down the blinds and antes, and at others rolling over the best hand. His tournament ended in 4th place when his pocket sevens didn't hold up against my flopped pair of 9's. The extra chips gave me the ammunition necessary to tangle with Mike T. After I flopped a pair of Queens and pushed all in, Mike went in to the tank before finally calling and turning over a pair of 10's. The pot crippled Mike but put me up near a million chips. Mike pulled another pot to stay alive, but was ultimately felted in the 12th blind level by me. It was Mike's 4th consecutive cash.

Heads up play started with me having roughly a 5:3 chip edge over Bill B. Buffalo Bill built his stack on two lucky all-in suckouts (the river Jack that busted Jeff and spiking an 8 while holding A8 to beat AK) and had tightened up considerably at the final table, either by design or because of bad hole cards. Both of us were deep in chips, both of us were coming off long runs of poor finishes, and it looked as though heads-up might be a long ordeal, as neither of us was ready to commit too many chips.

The third hand of heads up turned out to be the last. Bill raised preflop to 100,000 and I called with a suited king. After spiking a king on the flop, I checked to Bill and he checked right behind. Another spade on the turn had Bill believing that his queen-high flush draw might be the best hand and he applied maximum pressure by pushing his stack in the middle. I called and when the cards were turned up, only a spade would save Bill's tournament. The river came clean with a harmless club and I took down my first tournament of the season and my first cash in over a year.

Coincidentally, I was tracking my performance with the following results by blind level (maybe someone will find it interesting):

1. Played 13 hands, won 2 pots, ending chip stack of 90,500
2. Played 9 hands, won 2 pots, ending chip stack of 184,500
3. Played 13 hands, won 3 pots, ending chip stack of 175,500
4. Played 9 hands, won 0 pots, ending chip stack of 90,500
5. Played 9 hands, won 2 pots, ending chip stack of 142,500
6. Played 9 hands, won 3 pots, ending chip stack of 286,000
7. Played 11 hands, won 1 pot, ending chip stack of 257,000
8. Played 11 hands, won 2.5 pots (one pot was chopped), ending chip stack of 325,000 [final table formed after this blind level]
9. Played 12 hands, won 0 pots, ending chip stack of 159,000 [started 9-handed, ended 7-handed]
10. Played 16 hands, won 2 pots, ending chip stack of 90,500 [ended 5-handed]
11. Played 13 hands, won 4 pots, ending chip stack of 968,000 [ended 3-handed
12. Played 6 hands, won 3 pots, ending chip stack of about 2m.

Total hands played: 131 Total pots won: 24.5 (18.7%)

Complete tournament results can be found under the "Standings" tab.

Incidentally, the only other full tournament I won was in April of 2008, the first event of the 2008 Wedgerock Poker Tourney Season. I was wearing the same shirt that night... I think I have a new lucky shirt (though I did wear it to Events 2 and 3 of the 2008 WPT and it didn't prove lucky).

Thanks to the players who came out for Event #5.

~Eric Wej.