Winning the Race
Thursday, October 29, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
I must confess that I don’t watch much reality TV. See, I live in reality and I get quite enough of it, thank you very much. Then again reality TV bears little resemblance to the reality that you and I enjoy on a day-to-day basis. There’s no jackass in a black T-shirt telling us our heartfelt performance stinks (unless you work at some Trendy Company From Hell), we aren’t whisked off to some tropical hellhole to scrabble in the dirt as we devise devious schemes to betray our friends (though that’s a bit like how Wall Street works).
My friend Ted is a huge fan of The Amazing Race, which he considers by far the best reality show around. And the folks who award the Emmy’s seem to have the same opinion, as that show has won the Emmy for best reality show all seven years it’s been around. As you probably know this season UltimateBet’s Tiffany Michelle is teamed up with her fellow poker player and friend Maria Ho on the show and they’ve been racing across southeast Asia and Dubai the last few weeks. She and Maria are still in the running, but don’t ask me (or her) if they go on to win the thing. I’m pretty sure revealing the winner of a reality show ahead of time is an automatic death-penalty offense. Heck, Death Penalty!! might end up being the next big reality show, especially if Jay Leno’s new primetime show continues to tank.
Tiffany actually missed the Main Event to participate in The Amazing Race but she didn’t miss last night’s UltimateBet Amazing Race freeroll. A grand total of 1,949 racers solved the series of clues that took them all over the World-Wide-Web and led them to the freeroll’s password. There was a cool $1,000 prizepool, with the final pair left standing at the end winning seats in our $200,000 Sunday Guaranteed Tournament.
Alas, though Tiffany is still going strong on The Amazing Race she did not reach the final finish line in this freeroll held in her honor. With her stack short she moved in for her last 1,500 or so when, holding K-Q, she turned a Queen. Unfortunately that not-so-lucky-lady on fourth street gave LONELYLONER (jeez that name depresses me) a straight and sent Tiffany out in 333rd place. On the show Tiffany and Maria spent some time in Vietnam and when I was in Vietnam a year or so ago one of the popular beers there is called “333″. OK, calling that a coincidence is a stretch but sue me, I’m thirsty.
Tiffany didn’t make the money, nor did LONELYLONER (and that makes me even sadder). Neither did 8LUFFMEOKI, who went out in 48th place to become our unfortunate Bubble Person. Normally players fall quickly after we make the money then things tighten before we reach the final table, and that’s what happened last night. In fact some of the players seemed to be stalling as we got down to the nitty-gritty, which was a bit silly as we were playing hand-for-hand and the other table was just sitting there waiting for play to wrap on the other table so they could start the next hand. I was sitting there too, watching it all, screaming “YOU KNOW YOU’RE GONNA FOLD!! SO FOLD!!!” as the clock struck 1AM on the East Coast. In the end it was the desperate SUNNYSTORM who got his money in holding the mighty 2-6, though he’d improved to a pair and a gutshot by the time the money went in on the turn. But ALEX_D22 had flopped a ten holding K-10 and wasn’t going anywhere, and when the river brought a blank SUNNYSTORM was going to the rail and ALEX_D22 was going to the final table, along with these eight players:
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again–when you make the final table of a tournament, and you’re short-stacked, and you decide to shove UTG with a hand like Kd-Jd. DO NOT do so when a player in the small blind is holding pocket Aces. Which is the exact unlucky scenario that sent TARGETSD out in 9th at the hands of MONEYNIKEME. Not that pocket Aces are infallible–no doubt ELNACHO was feeling good when he moved in with the bullets and was called by JED2006 holding Kh-10h. The flop brought no danger…well, there was a heart on the flop but how threatening is one lousy heart, really? Then came another heart on the turn…and another on the river, and that runner-runner flush sent ELNACHO and his Aces to the rail in 8th place, with $26.22 to comfort him.
It’s one thing to crack Aces with K-10 suited–can you WIN with Aces against K-10 suited? That exactly what JED2006 did a few hands later, picking up pocket Aces and using them to send APA_ATSAA and his Ks-10s out in 7th (good for $32.21). We actually had a decisive hand that didn’t include Aces, as QUINTDRIP’s pocket Queens held up against SWEETENXV’s pocket Tens. SWEET managed to double up like three times but when you start with just 357 chips that isn’t enough, and he soon succombed to finish sixth and pocket $39.62.
Then comes one of those hands that sticks with you for a long time, like when you walk in on your grandmother disposing of a corpse. QUINTDRIP was dealt pocket Kings, ALEX_D22 pocket Queens, and the two cagey players held off getting the money in until after the flop. Which came 3c…Kh…Qs. I’m sure ALEX felt quite confident putting in the last of his chips with middle set, only to see that QUINT turn over his cowboys. “Unreal” ALEX_D22 said as the turn and river failed to bring the case Queen and from a safe distance MONEYNIKEME said “OMG”. ALEX_D22, who had been near the top of the leaderboard for several hours, collected $51.30 for finishing 5th.
A more routine hand spelled the end of THE RAW ONE, as his pocket fours failed to win a not-so-Amazing Race with JED2006’s K-8. The money went in before the flop, which brought a King, and that spelled the end of THE RAW ONE and the increase of his bankroll by $68.69.
We were down to three-handed, with the player finishing third pocketing a hefty $119.42 and the two two getting tickets to the $200K Sunday Tournament. JED2006 open shoved and MONEYNIKEME called from the big blind with Ac-6c. JED2006 turned over a mighty 8s-3s. That hand proved mighty enough as an eight hit on the flop and MONEYNIKEME ended in third place and with a tidy boost to the bankroll.
One that JED2006 had been eyeing. “i wanted third dammit” JED2006 posted in chat, not necessarily an illogical wish. Finish third and your balance definitely goes up, finish first or second and you now have to navigate yet another huge field to get your hands on the cash. JED2006 and QUINTDRIP played a few desultory hands (there was really no difference between finishing first or second) before they got the money in preflop and JED2006 won the final race of the day:
However, I’d like to remind JED2006 of a little story. When Chris Moneymaker won his seat into the 2003 Main Event he played a satellite that paid out Main Event seats for the top few finishers and cash to the rest. In his autobiography Moneymaker said he wanted the cash–he had some credit cards he wanted to pay off and the money would’ve helped. He was going to just tank it and lock up the money when a friend called and offered to give Chris the money in exchange for a piece of what Moneymaker might win if he played and cashed in the Main Event. The rest, as they say, is History. So who knows–maybe JED2006 is our player of destiny, maybe he’s going to WIN the Sunday Guaranteed Tournament, maybe this Amazing Race Freeroll will the jumping-off point to a truly amazing ride to ultimate poker superstardom. Maybe two years from now JED2006 will be sitting down with a poker journalist (someone far more famous and respected than me) and saying, “Yes, it all started with a freeroll and,” here he’ll pause for a self-depreciating chuckle, “I wanted third, dammit”. Time, it will tell.
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October 29th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Yes it was an exciting tourney, Me and my wife played in it, I am lilgeneral42 and she is “yes” jed2006. So the winner was a woman, so that ought to make hot chips feel good, we didn’t even realize she played in the tourney.
I went out fairly early, but India “jed2006″ just kept playing good poker. I watched and rooted her on and really enjoyed watching the final tables, but like you I was yelling at the screen for the other table that we were keeping an eye on to just play, what was wrong with those guys, and I think that is what caused them to fail in the end, trying to wait out India’s table for the last man Sunny to go out.
Anyway we will be watching and rooting for India “jed2006″ in Sunday’s 200k tourney, and just maybe she will be saying Damn it I want 1st.
By the way enjoyed your blog about the event. Thanks Jerry and India owners of http://www.efleaa.com online auction site and avid UB poker players.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Great fun again…thanks UB team.
Pocket Queens 8 times in the tourney and well as you saw, 8th time not so lucky. What are you gonna do?
Think this is the 3rd or 4th blog/twitter freeroll I’ve done. 2nd FT with the big stack, next time I will bring it home.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:08 am
I try to use gender-neutral pronouns as often as possible because, hey, the player I’m writing about could be a man or a woman. The “Jed” led me to assume I was writing about a guy, and you know what they say about what happens when you assume things. My goof, I’ll fix the post!