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The Colorado Café in Watchung may be a new addition to
the NJ Free Poker schedule, but the players originating
from there are definitely not new to Texas Hold’em
Poker. For the second time in a row, a proud player
from the Colorado Café took home the gold in the
WFP-500 Tournament of Winners, which took place on his
home turf, Saturday, May 10.
This time the honor went to previous winner, Michael
O’Hare’s, friend and mentor, Allan “Where’s My Jacket?”
Pines, when he overcame more than 70 other players, to
grab first place and an NJ Free Poker $500 sponsored
seat to a Casino Cash event.
It was certainly an up and down final table for Pines,
as he himself would admit. He actually started by
making a tactical blunder that cost him to lose a huge
portion of his chip stack. When Lee “Hair Gel”
Balestier made one of his many all-in moves, Pines,
being VERY conservative, decided to fold his A-K of
spades. After everyone else at the final table also
folded, Balestier showed that he had an ace as well,
but implied that he didn’t have a great kicker. Had
Pines called, he would have had the dominating hand and
most likely would have doubled up, compliments of
Balestier’s considerable chip stack…, but who knew?
However, he certainly made up for it, when he took down
a monster pot in one of two turning points of the
tournament...
Hand of the Match:
It was about as daunting a pre-flop task, as any poker
player can imagine...All-in with 6-7 against pocket
aces. But that was Pines’ fate, as he committed all of
his chips in a hand against Danny DeJesus’s pocket
rockets. It seemed like Pines was doomed, although the
flop gave him a glimmer of hope with a gut-shot
straight draw (an approximate 19% glimmer)
But this time, Rob “Lord of the River” Grosch didn’t
wait until fifth street to crack the dominant hand, and
revealed a nine on the turn. Pines got his straight and
new life, in addition to, the devastated DeJesus’s
chips, and making Rob “Tyrant of the Turn” to Danny,
who finished in 7th place.
Hand of the Match 2:
Ken Asuquo started the tournament with a small chip
stack, but managed to hang on. Now, with six players
left, and under the gun, he went all-in with his last
$19,000 with A-Q off-suit. The small and big blind both
called him. When the flop came, 7-7-4, the small blind
went all-in, and the big blind folded. Much to
everyone’s surprise, the small blind had A-6 off-suit,
which put Ken in a great position to possibly
triple-up. The turn blanked, but the river revealed
another 6, and the two-pair knocked Asuquo out. Had he
won the hand he would have had $60,000 in chips and
near the chip lead. As it was, the poker gods were not
smiling on Asuquo on this night, and almost doesn’t
count.
There were quite a few notable WFP power players at
the final table, such as Balestier, Grif “Mortgage
Broker” Auld, and Chris “Black Eyed Peas” Van Cleve.
But in the end, it came down to Pines versus Mark “Fist
Pumper” Kline.
With Jon “by the rules” Simons taking over at the helm,
and after a small battle, Kline decided to go all-in
with A-3, in his hand. Pines immediately called with
A-Q, giving him a dominating lead. Unfortunately, for
Kline, the board would not pair his lower kicker, and
that meant Pines would follow in the tradition of
Michael “Grey Shirt Guy” O’ Hare, as another of
Colorado Café’s WFP-500 winners. I guess we will have
to just wait and wee see if that trend continues the
next time around.
Congratulations to Allan Pines, and to everyone who
participated, for another successful NJ Free Poker
Special event. Thank you to all of the WFP Dealers for
a job well done, with a special thank you to Rob Grosch
for organizing the tournament.
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