Huntington Dr. - Fueled by 1800 Silver Tequila and home field advantage, Bill B. managed to defeat Mike T. in a head's-up battle for points after agreeing to chop 1st and 2nd place prize money early Sunday morning in the Fish 'N' Chips Poker Tour's Season 5 Unlimited Rebuy event!
Huntington Dr. became the 5th venue to host a FNCPT event. All 20 regulars reserved a seat for the rebuy extravaganza. The opening deals went out just after 7 P.M.
Chris Ba. was the evening's first official elimination after exercising a lone rebuy. Chris' pocket queens got busted by Jim O's two-pair: 8's and 9's. Marc followed (out in 19th place) after a rebuy and getting it all-in with Q-6 to Chris S's A-J. Ace high proved to be the winner.
Kevin A. checked out in 18th place after purchasing not one, not two but three rebuys. Mike M. was next, spending what remained of his rebuy on pocket jacks that were crushed by Jason Ta's pocket kings.
John M. suffered some terrible beats enroute to a rebuy -- only to have it happen again. John declined a second rebuy and exited the tournament in 16th place. Chris S. followed John to the rail in 15th place.
Angie was eliminated in 13th place when she pushed with pocket 3's and got looked up by Eric's A-10 which connected with the Q-T-Q flop. This was after Angie purchased a single rebuy.
Before the tournament began, Bill and Angie made a bet that involved shots of tequila from a pint of 1800 Silver. Originally, the loser of a hand was supposed to do a shot. But that wasn't happening that often so they both started doing shots as the blinds changed. Before everyone knew it, the pint was gone.
With only 10 players remaining (2 tables of 5 players), the final table bubble loomed. The short-stacks remaining were all looking for a little more breathing room at a full table. Then fireworks erupted at the brown table. A three-way all-in between Anita, Lolly and Fran had Fran's Ah-8h rivering a winning flush over Anita's pocket 8's and Lolly's pocket 10's. The final table then formed with the remaining 8 players (and because Anita had Lolly out-chipped, she got credit for a final table, despite not sitting for one hand).
Eric was the final table's first elimination when he pushed his short-stack with pocket 3's. To no one's surprise, he got called by Bill who tabled Q-10 and once again hit the flop and scooped the pot.
Jim H. was eliminated in 7th place after he got it in good with pocket 4's to Fran's pocket 3's. Unfortunately for Jim, Fran managed to river a 3 for a winning set. The elimination notes indicated that after this occurred, Jim was sad :(.
Short-stacked and card dead, Jason Tr. made a stand for his last 100k going all-in blind. Bill called and showed pocket 4's. Jason turned over 7-2 in disgust. No 7 came and Jason was out in 6th place. All-in, blind, for 100k? On his way to the rail, Jason was overheard muttering, "I think I want my money back."
With only 5 players remaining, the money bubble was about to burst. Jason Ta. was manning the short-stack and sought a double-up when he pushed with A-Q. Bill called with 8h-9h and ended up making a winning flush which dispatched Jason in 5th.
With only 305k in front of him, Nick looked down at A-9 and bet all of his chips. Mike T. called in the SB and Fran came over the top all-in in the BB. Mike tanked for a minute before mucking his cards as Fran had his remaining 600k easily covered. Fran revealed pocket 8's. Nick's A-9 was shown and missed the board giving Fran the huge pot and Nick 4th place prize money. This was Nick's second straight 4th place finish this season.
3-handed play between Bill, Mike and Fran continued through the 25k/50k/7k level with Fran holding fewer chips than his opponents. He was looking for a double-up when he called Bill's all-in bet in the BB holding A-9. Bill showed pocket 4's and the race was on! Unfortunately the Q-7-3-2-J board missed Fran and he settled for 3rd place prize money.
Head's-up play between Bill and Mike began with Bill having a slight lead in chips. Both players agreed to chop 1st and 2nd place money and play it out for the points. Surprisingly, they actually did play it out as they exchanged pots back and forth well into the 40k/80k level.
On the final hand of the tournament, Bill moved-in with Ad-6d and Mike called with Qc-Kc. The 2c-8s-Js flop kept Bill in the lead with his ace. The Jd turn put a pair on the board and Bill in front. Mike needed a queen or king to have a chance at another pot. But it was not to be as the 9s fell giving Bill his 3rd win of this season and Chris S. the $160 River Jackpot.
A total of 13 rebuys were purchased in the tournament. This was down from 14 in last season's event which coincidentally Bill won despite purchasing 3 rebuys and earning fewer points than the 2nd place finisher.
Bill has all but put a lock on the Player of the Year honor this season and he is expected to shatter the single-season points record of 69.07 set by Jason Tr. in Season 3. He has cashed in 5 of the 6 events so far and racked up a whopping $1,410 in earnings over that time. This is at the halfway point of the season. There are still 5 regular season events remaining. If Bill is to beat the single-season points record, he would need to tally a total of 14.52 points over the 5 remaining regular season events. That is an average of 2.90 points per event.
Bill is also now just the 2nd player in the history of the FNCPT to eclipse $4,000 in career earnings. Not bad for a guy who didn't have a single cash in 19 straight regular season FNCPT events. Look it up.
Thanks to everyone who came out for S5E6 and congrats again to Bill on another win!
~ Jason Tr.
