Now That’s a Stimulus Package
Thursday, August 27, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
It’s a question that burns through the poker world from time to time–who is the best player in the world? Is the the latest superstar to emerge on the tournament circuit, the old-school colossus with a fifteen-page resumé, or the latest online wunderkind tearing up the nosebleed tables? Just about every poker media outlet publishes its own Player of the Year rankings, with scoring systems so complex they’d probably leave even Michael Binger scratching his head and mumbling, “So…you multiply by this…take the square of that…and then…do you divide??”
To my mind the easiest way to gauge a player’s skill is to measure one crucial item–money. That’s why we play the game, right, to walk away with more money than we sat down with. So show me the (expletive deleted) money, who’s got the bills, the bricks, the cabbage, the ducats? Bracelets and titles and stardom are great but in the end it’s money that always, always talks. Money is a poker player’s tools. And while dismissing the monetary value of the chips you’re throwing into the pot is an important quality in successful poker players, you can’t sit down in a game if all you’ve got in your pockets is lint. Money is nothing; money is everything. The yin/yang of poker.
Of course you don’t have to have mucho dinero if you’re playing in a freeroll (or any dinero, for that matter) and last night 1,014 players played in our monthly Blog Freeroll to see if they could grab fistfulls of of the $450 prize pool. Most freerolls begin with a bloodletting that would rival anything the Borgias could come up with and last night was no exception, as XFX was the first out, in about three nanoseconds. Players fell like duckpins in a hurricane and after about three hours of furious action we’d reached the Promised Land, otherwise known as the money bubble. The short stack at that point was EDDIEPEG, who possibly wasn’t manning the controls because he was quite literally anted down to nothing without playing a hand. His last 200 or so chips went into the middle and when he didn’t come through the other side when the hand was over, our 45 remaining players were in the money.
But as with any poker tournament you need to reach the final table (and beyond) to win the REAL money and here are the nine who hacked and slashed their way to the last roundup:
The nine survivors wasted little time mixing it up, though perhaps that was dictated by the cards. HOOPS TBR was eliminated in 9th when he flopped top pair and KAWDSHAWK69 flopped a set. Oops, HOOPS. DOCMICRO flopped second pair and got his money in, only to learn SINKINGLIVES flopped bottom set. Here’s some poker strategy advice, totally free of charge–try to avoid flopping pairs when your opponents flop sets. Especially if you plan on shoving should you connect with the flop at all. It usually doesn’t end well.
Last night’s freeroll ended with a lengthy heads-up battle between MADCOOL and the interestingly-named-for-a-freeroll WELFAR3CHECK. The two owned roughly-equal stacks before WELFAR3CHECK took about a 2-1 lead and refused to give it up. All the way to the final hand, where MADCOOL raised, WELFARE3CHECK re-raised, and the committed MADCOOL shoved. He held pocket fives, a fine heads-up hand, though one that was dwarfed by WELFAR3CHECK’s pocket Aces. Come on, that actually happens, you’re heads-up for the title and someone shoves into your Aces? Well, it happened last night and this time around the hand nicknamed “Presto” had no magic for MADCOOL, who finished as the runner-up.
WELFAR3CHECK received $49.23 from our freeroll stimulus package, and MADCOOL’S second-place booty totaled $28.32. And here’s how the rest of the final table was paid out:
- 3rd– SINKINGLIVES $21.15
- 4th– RJRK08 $16.33
- 5th– KAWDSHAWK69 $13.28
- 6th– CATHYBLUE $10.81
- 7th– ENGENER15 $8.46
- 8th– DOCMICRO $6.58
- 9th– HOOPS TBR $4.70
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August 27th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
What a nice surprise!!!!
Looks Like my guess was the first correct guess of the number of participants (1014).
Except no one has contacted me yet.
Don’t be shy I don’t mind havin my name up in “LIGHTS”.
When might that happen??
When is the next tourney??
August 27th, 2009 at 9:00 pm
apokerjoker
Your guess does not count because you submitted your comment in the wrong blog post. Please re-read the terms and you’ll see where you went wrong. However, we’ll definitely be running this type of thing again very soon so stay tuned to PWN the next one.
Cheers
Aces
August 27th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
How is is wrong?? If I follow “YOUR LINK”
that clearly says “QUOTE”
As well, to get your shot at the $50 bonus offer, take a guess at how many people will play in this freeroll. To make your guess, put your UB username and your guess in the comment section of THIS BLOG POST
I clicked on “THIS BLOG POST” which is “YOUR LINK” to submit my guess.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
I also would like to note that your link did not become available to me where others had posted their answers.
Nor is it available to me at present. As I can see that you and others are posting to it.
Because they look and are identical I chose the link as I am showing you. No Differce in my mind or probably the others that did the same.
August 31st, 2009 at 3:42 pm
[...] a complete rundown on the Blog Freeroll, follow this link to Gene Brombergs post tourney wrap up post. As usual, Gene does an excellent job chronicling the event. Congrats to WELFAR3CHECK for [...]
August 31st, 2009 at 6:01 pm
apokerjoker,
We apologize for the confusion but judging by the fact that almost 400 people commented in the correct post, it doesn’t seem like it was a widespread issue. That said, your comments are the reason we will ensure that next time we are even more clear. Thank you kindly for this suggestion, and you will see it implemented in the near future.
How did you do in the tournament anyway? Good news?
Aces