by Jo Haslam
There were a few hands to cause frantic chat box, "Wows" in this
week's Twitter tourney. You don't get many "wows" for your well played hands, or
your double bluff all-in with bells on clever poker moves; oh no, those moments
tend to pass in silence, or with a grudging, "nh" at best. But the chat box will liven up for an outdraw
- and there was some lively poker chat at this week's final table.
Poker wouldn't be poker if the cards were kind all the time, but it
was fair to say that this final table was laced with poisonous flops and deadly
rivers. Renaan was the winner, and he won and lost with good cards and bad, navigating
the bad beat highways to eventually claim the top prize.
Bubble bad luck
Whichever cards you play, to lose on the bubble is deemed unlucky. SashaBob73 was the unlucky bubbler this
game. He called a raise with Q♦8♦
and when the flop came a diamond-studded 9♦2♦J♥ he check-raised
all-in. Fdsa23 hadn't hit the flop,
but had enough chips to call the bet, and his A♦8♣ won the hand, hitting a
river A♠ for good measure.
The final table chips were:
Seat 1: bruins328 (123332 in chips)
Seat 2: pR0kerKid (165912 in chips)
Seat 3: Majo Danger (332711 in chips)
Seat 4: fdsa23 (425922 in chips)
Seat 5: bigsexy7 (75348 in chips)
Seat 6: TRex160466 (371992 in chips)
Seat 7: Sith07 (521552 in chips)
Seat 8: Campione_ITA (147092 in chips)
Seat 9: Renaan (191139 in chips)
It didn't take long for those chips to be rearranged, minus one player.
Campione_ITA would only manage one hand of final table play, pushing all-in
with 4♥2♠ and Fdsa23 calling with Q♠8♠ . The queen on the flop made Campione_ITA's
final table visit a short one.
Ouch
pR0kerKid was next to go. His A♥K♥ was no good when Renaan's
A♣8♣ hit the eight. Bruins328 said, "Ouch." pR0kerKid probably said a few
things, but they're not likely to be repeatable in polite company.
Renaan might have won with a bad hand, but he'd play a good one next
time. He called bigsexy7's all-in
move with A♠A♣. Renaan hit the sexy three of a kind with his pair, bigsexy7
managed only an undesirable 8♦8♥. He finished in 7th place for $42.39.
A big hand went fdsa23's way next. He raised A♦9♥, Majo Danger re-raised and they saw a flop
of A♠J♥A♣. Majo Danger bet out and Fdsa23 called to see the turn card
3♦. Majo Danger bet and fdsa23 flat called again. The river 8♦ saw Majo
Dange fire still more chips into the pot, and fdsa23 found the spirit for a
re-raise. Majo Danger mucked while
fdsa23's trip aces won him the tourney chip lead.
Major Danger
Majo Danger gave more of his chips to fdsa23 a few hands later. Fdsa23
held A♣8♣ and found the perfect flop of K♣T♣3♣ . Majo Danger played aggressively until
the river, to muck yet again. Fdsa23's lead increased, while @tpokerstars
Twitter (link: http://twitter.com/tpokerstars) pointed out, "Majo Danger is now
in danger with just 71k."
Fdsa23 was the chip leader with 830k, next best was Sith07 with 490k, but
that changed when fdsa23 found J♣J♦. TRex160466 re-raised with A♥J♥ and
fdsa23 made it 72,000 to play. The flop was A♦T♣6♠ . TRex160466 re-raised
fdsa23, and fdsa23 called him down with the jacks, unwilling to give up the
hand even when TRex160466 moved all-in on the river. The pair of aces won
TRex160466 a 832k pot.
Majo Danger was short of chips by now and re-raised all-in with
K♣9♣. Sith07 took him on with Q♥J♥ and a jack on the flop ended Majo
Danger's tournament.
Bruins328 was out soon after, he pushed with Q♥9♦ Renaan called
with Q♠T♣ . Renaan hit two pair, and it was tourney over for Bruins328 who
finished 5th for $74.57.
Monster pots for TRex160466
A couple of minutes later we saw our first million pot of the tourney.
Fdsa23 raised and TRex160466 re-raised.
On the 7♣8♣3♠ flop TRex160466 bet and fdsa23 re-raised all-in.
TRex160466 showed aces, it was A♠[9h, and all over, for fdsa23.
TRex160466 had won the million chip pot, but he would lose half of
those chips when he took on Renaan's Q♥Q♣ with A♥K♥. No ace, no king, just
a win for the pair of queens, and a double-up for Renaan.
Another chunk of TRex160466's chips headed Renaan's way when TRex160466
re-raised with A♦Q♦. Renaan
called all-in with A♥6♦. A 6♥ was the first card on the board, and that
was all it took for Renaan to win 1,527,374 chips.
TRex160466 hung on a while, but he couldn't catch up with the other
two. He moved all-in with K♣8♥ and Sith07 found K♦K♠. T Rex160466
finished in 3rd place claiming $141.30, and he would be entitled to
feel a little unlucky to lose key pots with good hands.
Renaan had the advantage heads-up, playing 1,607,874 to Sith07's
747,126.
Renaan forced Sith07 to fold to his re-raise on a 6♥9♠2♥ flop,
with Sith07 confessing in chat, "I had a flush draw." Renaan claiming, "69." The hand increased his lead, whether
or not he had the cards he mentioned. This looked likely to be a short heads-up
match.
In the final hand Renaan moved all-in with A♥2♥ and Sith07 called
with A♣T♥. Renaan hit the 2♦
to claim the tournament win, and takes $252.32 and 20 leader board points for
the achievement.
Congratulations to Renaan, who takes second place on the Twitter Poker
League leader board in the second week of league action.
The full league rankings can be perused at the Twitter Poker League
website and the highest ranked
players are as follows:
Twitter Poker League - Week 2
standings (10-03-10)
wimHC: 21
Renaan: 20
carzzzzz4u: 19
Sith07: 19
pokerdjiq_90: 17
TRex160466: 17
Kalich73: 16
KOTYRA NSK: 16
fdsa23: 15
bruins328: 14
mjc1948: 14
Sysyk12: 14
WimHC 's win in the first week of the Twitter Poker League means he tops the league, and although he didn't cash this time, he did score second place in the Facebook Poker League. If you're a Facebooker rather than a Tweeter you might want to check out the new Facebook League which offers $3,000 of Step Ticket Prizes every month. You can read more about the Facebook league here.
We can't promise that next week's tourney will be bad
beat free, or that the sun will shine tomorrow and your boss will give you the
day off, life ain't like that; but play the Twitter tourney and tweet bad beats
with #tpoker and you can find a
community united in poker's highs and lows.
Follow @tpokerstars for the latest Twitter Poker League news. Have a good week, without many chat
box "wows."
