The Lindsay Lohan Skins Game

Seven players showed up on Wednesday night at 52 Irving and things got going - and close to on time, too!

As per usual, the action started off relatively slow, with chips being passed around but nothing overly dramatic happening. About an hour or so in, it was D-Rose on the relative short stack. He was in on the action and called a pre-flp raise from J-Mac. The flop was A/A/2 and D-Rose bet 50, J-Mac called. The turn was a Q and D-Rose bet 50 and J-Mac called yet again. When the river brought another Q, D-Rose moved all-in and J-Mac called, flipping over A-10. D-Rose's pocket 2's (and his flopped full house) were cracked by aces full of queens, which J-Mac got due to runner runner on the last 2 cards. D-Rose went to the rail in 7th place.

Soon after, Ketaineck was in a pot against J-Mac and the flop came J/8/4, with the 8 and 4 of spades. Matt bet 50 and J-Mac called, and then the turn was the 7 of spades. Matt moved all-in with a jack-high flush, but J-Mac had the king-high flush and the night was over with a 6th-place finish for Ketaineck, who was stuck wondering out he had lost when he flopped top pair and a flush draw…

Only a few minutes later, Kevin “Shortstack” Conlon moved all-in for 199 chips with A/4 and J-Mac again was willing to oblige with a call. J-Mac flipped over pocket 9’s and when no help came on the board, Conlon was done with a 5th-place finish after a frustrating evening when he just couldn’t seem to make a hand.

The run continued for J-Mac as shortly, it was Brett “Quads” Edgerton who was on the shortstack. McCallum moved all-in pre-flop as Brett was in the big blind, and Brett made a good call considering his position – and flipped over Q/10 of diamonds. J-Mac turned over J/J. The flop gave J-Mac another jack, but it was the jack of diamonds, and when the turn came 9 of diamonds, Edge was a diamond away from doubling up – but it was not to be. The river was the 9 of clubs, which gave J-Mac the full boat, and Brett the 4th-place finish.

The remaining players were J-Mac, Bearman and Willis. J-Mac had about 2,300 of the 3,500 chips on the table. Our resident NASCAR aficionado had been hanging around with a dwindled (but not crippled) stack for a while, and when he was shortstacked and out of a hand, he perked up:

J-Mac raised pre-flop, and Bearman re-raised. J-Mac, feeling good from the steamroller performance he had put forth so far, moved all-in over the top. When he was called immediately, he didn’t even need to see Bearman flip his cards over. But Bearman did anyway, and J-Mac saw his pocket queens were up against pocket aces. When an ace came on the flop, it was over and J-Mac’s massive chip lead was reduced to a small one.

With his opportunity to sneak into the money all but gone, Willis was forced to become the aggressor. A couple of all-in moves allowed him to gather some blinds, but eventually one of those all-ins would be called. That’s what happened when Willis went all-in with K/7 and was called by J-Mac’s A/8. The board fired 5 blanks and J-Mac knocked Willis out with ace high. Willis finished in 3rd place.

Going into heads up play, J-Mac held about a 2,000 to 1,500 chip lead over Bearman, and he improved upon that in the first several hands. But soon the cards got cold for the leader and Bearman’s aggressive raises began hammering away at the chip lead. By the time we were 45 minutes into heads up, Bearman had earned the chip lead and was going strong.

The key hand happened a little more than an hour into heads up, as Bearman raised 300 preflop and J-Mac called. The flop came A/Q/8 with no matching suits and Bearman led out with another 300 chip bet. J-Mac went over the top all-in and it was decision time for Bearman. Thinking things over for a few minutes, Bearman said, “If you have the Ace, you’ve got me… if you have anything else, I’ve got you.” Eventually, he decided not to tempt fate and after folding, exposed his K/Q. J-Mac followed suit by exposing his own K/Q and raked in the pot, recapturing the chip lead. After that the cards got hot for J-Mac again and his pre-flop raises helped him establish a fairly healthy chip lead again. Finally, about 90 minutes into heads up play, Bearman moved all-in from the small blind and J-Mac called with A/Q. Bearman flipped over Q/9 of spades, and needed either a 9 or a spade draw to stay alive. The flop was blanks, and the turn gave J-Mac his ace to clinch the win. Bearman finishes with his 3rd straight runner-up finish, and J-Mac get his 6th win of the season.

Points awarded at the Lindsay Lohan Skins Game:

7th place: D-Rose (1 point)
6th place: Ketaineck (2 points)
5th place: Conlon (3 points)
4th place: Edge (4 points)
3rd place: Willis (5 points)
2nd place: Bearman (7 points, 6 for 2nd, 1 for cash)
1st place: J-Mac (9 points, 7 for 1st, 1 for win, 1 for cash)

52 Irving Poker League Standings, Thru 7/2
BA H/AB Wins Cashes + or –

1) Clutch: .850 130/153 9 12
2) J-Mac: .825 127/154 6 11
3) McCrystal: .714 20/28 0 1
4) Masi: .695 66/95 3 6
5) Kenton: .694 25 36 1 1
6) Paul Carr: .683 41/60 2 3
7) Bearman: .681 64/94 1 5 +1
8) Vida: .652 15/23 1 1 +1
9) Conlon: .644 56/87 1 3 -2
10) Edge: .643 71/112 1 4
11) Randall: .621 54/87 0 3
12) Ketaineck: .573 47/82 1 4 +1
13) Willis: .570 73/128 1 3 +1
14) D-Rose: .567 38/67 2 2 -2
15) ELIAS: .541 20/37 0 2
16) McKean: .429 3/7 0 0
17) Lundblad: .417 5/12 0 0
18) Fallica: .375 21/56 1 1
19) C-Lees: .342 13/38 0 0
20) Loucks: .257 9/35 0 0
21) Stu: .143 2/14 0 0