Trip Report
by foldem (Peter Secor)
This will be short & sweet, after reading the wonderful trip reports
others have already posted. I certainly wish I could write as well as
you folks do!
The Stud Tourney got off at 9AM on Sunday, so yours truly wasn't
around to see it get off, but Rachel Croson was kind enough to track
the bustouts which started with Bill Alan's new protege, David Baugh.
Tough luck David, but you'll do better next year.
The tourney ran long enough that I begged cajoled and arm-twisted
Robert Jacobs into handling the finish so I could play in the Trop
Stud/8 tourney. Thanks Robert!
Here's the run-down, based on Robert's notes. You final table guys
can chime in with your thoughts...
Final Table:
seat/name
1/ Eric "Jaeger" Holtman
2/ Ralph Ballario
3/Greg Pappas
4/Bill Lewis
5/Tiger "The Organizer" 123
6/ David "Davles" Fruchter
7/Ernst-Dieter "Jupiler" Martin
8/ Peter "TrayRacer" Segal
Some thoughts on the final table...
Eric Holtman had locked up the Overall when Mitch Kramer went out with
two tables left...
Peter Segal must have the best final table appearance record of all
time at *ARG events, with about 50%...
Greg Pappas is certainly the gabbiest player I have ever heard, a
constant stream of jokes, abuse and laughter...
Segal is out in 8th place, followed in 7th by Bill Lewis when Pappas
rivers a third 5 to beat Lewis' trip 4s.
E-D Martin is Pappas' next victim with 30 miles against Jupiler's K
high.
Tiger falls next in 5th place when he and Fruchter both have aces up,
but Davles has KK to beat Tiger's 33.
Tiger adds:
--------------------------
well, there was a little bit more to the hand than that. ;)
we were down to five players, with an ante of T100, bring-in of T200,
and limits of 500/1000. i had just under T3000. david had the second
biggest stack.
earlier at the final table, when i had raised the bring-in, david (to
my immediate left) re-raised me on two occasions and i released my
hand each time.
in this hand, i had split aces with a trey. ralphie brought it in,
greg folded, and i raised. david, showing an eight, re-raised. eric
folded, as did ralphie. david was *not* happy when i made it three
bets. he hesitated and called.
as it turned out, david had split eights with an ace kicker. if he
were to assume that i really did have split aces, there were only
three cards in the deck that could help him: the other two eights and
the case ace. of course, it was possible that i had pocket kings or
*maybe* pocket queens, since i would have played these hands exactly
the same way.
on fourth street, i got a medium card, and david caught an ace. he
was high with the eight, and checked. i bet and he check-raised. i
didn't even believe that he had caught a case card, so i re-raised
all-in. yup. he did buy the case ace and i was *way* behind.
even though i paired my three on fifth street, david caught two
running kings on sixth and seventh to make aces and kings. my only
win was one of the two remaining treys....but i found one more cowboy
on the river, and i had to leave.
------- End Tiger's comments
Now it's Ralph all the way home as Pappas finally falls when Ballario
shows a six high straight.
Next Fruchter's busted draw puts him in 3rd vs Ralph's Kings up.
Finally Ralph Ballario shows TT77 to defeat Overall Champ Eric
Holtman's wired 88 to take the Championship.
That's my report. I don't think Mike Paulle has anything to worry
about :)
Thanks again to Kate, Patrice, TK and the great staff and dealers of
the Tropicana for showing us a great time.
And a special thanks to the 100 or so RGP'rs who once again have shown
the poker world that you can be a winner and have fun at the same
time!
See you at BARGE,
Peter
"The mouth of a happy man is filled with beer"
- Egyptian Proverb (as told at Hollywood Park)
