Champ

After taking down the third qualifying match last week to force a playoff for the final seat in the Pokerlistings Run Good Challenge 2 Finals, I ran good again this week to bring home the bacon and capture the title, the money, the glory, the trophy, the championship bracelet, and the commemorative watch (note: only the money actually happened...)

Spaceman, Pauly and I had to have a playoff for the final two seats, which we did on Tuesday at midnight. After dispatching Pauly, Spaceman and I both had our finals seats.

In the finals I won the first hand against the PokerShrink, who thinks I'm a maniac, when I three bet him from the button with AhKh and extracted some more value vs his AJ when an ace flopped. I played pretty aggressively, picked up a few hands, avoided some trouble spots, and stuck a fork in Benjo when he trapped me in a pot but left me with plenty of outs. I'd been raising frequently, and with 25-50 blinds I made it 150 to go from middle position with 33, and Michele Lewis called. Benjo on the button made it 550 to go, and I elected to call and see what happened. Michele called as well, and we saw a flop of A-9-4 with two clubs. I checked, as did Michele, and Benjo offered us a free card. The turn was the 5c, giving me a gutshot wheel draw and a three high flush draw, which was obviously the nuts. I bet out half the pot, Michele thought before folding, and Benjo shoved, which was less than a min-raise. I called getting over 5-1, and Benjo's A-J was punked on the river when an offsuit deuce fell.

When will these kids learn to stop taking AJ up against the Kid! DYKWTFIA?!?!?! Anyway, I owed Benjo that for the beat he put on me in the second tourney of this series, when his QQ spiked a river Q against my AA after I'd trapped him. I pointed out that my suckout was about 5% as sick as his suckout, but Spaceman claimed it's more like 8% as sick.

The field was eventually whittled down to myself, Luckbox, Amy Calistri, Pokerlistings host Matt Showell, and Defending Run Good Challenge Champion, Change 100. Amy wielded her short stack with Juanda-esque efficiency: fearlessly blinding herself down almost to the felt before doubling up - a strategy she repeated at least three times before we were finally able to send her to the rail. "Lucky" Matt Showell was on the ropes when I got him to call off his chips with A-2 vs my A-9 on an ace high board, but he was saved when the board paired on the river to earn him a chop. Soon Matt's luck ran out, leaving Luckbox, Change100 and me to fight it out for the glory.

Change100 was unable to pull off the greatest poker back to back since Chan won his second WSOP bracelet, and instead settled for second place against me, after eliminating Luckbox in third place.

Thanks again to Pokerlistings.com for sponsoring this generous freeroll series.

-KD