In an effort to be a gracious loser, I'll start by saying congrats to Team Papajac for winning the last longer competition for our tournament in Toronto yesterday.

Our 44 person tournament turned into a 35 runner game with a few last minute drop-outs, a member from Team Aaron included.

The structure of the tournament was a little fast for the first hour, but fell into pretty good shape after that. One aspect which was well done (and I'm a little embarassed to say I hadn't seen or thought of this before), was to have two decks in use so that while one player dealt, the cut-off could shuffle and prepare the deck for the next hand. Having the players deal in a tournament is always problematic in that it really slows the game down, however this really quickened the pace.

Unfortunately fast pace wasn't what Team Aaron was looking for as our first member Steve Soukas suffered as the third casualty of the tournament. After running into trouble a couple times with AK, Steve pushed his pocket Tens on a 3 5 9 flop. His opponent made the call with K5 and Steve was in great shape. A king hit the turn giving the opponent two pair and Steve was unable to hit a ten to save his tournament life. 1 down.

The tournament was structured with 20 minute blind levels and 10 minute breaks at the end of each hour, with a 10 000 starting stack of chips. At the end of the first hour I hadn't played a hand and was on about 9400 chips, while the other member of Team Aaron, Kevin Pick, was also waiting to play his first hand.

The second hour was no better for the team as Kevin suffered a similar fate to Steve losing with his Tens and eventually being eliminated by the same opponent. 2 down.

I was managing to keep my head above water, stealing the blinds once per round, never dropped below 9000, but also never climbing above 11 000. Finally I picked up a few pots with continuation bets following a pre flop raise, building up to about 14 000.

Then I picked up Tens, raised to 1600 on the 300/600 blinds picking up one caller.

The flop was 7 8 J and I checked to my opponent to see if I draw a bet out of him. He obliged and bet 2500. I figured I could probably get 1 more bet from him and smooth called.

The turn was a 4, I checked again and my opponent bet 2500 again. I pushed all in for what was approximately 5000 more. The opponent looked instantly upset about the push and folded soon thereafter.

Now having a playable stack and 17 people left in the tournament, I was a little more comfortable with the situation. The third break had just passed and I was in big blind with J9. The action folded to Jack on the button who raised (as he had done fairly often). I decided to defend with my J9 and called the raise.

The flop came 2 9 T and I checked to Jack looking to check-raise his continuation bet. Unfortunately he was more than happy to peel off a free turn card. At this point I'm fairly positive I'm ahead in the hand with my pair of 9s.

The turn came a meaningless 4, I lead into the pot for 3000 and Jack called without much hesitation.

The river came a King, not happy to see an overcard, but barring JQ, there really isn't a hand that I can put Jack on here with a King, so I check with the intent of check/calling any bet. Jack bets 3500, I make the call and Jack turns over Ace King for the pair of Kings and takes a pretty big pot.

Two hands later, Joe, a member of Team Papajac limps under the gun and the action is folded to me on the button. I consider shoving my 10 bb stack blind, but figure Joe's under the gun limp is probably a pretty strong hand, so I should double check to make sure I have at least 1 live card before I shove. I look down to see AJ suited, more than enough to push.

I shove, the action is folded to Joe who calls very quickly. At this point I'm expecting no less than AK. He turns over JJ and I'm about as good as I could hope for considering how fast he called. The board runs out queen high no hearts, and Team Aaron is busted out entirely in 17th.

It was Sunday afternoon in Toronto and the Blue Jays game had or was just about to finish, so I quickly went to find the members of Team Aaron so we didn't get stuck in downtown traffic making the trip back to Mississauga.

Jack ended up busting in 9th, and the last member of Team Papajac suffered the bubble in 7th.

So while Team Jack definitely wins this last longer bet, it's like I told him before I left, "it only counts if you make the money" ;)

See you guys at the next game!

Team Jack - 1
Team Aaron - 0