The "Become a Poker Pro" Final Table (Part 2)

Before I get into how the "Become a Poker Pro" Final Table went down, you should know that I didn't keep notes on the tournament because all the finalists were supposed to receive a DVD of the footage after it had been edited.  Per PokerRoom, we would receive this DVD about 2 weeks after the cruise.  5.5 years later, I'm still waiting for my copy.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not waiting by the mailbox or anything.  In fact, I'm 99.9% sure I'll never see the DVD, but it sure would be a nice keepsake to have.  The footage that WAS released on PokerRoom's web site was poorly edited, which could have been the reason the DVD was never produced.  Regardless, that footage is no longer available on PokerRoom's web site because PokerRoom no longer exists (bwin closed the site in April 2009).  My last hope for trying to obtain the footage is via a former PokerRoom employee who I am friends with on Facebook.  Last I heard from him (at the end of July), he dug up some BaPP files on an old hard drive and was going to send them to me digitally.  I haven't heard from him since.  If he ever does get back to me, I'll be sure to share the footage with you via this blog.

Now onto the tournament...

To give you a quick recap, 69 Team PokerRoom.com members played the online portion of the "Become a Poker Pro" tournament back in September 2005.  The Final Table of 10 then finished the tournament offline on a Royal Carribean International cruise ship in March 2006 where the winner walked away with a full year's endorsement package worth $250,000.  I entered the BaPP Final Table 3rd in chips with 86,400 and the tournament resumed with 45 minutes levels, starting at 100a/400/800 blinds.

Hand 1 of the Final Table could not have been more dramatic.  To make a long story short, MarvinGarden - who was widely considered the odds-on favorite to win the BaPP tournament - was eliminated when his pocket Aces could not improve against the flopped set of Tens of chip leader BillyBluff13.  Man down!  Here, everyone (myself included) was expecting MarvinGarden to be a force at the BaPP Final Table, yet his run ended up lasting a mere two minutes.  Given the circumstances, I felt for MarvinGarden, albeit briefly.  He was a really nice guy and a fellow member of The Bustouts (an exclusive poker group I was affiliated with on PokerRoom), but at the same time, he was a tremendous poker player and I was happy to see him go.

Amidst the shock of MarvinGarden's elimination, there was still poker to be played, and on Hand 2, I found AKo on the Button.  I put out a raise and got a caller in mav98911, who had thick mustache, a Jersey accent and was the oldest player at the table.  While the details of the hand are sketchy to me, I do know I flopped a pair of Kings and forced mav98911 to fold.  Similarly, I raised 2 out of the next 3 hands and took down a very sizable pot against arttu5.  I can't remember if I had JJ or QQ (it was one of the 2), but I raised pre-flop, Arttu re-raised, and I 4-bet him, which was enough to get him to fold (he told me later that he folded QQ).  Most importantly, none of these pots that I won went to showdown, which helped me establish the LAG image that I sought to portray early on at the Final Table.

After five hands, I was rolling - already up over 100k.  As such, I decided to catch my breath and slow down a bit.  Little did I know that I'd spend the next 3 hours (through Level 4) folding junk hand after junk hand.  The only playable hands I saw during this time period were 77 and AJs, both of which I lost.  Admittedly, I played the AJs hand terribly and out of position against HustlerPoke, who was a player I did NOT want to see accumulate chips.  Fortunately, arttu5 (9th place) and mav98911 (8th place) were eliminated during these levels, along with Dragon2 (7th place) after his AA was cracked by the club flush of - you guessed it - BillyBluff13.  The way Billy was running, it seemed like he was destined to win the tournament as he was sitting on well over 250k.  I, on the other hand, was down to 48k and reeling.

Unfortunately, things continued to head south for me in Level 5 (400a/1.5k/3k blinds).  On the Button with 53s, I tried stealing the BB of the tightest player at the table, KMO28.  He hadn't made any noise in the tournament and it was a good spot to try to add some much-needed chips (6900 to be exact) to my stack.  To my surprise, however, KMO28 pushed All-In over the top of my raise and I was forced to muck my hand.  A short time later, KMO28 busted out in 6th place, and I became the short stack.

With 5 players remaining in the tournament, it was only a matter of time before my good friend JDTrojan3 and I played a pot against each other - albeit an un-raised one between our blinds.  With 9h 8x, I checked a 3 heart Flop and JDTrojan3 checked behind.  A 4th heart came on the Turn and I led out for 6000, which JDTrojan3 called.  The River was a blank and I checked, hoping JD would be "friendly" and check behind.  He didn't, and I folded to his 12000 chip bet, knowing I could pick a better spot to commit my chips (I'd find out later that Jim held the Kh, for a higher flush).  Certainly, my little showdown with JDTrojan3 captivated the attention of the poker journalists and PokerRoom staff, who had been craving the "Friend vs. Friend" storyline all tournament.

My next hand of significance was against BillyBluff13, the chip leader by far at that point.  With AJo, I raised from the cutoff and Billy called from the BB.  We both checked on a K35 rainbow Flop.  The Turn paired my Jack, which looked golden to me for about a second until Billy unexpectedly announced "All-In."  I didn't want to fold, but Billy looked really comfortable - easily the most comfortable he had looked all tournament.  Here, he was a hard nosed bully-looking type from Boston who was now smiling and laughing it up with his guests that were railing him nearby.  I was confused.  If Billy had a hand, wouldn't he just check to try and lure the short-stack - who was the pre-flop aggressor, no less - into betting?  To me, that would've been a more sensible play, because even if I had him beat, the loss would have barely made a dent in his stack.  Then again, Billy didn't seem like the most sensible player.  I'm not trying to knock the guy or anything, but he played the cards, nothing more.  Math, odds, his opponents - nothing else factored into his decisions, and here he was, putting me All-In.  Eventually, I folded, though I was reluctant to toss my cards into the muck.

rufebert vs. BillyBluff13 (pictured left).  Also pictured is JDTrojan3.

Still in Level 5 (400a/1.5k/3k blinds), I was down to just 17k when the action folded around to me in the SB.  J6o didn't look sexy to me at all, but I had to accumulate chips somehow.  "All-In," I announced, hoping JDTrojan3 would fold in the BB.  Jim didn't seem thrilled with his cards either, but made the call anyway.  His 37o wasn't even a huge dog, and actually became the favorite when a trey appeared on the Flop.  Fortunately for me, a lovely Jack came on the Turn and I doubled up to 36k.

Whew!

A few hands later, BillyBluff13 had the Button and raised to 7500.  I was in the BB and called with QJo.  Flop, QJX.  I checked, slowplaying my top 2 Pair, and Billy checked behind.  The Turn was a blank and I checked again, hoping Billy would take a stab at the pot.  He did, and bet 7500.  From prior hands, I knew that Billy was unlikely to fold to a small raise, especially a min-raise, so I threw out 15k total.  He called.  The River brought another blank, and with only 12k left in my stack, I committed the rest of my chips.  After some thought, Billy said "I don't see how I can fold this" before pushing his calling chips forward.  "If you got a pair, you got me," BillyBluff13 continued before I rolled over my 2 pair and dragged the 72k pot.  Ace high?  Really?  Sure, he was getting 5-to-1 on the call, but why give life back to a short stack at such a critical point in the tournament?  In any case, I was happy to feel like a contender again.

Level 6 (2k/4k, 500 ante) was the last level before the 1 hour dinner break, during which I managed to stay afloat and even chip up a bit.  Also during this level, JDTrojan3 tangled with mdjohnny and called his All-In bet preflop (99 vs. Johnny's AQ).  A Queen on the Flop spelled trouble for my good friend, but a 9 on the Turn ultimately sent mdjohnny packing as the 5th place finisher.  When the 9 hit, Jim literally described the feeling as if "a jolt went through his body."  It was a huge hand that ended up being the talk of the dinner break.  With 4 players left in the tournament, the chip counts at the dinner break were as follows:

Seat 1 - Dustin "HustlerPoke" Goff - 120,000

Seat 3 - Ryan "rufebert" Rufe - 102,000

Seat 4 - Jim "JDtrojan3" Davenport - 184,000

Seat 10 - Bill "BillyBluff13" Pero - 282,000 

To be continued...