The rebuy period was more lively than it had been in a while, with a couple of red table folks making the walk of shame at least three times each. One hand that was particularly brutal for HumpinHorses (and foreshadowed the night to come) was an all in preflop showdown against CMoney. Showing some frustration, HumpinHorses re-raised all in over the top of CMoney's 3x raise. Everyone folded around and I happily called with KK. HumpinHorses sheepishly shows the Ks6s - in about as bad of shape as you can be preflop. Low and behold, the flop came down Qs7s4s. Things looked bleak for my cowboys at this point, only about 1.8% to pull this one out of the gutter. Low and behold, the board paired on the turn, and the case king landed on the river to give me the full house. The table went crazy and DoctorLove captured the moment for posterity:
At the very end of the rebuy I witnessed another awesome hand at the green table. In the last hand before the break, TheCanuck put a move on with the deuces in an attempt to grab the $20 bonus. Jodizzle called with QQ hoping for a last-minute double up. The flop came out with a deuce and it looked like the $20 was heading to TheCanuck and a pile of bad luck to Jodizzle. A beautiful lady landed on the turn, and an even more beautiful lady doubled up going into the break.
With the 6,000 add-on taken by all and pizza comfortably consumed, it was time for the "real" tournament to begin. It didn't take long for the first man to fall, and fall hard. Coopzilla, formely known as the "guy to beat" in previous seasons fell first. This marks his 7th consecutive non-cash and I know he's going to be aching for action in May. Motown knocked him out on a preflop all in with Coopzilla showing KJ and Motown AT. The ace on the flop sealed the deal and Coopzilla is out 13th.
The DD bonus was still alive, and in another situation that should probably never have been, Diceman pushed all his chips in with AKs only to see Mojo call with the 22. Normally a call wouldn't make sense here, but Jodizzle's set of queens kept the bonus alive. The deuces held and Diceman goes out 12th. Mojo takes his third DD bonus and is now tied with SlimChance and HumpinHorses for the most in the league.
Another player who's in the midst of a serious dry spell continued that streak to bust 11th. DoctorLove was getting short-stacked and decided to re-raise all in with K6s. CMoney had initially raised with KJo and decided to take a shot with a big stack. HumpinHorses already found out what happens when you come with that weak K6s shit against the defending champ, and DoctorLove didn't fare any better.
Needing one more to bust before the final table was set, we had all in situations on both tables. On the red table, SlimChance took his A5 up against HumpinHorses holding KJ. On the green table, Mojo made his last stand with 44 against Motown's ATs. SlimChance was looking good in his hand until a nasty J fell on the river. An ace on the flop at the green table left Mojo in bad shape and no help came. We had a double elimination on the way to 8-handed play. Because Mojo started the hand with more chips than SlimChance, he got the better 9th place finish, with SlimChance going out in 10th. Amazingly, this was the best finish for SlimChance in his past four tournaments.
In what I can only describe as clairvoyance, Motown continued collecting scalps on an amazing call against the tightest player in the league. Jodizzle raised Motown's big blind and he came along for the ride with K6. The flop came down 986. Motown bet out a fairly small amount, and Jodizzle pushed immediately. Friends and neighbors, the odds that Jodizzle has a big pair here have to be in the 90% range. Even if it's not a big pair - literally ANY pair puts Motown in a bad spot here. From AA all the way down to 77 she's got that bottom pair crushed. Without hesitation he called her and she showed AQ for the bluff. In this case, almost a semi-bluff since her overcard outs were still live. No help came and she busts in 8th. No idea how Motown made that call - some might call it wreckless - but either way an amazing read.
Motown continued crushing all comers when StillNotFat made his stand with Ad3d on a flop that contained all clubs. Motown happily called the pure bluff with his made flush - Jc8c. StillNotFat out in 7th. Since his first victory in October of last year, StillNotFat has gone cold in his last five appearances.
New league member, Chuckles, got his first taste at a final table. In his third league tournament, he made a valiant showing, but ran into the one-man wrecking crew. Motown had a mountain of chips and wasn't about to fold a pair of threes when Chuckles pushed all in with AQ. The board stayed low and Motown eliminated his fifth player of the night earning his first Terminator achievement.
This might be a good time to sidetrack for a moment and describe a new feature of the league we tried for the first time. At the beginning of the tournament we set up little cups with everyone's name on them. The league members were given an extra T1000 chip that they could place into anyone's cup. The chips in the cup became a bounty for eliminating that player. With each rebuy, another T1000 was given to continue increasing the chip bounty on a player of the rebuy's choosing. And now the kicker - if a player made the money, he or she would get the chips in their own jar. Being the league points leader, along with multiple busts during the rebuy period left T9000 in my jar at the end of the rebuy.
With five players left, we only needed to lose one more before the money. I was the short stack and not looking good. I folded a pair of nines after Motown re-raised me all in with AT. We played the hand out anyway, and I would have doubled up. Now getting really desparate, the key hand of the tournament came down. TheCanuck, who had been fairly quiet raised to T6000 with the blinds at 1000-2000. HumpinHorses had 20,000 chips left and re-raised all in. I looked down at AKs and actually thought about folding it. My problem was TheCanuck was still in the hand and likely calling, and Mini-Muth was still in the tournament. If I busted on this hand I'd get overtaken for the league lead. I finally flashed my cards to Mini-Muth who had already folded and said "If I fold this, I'm not playing to win". I push all my chips in. To my surprise, TheCanuck folded. HumpinHorses has had an amazingly bad run of luck late in the tournament, and it would continue this night as he showed AQ. The AK held up and I went from 17,000 chips to 40,000. In addition, HumpinHorses was down to his last 3,000 chips and in tough shape. If I waited out his elimination I'd get the extra 9,000 in my bounty cup.
Three hands later TheCanuck finished him off with 65 against 87 on a 9987x board. HumpinHorses out in 5th and we're in the money.
Motown had bled a few chips away seeing lots of flops and was down to his last 22K. I had worked up to almost 60K at this point and was feeling good. With Ac9c on the button I decided to raise to 6500. Motown went into the tank. As it turned out, he thought too long. Finally he pushed all in and after seeing his play all night, I decided this was a fairly easy call for 1/3 of my chips. He showed 6c2c for the stone-cold bluff. The A9 held and Motown, after busting five people and being the one-time overwhelming chip leader, quietly exited in 4th place.
Down to the final three, and Mini-Muth was still alive. Folks, this is historical. The same two players making the top three in three consecutive tournaments. We may never see it again. The chip count was in my favor - I was sitting on 100K, with TheCanuck around 38K and Mini-Muth short-stacked with 14K. Without a lot of options he pushed all in quickly. TheCanuck folded and I was calling with any two cards. The chance to bust the guy right behind me in league points, as well as the $50 bounty were enough. He showed a decent KT against my J8. The flop came with an 8, the turn and river came J, 8 giving me the full house and busting Mini-Muth in 3rd.
TheCanuck started the heads up battle down about 3-1 in chips and fought valiantly. He limped into a few pots and min-raised a few, and saw his chips move below 20K before making his final stand with J8o. I had A6 - an easy call. The ace on the flop all but sealed the deal, and it held. TheCanuck out 2nd, CMoney takes another victory in season 5!
This is truly a sick run for both CMoney (1, 2, 1) and Mini-Muth (2, 1, 3) in season 5. To put it into perspective, CMoney won last season with 1,007 total points in six tournaments. After only three tournaments, both top players have more points this season. When Mini-Muth won in season 2, he finished with only 959 points.
What's even better, however, is there is still a fighting chance for the entire league to come back and overtake us. All it takes is a victory and 400 points to bring TheCanuck, Jodizzle, and Mojo into striking distance. A couple decent finishes by anyone and they're right back in it. Start mentally preparing for tournament 4 - you're going to need to come for blood!
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