Ultimate Poker Challenge $1000 No Limit Hold’em

The UPC is an interesting structure - a series of $1k events where 40% of the pool from each event goes to the semi-final event and to point leaders. You earn points for making it further in each of the 2-day tournaments. I had played in 3, getting points each day, but I needed to get at least 20-30 more points to be assured of getting into the semi-finals.

I wound up coming in 2nd in the tournament. It went from 3pm to about 9pm. People had to re-schedule their dinner plans more than once :)

2nd place paid $3k and 1st paid $6k; 7th through 3rd paid $1000, $1100, $1200, $1300, $1400. And it was a $1k buy-in event.

Anyway, in the first two hours I didn’t play that well, was fairly passive, and wound up dwindling down to one round of blinds/antes.

Then I started getting cards and managed to become the chip leader, and was playing better. We played 5-handed for quite some time, with the chip lead actually moving around to each person at some point. I was still pretty aggressive, since coming in 1st was the only way to make any real profit.

I did wind up having a chip lead heads-up, but Chris survived when I put him in with Jack-high when I had Ace-rag. Then I got him in when I had pairs and he survived twice with overcards. At the end, I could have waited, though it was getting late. I had maybe 1/5th or 1/6th the chips and raised with A-7 and he reraised and I called with A-8. I read him for a King-high or so, but in any case with a weak hand. No miracles so it ended.

The show will air Christmas at 11pm, but it will be hard for them to put many of the interesting hands in. Phil Hellmuth will be the commentator, so I’m sure he’ll be as caustic as usual. I didn’t play great poker, but I didn’t play poorly.

At least the Akamai hat should be fairly visible :)

And I got what I needed - 4 of the 2-day events, points each time, and now a total high enough to ensure I enter the semi-finals.