May 12th Recap

Before we get started, let’s take care of a little bidness…next tournament’s going to be Wednesday the 14th at 11 AM. Word of advice…GET IN!!!

Monday night brought another round of the 52 Irving Poker League. There was pizza, a Celtics road loss and an 8-man field for the latest round.

Chris Lees saw a lot of action early, but the newcomer curse came one tourney later than expected. After a flop of A-K-10, we were down to 2 players, Lees and Brett Edgerton. The turn brought another 10 and the river a meaningless deuce. Lees bet on the river, and Edge pushed all-in. Lees thought briefly and called, showing a King for 2 pair, Kings and 10. Edge beat that with his 2 pair…2 pairs of 10’s. “Quads” Edgerton pocket 10’s were enough to send C-Lees to the rail to root on the C’s.

Scott Randall played a quiet game, and after slow playing his aces and losing left him short-stacked, he was forced to go all-in pre-flop with A-Q. J-Mac called with the A-K, and the board bricked out, giving Randall a 7th-place finish.

With 6 players remaining, Vince Masi pushed all-in before the flop with pocket queens, but Edge upped him with pocket aces. Quads weren’t necessary this time, but when a 3rd ace came on the flop, Masi was free to watch the Red Wings-Stars game, and Edge had his 2nd victim of the night.
The next big hand took place between two of the shorter stacks at the table, Paul Carr and Matt Willis. Carr pushed all in, and it was folded around to Willis, sitting to his right, who insta-called with pocket queens. After counting the stacks, Carr was left with 7 chips, and Willis had nearly doubled up. The next hand, Carr tripled up when he flopped trips, and Clutch and Willis couldn’t beat it. Willis did show pocket queens for the 2nd straight hand, after crippling Paul with them the previous hand. The next hand, Carr nearly quadrupled up when he turned trip queens, getting him to 109. The next hand wasn’t as fortunate, as Carr got his money in good with K-Q, when the priced-in Willis called with J-9. A jack was the first card out on the flop, and despite picking up a straight draw on the turn, a historic comeback wasn’t in the cards for Carr, as he went out 4th.

The remaining 4 players, Willis, Clutch, Edge and J-Mac fought it out and traded chips for awhile, getting up to the maximum blind level of 75-150. The stacks were switched up during this time when Edge, the big stack, pushed J-Mac all-in before the flop, with J-Mac showing pockets 7’s to Edge’s A-Q, a classic race situation. The board gave Edge no help, and J-Mac now had the big stack, and Edge was the new short stack.

Not long after, Clutch, from the small blind, pushed Edge all-in and showed A-K. Edge, forced to make his move had two live ones with J-3. Edge got none of his 6 outs, and Clutch had his first elimination of the day, sending Edge out in 4th place.

Not long after, Clutch was the short stack, and even though he moved in repeatedly, could not get any action to double up. Finally, with the blinds eating away his stack, Clutch moved all-in with 10-7 of spades, and J-Mac flipped over A-9. The board brought no help, and Clutch finished 3rd, on the money bubble.

Play went heads up between J-Mac and Willis with J-Mac holding a very slight chip lead. With a board containing 3 clubs and a queen, Willis bet 500 into a pot of 600 on the river, and J-Mac made the call. It was shown to be the call of the tournament, as Willis flipped over A-J, and J-Mac had A-K for a better ace high to take a 2-1 chip lead.

Those stacks were flipped shortly thereafter. J-Mac limped pre-flop and Willis moved all-in. This time the hands were reversed, with Willis showing A-K, and J-Mac had the A-J. A king hit on the flop, J-Mac picked up a straight draw on the turn, but Willis took the chip lead.

Willis chipped away at J-Mac after this, stealing blinds. Finally, after again raising to 450 before the flop, J-Mac pushed the rest of his stack in. Willis thought briefly, then called and showed an ace of clubs with an offsuit 5. J-Mac flipped over 6-9 of clubs, and was rewarded by flopping a flush, with a K-4-3 all clubs flop. However, Willis just needed one club to pick up the ace-high flush, and a 2 of clubs on the turn gave Willis the Kamalakin Makin. However, that card gave J-Mac one out to a straight flush. The 6 of clubs did not come on the river, and Willis took home his first tournament win of 2008.

Here are final results from May 8:
8th place – Lees – 1 point
7th place – Randall – 2 points
6th place – Masi – 3 points
5th place – Paul Carr – 4 points
4th place – Edge – 5 points
3rd place – Clutch – 6 points
2nd place – JMAC – 8 points (7 points for 2nd, 1 bonus for cashing)
1st place – Willis – 10 points (8 points for 1st, 1 bonus for cashing, 1 bonus for winning)

52 Irving Poker League Standings
BA Hits-AB Wins Cashes +/-
1) Jason McCallum .848 89/105 4 9 +1
2) “Clutch” Renno .841 95/113 6 8 -1
3) Vince Masi .773 51/66 3 4 --
4) David Rose .744 29/39 2 2 --
5) Ryan McCrystal .714 20/28 0 1 --
6) “Quads” Edgerton .683 56/82 1 3 +1
7) Matt Ketaineck .679 36/53 1 3 +1
8) Scott Randall .642 43/67 0 3 -2
9) Paul Carr .618 34/55 1 2 --
10) “All-Yinz” Conlon .610 36/59 0 2 --
11) David Bearman .589 43/73 1 2 --
12) Matt Willis .583 49/84 1 2 +1
13) Kenton Wong .538 7/13 0 0 -1
14) ELIAS .433 13/30 0 1 +1
15) Chris Fallica .378 17/45 1 1 +1
16) Chris Lees .313 5/16 0 0 -2
17) Nick Loucks .257 9/35 0 0 --
18) Jeremy Lundblad .166 1/6 0 0 --
19) Stu Mitchell .143 2/14 0 0 --
20) Jason Vida .125 1/8 0 0 --

Poker Bonanza Pot: $286