Tao of Poker

Full Tilt Hurricane Relief Tourney: Derek 2, Phil Gordon 0

First of all congrats to Full Tilt for running the tournament last night. 718 players entered which means that over $14K was raised for the Red Cross. Plenty of the biggest names in poker played along with us including Chris Jesus Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Kristy Gazes, Phil Gordon, David Grey, David Singer, Steve Brecher, and Erick Lindgren.

Thanks to all the bloggers and readers who particpated. We had plenty of your favorite bloggers who signed up including Derek, Iggy, Boy Genius, Heather, Bill, Daddy, Al Cant Hang, and CprHou (sorry I forgot your URL!). We also had several readers who played like Tapin42 and Mattazuma. Thanks to Joanne who sweated all of us! Derek has a good write up over at Poker in the Weeds. He even mentioned it on Card Squad.

So let's get to a half-assed recap of the night's events. 718 Players. First prize was $3446. Top 72 players got paid prize money. I was listening to Jerry Garcia Band and Galactic for most of the night.

9:16pm... Derek moved all in on his first hand with AKs. He cracked the Hilton Sisters when he flopped a King.

9:21pm... I found AA and did not get any action with them.

9:31pm... BG's AA were cracked. He lamented his losing hand in the group chat.

9:35pm... A faithful reader, Mattezuma, stopped by my table to say hello!

9:39pm... Iggy was eliminated in 579. Refill!

9:53pm... I never chase early in a tournament and I did just that. With a nutflush draw I moved all ina gainst a guy who flopped a set. I knew I was way behind, but decided, "What the fuck? Let's gambooool!" I mssed my flush and was knocked out in 495th place.

9:59pm... Bill was busted in 435th place.

10:01pm... Daddy was knocked out in 422nd. He was cracking me up all night with his IM banter. Here's a sample: "the avatars have emotions. my avatar is now officially 'the confused donkey'..."

10:09pm... One of the first pros was eliminated when Kristy Gazes was out in 402nd place.

10:11pm... AlCantHang was knocked out in 378th when his Hammer did not hold up.

10:15pm... Jesus was out soon after in 369th and David Grey followed him at 363rd.

10:35pm... Derek won a monster pot after moving all in preflop with the Hilton Sisters. He was behind when he found himself against AQo and pocket Kings. He flopped the case Queen and scooped the pot.

10:39pm... BG finished in 293rd place after coming from behind with a short stack.

10:50pm... David Singer was knocked out in 229th place.

10:56pm... Heather aka Mai Grey had been sitting at Phil Gordon's table for a while. The chat was unreal. It seemed that a lot of people were asking Phil questions, most of them were just plain moronic. After Phil won a big pot from Heather and move dinto the overall chip lead with a monster stack, one guy wrote, "Hey Phil what bank did you rob?"

Phil quickly replied, "The Bank of Mai Grey."

Ouch. I was hoping Heather would get Phil on Tilt!

11:01pm... I decided to play a MTT on Noble Poker with Joanne. We've been playing those all week with a last longer bet. The loser pays the winner a six pack of their favorite beer. I was down 12 beers already and wanted to go double or nothing. On the first hand I had 10-10 and moved all in against Kournikova. The guy flopped both a King and a Queen, but I flopped a set to double up on the first hand!

11:05pm... Heather was eliminated in 167th. Steve Brecher was out in 160th and Paul Wolfe took 155th place.

11:25pm... Cprhou was knocked out in 135th place.

11:29pm... I was eliminated from my Noble Poker MTT when my AKs lost. I flopped top pair but two guys moved all in after me. They both flopped sets! Joanne won the last longer and I owe her 24 beers,w hich is a case here in America, but it's two cases in Canada. I think we lose something in the conversion.

11:34pm... Erick Lindgren was eliminated in 110th.

11:40pm... Tapin42 was busted in 95th place.

11:45pm... Derek doubled up.

12:03am... Phil Gordon got moved to Derek's table.

12:10am... Howard Lederer was knocked out in 68th place.

12:12am... Derek found A-A. Phil Gordon had a ginormous stack and he called Derek's all in bet with QJ. Derek was also up against 8-7s and A-K in a four way pot. Derek had the second most chips behind Phil. Anyway, the guy with 8-7s flopped two pair and Derek ended up winning a small side pot against Phil.

12:18pm... Derek got Phil Gordon all worked up when Derek moved all in with A-10s. Phil had pocket fives and Derek caught a gutshot straight on the river to win. Phil typed: "RIVER!" into the chat.

12:39am... Derek was finally eliminated in 33th place when his A-9s lost to A-J. He made the money and outlasted all of the bloggers and every pro with the exception of Phil Gordon who would end up in 30th place I think.

Thanks again to everyone who played. Full Tilt is hosting another tournament for Hurricane Relief this Sunday at 9:15 ET. The buy in is $20 + $10. I'll be playing in that one too! See you there.