Adrian Starts It Up

Welcome to Piranha Poker Team season 13! Our first event of the season kicked off on Saturday 25-Aug, with a crowd of 27 players, including two players new to Piranha. With new players, new table felts, and a fresh, empty points leaderboard, our new season was off to a start. First bust out was Dominic “Freerollin” Chan, who got it in good with AA pre-flop vs. Michael Gordon’s QQ. Unfortunately for Dom, the run-out included not one but two queens, cracking aces and ending his day early. Another notable hand that happened before the final table, which foreshadowed action to come: Michael Druskin, with , and Adrian Aguilar, with KK managed to get all their chips in the pot after the flop of 356 (two clubs). The turn was the , giving Michael the nut flush and Adrian a set of kings, but the river was a 5, backdooring Adrian into a full house, providing him a much-needed double-up.

The final table seated at around 6PM, pretty late for only 27 players.

Final table consisted of: Vineet Kumar, lower left, Cluadine Lally, Robert Reece, Bill Sims, Ken Tramiel, Michael Druskin, Michael Gordon, scowling while raking his chips in, Adrian Aguilar, and Gerry Shebar. There were no oversized stacks at this point, with Michael D. a slight short stack. After a bit of playing, we had a pretty exciting hand at 500/1000:

Michael G. (UTG) led out with 2500, folded to Vineet (in middle position), who jammed all-in for around 11k in chips. More folds, then Bill (Button) shoved his big stack over the top. Michael calls and we have a three way all-in. Michael , Vineet , Bill .

The run-out was , giving Vineet a straight draw, which he turned with . The river was no help to anyone. Triple up for Vineet, and Michael was out. Next up, the other Michael went all in with . Vineet folded and Claudine called with . The came on the flop, ending Claudine’s night.

Bubble time! We’re at 800/1600 with 200 ante. Vineet shoved with , and Robert thought about it and shoved over the top with . Flop was , and Vineet makes his straight for the second critical time when the turn comes . It did not hold up this time. showed up on the river giving Robert quads and Vineet nothing. We’re now in the money.

After the bubble burst, we had a quick series of bust-outs during 1500/3000/500. The first points score of the night happened when Ken shoved his remaining 3 big blinds with . Adrian made the call with , and the board of was enough to knock Ken out, who took home 5 points for his effort.

Soon enough, Michael opened up action for 6500 chips with , Gerry shoved for 14k more with , and Michael called. The board was , so the pair of nines sends Gerry packing with 8 points.

A few hands later, Bill went all in with Q10, Michael with AJ suited raised a stack of pink chips for protection, and at the end of that one, Ace high won it, and Bill earned 15 points. Then finally, Robert jammed with and Michael jammed over the top with . Both players make a flush with a runout, but Michael’s is bigger. Robert goes home with 24 points for the night.

At this point around 8PM, Michael had a pretty overwhelming chip lead, but Adrian was not ready to back down. Here are the final two, ready to battle it out heads up:

With his first Piranha win within reach, Adrian inched his way back to even stacks. It took an hour of heads up play, but in the end it was Adrian with who finally stacked Michael with with a Q on the board.

This humble tournament director could not believe a 27 person Piranha tournament lasted 9 hours, but here we are. Great job to the points scorers, and see you next tournament.