Mon. 2/18 Recap

Hey all
-OK, as always, before we get to the recap of the exciting action, I want to announce next week's tournaments. We have decided to have 2 tournaments because the schedule splits up nicely so that we can get just about everybody involved in next week's action. We will have a day tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 26th at 11:30am. We will have an evening tournament on Thursday, Feb. 28th at 7:30pm. Please schedule your lives accordingly (hehehe). Let me know if you have any questions!

Let me tell you how impressed I was by poker playing on Monday night. I was telling JMAC this morning that this was the best played tournament I've seen at 52 Irving! One sad note was that I lost my notes from last night's game, I can't find them anywhere so now I'm doing this strictly from memory...

Anyways to start the recap from Feb. 18th....We added one new player to the 52 Irving Poker League, as Scott Randall, fresh off his much-deserved promotion, joined in the fracas along with Clutch, DRose, Bearman, Willis, Ketaineck and McCrystal for a total of 7 players. We went at least an hour before anyone was knocked out however we did have quite an intriguing hand about a half hour in. Everybody but Clutch limped in on the blinds. Flop came 810J, there was a small bet and McCrystal, Randall and Ketaineck stayed in. The turn came a 7 and each player checked. The river inexplicably came a 9 showing a straight on the board. Randall made a bet for 50, then McCrystal came over the top for 100 more and then Randall raised all-in and after some debate McCrystal called and Randall flipped over the nuts with KQ to beat Ryan's Q high straight.

Ketaineck would be first to the rail when he was went all with K5 and Randall called with A9. When Ketaineck failed to improve he was the first one out and continues his 2008 slump after a tremendous 2007. Bearman and DROSE got caught up in the next memorable hand. Bearman raised under the gun and McCrystal and DROSE called. The flop came 778, both callers checked to Bearman who immediately went all in for his remaining 241 chips. McCrystal quickly folded but with 220 already in the pot, DROSE contemplated a call for well over a minute and finally decided the pot odds combined with the fact that he had Bearman easily covered, was too much to ignore and called. Bearman flipped over QQ and DROSE quickly found that he was a major 20.3% underdog (nearly 4-1) to win the hand. The turn came a harmless 4 but when an ace spiked on the river, Bearman was sent to the rail and DROSE may have exercised some serious demons when he finally put on a bad beat on someone.

With 5 players left, DROSE, Randall and McCrystal clearly had more chips that Willis and Clutch. What transpired next was one of the more memorable hands in 52 Irving history. Willis quickly losing chips to the blind went all in for his 143 chips. McCrystal and Randall called. The flop came A37. McCrystal bet 100 and Randall called leaving 200 in the side pot. The turn came an 8 and both players checked. The river came a 9 and Randall checked but McCrystal moved all in for his remaining 579 chips. Randall sat back and counted his chips and found that he had 575 left so a call and a lost would end his tournament. Randall hemmed and hawwed for a but while Willis desperately wanted to see what his fate was but considering all the betting and thinking going on, any casual observer would believe Willis's night was over. Finally Randall called and everybody sat up in their chair to see how this hand would play out. McCrystal flipped over K5 showing a complete bluff on his part, Randall flipped over Aces up (A3) to take the side pot and Willis flipped over a 79 showing two pair but not enough to beat Randall. McCrystal had tried the very impressive bluff which had it been successful, Willis would have tripled up. However Randall made a remarkable call eliminating Willis, who fails for the first time ever to not cash in consecutive tournaments played at 52 Irving.

With Willis out in 5th place and McCrystal quickly followed as he only had 4 chips left. He did last 2 all-ins but lost in his 3rd all-in when his pocket jacks didn't hold up 4-handed. That left Randall with well about half the chips, DROSE with about 1200 and Clutch had been able to crawl back to about 500. It was 3-handed for a little while but when Clutch went all-in with A10 against Randall's pocket sixes and didn't improve, Clutch was sent to the rail in 3rd place.

As Randall and DROSE started heads up, Randall had about a 2.5-1 chip lead. They played back and forth for a a little bit until the one hand defined their heads up action. Both players limped in. The flop came K39 rainbow. Randall bet, DROSE called. The turn came a king of hearts, putting two kings and two hearts on the board. Both players checked. The river came a 2 of hearts. DROSE bet, Randall went all-in and DROSE quickly called. Randall flipped over K8 showing a set of kings but DROSE flipped over 3h7h, showing the flush and Randall gave DROSE a ton of chips, leaving DROSE with a huge chip lead. The final hand came a few short hands later when Randall went all in with k5 againts DROSE's a9. Nobody paired up and DROSE picked up a big victory in the 52 Irving Poker League.

Combined with DROSE's 4-6 finish in his only other appearance this season, he improved to 13-13 on the season. Randall joins him on the top of the leaderboard as he debuts with a 7-7 finish. Clutch falls off the leaderboard for the first time at 30-33 (.909). Idle JMAC dropped to 4th while McCrystal rounds out the Top 5.

Here's the listed order from Feb. 18th:
7th place - Matt Ketaineck - 1 point
6th place - David Bearman - 2 points
5th place - Matt Willis - 3 points
4th place - Ryan McCrystal - 4 points
3rd place - Clutch - 5 points
2nd place - Scott Randall - 7 points (6 points for 2nd, 1 bonus for cashing)
1st place - David Rose - 9 points (7 points for 1st, 1 bonus for cashing, 1 bonus for winning)

52 Irving Poker LeagueCurrent Poker Batting Averages Thru 2/18

BA H/AB Wins Total Cashes
1) David Rose 1.000 13-13 1 1
1) Scott Randall 1.000 7-7 0 1
3) Dennis "Clutch" Renno .909 30/33 1 3
4) Jason McCallum .808 21/26 2 2
5) Ryan McCrystal .750 15/20 0 1
6) Vince Masi .684 13/19 1 1
6) Brett Edgerton .684 13/19 0 1
8) Kevin Conlon .500 3/6 0 0
9) David Bearman .429 9/21 0 0
10) Matt Ketaineck .370 10/27 0 0
11) Matt Willis .357 5/14 0 0
12) Stu Mitchell .143 1/7 0 0
12) Nick Loucks .143 1/7 0 0

**Poker Bonanza pot stands at $66

Thanks,
Clutch