Last Man Standing
Saturday, January 17, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
When you play in one of our UBOC events you can win back your buy-in by knocking out one of our pros, who are easily identifiable because their screen names are in red. But if you checked the leaderboard last night you’d find that there was one bounty that went uncollected during UBOC Event #10. And that’s because Matt “WISCOMURRAY” Murray won the shorthanded Limit Hold-Em tournament last night in a back-and-forth scrum that saw players go from worst to first (and then back again) in a single hand.
Both THELTRAIN and BOOMBAT2 were brutally short coming into the final table and they were quickly escorted to the rail. THELTRAIN went first, committing the last of his chips with Qh-8d and getting called by HYERAN KIM’s Ah-10h. The board bricked out and THELTRAIN collected $1,890 for his sixth-place finish. BOOMBAT2 was next to visit the payout window, as he raised with Kd-3c and was called by YNGMANN4QUIKI. After the 3d-5h-2c flop BOOMBAT2 pushed in his last handful of chips. YNGMANN4QUIKI called to find that his As-Qh had been outflopped, but the Qd spiked on the turn and the Ah on the river for good measure and BOOMBAT2 was out in fifth, good for $2,340.
YNGMANN4QUIKI went out next, but not before a hand that rivaled Teddy KGB’s cold-decking of Mike McD at the begining of Rounders. After a raise and a call before the flop WISCOMURRAY and YNGMANN4QUIKI exchanged a series of raises and re-raises after a 5c-Qc-10d flop. The same happened after the Kd turned, and when the 8c fell on the river YNGMAN called one last bet from WISCO, who turned over Kc-Jc for the rivered flush (after the flopped open-ender/flush draw and the turned pair). YNGMANN4QUIKI flashed Kh-Ks for the turned set that didn’t hold up, and one hand later WISCOMURRAY finished YNGMANN4QUIKI off, hopefully the $2,790 he collected for finishing fourth provided some solace (maybe some Oreos would help as well).
Down to three-handed WISCOMURRAY, HYERAN KIM and Kevin “KICE32″ Iacafano took turns hammering away at each other. The blinds were large enough and the stacks small enough that losing a single hand could deal a crippling blow, and that’s what happened to KICE32. He lost a huge pot when WISCOMURRAY tabled a flopped set of threes and that left KICE32 with just $28K. But he tripled up on the next hand when, holding K-9, he flopped a King and turned a nine to get back in the game.
At one point HYERAN KIM seemed to be getting the best of it but he couldn’t deliver the knockout blow. There was one hand that might’ve been decisive–with the board showing the five through eight of diamonds HYERAN KIM bet and WISCOMURRAY called. HYERAN KIM showed the nine of diamonds for the straight flush, while WISCO flashed the Ace of diamonds for the faux-nut flush. WISCOMURRAY might’ve lost more on that hand, but he didn’t, and slowly the tide turned his way. He went on a run where he won five hands in a row, including the one that sent KICE32 out in third place. With WISCO holding 8d-9c, the flop came 8s-Ac-As, and after a bet and a call the turn brought the 9h. A bet, raise and re-raise left KICE32 with just $17K and that went in after the river brought the 8h. WISCOMURRAY showed his full house and when KICE32 couldn’t beat it he was our third-place finisher, good for a $3,780 payday.
The heads-up match started with WISCO holding a $760K to $140K chip lead over HYERAN KIM, and though KIM won seven of the ten heads-up hands (including one where he doubled-up with pocket Aces) he never made up much ground. After getting his stack up to over $300K HYERAN KIM lost a big hand when WISCOMURRAY turned a King for top pair, and on the next hand the two players exchanged a series of raises until KIM was left with just a few thousand chips. The flop came 10h-3h-Qs, the last of HYERAN KIM’s chips went in, and that’s when he learned that his Ah-9c were completly crushed by WISCO’s Ad-10c. The Kc on the turn gave HYERAN KIM hopes of a chop, but the river brought the 6c and the end of HYERAN KIM’s hopes. He won $5,454 for finishing as our runner-up, and Matt “WISCOMURRAY” Murray took home $9,000 and serious bragging rights within the Team UB roster for taking down a UBOC title.
Tags: kice32, Poker Poker Poker, poker tournaments, ub, ub tournaments, UBOC, uboc events, uboc tournaments, ultimatebet, wiscomurray
