2 in a Row For Joe

Due to John Marsh’s heavy recruiting effort, 14 players came out to Fremont for the final event of the year.  Both John and Christine LaMonaca were still in contention for a seat.

John’s day started out well.  In the first orbit at 25/50 John and Elaine On got into a raising war, eventually leading to John pushing all in and Elaine calling.  John turned over AA and Elaine KK.  AA held and John had an early double up.

It took just 3 levels to get to the final table.  With the blind 75/150, Christine raised to 350.  Brad Jensen called.  Troy Soult raised to 1,100.  It folded back around to Brad.  With about 3,100 left Brad jammed and Troy called.  Troy held JJ but Brad had set the trap with AA.  An ace on the flop sealed the double up for Brad and left Troy with about 20 big blinds.

The first bust out of the final table occurred shortly thereafter.  After a number of limps Christine made it 750.  One fold and Troy jammed 3,700 and Christine called.  They apparently both had 2 cards but after 12 beers I failed to note what they were.  The board was 246TQ and Christine won the hand and Troy was out in 9^th.  Although Troy had finished the season with enough points to win a seat, he will unfortunately not be able to attend the WSOP this year.

The next bust out was two levels and several more beers later.  The action folded to Joe Wiebelhaus on the button.  With the blinds 100/200/25 Joe raised to 525.  Brad looked down at A9 and with 4,500 moved all in from the small blind.  The big blind folded and Joe called and turned over AT and had Brad dominated in an all in pot two weeks in a row.  The flop basically ended it with 45T rolling out and the board ran Q6 to seal the deal.

The rest of the event was gratefully recorded by the sober participants and not by the impaired tournament director.

Four players would receive points.  Sandi Sarmiento went out 7^th, Steve Stockmal went out 6^th, and John went out 5^th, ending his season short of the WSOP seat goal.  Luckily for John just two days earlier he was able to qualify for a WSOP seat through Piranha sister league SeganPro.

Alex would go out 4^th with A4 while Christine held KT.  Christine raised and Alex moved all in and she called.  She flopped top pair on a flop of JK8.  The turn brought a T to give her top pair but Alex picked up the gut shot but the river 2 ended his season.  Alex earned 3 points.  Although he didn’t earn a WSOP seat, Alex’s late season efforts should bode well for his prospects in Season 13.

Three handed Joe and Michael “Gordo” Gordon got it all in pre flop.  Joe held A8 and Gordo had A5.  A flop 8 sealed the deal and Gordo went out 3^rd and received 12 points.  Although Gordo was not able to earn his seat, either, he also had a strong late season run and he and his magnificent hair will be back to battle in Season 13.

That left Joe and Christine heads up.  Christine had now earned at least a partial WSOP seat but she could play her way into a full seat with a victory.  She was not able to overtake Joe and went out in a pot where Joe held AK and she held 44.  This classic coin flip went to Joe with a K on the flop.  Christine earned 23 points as runner up and secured a partial WSOP seat for her efforts.  Joe earned 32 points for the victory.  A more sober director would have gotten a picture of Joe but that didn’t happen.  Instead, an artistic representation.

Congrats to Joe in joining the back-to-back win club.  Joe had already cemented his WSOP seat but his victory moved him up to 5^th in the overall standings.

Thanks for everyone who came out and gave both Christine and John a fair shake at earning their WSOP Seat.

Thanks to Gordo for almost getting John, Rob Astarita, and I into a cash game later that evening with probably a murderer.  Game didn’t happen so already running good heading into the WSOP.

If I don’t see you at the WSOP, have a great summer and we look forward to seeing you right around the corner in Season 13.