Poker Nations
Twenty players came out for the Memorial Day Weekend tournament on Sunday May 27th. Taking the chip lead early on and never relinquishing it was Matt Defibaugh aka duhmattman.
He had an opportunity to eliminate Anthony Martino aka ajmartino in a big pot. Matt flopped a set of 5's on a board of KT5 and Anthony held QJ for the open-ender.
The turn brought a 9 and additional betting took place, the river paired the board, bringing a Ten and Anthony check-called and took a big hit to his stack, dropping him down to 1300 chips.
He wasn't done yet, however, as he came over the top of a raise by Noxious with pocket 9's. Noxious makes the call with J8 of clubs and flops a flush draw which doesn't materialize and Anthony doubles through.
Anthony then goes on to be lucky a second time against the pocket Aces of Noxious when he holds KJ on a QTx board. The turn brings a 9 and both players get all their money in and Noxious is drawing dead and sent to the rail.
Despite this, Anthony still significantly trails the chip leader Matt, who has been dominating the game. The final table convenes and is made up of the following players:
BarkerAjax and gjecat tangle in a massive pot when Barker overshoves preflop with A8 of hearts. The cat is ready to pounce with pocket Tens, and promptly flops a set with a board of 24T with two clubs and one heart.
The cat must've already used up its nine lives, however, as the turn is the Queen of hearts......the river the 5 of hearts and BarkerAjax catches runner-runner to take a huge chunk of the cats chips!
Matt is on fire as he picks up pocket Kings and crushes the Queens held by Ronin. Then promptly sends gjecat to the rail when a rivered Queen pairs his AQ to take down the pocket Jacks of the cat!
Four handed play begins with the following chip stacks:
BarkerAjax overcommits with KQ on an AQx board and ajmartino holds Ax in the small blind and leaves Barker with just 57 chips!
Anthony runs lucky again three-handed. He comes in for a raise on the button with pocket 9's. Tom Luoma aka RicoTubbs reraises from the SB holding pocket Kings. Anthony calls and they see a flop of 44Q. Tom leads for half the pot, Anthony puts him all-in and Tom makes the call. Anthony pulls a rabbit out of a hat and one of the two remaining 9's in the deck falls on the turn and Tom takes 3rd place.
In heads-up play Matt continues to dominate, and never relinquishes the chip lead. Both players get their chips in with middle pair of 8's after the flop, but Matts kicker leads and holds up, giving him the 4th week win!
In the league standings, Anthony Martino aka ajmartino takes the win for May, having secured a 1st, two 2nd place and one 4th place finish during the month. However, because he is President of PokerNations he is awarding the monthly league prize to the runner-up for May, gjecat. The cat will receive a PokerNations logo tee, congrats!
