Tunica's Last Hurrah - Part II

When I concluded my last column, I was broke, stuck, and steaming from the main event in Tunica, Mississippi. I couldn't get a flight out that day, so I was going to get a ticket for the following day; however, no first-class seats were available. I'm far too big and rich to sit in economy, and inasmuch as my good friend Hoyt Corkins was still in the tournament, and we did travel down there together, I decided to stay another day.

That one extra day turned into four, as Hoyt refused to give up and go back to Vegas with me. If you're asking yourself, "How did Hoyt last five days with people putting coolers in on him while Todd lasted only one?" that's a good question.

They got two in on him, too, but his opponents didn't have him covered, and he was able to recover both times to get ahold of more than half of the chips in the entire tournament. That's really one of the marks of a great player, in my opinion, to have most of your chips stolen from you and to have the resiliency to bounce back. It's easy to play when everything goes your way, but not so easy when the beats are flyin'. Grace under fire sums it up pretty well.

Let's look at the first one. When you read about these hands, you might think he got what he deserved, but poker's all about putting your money in at the time you have the best hand. After that, there's not much you can do but pray to the poker gods, and we all know how much they hate me.

It was down to just inside the money. A player limped in and Hoyt raised with 6-2 offsuit. Nice hand, I know, but when the flop came 9-2-2, it became a monster against the pocket aces his opponent had slow-played. Most of the money went in here, and when a seemingly harmless ace came on the turn, there was no way to escape.

Despite losing almost all of his chips there, Hoyt managed to struggle all the way to the final table in fifth place with almost 400,000. This was probably the greatest World Poker Tour final table I have ever seen, and I'm glad I stayed to witness it firsthand. The chip counts were:

Freddy Deeb - 1,345,000
Brett Faustman - 1,282,000
Gabriel Costner - 1,181,000
Men Nguyen - 729,000
Hoyt Corkins - 395,000
John Spadavecchia - 256,000

I believe Freddy Deeb is one of the best poker players in the world, and Men "The Mistress" has been the Card Player Player of the Year four times. And while Brett Faustman and Gabriel Costner were stone-cold rookies, John Spadavecchia has been playing tournaments for more than 30 years, with almost $2.5 million raked in over the years. Add "The Alabama Cowboy" to the mix, and you're looking at one great televised final table!

Not only was the card-playing action great, the verbal sparring was a thing of beauty. Right off the bat, Men (who had consumed his usual 35 Coronas) started making "short" jokes about Freddy. I immediately told those who were with me that this was going to spark a war, and Freddy didn't disappoint. I don't want to spoil it, so make sure that you tune in to see it.
I will say this, the verbal sparring led to a giant pot between Freddy and Men. Freddy raised with the A 7 and flopped a flush draw with a gutshot. Men smooth-called with two queens preflop and moved in on Freddy when he bet the 10-high flop. Men's queens held up and he took the chip lead - for a while, anyway.

About an hour later, Hoyt was real low on chips and the blinds were up there. Hoyt was reduced to live up to his other name, the one Phil Hellmuth gave him, "The Freakin' No-Skill All-In Cowboy." However, after moving all in six or seven times with no calls, Hoyt was no longer a short stack.

I knew he was going to have to stop moving all in; he simply had too many chips. But, when he raised a
reasonable amount on the next hand, I smelled a big hand. Men, who had played great up until then, must have had his sense of smell dulled by his 37th Corona, as he moved in with the K 10. Hoyt quickly called, then crippled Men with his pocket jacks.

Hoyt took the chip lead after that, and most certainly would have won this thing if they hadn't gotten the next big cooler in. Playing threehanded, Hoyt raised from the button with A-K. Brett Faustman moved in for a ton more with A-4 offsuit. Hoyt called, and the cooler came 3-3-2, then boom, the 5. When no 4 came to save Hoyt, he was once again crippled.

Without winning a single major pot from this point on, Hoyt was able to regain the chip lead in heads-up play. Unfortunately, this is where the happy story ends. Two unsuccessful bluffs gave Brett a big lead, then Hoyt took a stand with pocket deuces against pocket queens with a flop of 9-9-3, and it was over.

This was very reminiscent of the first Tunica tournament. Fourhanded, I got the guy who would eventually win it all in preflop when I had pocket aces and he had pocket nines. It's a shame. If we both could have dodged those coolers in the final hands, a DoylesRoom player would have won the first and last Tunica tournaments, instead of finishing second in each.