May 8th Recap

Before we begin with the action from Thursday night, I want to announce that we will go with another double-dip next week since there seemed to be enough this interest this week. The night edition will be Monday, May 12th at 7:45 PM and the morning edition will be Wednesday, May 14th at 11:00 AM. Please be prepared to start at those times.

The May 8th edition of the 52 Irving Poker League featured the debut of one Christopher Lees along with 7 others. Without question, Lees failed to disappoint both with his play and his comments. He bucked the trend of the newcomer going out first although he certainly flirted with it. Lees won a few early pots to take the chip lead but tn the early going, Edge got the best of Lees. The flop came j9q followed by 7 and an ace. Edge went all-in on the river and Lees quickly called. Edge showed the 810 straight and Lees flipped over K9 but he mistakenly thought he had the nut straight but after staring at the cards in disbelief, he handed over 80% of his chips to Edge and quipped..

"Whoops"

Many observers thought this would soon lead Lees to the rail but he doubled up twice, once through Fallica and another time through Clutch to get back into a healthy chip position and led to this quote:

"I'm not afraid to deal out the justice!…"

Shortly thereafter, Lees lived up to his promises. After a flop of A84 with two diamonds, DROSE went all-in and Lees called and had DROSE covered. DROSE flipped over AK (including the ace of diamonds) and Lees flipped the Q8 of diamonds and was a 3-7 dog to knock out DROSE. The turn came a harmless 3 of spades but an 8 of spades of the river gave Lees the improbable set and the standings leader would be out with his worse finish of the season. The win propelled Lees to the chip lead and Ryan McCrystal proclaimed:

"Now that is delivering the justice…"

Not too long after the justice hit, Fallica and Lees would get into a tussle. A preflop raise by Fallica was called only by Lees. A flop of A36, 2 diamonds on the flop led to more betting and calling. A turn of jack of diamonds led to Fallica going all-in for nearly 500 chips and Lees quickly called. Fallica flipped over the made flush of q7 but Lees flipped over A7 with the ace of diamonds for the nut flush draw. Fallica had a 84-16 percent advantage going to the river but inexplicably the 4 of diamonds fell for Lees as he knocks out Fallica with the "Kamalakin Makin". For Fallica it was the 3rd straight tournament he had been knocked out or crippled with the famous 4 cards on the board flush. Fallica was devastated and we had the following dialogue:

Fallica: "How can you call with that for so many chips?"
Lees: "That’s why they call it gambling!"

With that win, Lees took a commanding chip lead and it would grow a short time later when a flop of Q106, two spades, led Loucks to go all-in and in the theme of the night, Lees called. Nick flipped over A3 of spades and Lees flipped over queens up with Q6. Lees dodged a spade on the turn and river and Loucks was gone in 6th place. It should be noted that the 6th place finish actually improved Loucks’ standings in the Bonanza.

So after knocking the tournament’s first 3 players, Lees held nearly half the chips with 5 players remaining. Ketaineck who had been quiet throughout the evening, started to get the best of Lees. He won multiple pots leaning and raising on Lees, taking a large majority of his chips before Lee’s night came to a close with the following hand. The flop came 810Q and both players checked. The 7 fell on the turn and both players put chips in. The river came another Q and when Ketaineck went all-in, Lees called with showing a set with Q2 but Ketaineck sent Lees to the rail with the famous 69 for a straight.

This left play 4-handed with Clutch and McCrystal as the short stacks. With the blinds 25/50 McCrystal made the following statement after looking at his cards…

"Well, it’s about time for me to go all-in"

Clutch already in the big blind called the extra 105 with A3 of diamonds. McCrystal flipped over AA and doubled up. But Clutch would get his justice a little later when McCrystal went all with Q7 and Clutch called with K9. A king on the flop ended McCrystal’s near 2-month hiatus from the 52 Irving Poker League in 4th place.

This left the game 3-handed with Clutch the considerable underdog but he continued to chip away including a pretty improbable hand when he called a Ketaineck all-in with A4 against Ketaineck A2. This hand will chop nearly 50% of the time and despite not catching a 4, Clutch would win when he hit a straight on the river to get pretty healthy and hurt Ketaineck. A short time later, Clutch would call an all-in by Ketaineck with AQ and Ketaineck had AJ. Both players hit their non-ace card on the flop by Matt’s hand didn’t improve and he was out in 3rd place.

This is when the grind began. Edge and Clutch started heads up play around midnight with Clutch holding a 2300-1700 chip lead. They played back and forth for well over an hour before both players would go all-in. Clutch had Edge down to 429 chips but Edge survived a A4 vs KJ all-in when a jack hit. He would double up the very next hand when he survived and A8 vs J10 all-in when a 10 hit. The grind continued and again Clutch got Edge down to 600 chips and Edge survived all-in A10 vs J5 when a 5 hit for Edge. Edge would actually take the chip lead when Clutch’s K10 did not improve against Edge’s 66. It was then Clutch’s turn to catch a break when his A10 chopped against Edge’s AJ. And then Clutch survived another all-in when his A6 improved against Edge’s AQ when a 6 hit on the turn. Oh by the way, that last hand occurred at 2:20 as JMAC came back from doing the 11 to start dealing at 2:15. One of the longest tournaments in league history would conclude at 2:29 AM when Clutch holding a slim lead went all-in after a 778 flop. Edge called with 89 but Clutch flipped over the 79 set and Edge did not catch the 8 or running cards for the straight.

Clutch wins his 4th straight tournament and takes over the lead in the points standings.

Here are final results from May 8:
8th place – DROSE – 1 point
7th place – Fallica – 2 points
6th place – Loucks – 3 points
5th place – Lees – 4 points
4th place – McCrystal – 5 points
3rd place – Ketaineck – 6 points
2nd place – Edge – 8 points (7 points for 2nd, 1 bonus for cashing)
1st place – Clutch – 10 points (8 points for 1st, 1 bonus for cashing, 1 bonus for winning)

52 Irving Poker LeagueCurrent Poker Batting Averages Thru May 8
BA H/AB Wins Total Cashes
1) Clutch .848 89/105 6 8
2) Jason McCallum .835 81/97 4 8
3) Vince Masi .828 48/58 3 4
4) David Rose .744 29/39 2 2
5) Ryan McCrystal .714 20/28 0 1
6) Scott Randall .695 41/59 0 3
7) Brett Edgerton .689 51/74 1 3
8) Matt Ketaineck .679 36/53 1 3
9) Paul Carr .638 30/47 1 2
10) Yinz .610 36/59 0 2
11) David Bearman .589 43/73 1 2
12) Kenton Wong .538 7/13 0 0
13) Matt Willis .513 39/76 0 1
14) Chris Lees .500 4/8 0 0
15) ELIAS .433 13/30 0 1
16) Chris Fallica .378 17/45 1 1
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: $270