Poker Press Release

The Big One III Summer Final
By PokerPagesKev

2003 Summer Results
2003 Spring Report

The Big One III Finals are always special events in the school, and this one was one of the best. The lead up to the final was a bit more low key than normal and this means that not enough players are actively participating in the forum, or perhaps even know about the website, so I urge everyone reading this to let all players at the tables know about this valuable resource. With the general increase in members over the past few months a Big One III place was harder to come by, but we still had 487 who logged in for the final event. There were 10 'D' qualifiers who were shooting for a top prize of 15,000 sponsorship points and 14 'C' qualifiers who were after a top prize of 7,000 sponsorship points.

The action got underway at 2pm CDT and our first casualty was kenj closely followed by previous 10k warm up winner, bmfjeff, with the early chip leader being Buncher. On the hour jfez took over the chip lead with 43,000 chips and an early big name casualty was freddieboy who has previously made the last 2 Big One finals. Freddie's loss was our gain however as he did a superb commentary along with our own Mark on the rest of the event. There was a chat room on www.paltalk.com that at one stage had over 100 school members actively participating in discussing the final, and this type of broadcast really enhances the community spirit of PSO. Watch out for more broadcasts from Freddie in the future.

On with the action and D. Reich took over the chip lead on two and a half hours with 78,000 and Jmuzzey in close proximity. Spindr, on the same table as Jmuzzey, was the first player to go over 100k and at the time was way out on his own until torax won a massive pot to go to 151,000. One of the surprises in the early action was the exit of previous Big One III Spring final winner JCastle, who has also been doing well over at BugsysClub winning the Smash and Grab League. JCastle who was a 'D' qualifier went out in 302nd.

On 4 hours we had a new chip leader and someone who was going to be a serious contender in the final, namely Rusty_Nail, whom I had been watching for a while as he was previously on a table with rustynut who was also playing well. Juvamukti was also getting into contention when he passed 250k, and as we approached the final 20 players all the D qualifiers had been eliminated, with Zipman putting up the best showing in 81st place. However the C qualifiers were fairing a lot better as we still had pokermats, Rusty_Nail, Debonair, Juvamukti, Lloyd and tewilliger all battling for sponsorship points.

pokermats was the first of these to depart picking up 350 points for finishing 19th, Juvimukti also picked up 350 points for coming 17th and Debonair collected 700 points for hanging on 2 more places to 15th. The other 3 C qualifiers all made the final table.

On to the final table and this is how the chip counts stood.

Seat 1 tewilliger 290,000
Seat 2 hagar02 743,500
Seat 3 Pokergoddess 716,000
Seat 4 Rusty_Nail 1,066,000
Seat 5 Lloyd 128,000
Seat 6 E Strict 392,000
Seat 7 BJBuddha 75,500
Seat 8 JohnEPark 305,000
Seat 9 TheMoron 395,500
Seat 10 Lyckoper 781,000

The first player out was BJBuddah who came to the table short stacked and went all in on hand 4 with 10 J unsuited only to be called by Lyckoper the 2nd chip leader with A Q. With an Ace hitting the flop Buddah bit the dust.

tewilliger was next to go on hand 10 when he got into a raising war with the chip leader, and firmly had a Rusty_Nail banged into his coffin. tewilliger was all in with Kd Qs only to find himself dominated by Rusty's As Ks. With an ace hitting the flop it was all over, but a great performance none the less as he picked up 700 sponsorship points for 9th place.

Hands 15 and 16 of the final saw Pokergoddess get some dream cards. First she had an extremely large pair (unshown) and pushed Lyckoper off of a pot in hand 15, and then in hand 16 she had a pair of Aces and knocked the stuffing out of hagar02 who had opened the pot with a raise. She was not messing around and went all in for about 700k both times and was making a statement to the rest, of "you have to call me for all your stack".

It was at this stage that Lyckoper seemed to switch gears, as he seemed to raise nearly every hand for the next 5 or 6 hands and took the blinds which were at 8,000, 16,000 with a running 1,500 anti. He was fast approaching the million chip mark and was a serious threat to the chip leader.

Hand 28 saw the next significant action as EStrict made it 86,000 to go and was re-raised by Rusty_Nail to 290,000. EStrict called and showed Ad 9d with Rusty showing Ah Js. The better hand held up and we had our 8th place finisher who may have got a bit busy with a suited Ace. I think it was the pressure that Rusty was applying as EStrict had already raised in a few previous hands and had Rusty come over the top but maybe a lesson should be learned here that IF you are going to CALL all in for you chips, when reraised, you may as well have gone all in yourself to put the pressure on first.

Hand 37 was where Lloyd went all in with KK only to be called by hagar02 with JJ. The kings held up and this put Lloyd right in the final with over half a million chips and was a severe dent for hagar02. The very next hand Lloyd was dealt the jacks and called JohnEPark's all in bet of 196,000, holding AQ. With no help from the board Lloyd had suddenly climbed to 750k and JohnEPark was out in 7th place.

TheMoron who is soon to be married to other finalist Pokergoddess came unstuck in hand no 47 when starting with 600,000 chips he tangled with the chip leader Rusty_Nail. TheMoron went all in with a pair of 3's only to find that Rusty was a nailed on certainty with his Aces. Good luck to both Pokergoddess and The Moron on your wedding day.

So down to 5 players and we had two 'C' qualifiers, 2 'B' qualifiers, and an 'X' qualifier left. TheMoron's exit put both Pokergoddess and Lyckoper in the sponsorship points.

Chip counts were
hagar02 530,000
Pokergoddess 584,000
Rusty_Nail 2,104,000
Lloyd 710,000
Lyckoper 967,000

Blinds were now up to 10k-20k with a running 2k anti

Hand 60 saw the Goddess make her customary all in raise with AK and she got a caller this time in Lyckoper who held KQ. The pot was worth 1.2 million chips and the best hand once again held up in the final. On hand 66 however there was a change of tactics from her as this time she only raised to 120,000 with her big stack. hagar02 thought he smelt weakness and put her to the test with an all in raise to 488,000 holding KQ, but Pokergoddess had the hand dominated once again with AQ and the 'X' qualifier left in 5th place.

Pokergoddess had moved into clear 2nd position with over 1.5 million chips, with Lyckoper now the chip pauper on 354,000, but did he have any gears left? The answer was yes as on hand 85 he found a pair of queens and was all in against Pokergoddess with a pair of 8's. With the queens holding up Lyckoper had doubled through and was back in the game. He continued to steel pots by playing aggressive and was once again a force to be reckoned with.

On hand 101 Lyckoper made it 160,000 to go and faced a tough all in re-raise from Lloyd. He made the choice to call with a pair of 2's, which at best is about an even money call. Lloyd held AJ but the overcards were no good to him and he busted out in 4th place winning 1,000 sponsorship points. I think this was a bad call from Lyckoper but his luck held out and he was back over a million chips again.

Hand 108 saw the demise of Pokergoddess who had played superb poker. She decided to go all in with As 10s and was called by Rusty_Nail for about half his chips with As 9s. The flop was 5c Js Qd with the turn the 8c and the river the 10d so this was the first significant outdraw of the final and Pokergoddess had to settle for a consolation 1,000 sponsorship points for an unlucky 3rd place. This is one of many great hands in the final that is worthy of debate on the forum.

So we were down to two players with Rusty_Nail holding a 2-1 chip advantage over Lyckoper. After some twoing and frowing we reached hand number 143 of the fina,l and what an interesting last hand it was. We were all staing at our screens wondering who had won the pot initially as they both had similar types of hands and draws.

Rusty_Nail was dealt 9s 7h with Lyckoper being dealt 7c 6d. Lyckoper made it 80k to go preflop and after being called by Rusty_Nail we had an interesting flop of 7d 8h 5h giving Lyckoper middle pair and an up and down straight draw and Rusty middle pair, better kicker AND a gutshot straight draw. All the chips went in and the turn was the 5d, giving them both 2 pair, and a possible split pot with a card over a 9. The river was the 8d which gave them both two pair 8's and 7's but Rusty's nine kicker won the pot. What a hand, and how many of you realised that the 9 kicker won it? Who was the favorite after the flop? Maybe someone will run the hand after the flop through a simulator?

Lyckoper collected 2,000 sponsorship points for coming second and Rusty_Nail received 7,000 sponsorship points for winning.

About the Winner

Many of you asked who was the winner Rusty_Nail so I decided to find out a bit more about him, and his thoughts of the tournament.

The winner was Robert Shaffer from Milwaukee in Wisconcin who has been an annual member under this username for about 14 months. Previously he played under the username poolshark from the start of 2002.

Kevin: You were chip leader in the Big One III for a long time did you always have the feeling you were going to win?

Rusty_Nail: I made a few dumb plays that helped me get that chip lead...other than that I felt I was playing pretty well and if I continued to do so I felt I had a real good chance of winning the tournament.

Kevin: What was the key hand/pot for you in the tournament?

Rusty_Nail: I think the key hand was the 2nd worst hand I played all day, but it doubled me up to take the chip lead...I had about 165k at 1k/2k blinds. I open raised for the minimum with the 9s10s. The other big stack at the table(about 190k) coldcalled. Right away I felt I was being set up for something and he was looking to make a play at the pot. The flop came QJx with one spade. I checked and I believe he bet the pot. For some reason I decided he was bluffing and I checkraised all in...he beat me into the pot and turned over AA, luckily I caught a K on the river.

Kevin: Which players impressed you in the final table?

Rusty_Nail: I was very impressed by all the players at the final table, everyone played a tough game and made it a difficult feat to win the tournament. A lot of the players at the final table were making all-in raises preflop which was the toughest for me to deal with, especially when they were over the top of my opening raises.

Kevin: Where are you going to be using your sponsorship points?

Rusty_Nail: So far I have decided on Tunica for sure, other possiblilites would be Canterbury coming up soon here (closest casino to me with a tournament big enough), I would also like to go out to California to play a tournament as well...not sure which one yet though. The other tournament I hope to play will be the opening no limit event at wsop. Although I'm not certain on anything yet, I would like to try to play more $500 buyins. I think I need to give myself the most chances to win some money rather than playing some of the higher buy in tournaments.

Kevin: How did you choose the username Rusty_Nail?

Rusty_Nail: When I decided to change my name I couldn't really decide on a name, I have poolshark for all my online poker sites. (We won't get into the reasons behind the name change :) ) I had been playing on paradise for a few years and have played up to the 20/40 games a few times but for the most part I play 2/4-5/10. Anyways...I always like the play of a player by the name "Rusty-Nail" there and I liked the name as well so I thought I would borrow it.

Kevin: Do you enjoy the format of the Big One III

Rusty_Nail: I enjoy that format the best of all the tournaments at pso, it gives everyone enough play so that it is less of a crap shoot which I feel is important when having the big events. My only gripe is that there needs to be short breaks scheduled into the tournaments.

Kevin: Have you had any successs in any live tournaments?

Rusty_Nail: I actually don't play many tournaments at all, I play mostly limit holdem cash games. I think i've played 3 tournaments in real life and about a dozen or so online. I've cashed in a few but nothing to write home about.

Kevin: What do you think of PSO?

Rusty_Nail: I think PSO is great for people looking to learn about the game of poker without having to pay a steep price for "lessons". I wish I could spend more time playing there but it is hard for me at times becuase when I have time to play I spend it on the real money sites. I think the recent additions over the last year have been great, I enjoy reading Barry Tennenbaum's stuff the most since he specializes in the area I like to play the most, limit holdem. I think the lessons and the forums are worth the price of PSO alone. The only thing I would like to see more of at PSO is for more people to get into playing limit holdem ring games. I think this is where people can learn to get a better feel for the game. Also with the explosion poker is going through these are the games that are currently being played the most.

Kevin: Are you going to Tunica for the 2nd convention in January?

Rusty_Nail: I was not planning on going to PSO convention in tunica until I won the Big One III since it interferes with the big remote control car race here in Milwaukee in the beginning of January (One of these days I will grow up). However I think I will have to jump at this opporitunity now.

Kevin: Any words you would like to add?

Rusty_Nail: Once again I would like to thank everyone at PSO for running a great program...Being at that final table was very exciting with everyone looking on and a live broadcast (which I wish I could have caught but didn't want to download anything while playing) going on at the same time. I don't think a whole lot of people were rooting for me to win but a big thanks to the few supporters I had, I think I even won pokermats some money in a sidebet he made with a friend of his.