Huntington Drive - The second event in
season six was the popular Unlimited Rebuy, No Limit Hold 'em tournament. When the dust
settled on the event, Jason Ta. scored a victory over Mike T. It was Mike’s
second cash of the season and Jason’s first.
Despite this being touted as one
of the most popular events, six regulars opted out and five substitutes were added
to the field. Even though this was an
unlimited rebuy, there was just 7 rebuys on the night, one by the eventual
winner Jason Ta. Perhaps it was because the new and improved blind structure
isn’t suited for this event, or a couple of notorious rebuyer's (John M. and
Kevin A.) were absent for this event. Maybe players were saving their money for
the cash game.
Cards were set to fly at 7 pm, but Nick and Anita were their usual 15 minutes late, and once they took their seats, the first hand was dealt.
The first elimination of the night occurred when substitute player Brian E. (19th) called Jason Tr's raise all-in. Shockingly Brian only had bottom pair to Jason’s flopped top pair. Brian elected not to rebuy. Keith K. (18th) was eliminated next when he re-raised Lolly all-in for 67K. Unfortunately for Keith, his A-9 was outkicked by Lolly’s A-K.
Season 5 POY, this event's gracious host and all around good
guy Bill B (17th) was the next victim when his A-J couldn’t catch
Jason Ta’s pocket 9’s which eventually turned a set. Bill retired to the cash
game. Despite the early double-up, Jason
Tr. (16th) was forced into a rebuy. On the second hand after rebuying, he
limped into the pot with 7-5 with the 10-7-5 flop it looked good for him to
rake a pot. Unfortunately for Jason, sub player Kevin L. slow played pocket
10’s into a flopped set and Jason was drawing to running 7’s or 5’s. The blank on the
turn ended his night as Jason declined another rebuy.
Substitute player Vincent
J. (15th) was the next player to be eliminated. Marc H. (14th) was all-in preflop
with Kd-Jd but ran into the buzzsaw known as Mike T. with A-A. Eric W. (13th)
was the next to meet the buzzsaw when he shoved all his chips in on his
flopped nut flush draw. But the turn and river were no help and Mike T. scooped
another big pot with two-pair.
Mike M. (12th) had perhaps the worst
knockout of the night. With blinds at 5k/10k/1k, Lolly raised to 35k and Mike
called. The flop was 7-6-4, Mikes goes all-in and Lolly calls. Mike tables 8-8 and Lolly has K-K and the lead. Mike calls for
a 5 on the turn and gets it for a winning straight! But there are 3 diamonds on
the board and Lolly has the King of diamonds. She then calls for the diamond on the
river and gets it for the winning flush and the knockout!
In the 7.5k/15k/2k level, Sean (11th) made a
move on the blinds with a raise of 45k, but he got a call from Anita. Sean made
a second move when he shoved his last 51k on a Q-3-4 flop. Anita called again.
Sean tabled just J-9, Anita had A-8. That’s a call of an all-in with just ace
high folks, that's champ material. The ace on the turn sealed Sean’s fate. Minutes later, Jason Ta. was feeling the
pressure of the blinds and another dwindling stack after already rebuying once.
He raised all-in for 143k, Jim O. (10th) looked down at his cards, paused,
looked at them again, pondered it, paused, looked at them again and called.
Nick in the small blind looked at his cards and tanked….you know how this goes.
Nick agonized over the decision, and the tabled agonized over Nick's agonizing.
He finally folded. Jason tuned over 5-5 and Jim O. had 7-7. The flop came A-8-3. No help for Jason. Nick had a cow
as he said he folded A-J. The 4 on the turn added some outs for Jason. The
two-outer 5 hit the river giving Jason a
set and the KO of Jim O. With the elimination of Jim, the final table was
formed.It was a short stay at the final table for sub Brent B. (9th). In the 10k/20k/3k level, Nick raised to 45k and Brent pushed all-in for 123k. Nick called with K-10, Brent had A-J and the lead. Brent leads until the turn when Nick spikes a king. A blank fell on the river and Brent was eliminated. Another sub, Aaron M. (8th) was the next to go when he misplayed his hand right to the cash game. He limped into the pot and then shoved all-in on a 9-Q-7 flop. Jason Ta. in the big blind snap called with 9-7 (two-pair) to Aaron's pocket 10’s. The turn and river were blanks for Aaron and Jason took down the pot.
Anita (7th) was card dead for most of the final table and with blinds at 15k/30k/5k, she pushed her last 110k into the pot preflop with 3-5 and got a caller in Kevin L. with 7-7. The 4-2-10 flop gave Anita the OESD, but the "Silent Assassin" faded the 8 outs on the turn and river. Nick (6th) followed Anita when he ran into karma ... or, um some bad luck. Still at the 15k/30k/5k level Lolly raised to 90k, Nick re-raised all-in for 230k and Lolly called. Nick had A-A, Lolly A-Q. It looked good for Nick until the flop came Q-K-10 giving Lolly some hope. The 7H on the turn looks like a blank. But the jack of hearts on the river seemingly screwed Nick into a chop pot, but the running hearts gave the board 4 hearts and Lolly’s ace of hearts gave her the flush and the win! After the hand, condolences were given to Anita on what would probably be a long car ride home for her. Angie S. (5th) was also quiet for most of the final table. In the 20k/40k/6k level Mike raised to 130k. Angie in the big blind pushed for 150k. It was an easy call of 20k for Mike. Angie turned over K-J to Mike’s K-9 and Angie looked to double up. But the K-7-9 flop crushes her hopes. The turn 5 was no help and the river 9 turned the knife.
Onto the money went the final four, Mike, Jason, Lolly and
Kevin. Mike had a slight chip lead over Jason while Lolly and Kevin maintained
the short stacks. With the chip lead, Mike began to get aggressive preflop.
Sensing he might be raising light and getting agitated at Mike's constant preflop
raising, Jason makes a call of Mike’s
raise from the BB. On a flop of J-9-rag (2 diamonds), Jason open shoved all-in.
Mike tanked for a few moments. He eventually called with Q-9. Jason shows Kd-3d. Mike is
ahead for now. But a king hits the turn giving Jason the lead and a sigh from
Mike. The river diamond adds the flush to Jason's hand and cripples Mike’s chip
stack. Mike is not done however as he does double back up through Kevin and Jason
on subsequent hands.
Lolly (4th) had no such
luck on her all-in. In the 40k/80/10k level, Lolly is all-in preflop and gets a call
from Mike. Lolly’s 10-3 holds the lead against Mike’s 8-5. The 2-J-J-2 board
keeps her in the lead until the river 8 gives Mike the winning two pair. Lolly
collects $80 for her 4th place finish. Three handed play went on between Kevin, Mike and Jason for a while, with Kevin taking the chip lead away from Jason. With Kevin in the SB, he pushed all-in on Jason’s BB. Jason looked down at K-Q, eventually calls then sees Kevin flip over A-Q. But a king spikes on the flop and it holds for Jason. Kevin (3rd) now crippled from that hand is all-in soon after that against Mike. Mike held K-J to Kevin’s 4-2 and flopped a king to take the commanding lead that held through the turn and river. It was a nice showing for the "Silent Assassin" who collected $110 for his third place finish.
In a rematch from Season 2 Event 4, it was chip leader Jason versus Season 1 POY Mike. Players shook hands and the cards were dealt. A brief money chop was discussed, but with Jason holding around a million chip lead, Jason declined. A few hands were played, Mike chipped up via preflop aggression while Jason simply tried to wait out the storm and catch a hand.
Blinds got to 100k/200k/30k when Mike (2nd) with his usual preflop aggression, raised to 400k. Jason looked down at pocket fours and announced "all-in". Mike paused for a second and called showing K-6. Would Mike enact revenge on Jason for earlier crippling to his stack with a K-rag hand? The flop came A-J-10, giving Mike 4 more outs. The turn was an 8, keeping Jason's fours ahead. The river jack sealed the victory for Jason. Mike received $175 for 2nd place. Jason received $345 for finishing first.
This is Jason's third career win and second versus Mike.
Thanks to everyone who came out for S6E2 and congrats to Jason on his win!
~ Jason Ta.
