AND HERE’S TO YOU, MR. ROBINSON

Piranha’s 2nd tournament of Season 13 brought 22 players to sweat it out – literally!  It was an extremely hot day in Tara Hill making things quite sticky. After taking last season off,  Steve Stockmal came ready to play, but unfortunately the poker gods were not with him and he was our first of 2 bust-outs in Level 2.  An interesting hand early in level 3, Gil Amparo with and Ricky Flora with battled it out.  Gil, on the button led out and Ricky flatted.  Flop is , and we have a check, bet, call.  Turn is a , with another check, bet, call.  River brings a and Ricky leads out big, Gil shoves and Ricky calls.  When they table their hands Ricky, ends up with the bigger boat over  Gil.

After 2 more bust-outs we were down to two tables mid-way through Level 3.  We had one more player leave at the end of level 3. There was no significant action for the next hour, and we did not have another bust-out until level 5, when we had 5, followed by 3 in level 6 and we had our final table just before 4:30 p.m. consisting of Haisam Nijem, Rob Reece, Andy Park, Tony Robinson, David Lam, Ryan Drake, Adrian Aguilar, Anne Stewart, Ricky Flora

Our first final table bust-out was on this hand: David Lam holds , and Andy Park, .   Flop is with rags on turn and river. After big bets and calls Andy finally shoves on river and a call from David. That’s all she wrote for David.

Next out was last week’s champ, Adrian Aguilar, when his pre flop shove with A J off ran into Ricky’s K K and no help for Adrian on the run out.

Haisam had two bad run-ins with pocket 7 7 that ended his day as the dreaded bubble.  First, late in level 9, Anne with raises on the button pre flop and Haisam shoves with his .  Anne’s hopes drop when Haisam overtakes her with a flop of , and no help on turn of , but the 2-outer hits the river giving Anne a full house and Haisam is crippled.

A few hands later Ricky shoves pre flop with pocket 7 7 and Haisam calls off his short stack with a K 9 off.  No help as the board runs out and Haisam is out in 7th place.

We are now at our final 6, all in the points.

At this point, Mr. Robinson started getting very lucky, whoa, whoa, whoa.  This hand set the stage for a quickly mounting chip stack.  Tony, who was short-stacked, shoved pre flop with :A6c and was called by Ricky with his pocket 8 8.  Ricky was feeling pretty good when the flop came QJK, needing to fade a 10.  The turn was another Q and Ricky was one card from safety, but the unreal K came on the river counterfeiting Ricky’s pocket pair and giving Tony the big double-up.

Just before 7 p.m. there is a 3-way all in between Andy Park with A 5, Tony with J J, and Ryan with K K.  There was no help for Tony or Andy and the short-stacked Ryan tripled up, sending Andy home in 6th place earning 2 points.

Rob was out in 5th place for 5 points when Tony shoved pre flop with pocket 9 9 against Rob’s A 10 and there was no help for Rob as the board ran out.

The next big hand where Mr. Robinson continued to run good and build his stack, went like this.  Anne, who was one of the bigger stacks, min raises to 4000 with A K, Tony raises to 12000 with Q Q, and Anne shoves putting Tony all in.  There was no A or K in sight to help her and Tony doubled up.

Soon after that, Mr. Robinson looks down at another amazing hand with K K and bets 6000.  Ryan, who is fairly short stacked, shoves with Q 10 off.  Tony calls and Ryan groans when he sees the Kings, but has a little hope with a flop of 9 A Q.  He gets up and ready to leave when a 3 comes on the turn, but the miracle two-outer, another Q comes on the river and Ryan doubles up.

Ryan is still short-stacked and shoves again pre flop this time with a K 10.  Anne snap calls and turns over pocket rockets!  Ryan is out in 4th place earning 9 points.

Three handed play doesn’t last very long.  Mr. Robinson shoves pre flop with his A 10 off.  Anne tanks for awhile and decides she’s ok to go home now and calls with her K Q.  No help for Anne and she’s out in 3rd place earning 20 points.

It’s now heads-up between big chip-stack, Mr. Robinson and Ricky Flora.  A couple of hands in and it’s over.  Ricky is holding and Tony has .  Ricky is feeling pretty good with two pair on the flop. Ricky shoves and needs to fade another heart, but Mr. Robinson takes it down when the comes on the turn.

And, here’s to you Mr. Robinson!