So, here we are the OK Corral.
–Lee Jones as the final table WCOOP Event #10, a triple-shootout, began
If you listen clearly enough, you’ll hear the whistle from “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.” If you watch closely enough, you’ll see a tumbleweed bounce across the screen. If your nose is good enough, you’ll smell the whiskey, sweat, and fear in the air.
Or not. These kinds of shootouts are much safer, involve fewer real injuries, and don’t have Val Kilmer playing the tubercular Doc Holiday. While I will admit to at least twice muttering “I’m your Huckleberry” during the final table of Event #10, it seemed a safe bet that anyone who had made it this far was not going to require paramedics when it was over.
That said, I did smell someone lighting the blaze of glory, and if the fire’s a burnin’, somebody is bound to get burned.
Per the shootout format, everyone had won two consecutive sit and go touraments, and started the final table with $1500 in chips. Here’s how the table set itself up.
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Seat 1: pstarfish (Mesa, AZ)
Seat 2: Acey-Deucey (McAllen, TX)
Seat 3: pianolegs (New York, NY)
Seat 4: harthgosh (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
Seat 5: WhiteDrgn888 (Aliso Viejo, CA)
Seat 6: jpapola (Howell, NJ)
Seat 7: Empire2000 (Tenafly, NJ)
Seat 8: weways (Auburn, ME)
Seat 9: Buckeye 119 (Gahanna, OH)
The first requirement of any good shootout is that someone fire the first shot. For the first few hands, all that could be heard was the loading of the weapons and the occasional test fire. Once everyone had their sights set, harthgosh fired the first shot over the bow. She came in for a 5x the BB raise and got a call from pstarsfish who had limped in from early position. The board came down Ks2s3s/Qd/8h. Pstarsfish check-called the flop, check-raised the turn, and checked the river with harthgosh. Pstarsfish showed JcKc for a loss to harthgosh’s AdKd. Harthgosh had scored the first real shot and the final table of the triple shoot-out was off and running.
Harthgosh may have fired the first shot, but it was clear from the beginning that jpapola, a college student and part-time poker player, had brought the biggest gun. Having qualified for Event #10 in a $17 satellite, jpapola had nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain. Over the course of three big hands, jpapola won a nice pot without a showdown, one another with pocket jacks, and then another with pocket aces versus AK. The last of the three sent pstarsfish out in ninth place for $10,850 and gave jpapola the undeniable chip-lead. He went on to take a nice bundle of chips from pianolegs who finished the hand with top pair/top kicker to jpapola’s overpair.
Jpapola’s stack made most of the others at the table look small. Hence, some of the smaller stacks started looking to double through. Weways did it with JJ versus harthgosh’s AQ. Pianolegs did it with a pair of threes that eventually made a full house.
Empire 2000 tried to do the same thing. He found AK and decided it was his hand. Unfortunately, it was like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Jpapola held pocket jacks, made a set, and sent Empire 2000 out in eighth place for $16,800.
Sometimes the fates are working against you and Weways (he of the best screen name at the table) found that out the hard way. In the same orbit, Weways lost with pocket kings against A9 and pocket aces versus pocket tens. It was enough to send him out in seventh place and $23,800 in cash. A full-time poker player, weways has cashed for bigger amounts in the past, but is never one to turn down money. As he told me later, “My girlfriend and I just bought a house and haven’t even made our first mortgage payment on it yet. So, I think we may just take a good chunk out of this win and put it away in a safety deposit box or something for when times aren’t so good.”
If you’ve ever seen the movie shootouts where somoeone gets shot but continues to fight on, pianolegs was that guy. His stack was up and down all night. After being short-stacked early on, he fought back to nearly the chip lead, then proceded to double up two shorter stacks after calling an all-in with second pair, and then calling an all-in with KT versis A9 pre-flop. Still, pianolegs would not go away.
In every good shootout, there is that moment where the bullets are flying so fast, it is impossible to dodge them all. Victims are falling in the dusty streets. The dirt and muck fill the air and it is impossible to see who is alive and who is dead. Finally, that moment came in Event #10.
It was a three-way all in. Pianolegs held AK of hearts. Harthgosh had a pair of queens. Buckeye 119 held pocket kings. Harthgosh knew she was behind before the flop hit, but knew she was nearly out when a king and two hearts fell on the flop. And, really, Buckeye 119 had to know it was coming. Indeed, a third heart on the river tripled-up pianolegs and sent harthgosh out in sixth place and $30,800.
WhiteDrgn888 and Acey-Deucey were nearly even in chips when WhiteDrgn888 found AQ and thought it good enough to get all the chips in the middle. Unfortunate timing, however. Acey-Deucey held pocket aces and sent WhiteDrgn888 out in fifth place for a $38,290 payday.
Pianolegs, riddled with bullets, still found a way to work his way up to the chip lead. Facing a raise from Acey-Deucey, Painolegs fired back and re-raised. After some thought, Acey-Deucey re-raised all-in. Pianolegs went in the tank. Losing would not kill him, but it would put him on life support. Finally, he called with pocket sixes, only two see he was up against the two biggest guns in the deck. Acey-Deucey held acey-acey. The aces held up and two hands later painolegs was out in fourth place, cashing for $46,900.
Buckeye 199, also in on a $17 satellite, had been fighting and shooting strong, but ended up getting unlucky. He called all-in with AK versus Jpapola’s JT. A jack and ten on the flop was enough to send Buckeye 119 out in third place a few hands later. He cashed for $63,000.
With two players remaining and jpapola behind in chips, he at first turned down a deal offer from Acey-Deucey. A few hands later, jpapola, playing with just a $17 buy-in, changed his mind and accepted a chip-percentage deal. After that, Acey-Deucey opened up a chip lead, then played a pair of kings a little slow to get jpapola all-in with top pair on the board. Acey-Deucey ended up making a set of kings on the river to beat jpapola’s pair of queens.
With that, Acey-Deucey was the last man standing in the PokerStars Corral.
WCOOP Event #10 Final Table Results
1. Acey-Deucey (McAllen, TX) $150,026
2. jpapola (Howell, NJ) $122,974
3. Buckeye 119 (Gahanna, OH) $63,000
4. pianolegs (New York, NY) $46,900
5. WhiteDrgn888 (Aliso Viejo, CA) United States $38,290
6. harthgosh (Vancouver, BC, Canada) $30,800
7. weways (Auburn, ME) United States $23,800
8. Empire2000 (Tenafly, NJ) United States $16,800
9. pstarfish (Mesa, AZ) $10,850
Click here for a full list of cash winners.
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