Upon My Head, A Bounty Went for Naught

And a wonderful time was had by... many. 40 participants made it to Event #7 on the Blogger Poker Tour [BPT], sponsored by Poker.com and guest-hosted by yours truly. I'd like to again thank Poker.com for a great event and a great series --- if you haven't joined in the fun, you are missing out.

On to the tournament itself, wherein a bounty was placed upon my head, said bounty being a free seat in the Grand Final coming up at the start of July.

But before the gruesome tourney details commence, there is one other mystery: the unseen special tournament tables. Apparently they just didn't get dropped in, and these things happen. No biggee.

However, here are the general and final table designs that you didn't get to see:





I tried to stop by everyone's table to say 'hi' and thank them for playing, but I didn't realize until today that you can't railbird-chat on the Poker.com software. Trust me, I waved 'hi' to all of you. Then it was on to the play. A few big names went out early; I was card-dead for the first hour and drifted down to about 1,100 chips (from 2,000 at the start), before finally doubling through with big slick to basically stay alive. As for me, I was down in the mid-30s for most of that first hour. I caught a couple of nice hands late in that first 90-minute period to climb up to about 3,500 chips, then 4,000, and when the first play period was over, I was mid-pack among the 17 that remained.

A couple of people idly chatted (tongue in cheek, for sure) as to why I didn't just dump my chips to the first lucky comer. In theory, since I already had a seat, it would free up both the bounty on my head and the guaranteed four seats at the Grand Final for other players.

Sorry, guys and gals, I just can't play that way. If I soft-play it at all, then it puts me in a position of awarding my final chips to some random player, and I just won't put myself or other players in that position. I'm too much of a nitte, maybe. ;-)

So the bounty was there, but the bounty would have to be earned. No gimmes.

After a long time at the bubble, it popped twins: Both bergeroo and doubleuwhy were knocked out on the same hand.

I was short-stacked at that point, but after one more double-through I was suddenly a contender, and when we were down to seven it became apparent that the bounty on my head had lost its relative value; since getting fourth place brought home the same bonus prize, there wasn't as much extra value in chasing me down with any two cards once I pushed. (Porkrind333 tried that once, about halfway through... and he was right to do so.) Fortune was with me, for the most part, until I suffered a couple of bad beats very late, followed by two hands where I lost as relative 'dogs, but they were hands not terribly played despite that. (I also sucked out one hand myself, a bit before that, and my top hands held up until the very end. No whining here.)

My nice little run at the final table gave me a healthy lead at one time, until eventual winner kufolem reeled me in. Kufolem finally knocked me out when I pushed K-Q and the champ-to-be called with A-J... and I didn't catch my six-outer. It was only a short time after that when kufolem knocked out Porkrind for the win.

So congrats to kufolem, Porkrind333 and Brunsie for winning their seats to the final, and to the other final-table players who at least received a few quatloos for their effort. Stormswift and TheBigSurprise took 5th and 6th, respectively, and they've gone deep in this before but haven't yet cracked the final. Of the nine players who made the final, I was the only one who'd already locked up a seat, so they all had lots to play for.

Here's the majority of the final-standings board:



Thanks again to Poker.com, and I'll see you all next time. I predict a crazy time in Event #8!