In fact, the report was so big, I had to split it into multiple posts!! :)

Bristol Street Classic V - RESULTS!!!

Fiften people paid $10 to each get 500 chips and a chance to walkaway with part of a prize purse worth eventually $210. The field was tough, the action fast, but only one person would walk away with the title of "Bristol Street V Champion"

Seated at table one was : "The Knave of Hearts" Rob LeGood, Amanda "Easy" C., "Slippery Pete" Aultman, "The Incredible Hulk" David Baxter, Tye "8-Ball" Zinger, and Jonanthan "Oragami" Clayman, Dave "Brava" Selberg,

Table two looked like : Paul Woodard, "The Princess" Lisa Hagen, Chris "Corpse" Klein, Erin "The River" Moffat, Anthony "Quickfingers" Runstedler, Chris "Zorro" Taylor, "Kelso" Lantz, and "Handsome" Rob C.,

Round 1-3 Blinds: 5-10. 10-15, 10-20

Off to a quick start, our previous Champion, "Easy" Amanda C., was determined not to follow the Bristol St. Curse. It's appears that once a champion wins an event, his future standing are much, much worse. For the moment, "Easy" had little to worry about as "The Knave of Hearts" was the first to bust out early due to over aggressive playing. In all, during the first hour, 6 players rebought into the tournament including a hesitant "Handsome" Rob Card.

The big story of the first three levels was with our defending champion, "Easy". Despite guarantees that she would break the curse, Amanda with 4 minutes left in the second blind level. Choosing not to re-buy into the tournament, "Easy" became the 15th place finisher. This caused a table imbalance (8 on table 2, 6 on table 1), and so Chris "Zorro" Taylor was in position to be moved over to Table 1.

I may be getting this wrong, but before "Zorro" moved to table 1, the follow hand busted him out before he rebought... From "The Corpse"

"and also this hand, which I might be misremembering a
little:

I turned up my deal and it revealed pocket Jacks. This made me pretty
happy, but I don't remember if I raised the bet before the flop-- it's
probable in this case that I didn't. About half the table saw the flop,
which was J-Q-? (maybe a K). While somewhat worried about the possible
straight and the two higher cards on the table, I still had trips off the
flop. I bet cautiously though, and at least a couple followed me to the
turn.

The turn was another J. I was looking at four of a kind. But the pot was
pretty small, I didn't want people to fold out of this one. So again, a
fairly cautious bet. Only the other Chris called me on this one.

The river? A second queen. Before I had time to contemplate this (pocket
queens on Chris? No way, he would have had the high full house before the
river and acted on it. Of course, I had 4 Js on the turn and I
*didn't*...) Chris called confidently and quickly "All in". Well, no
point messing about, I saw him and looked at his queens full of jacks.

So I turned up the jack. And a few seconds later, I turned up the other
jack. I can still hear him muttering "4 jacks... I can't believe he had 4
jacks..."

We turn to the "Knave" for some other interesting first hour action.

"This was after I rebought, so busting out here would eliminated me from the tournament. I was dealt AKo and ended up with a short stack (about 150 chips) all in with "8-Ball" who turned up a low pair, the pair was a slim favorite in this match-up and the flop came up blanks. The turn, likewise showed nothing to help either player, meaning that if I didn't catch an A or a K on the river, I was out of the tournament. The A appeared on 5th street, and gleefully I remained in the tournament."

From "The Corpse"...

"I came out guns a'blazing during the first hour, able to make good the
hands I was strong in and duck out cheap from the hands that didn't go my
way. By break I had the chip lead by way of a big pot grab from Kelso
(revenge is sweet)"

The sleeper story of the tournament was also beginning to unfold, Paul Woodard, the only new player to enter this tournament, seemed to be aquiring a, ever growing chip stack.

At the end of the first hour, and after re-buying was complete our standings looked like the following.

Chris "Corpse" Klein (1275)
Tye "8-Ball" Zinger (1130)
Paul Woodard (1100)
"The Hulk" Dave Baxter (1060)
Erin "The River" Moffat (865)
"The Knave" Rob LeGood (770)
Dave "Brava" Selberg (735)
"Kelso" Lantz (680)
Anthony "Quickfingers" Runstedler (640)
"The Princess" Lisa Hagen (525)
"Slippery Pete" Aultman (515)
Chris "Zorro" Taylor (415)
Jonathan "Oragami" Clayman (295)
"Easy" Amanda C. - 15th place

Rounds 4-5 Blinds (15-30, 20-40)

Round 4 saw the players jockying for position as players attempted to pick up pots and bust the smaller players out. Paul's stack was continually growing on table two, while "The Hulk" on table 1 was acting as captain, and a growing chip lead over the rest of the table.

Half-way through Round 5 saw our next elimination, though not by conventional means. From "The Knave"

"Roughly half-way through Round 5, Paul's cell phone goes off, he spends 5, minutes on the phone, and mentioned that his son, Robert wasn't feeling well and had to bow out of the tournament. With this never happening before we consulted the rules and discovered that if a player must leave the table for more than 20 minutes his chip stack must be divided evenly among all players at that table. This was especially unfortunate for Paul who, at the time of his departure, had gathered 1,680 chip -- a very healthy lead. Each player at table two got an additional 280 chips and Paul, had to bow out in 14th place."

Two minutes later, "Oragami" could not completely out last his short stack going into the second hour and was eliminated in 13th place. Still, with the small stack he was able to last for almost 35 minutes so this showing was a definate improvement over his first tournament! This evened the tables up at 6 players a piece.

Two minutes after that, "Zorro"'s chip stack could not survive either and he took 12th position. This mark two tournaments in a row where "Zorro" and "Oragami" have been eliminated within minutes of each other. These two back to back eliminations left 5 players at table 1, 6 players at table 2.

Round 6 Blinds (25-50)

Play was tighter at this level and the tables only saw one elimination during this level. We turn to "Handsome" Rob Card who caught a big break, and the lead in chips with the following hand...

"First off was the hand that really started it off for me. I can't remember
what I had exactly, it was an ace and a ten, I think, it's only the Ace
that's important. the cards were really going my way as they came up, but
betting wasn't really heavy and I had an ace, so I stayed in. after the
river I was planning to fold, all I had was an ace high, until someone
mentioned that there was a possible flush opportunity with four spades
showing. I decided to check my cards. I picked them up, looked, ace of
spades, and put them down. Now being the dense person that I am it hadn't
really sunk in. so I picked the cards up again, Ace of Spades ... ACE OF
SPADES, I really had to slowly spell it out for myself because I didn't
really believe I had it. This was the winning hand!
So when Kelso went all in (210) and Anthony called him, I raised to 420 -
with my only four black chips. Anthony called (he had the Queen of spades -
that's just tough luck). I showed my cards to grunts all around, the total
pot was worth over 1000, and that was the start of my huge chip stack."

So, the commentary, (was it from Anthony?) cost "Quickfingers" a nice sized pot!! With "Kelso" eliminated in 11th postion, there were now 10 players left, 5 on each table heading into the 3rd hour. Our chip position looked like...

"Handsome Rob" (2525)
"The Hulk" (1600)
"8-Ball" (1550)
"Quickfingers" (1100)
"Slippery Pete" (1100)
"The River" (900)
"The Princess" (600)
"The Knave" (475)
"The Corpse" (450)
"Brava" (200)

Level 7 (50-100)

At the beginning of the third hour, the blinds changed gear and the action increased. "Brava" seemed to be in the worst of it, with barely one trip around the table left, while "The Corpse" and "The Knave" were in equally poor position. "Handsome" Rob Card seemed to be in a league of his own. Three elimination were left until the final table formed.

"The River" was the first to go down, 10 minutes into Level 7. With no good stories to tell, "The River" had an evening of mediocre cards, and eventually washed away in 10th place, leaving 4 people on Table 2.

"The Princess" roughly 2 minutes later also bowed out, complaining bittlerly of being bored of the game. *wink* *wink*. The exit of the Princess in 9th place, created, once again an uneven table and this time, "The Knave" was in position to move over to table 2, with about 700-800 in chips.

With eight people remaining, it would only take one more elimination before the final table formed. A quick look around the room revealed an interesting bit of trivia. The Champions of Bristol Street I -> IV were still alive.

The final elimination came with roughly 5 minutes left in the 7th level. We turn to the Corpse for the action...

"A series of hands went by and I increased my chip stack through aggressive
play. Some of the time I had the cards, some of the time I was marginal,
but most of the time I never had to show. I was back in contention, and
Anthony (the biggest threat to my immediate left) had fallen behind when
the Knave joined us at the table with a fairly small stack. Handsome Rob
was sitting handsomely on a very large stack of chips and he was my main
target.

With about one thousand chips to my name, my "opportunity" came up. Just
Handsome and me in a hand where I had 4-10 suited and the flop was cheap.
Blinds were 50/100.

We checked back and forth until the river came up, so we were looking at
A-3-5-7-6. Making my straight on the river, I bet aggressively. Rob
called, and then raised.

HERE was the mistake. Because the river completed the 5-6-7 all I could
see was the 3-4-5-6-7 straight, and I wouldnt' buy that Rob had 4-8. Not
once did I stop to think what the nut hand was. It never crossed my mind,
I convinced myself I had Rob where I wanted him to get close to parity in
chip count. I'd called 4 or 5 all-ins by this point successfully, working
very hard to get back in contention, and had lost my fear.

So imagine my surprise and disappointment when I saw wha the nut straight
really was: Rob shows his 8-9 and all I can say is... "Nice." Running the
logic in my head afterwards, and knowing Rob to be one of the tightest
players at the table (you reading this, Handsome?) who won't throw money
in on a marginal hand (I pushed him off a biggish pot earlier with an all
in) I should have walked away from my straight, or at the very least
called him.

So, it's pretty fair to say that the aggressive style I was playing got me
a lot of success, but it cost me big a couple of times-- the final mistake
was really avoidable."

The final table formed and a look at the chip count produced the following numbers...

"Handsome Rob" (4950)
"8-Ball" (1750)
"The Knave" (1125)
"Slippery Pete" (1000)
"Brava" (700)
"Quickfingers" (575)
"The Hulk" (400)

I had left the table for a couple minutes and it appeared that "The Hulk" gave away all his money, while "Brava" scrapped by and managed to work his way into the final table.

With only a few mintues to go in this level, Brava lost his stack and finsihed in 7th place

Level 8 (75-150)

"The Knave"'s stack finally began growing, while others attempted to stay a float. Through most of this level it appeared that "Slippery", "The Hulk" and "Quickfingers" would go at any minute with the blinds where they were. Action was tense and finally "Quickfingers" succumbed to his chipstack and exited the tournament in 6th place.

One player would be eliminated next, while the other four would be "in the money"

The round continued with "The Knave" eating into 8-Ball's stack as the River was *not* the friend of Tye tonight. "Slippery Pete", meanwhile starting strongly growing a small chip stack, putting him in definate contention. At the end of this level we raced off to the 100 count chips and took a quick tally.

"The Knave" (3800)
"Handsome Rob" (3400)
"Slippery Pete" (2000)
"8-Ball" (800)
"The Hulk" (500)

Level 9 (100-200)

The last level of the third hour was barely underway when "The Hulk" could no longer hang on to his couple of chips and exited the tournament in 5th place, just out of the money. "8-Ball" hung on for a while longer but eventually dropping out in 4th position, picking up $20.

"The Knave" had mounted a great comeback and it looked as if we were on course to see a repeat of the showdown at Bristol St. One. but "The Knave" saw his chip lead slowly slip away due to bad plays and poor calls.

Level 10 (200-400)

Halfway through the next round we turn to the Knave...

"I looked over at Pete and noticed that he had enough chips to cover maybe two big blinds. My first thought was to Blind him to death and showdown with Rob, but my own chip stack had dropped and I wanted to be in good position with Rob if I made it to the final two. I got into a hand where I convived myself that "Handsome" Rob was bluffing and played an ill-advised all-in call which cost me the tournament. A very bad play on my part which caused me my exit."

"The Knave" was eliminated in 3rd place, taking home $32.

With "The Knave" gone, "Handsome Rob" was up with a massive chip lead over "Slippery Pete". Pete played extremely well, surving a few all-in calls and began to inch his way closer to the top. As the time ran out on the Level 10, "Slippery Pete" made a final, bold all-in call which was matched by the "Handsome" one. Rob's card remained strong and he won the pot, The title of "Champion - Bristol Street Classic V" and a prize of $105. Slippery Pete claimed second place, finishing with $53.

"Slippery Pete", was happy with his win, moving in three tournaments from last to second, but just missing first and a chance to play in an upcoming Tournament of Champions.

"Handsome" Rob Card, meanwhile has, with this win, pulled off an impressive feat. Three tournaments played in. Three times finishing "in the money" Can he make it a fourth, or will the "Curse of Bristol St." claim another victim? Stayed tuned for upcoming announcements about Bristol Street VI as well as a reminder email about this Saturday's "Jour de Poker"!!