(Disclaimer: I play for Team PokerStars, and helped organize this tournament.)The first annual Blogger Championship at PokerStars is in the books, and what a fantastic tournament it was! Here is the final table, with links to their blogs and their prizes, courtesy of master blogger of the universe, Otis:
1. easy_wind (Cambridge, MA)--2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Prize Package
2. simonvlc (Valencia, Spain)--24" Dell Flatscreen LCD monitor
3. Ribs (Warrington, United Kingdom) --24" Dell Flatscreen LCD monitor
4. mattymillne (Edinburgh, United Kingdom) --24" Dell Flatscreen LCD monitor
5. Sunday8pm (Edmunds, United Kingdom) --24" Dell Flatscreen LCD monitor
6. butwin (Cypress, CA) --24" Dell Flatscreen LCD monitor
7. Lucky Poet (Oslo, Norway) --Xbox 360
8. maverick81 (Crowborough, United Kingdom) -- Xbox 360
9. MrAckley (Anchorage, AK) --Xbox 360
Otis wrote at The Official PokerStars blog, "Normally at this point I would write up a final table report, but this tournament is all about the writers of the world, and I'm sure they can tell this story better than I can."
And tell their story they have! In addition to the final tablers, the usual suspects in the poker blogging community have their recaps. Dr. Pauly, as you would expect, has a great write-up about the tourney on Tao of Poker, which includes a comprehensive list of well-known blogger bustouts.
Al Can't Hang and GRob from Upforpoker.com both had position on me at my table. These guys are good, and I lamented that, out of over 1400 players, I had to end up with both of them behind me. Oh well, at least Iggy wasn't there!
Poker Geek and Halverson made the money! Halverson's recap is here,
Derek won the unofficial (and undeclared, and prizeless) CardSquad last longer, when he finished in 259th. Joanne finished in 334th.
As for me? There are two hands that are worth recalling . . .
I was playing from IGN Live in Anaheim, where I was signing autographs and playing in SNGs for PokerStars. (Note: IGN Live was really cool. If you get a chance to attend one, GO!) I was seriously multi-tasking at one point, when a reporter from Area51 radio sat down and talked with me about my books, poker, Star Trek, gaming, voice overs, and all that other crap I do.
I moved up to almost 3000 chips early, but I missed some draws, got pushed off some hands by GRob, and slowly dropped back down. I went into a shell as the blinds came up, and with just over 900 left, and the blinds at 75/150 I was way behind par. I pushed from early position with a A-8o. It was folded to ohthen, who called with pocket nines. The flop came ace, ace . . . nine, giving ohthen a full house against my set. The turn was a queen, and I caught the case ace on the river to make quads and double up! Dems quads, beetches!
I was back in it, but still way below par, so I played a selectively aggressive game and looked for another chance to double up. I managed to grab some blinds for a few rounds to stay alive, until I found AJo UTG. If you read my regular blog, you know that I fucking hate AJ, because it's usually the last hand I play in a tournament -- it was the hand I busted out with in the 2005 WSOP when the villain flopped a set of sevens.
So I make a standard raise with my Ajax and it's folded to the villain who is coincidentally sitting in the seat vacated by ohthen. He raises me all-in, and I hope for at least a coin flip.
When he turns over KJo, I am very, very happy . . . of course he flops a gutshot, and makes it on the turn. I love it when I can induce the bad call . . . but of course that opens me up to the bad beat. I go out in 328th. Not bad at all, considering the field was over 1400 players. Nice hand, sir. Well played.
I thought this tournament was a good move by PokerStars to embrace bloggers and spread their brand. I've spoken extensively with people at PokerStars who helped put this together, and they are all very happy about the turnout and the results. This is likely to become an anual event.
If you played, and you blogged about it, feel free to pimp it out in the comments.
1. I can second your issues with AJ, Wil. AJ has cost me numerous hands, an SNG once or twice, and the $20 Katrina relief tourney. It just looks so good to play, though! Argh!
However, at least you went out with a little dignity and in the top 25% of the players. I mentioned this in an earlier entry (and on my blog in the link below), but my Aces were cracked with a suited Hammer. I was the 9th person out of the tourney, 3 minutes in. That felt.. strange. A lil proud to be knocked out of the blogger tourney with the Hammer, but strange nonetheless.
Posted at 5:01PM on Oct 24th 2005 by Mike