Brett Edgerton Classic (June 23rd)

BRETT EDGERTON CLASSIC (JUNE 23RD)
Please join the members of the 52 Irving Poker League for the Lindsay Lohan Skins Game on Wednesday, July 2nd at 7 ET.
The inaugural Brett Edgerton Classic drew a strong field of 7 players, including 3 of the league’s top 8 ranked players, to the bowels of 52 Irving on Monday evening. Tournament host Jason McCallum, David Rose, Matthew Willis, Chris Lees, Matt Ketaineck, and Brett Edgerton were joined briefly after the first chips hit the table by late arriver Jason Vida.
After a relatively uneventful first hour full of small raises and few showdowns, the betting and swings increased noticeably as the blinds climbed higher and higher. When Matt Willis raised 3 times the big blind before the flop, it represented one of the most aggressive moves to that point of the night. The table folded around to Chris Lees, who called quickly. A flop of 5-2-2 seemingly helped neither, and when the turn brought another 5, Willis moved all in and was called quickly by Lees, who triumphantly flipped over Q2 for a boat that dominated Willis’ KK. Fifth street brought no help for Willis, who was left short-stacked.
Willis was shortly joined at the bottom of the chip standings by the guest of honor himself, who found himself with very little to play for most of the night. When Brett moved all-in vs D-Rose, it looked like his night would end prematurely against Rose’s pocket 8’s. But luck intervened as the birthday boy caught a one-outer on the river to cripple D-Rose, who once again lost out on a large pot to a pair of 10’s.
Having rebuilt his stack, Willis again squared off against Lees for the night’s biggest pot to that point. A raise of 200 from Willis didn’t scare off Lees with his 8-6 suited, and when the board paired his 8 and the players checked down the rest of the hand, Lees’ 8’s had busted Willis’ AK. Unmoved by his improbably victory over big slick with 8-6, Lees exclaimed that the preflop raise of 200 would usually have caused him to fold, but in this case, "they were suited." For his bravado, Lees earned a commanding chip lead, which he would use to knock out D-Rose shortly after. After more than 2 hours and one truly bad beat, D-Rose had nothing to show for his efforts and exited in 7th place.
He would soon be joined by Matt Willis. After Brett Edgerton moved all-in with less than the big blind, he was called by Vida and Willis, who himself made a small raise on the big blind to put himself all-in. The three-way pot tripled up Brett and Vida outlasted Willis for the two-way pot, sending Matt away with a 6th place finish. Still short-stacked, Brett moved all-in with KQ soon thereafter, and lost out to Vida’s pocket 3’s in a coinflip. A fifth-place finish would be the result for Mr. Edgerton on his own inaugural event.
Down to four players, Lees, Vida, and Ketaineck all held sizable chip leads over J-Mac. After pairing the J in his hand on the flop, J-Mac moved all-in and was called by Vida and his pocket Q’s. The turn and river would bring no help, and J-Mac was eliminated in 4th place.
After seeing his once insurmountable chip lead vanish over the past 90 minutes, Lees pushed all-in against Ketaineck after a flop of K-Q-Q. With K-Q in his hand, the decision was simple for Matty K, who called and sent Lees home in third place, his best finish in a 52 Irving tourney this season.
The heads-up match between Ketaineck and Vida was long and filled with it’s share of peaks and valleys, as the two players traded big pots and the chip lead for the next hour. With a chip lead of approximately 3-1, Ketaineck (AK) quickly called Vida’s preflop all-in raise. When Vida flipped over A7, the issue seemed to have been decided and both players began to get up from the table. But those actions were halted when the flop brought a 7 and put on permanent hold when the turn brought another, giving Vida the improbable victory and evening the chip count. After more than 90 minutes of heads up play, Vida, with a 2-1 chip lead, put Ketaineck in pre-flop. Ketaineck called and flipped A8. Vida’s pocket 4’s would hold up in the ensuing race, however, giving Ketaineck a runner-up finish and Vida his first victory of the season.
Do the back-to-back victories by Wong and Vida represent a changing of the guard in the 52 Irving Poker League? Will the next tournament produce a third-straight first-time champion? Can Lees build on the momentum of his third-place finish? Will the grueling heat and humidity of the 52 Irving Arena force players to change their strategy as we enter the summer months? We’ll find out the answer to all these questions and more at the Lindsay Lohan Skins Game next Wednesday at 7 ET. Hope to see you there.

Of note in the B.E. Classic:
- Avg Pre-Tourney Rank of Top 3 finishers: 16.33
- Avg Pre-Tourney Rank of Bottom 4 finisher: 7.25
- Jason Vida: 2nd straight first-time winner
- Chris Lees: 3rd place finish is best of season
- Blinds reached 30/60 before first player eliminated (checking w/ Elias to see if this is a record)

Points Awarded at the Brett Edgerton Classic
7th Place: D-Rose (1 point)
6th Place: Matt Willis (2 points)
5th Place: Brett Edgerton (3 points)
4th Place: J-Mac (4 points)
3rd Place: Lees (5 points)
2nd Place: Ketaineck (7 points, 6 for 2nd, 1 for cash)
1st Place: Vida (9 points, 7 for 1st, 1 for cash, 1 for win)


52 Irving Poker LeagueStandings, Thru 6/23BA Hits-AB Wins Cashes +/-
1) Clutch .850 130/153 9 12
2) Jason McCallum .803 118/147 5 10
3) Ryan McCrystal .714 20/28 0 1
4) Vince Masi .695 66/95 3 6
5) Kenton Wong .694 25/36 1 1
6) Paul Carr .683 41/60 2 3
7) "All-Yinz" Conlon .663 53/80 1 3 +2
8) David Bearman .655 57-87 1 4 +2
9) Jason Vida .652 15/23 1 1 +8
10) "Quads" Edgerton .648 68/105 1 4 -2
11) Scott Randall .621 54/87 0 3
12) Dave Rose .617 37/60 2 2 -5
13) Matt Ketaineck .600 45/75 1 4
14) Matt Willis .562 68/121 1 3 -2
15) ELIAS .541 20/37 0 2 -1
16) Tom McKean .429 3/7 0 0 -1
17) Jeremy Lundblad .417 5/12 0 0 -1
18) Chris Fallica .375 21/56 1 1 -1
19) Chris Lees .342 13/38 0 0
20) Nick Loucks .257 9/35 0 0
21) Stu Mitchell .143 2/14 0 0

Poker Bonanza Pot: $392