While the turnout was a little smaller than I had hoped, I think we all had a good time. Five people entered; myself, two high school buddies, and two buddies I know through drumline-related activities.

1st: straightnutz25 (10 points)
2nd: ryanwold (8 points)
3rd: badash867 (6 points)
4th: V4Verdure (4 points)
5th: optsyn (2 points)

Highlights!

I busted optsyn early on when his bluff ran into my trips. I really wanted to fold given the marginal strength of my hand and how early it was in the tournament, but I decided my hand was a little too strong given how many unknowns there were.

Dealt to ryanwold [7 5]
straitnutz25: folds
V4Verdure: folds
badash867: calls 40
ryanwold: calls 20
optsyn: checks

*** FLOP *** [5 9 2]
ryanwold: bets 66
optsyn: calls 66
badash867: calls 66

*** TURN *** [5 9 2] [5]
ryanwold: bets 123
optsyn: calls 123
badash867: calls 123

*** RIVER *** [5 9 2 5] [Q]
ryanwold: bets 234
optsyn: raises 707 to 941 and is all-in
badash867: folds
ryanwold: calls 707

*** SHOW DOWN ***
optsyn: shows [A J] (a pair of Fives)
ryanwold: shows [7 5] (three of a kind, Fives)
optsyn said, “nooo”
ryanwold collected 2569 from pot
optsyn finished the tournament in 5th place

V4Verdure was next to exit when he experienced some kicker problems:

ryanwold: folds
straitnutz25: folds
V4Verdure: calls 20
badash867: checks

*** FLOP *** [J Q J]
V4Verdure: bets 120
badash867: raises 120 to 240
V4Verdure: raises 120 to 360
badash867: calls 120

*** TURN *** [J Q J] [7]
V4Verdure: checks
badash867: bets 70
V4Verdure: calls 70

*** RIVER *** [J Q J 7] [2]
V4Verdure: checks
badash867: bets 230
V4Verdure: calls 230 and is all-in

*** SHOW DOWN ***
badash867: shows [Q T] (two pair, Queens and Jacks)
V4Verdure: shows [6 Q] (two pair, Queens and Jacks – lower kicker)
badash867 collected 1400 from pot
V4Verdure finished the tournament in 4th place

We battled quite a bit 3-handed, with a lot of big pots going back and forth between me and badash. I finally got the best of him when I luckered out by hitting a spade to give me the nut flush versus his flopped flush:

Dealt to ryanwold [7 K]
straitnutz25: calls 80
badash867: calls 40
ryanwold: checks
*** FLOP *** [A 7 3]
badash867: bets 180
ryanwold: calls 180
straitnutz25: folds
*** TURN *** [A 7 3] [9]
badash867: bets 400
ryanwold: calls 400
*** RIVER *** [A 7 3 9] [3]
badash867: bets 756 and is all-in
ryanwold: calls 756
*** SHOW DOWN ***
badash867: shows [2 J] (a flush, Ace high)
ryanwold: shows [7 K] (a flush, Ace high – King higher)
ryanwold collected 2942 from pot
badash867 finished the tournament in 3rd place

I began heads-up with about a 2:1 chip lead over straitnutz25, a buddy of mine whom I know has played a lot of poker tournaments in his day. He claimed my chip lead wouldn’t be enough for me to win, and he turned out to be right! 🙁

The biggest hand in our match occured when he flopped top-pair and I got it all-in with a combo draw. A quick trip to pokerstove shows that I was 62% to win on the flop… nice luckbox sir! haha j/k.

Dealt to ryanwold [7 9]
ryanwold: raises 120 to 240
straitnutz25: calls 120

*** FLOP *** [4 8 6]
straitnutz25: bets 120
ryanwold: raises 3927 to 4047 and is all-in
straitnutz25: calls 2823 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (1104) returned to ryanwold

*** TURN *** [4 8 6] [2]

*** RIVER *** [4 8 6 2] [3]

*** SHOW DOWN ***
straitnutz25: shows [8 7] (a pair of Eights)
ryanwold: shows [7 9] (high card Nine)
straitnutz25 collected 6396 from pot
ryanwold said, “brick brick”

From that point straitnutz quickly widdled me down for the win.

GG everybody and thanks for playing! Don’t forget to check the tournament leaderboard on this page.