Hello Norma Jeane’s
Though I never played with you at all
You had the aces to build your stack
While those around you lost
They busted from the tournament
And they left you at the table
To hit sets with pocket pairs
And fill up your straight draws

Norma Jeane’s Restaurant and Bar in Mississauga was the site of the Red Hot Poker Tour’s Season 14 Tournament of Champions. Pictures of Marilyn Monroe (the former Norma Jeane Baker) adorned its walls as the top 116 performers of Season 14 made their way to their seats. Each had one goal in mind on this rainy Saturday: to win a seat to the 2010 World Series of Poker. (New this season is a fun prize for the runner-up: a set of quality steak knives!)

Before plan began, Dean MacNeil welcomed the crowd, and then introduced Season 12 champion John Lawson, who told some stories about cashing in the 2009 WSOP. Then tournament director Scott McFadyen laid out the ground rules for the event, and brought up another former champion, Brian Hurley, who announced, “Shuffle up and deal!”

The tournament began, and it was not long before it had its first casualty. Lisa Clayton [video] – who has already won 3 WSOP packages in the last year, including the Red Club Championships less than a week ago – flopped the nut straight but lost when Cesar Bonilla’s set of jacks turned into a full house on the river. “I wouldn’t have played it any differently,” said Lisa, philosophically.

As the afternoon moved along, grey skies started to form outside, signs of an impending thunderstorm. Storms were brewing inside, as well, as several players had already tripled their stacks only 2 hours into the tournament. Mike Milewski, Yvonne Couto (who found aces when two of her opponents were all in with tens), John Friendly, Lucy Brum, and Chris Palmer were all nursing stacks in the 14,000-chip range.

The biggest stack, however, was built using the granddaddy of all poker hands. “That sucks, dude,” John Koh was overheard telling a friend, “Pockets aces get cracked by a Royal Flush!” Pascal Toussaint [video] was the one for which this particular hand did not suck, and he used this turn of good luck to build up a stack of over 20,000.

On one table, Lina Pessoa took what had to be the oddest betting line in poker history to win a pot. After raising to 250 preflop, and getting four callers, Lino lead out into the A-9-x board… with a bet of 100! He got 2 callers – and a bunch of bemused smiles — before a player raised to 400. Lino called, and found himself heads-up against one opponent, when a 7 hit the turn. He lead out again, this time for 75! His opponent called, and when another 7 hit the river, Lino this time put some muscle into his bet, shipping 1100 chips into the pot. His opponent folded, and, with the entire table laughing and begging to see his cards, he proudly flipped up pocket nines.

Lino’s bustout hand an hour later was nearly as interesting. Shortstacked, he shoved with J9, only to be looked up by Mike Milewski who had QQ. The dealer, however, mistakenly mucked both hands before dealing the flop. In the process of retrieving them from the muck, Lino could only look on helplessly as all the jacks and nines were exposed, having already been folded. He offered a wry smile, before leaving the table.

The tournament moved along at a record pace, and before anyone knew what had hit them, the dinner break was mere minutes away. A small crop of players – including Cesar Bonilla, Maria Hakimzadah, Jason Evans, Dave Busch, Yvonne Couto, and Pascal Toussaint – had already broken the 20,000-chip mark. But Brian Greig, sitting on 38,000, was the clear big stack in the room. Just before dinner break Chris Palmer made a run at the chiplead when, on a K-J-A-J board, he bet, his opponent reraised, and Chris moved all-in. His opponent agonized before calling with A4. Chris flipped over J5, and it was good enough to rake in a 35,000-chip pot. With that action players went on dinner break.

After a bountiful buffet downstairs in the billiard room, Scott McFadyen called the remaining three tables worth of players back to restart play. “Anybody know what we’re playing for?” he rhetorically asked. “STEAK KNIVES! [video]” came the response in unison from the assembled crowd.

As the rain outside started to come down in buckets, the players started to show signs of excitement. Chris Palmer, operating on no sleep after having arrived in town not 2 hours before the tournament started, was noticeably loopy. “I’ve just been playing in Vegas for a week,” he said, after raking in one pot. “And just now I went to tip the dealer! That won’t work here.”  It would soon become clear that despite being a clear violation of tournament rules, Chris’ generous intent would not go unrewarded.

Other players continued to show poise, including the five players with previous Tournament of Champions final table experience. Stuart Kerridge, Ron Fahner, James Arsenault, George Kuzmanovic, and Ed Caulfield were all still alive, and looking to hit the final nine one more time. (Spoiler Warning: none of them did!)

As the number of players quickly dropped – like the rain outside – from 23, to 22, and then 21, several big pots developed. Pascal won a 45,000 chip pot with 2 pair (that turned into a boat) against Chris Palmer’s missed open-ended straight draw and a short stack who was already all-in. Cesar [video] shoved his KT on a king-high board, only to be called by Dave Busch who held KJ. A ten on the turn kept Cesar alive and left Dave talking to himself as his opponent raked in 30,000 chips. And Jason Evans, quiet and steady all afternoon, eliminated one player with quad aces.

With two tables to go, several players had distanced themselves from the pack, and were comfortable in the 50,000-60,000 chip range: Darryl Gordon lead this group, which also included Cesar, Bobby LeBlanc, and Pascal.

As the final table approached, Yvonne staved off elimination when her QQ held up against Bobby’s AKs, for a huge 54,000 pot to put her amongst the chipleaders. James Aresenault was less lucky with his bubble all-in race. After Darryl limped from the small blind, James pushed with KQ from the big blind. Darryl took little time to call with his 99, and even less time to eliminate James in tenth, and complete the list of players for the final table.

Hold ‘em can be tough
The toughest game you ever played
Your big pairs have to hold up
And the big draws have to fade
Even when you lose
You have to pick yourself up off the felt
And play the next hand
Because the cards are about to be dealt

As dealer Dan set up the table, and Livaline climbed into the crow’s nest to work the flop came, Dean – doing double-duty as a full-service camera crew – announced the names of the final nine:

name, region, chips
Lloyd Clarke, WIN, 28,000
Chris Palmer, HBO, 28,000
Cesar Bonilla, TOR, 33,000
Yvonne Couto, GTA, 42,500
Bobby LeBlanc, KWC, 43,500
Pascal Toussaint, TOR, 48,000
Jason Evans, TOR, 56,500
Dave Busch, HBO, 92,500
Darryl Gordon, HBO, 92,500

Traditionally, a Tournament of Champions final table features a lot of quick bustouts right away, and then a slower pace of action once play gets down to 5- or 4-handed. This final table, however, would prove to be a different animal altogether, as we would not lose a player for 21 hands. And thesky high blinds of 2000/4000 (500 ante) made this even more unlikely.

Four straight shortstack double-ups helped this cause. First, Lloyd’s rivered two pair were good enough to beat Darryl’s top pair. Then, Chris doubled through Pascal when his pockets tens beat Pascal’s Big Slick.  Chris again, still riding the shortstack, made a move from the small blind, pondering for a long time before finally shoving. Lloyd behind him woke up with AT and called, and Chris sheepishly announced that was sure he had “live cards”, before turning over 63o. The board came 8-9-2-T, before the whole room went “Oooooooh!” when a 7 hit the river, completing Chris’ straight. Finally, after a raise by Dave under the gun, Pascal shoved from second position. When it came around to Cesar, he lifted his hand, revealing it only to the crowd behind him: pocket queens. He agonized for a while, before making a tortured laydown. Turns out it was the wrong laydown, this time, as Dave showed 22 and Pascal TT, and the latter doubled up when nobody hit.

Sadly, Cesar’s discipline was not rewarded when his A8 all-in was beaten by Dave’s 76s which turned into a straight on the turn. Cesar Bonilla was eliminated in ninth place.

Then came the hand that I suspect will go down in Red Hot history as “The Interview Hand”. Dean, manning his digital video camera, began a Q&A session with Chris, while the still-seated player brought it in for a raise. The rest of the hand you can watch for yourself.

And with that Bobby LeBlanc becomes the first ever Red Hot player to bust out of the Tournament of Champions on camera (in eighth place). Lloyd was soon to follow him out the door (though not on camera), when he called off the rest of his extreme shortstack with Q8 after Yvonne shoved with 55. Yvonne won the race and Lloyd busted in seventh.

After waiting so long for our first eliminations, and seeing several in quick succession, we again entered a period of inactivity, as the players would play 6-handed for another 22 hands! In this long stretch it was Pascal who was charged with the unlucky task of keeping the shortstacks alive, first doubling up Yvonne with KT against her JJ, and then on the next hand doubling Darryl when his 77 was dominated by Darryl’s TT.

The biggest hand of this stretch was hand #57, and it completely altered the course of the tournament. Darryl opened the pot with a raise, and Dave called from the button. Chris then determinedly moved all-in behind, and was called rather quickly by Darryl, while Dave got out of the way. “I hope you don’t have aces, Darryl,” Chris said, before turning over his pocket kings. He allowed himself a fist-pump when he saw Darryl’s queens, and another one when he survived the flopped flush draw to win a 130,000 chip pot.

Jason was the next to go, shortly after surviving his last in a seemingly neverending streak of all-in survivals. He had doubled through Darryl the hand before, and then found QQ in the small blind. He shoved in on Dave, who happily called with his pocket aces, busting Jason in sixth.

At this point the players took an unscheduled bathroom break, and the chips were counted to reveal some intense bunching near the top of the leaderboard:

Dave Busch, 165,500
Chris Palmer, 163,000
Yvonne Couto, 64,000
Pascal Toussaint, 50,500
Darryl Gordon, 21,500

Darryl’s shortstack didn’t last long, as he was eliminated 3 hands after the break, when his Q8 lost to Yvonne’s A6. His sixth place finish was followed closely by a fifth place finish for Pascal, who moved all-in with AT, and was called by Dave’s QQ, which held. And with that we had reached [dramatic drumroll] the Steak Knife Bubble! The next player out would go home empty handed, leaving at least a prize of quality cutware for one of the last two remaining players.

After Pascal’s elimination, the final three players all remarked at how often the three of them combined had picked up big pocket pairs. It seemed only natural that the players who’d gotten furthest in the tournament would pick up QQ, KK and AA a lot throughout the day. Thankfully, for those of us that love watching coolers, the big pocket pairs would make several more appearances before the tournament was done.

Yvonne [video] looked  like a thin slice of cheese in a bigstack sandwich, as her chips were dwarfed by the mountains sitting in front of Chris and Dave. But that dynamic would change dramatically the very first hand of 3-handed play. Chris opened for a raise, and Dave pretty quickly moved all-in. Chris beat him into the pot with his call, and that could only mean one thing: Aces! Dave’s pocket queens were in trouble, and he couldn’t suck out, thus shipping Chris a 350,000 chip pot.

Hello Norma Jeane’s
Though I never played with you at all
You had the aces to build your stack
While those around you lost
Hello Norma Jeane’s
From the young man seated on table three
This is not just a poker tournament
It’s the fourteenth TOC

It looked like Chris was thus set to steamroll his way through the rest of the final table. But Yvonne had other ideas. She shoved all-in with jacks, only to have Chris wake up with queens behind her. “Good game,” he said, and then corrected himself, “Good hand, I mean.” The slip of the tongue must have angered the Poker Gods, because a jack hit the turn, and gave Yvonne the double-up she desperately needed.

Dave, on the other hand, could not find his double-up, and wound up moving in over a Chris raise with 99. Chris called with AJ. The flop came all clubs, and with the 9 of clubs Dave looked to be in good shape. “That’s a bad flop for me,” Chris noted, possibly trying to trick the Poker Gods this time. It must have worked, because the turn was a friendly jack of spades, which eliminated Dave in third place… and popped the Steak Knife bubble!

Oh, and unless anyone had forgotten, the final two players would now play heads-up for a seat to the 2010 World Series of Poker! Not a bad first prize, I’d say.

It seemed inevitable that Chris, with a 3.5-1 chiplead, would come out on top. But Yvonne had proven all day long that she had a lot of fight in her. However, Chris did mange to win the first two small pots [video]. Then, on the third hand of heads up, Yvonne raised the button, Chris got a chip count and then put out enough of his stack to force Yvonne all-in. She called with QJ, and Chris showed AK. The board ran out all blanks, and Yvonne finished in second place.

…Making Chris Palmer the Season 14 Tournament of Champions Winner, and proud new owner of a seat to the last $1500-buy-in event of the 2010 WSOP.

Chris looked exhausted, but wired, after travelling all night home from Vegas, and then playing all day here. But he was quick to note how the draining experience had helped him.  “Stuff I learned at Binions’s – which cost me [my arse] last week – won me this tournament today!”

Congratulations to HBO’s Chris Palmer, and good luck next summer at the WSOP!

And it seems to me you played your game
Like a poker that’s red hot
Always ready to stoke the flames when
The fire goes out
And I would have liked to have played you
But I had busted out
Your chips kept burning hotter and
Your win was not in doubt

Popularity: 35% [?]