The "Become a Poker Pro" Final Table (Part 1)

Day 3 of the "Become a Poker Pro" cruise began when the "Majesty of the Seas" docked at Nassau, Bahamas at 8am on Sunday, March 5th, 2006.  My usual sluggish self didn't crawl out of bed until after 10am and my desire to join Brandon in exploring the island - most notably, The Atlantis Resort - was modest, at best.  The "Become a Poker Pro" Final Table was scheduled to begin promptly at 12:30pm and I wanted to make sure I was mentally prepared for the tournament.  So while Brandon wandered around Nassau, I hung back on the ship and cleared my head.  I showered, got dressed, and grabbed a bite to eat at the Windjammer Cafe - all while going over my game plan for the Final Table.  Given that the biggest freeroll prize in online poker history was at stake, I figured the other finalists would be playing pretty tight - at least in the early levels.  My goal was to take advantage of this - play a lot of pots and play them aggressively to establish a LAG image.  That way, I'd get paid off in the mid-late levels when the blinds increased and I did pick up a hand.  With 86,400 in chips, I had plenty of ammo and entered the Final Table with the 3rd largest stack - behind only Jack "Dragon2" Arnold (95,800) and Bill "BillyBluff13" Pero (103,700).  Everyone was relatively close in chips, however, and we'd be resuming the tournament at 400/800 blinds with a 100 ante.

"Become a Poker Pro" Final Table Seating & Chip Stacks

Seat 1 - Dustin "HustlerPoke" Goff - 76,900

Seat 2 - Jack "Dragon2" Arnold - 95,800

Seat 3 - Ryan "rufebert" Rufe - 86,400

Seat 4 - Jim "JDtrojan3" Davenport - 82,600

Seat 5 - Arttu "arttu5" Poikolainen - 64,900

Seat 6 - Kyle "KMO28" Morse - 60,700

Seat 7 - John "mdjohnny" Wachter - 46,800

Seat 8 - Chris "MarvinGarden" Birchby - 41,600

Seat 9 - Robert "mav98911" Zack - 28,600

Seat 10 - Bill "BillyBluff13" Pero - 103,700

To say this was a STACKED Final Table would be an understatement.  MarvinGarden was widely recognized as one of the best online tournament players and was a ranked player on Pocketfives.com.  Arttu5 won the first-ever "Grand Tournament" on PokerRoom and took home $73,000 in that game alone.  Obviously, he was no stranger to high stakes tournaments (technically, the BaPP was a freeroll, but 1st prize made the tournament about as high stakes as you could get).  Dragon2 was featured on ESPN's 2004 WSOP coverage when they documented his 9-to-1 favorite with one card to come bust out.  Still, he was a feared online professional who often played 8 tables at a time on his 4 computer monitors.  Among the other finalists, HustlerPoke always seemed to have my number when we played against each other on PokerRoom and JDTrojan3 was a great friend of mine from the '05 WSOP.  The remaining players (KMO28, mav98911, BillyBluff13, and mdjohnny) weren't as renown to me as the others, but that certainly didn't mean I'd be taking them lightly.

At 12pm, Brandon returned to the boat and we made our way to the tournament room, my nerves eating me alive along the way.  Finally, the magnitude of the "Become a Poker Pro" tournament had hit me, and even more so when I entered the room and saw the poker table we'd be playing on:

It was like the ESPN Feature Table, complete with hole cameras and an illuminated racetrack.  The chips we'd be using were pretty slick too.  They were custom 10 gram ceramics manufactured by Chipco.  Nice feel, light, and thick enough to allow for easy shuffling.  Truly, the folks at PokerRoom couldn't have done a better job on the production.  I was highly impressed.

Before long, the rest of the "Become a Poker Pro" finalists arrived.  Jim and I met up for a little pre-tournament chat and wished each other luck before everyone took their seats.  Nerves and tension filled the room, but now that I was at the table, I was surprisingly calm.  There I was, sitting with nine elite poker players who had incredible track records, and I felt like I belonged - like I could win the tournament and become a sponsored poker professional.  I was focused and ready to put my game plan into action, and soon after the obligatory shuffle up and deal was announced, the cards were in the air!

To be continued...