4 Queens, Ultimate Challenge & the WSOP on TV
What a day for poker. I was at the Four Queens Poker Classic this afternoon and watched the $1000+60 Limit Hold’em event for a couple of hours. The tournament was down to two tables and all three Hendon Mob members that made the trip to Vegas for the Classic remained in the competition. Terry Myers of Yuma Arizona, winner of an event at the Orleans Open/2004, was at another of the two tables with a nice stack of chips. Ron Rose, two-time WPT Champion, was playing in a $540 SnG single table satellite and entertaining the table with his humorous poker stories.
Tomorrow, Friday 09/16/04, is the first day of the $5000+150 No-Limit Hold’em Championship event. Satellites will continue right up to the noon start time. The main Event will run for three days with the last nine players for the final table decided on Saturday. The final table will be played on Sunday starting at 4:00 pm and action will continue until a single player is crowned the Four Queens Poker Classic Champion. Many of the professional players are expected to compete in the final event. I will be there to cover all the action and provide results with photos of the event. We will post the play-by-play from Debbie Burkhead once available. The evening events, $100+20 No-Limit Hold’em, will be offered on Friday and Saturday evening at 7:00 pm. The popular evening tournaments are limited to entrants so you may want to register early. 
The Bubble free roll tournament for everyone that finished one out of the money will be played on Sunday, October 5 at 2:00 pm. The Best All-Around Player will be announced at the close of the main event tournament. The winner will receive an all expense paid trip to the Caribbean Poker Classic and a trophy. Second place will receive $750 and a five night stay at the Four Queen Poker Classic 2005, while third place will pick up a five night stay at the Four Queens Hotel during the ‘05 tournament.
The Ultimate Poker Challenge continues down the street at the Plaza and the next event will be played on Saturday. Contestants are playing for a seat in the semi-final event that leads to the final table and millions in prize money. All of the Ultimate Challenge tournaments are filmed for television.
I finally had an opportunity to see the ESPN World Series of Poker Main Event final tonight. As always I was entertained by the show and enjoyed seeing the hole cards and strategies the players attempted to use. 
Everyone got lucky at least once and even though Greg Raymer had a run of great hole cards and seem to catch every flop I was pleased to see him win. I thought Williams had considerable beginners luck and I salute him for giving much of the credit to Marcel Luske. Throughout the event Marcel provided great coaching and encouragement to the young player. I was quite disappointed with Josh and his lack of consideration for the other players and the TV audience. I guess the sport needs its bad boys and this year’s WSOP was provided with exactly that ”crew.” Josh’s behavior during the final event was the window dressing for this group of “everything bad that happens to me after I make a stupid decision is the fault of someone else.” Most of us go to sporting events to see the great players do great things while others go to see the adversarial players be adversarial. Tonight I got a plenty of both.
By: Debbie Burkhead
Jesse Jones Comes from Behind to Capture a 1st in Limit Hold’em
Today’s event was a $1,060 Limit Hold’em event.
The final five players began at 9:30 p.m. with 45 minutes remaining at the $600-$1,200 level with $300-$600 blinds.
Larry Wright, from McQueeney Texas, nicknamed “Texas Bandit” was the chip leader with $23,000, Mike Vanier, from Lincoln, Nebraska was in second place with $12,100, Joe Beevers, a Hendonmobster, was in third with $10,000, Chris McHugh, from Las Vegas was in fourth with $8,600 and Jesse Jones, from Las Vegas was in fifth place with $4,400.
At 10:10 Chris McHugh and Joe Beevers got into a raising match after a flop of 8-K-K until it was capped. The turn card came a deuce and Chris bet out, Joe raised and Chris called all-in with his last $500. Chris showed pocket 10’s and Joe rolled over K-J for trip kings. The river card came a jack and Joe took the pot with kings full. Chris was forced to take a 5th place finish and $2,530 in cash.
With four players remaining, at 10:30 p.m. the limit rose to $800-$1,600 with $400-$800 blinds.
On the second hand after the limit increase Larry Wright put all his money in on an ace high flush draw against Jesse Jones’ set of sixes. The turn and the river brought no spades and Larry was forced to take a 3rd place finish and $3,095.
Then there were three. Jesse Jones was in the lead with $24,000, Joe Beevers was in second with $20,000 and Mike Vanier was in third place with $14,000.
At 11:30 the limit rose to $1,000-$2,000 with $500-$1,000 blinds.
At 11:40 Mike had $1,500 remaining after posting the small blind. Joe raised, Mike called all-in for his $1,500 and Jesse called. The flop came 3-4-Q and it was checked by both Joe and Jesse. The turn card was a seven and once again they both checked, the river card was an eight and it was checked again. Joe showed A-6, Mike turned over 4-5 and Jesse showed the winner with 9-7 for a pair of sevens.
Mike took home $4,220 for his 3rd place finish.
It was heads-up between Jesse Jones, with $37,000 in chips and Joe Beevers with $21,000 in chips.
This was Jesse’s first final table appearance at the Four Queens Poker Classic and it was Joe’s third time at the final table.
Unofficially the tournament ended at 11:55 when Jesse thought he had beat Joe with a straight. The dealer pushed Jesse the pot, Joe congratulated Jesse and the Tournament Director headed for the prize pool to pay the players. When I asked what had happened they began to recap the hand and realized that Joe had also made the straight. Joe was given back the $3,500 he started with and play resumed.
Another key hand was when both players flopped sets and Joe was all-in on the flop. Jesse flopped a set of fours and Joe flopped a set of sevens.
That got Joe back in the game with $27,500.
It was a roller coaster ride for the next half hour.
At 11:30 Joe was back down to $8,000 and Jesse got him all-in with a 5-2-Q flop. Joe flopped a pair of fives and Jesse flopped a pair of queens. The turn nor the river helped Joe and it was officially over, this time.
Joe had to settle for a 2nd place finish and $7,035.
Jesse Jones came from behind with the shortest stack with five players remaining to take the win and the $11,250 in cash.
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