Hello, fellow poker players! We hope you and your families are enjoying a joyful holiday season.
Launch of the Pinnacle.Poker Website
Before we recap the action from our final poker event of 2023, we are pleased to announce that we are launching a website to streamline the process of scheduling events and to house a bunch of information about our games that you all may find useful. Among other things, we will be posting our tentative schedule for all of 2024 before the end of this year. You will be able to add one or more events to your calendar, register for each event to receive scheduling updates, and all of our recaps will now be posted on the website instead of cluttering your inboxes.
The full site will be live in the next several weeks, but for now, we need two things from you:
- Please head over to Pinnacle.Poker and sign up for our email updates. We will no longer be using our existing distribution list, so anyone who does not sign up for the new list won’t receive future invites and scheduling updates. Note that we strongly suggest that you use a personal email address (assuming you have one that you regularly check) because we have discovered that workplace email servers often reject our emails.
- Please add Chris@Pinnacle.Poker to your contacts to ensure that you receive our updates starting later this year.
Although the full schedule is not yet finalized, we expect to hold our first event on January 13. Please save the date and let us know if you plan to attend!
With the administrative details out of the way, on to the poker action!
Action Begins with the 2023 Player of the Year Tie-Breaking Event
House Whittaker’s final poker event of the 2023 season was action-packed as always. The day kicked off with the three-handed tie-breaker event between James, Kasra, and Chris to decide the 2023 Player of the Year. The blinds increased every five hands, so the action moved quickly, and the whole event was over in about 40 minutes.
About 20 minutes in, Chris and James had chipped away at Kasra’s 4,000-chip starting stack, and he was down to less than half of that. With blinds at 150-300, Kasra found himself in a classic coin-flip situation when he moved all-in from the button with A-T and Chris called from the big blind with 7-7. The flop of K-9-5 (all diamonds) landed all around Kasra’s hand, but provided no help. The Jack of clubs on the turn gave Kasra a straight draw to go with his two overcards. Any Ace, Queen, or Ten would allow him to survive, but the meaningless 5 of clubs on the river eliminated Kasra in 3rd place.
With that elimination, Chris held a small lead with 7,000 chips to James’s 5,000. For the next fifteen minutes, the players traded chips back and forth, but Chris gradually whittled James’s stack down to about 3,000.
Then, with blinds at 300-600 Chris raised to 1,200 from the button and James called in the big blind. The flop came J-7-7 and James quickly moved all-in for his remaining 1,900. Chris thought for a minute before calling and turning over J-8 for top pair. James turned over the same hand, and the players chopped the pot (the second time that the two players had done that in this short tournament).
Two hands later, with James down to about 2,400 in chips and the blinds still at 300-600, James once again took his stand. Chris limped on the button and James moved all in. Chris called, turning over J-T offsuit while James turned over his 9-5 of hearts. Chris was a 2:1 favorite to win the hand and the Player of the Year award. But the flop came down 7-6-4, giving James an open-ended straight draw. The hand was now almost 50/50 as any 3, 5, 8, or 9 would put James ahead. The Deuce of clubs on the turn didn’t improve James’s hand, and he was back down to a 33% chance of staying alive. The Jack of hearts on the river ended James’s run and sealed the Player of the Year win for Chris as he ended up on the right side of two 50/50 coin flips.
Four Players Receive Season Awards for 2023 Performance
With the Player of the Year race decided, four more players received season awards:
- Crystal, who averaged 3.8 POY points per tournament and probably would have won Player of the Year if she had been able to attend one or two more games, was named the 2023 Pinnacle Poker Shark.
- James, who led the league with four cashes in five games and total winnings of 13 buy-ins, was named the 2023 Pinnacle Poker Moneymaker.
- Kasra, who led the league with 13 knockouts in six games, including one game in which he single-handedly busted half of the field, was named the 2023 Pinnacle Poker Mandalorian.
- John, who we met late in the season and attended only two games—winning one and making the final table in our largest field event—was named the 2023 Pinnacle Poker Rising Star.
Early Exits for Former Winners in Main Event
With the season awards out of the way, 13 players began their quest for the title of Main Event Champion. The field was stacked with five previous tournament winners and four season award recipients, but few of those players made deep runs in the Main Event. Instead, the tournament was dominated from the beginning by two clutch players who saved their best PPC finishes for this event.
Immediately out of the gate, Shea and Altaf began collecting chips hand-after-hand. Indeed, in the very first level, Shea limped under the gun, Altaf limped in middle position, and Kara picked up A-A on the button. As the board ran out 5-8-8-2-Q, Shea turned over 8-6, thinking that she had cracked Kara’s Aces, but Altaf turned over 2-2 for a full house, raking in a big early pot of about 5,000 chips. Despite coming in with the smallest starting chip count, Altaf was immediately climbing the rankings (picking up right where he left off the night before when he reportedly won in another home poker game).
A little over an hour into the event, we had our first knockout of the day as Altaf made a flush to beat Thuy’s pair of 7s.
Then came a string of former champions and award winners falling one after another.
The first was Matt, who won Event #4, but suffered some pretty tough luck in two big hands early in the Main Event. First, Kara limped from the button after a couple of other players had also limped. Matt had come in with a strategy of making large bets and raises (including several unusually large all-in bets), hoping to take down a lot of small pots and eventually frustrate someone into calling him with a weak hand. This time, he raised from the small blind and Kara called. The flop came down 8-6-2, and Kara guessed out loud “are you going all-in again?” Matt did in fact move all-in and Kara reluctantly called. It appeared that Matt’s strategy had succeeded, as he quickly showed K-K, and Kara showed 7-6 for just a pair of 6s (plus a backdoor straight draw and backdoor heart draw). Matt was a 2-to-1 favorite to bust Kara and add more than 12,000 chips to his stack. But a 4 on the turn and 5 on the river gave Kara a straight and left Matt with only about 7,000 chips.
Just a few hands later, Matt found himself all-in with A-6 against his wife, Crystal, who held Q-Q. Matt had less than a 30% chance of remaining in the event, but he held out hope, since Kara had just beaten precisely the same odds against him. A comeback was not in the cards for Matt, however, as the Q-Q-2 flop gave Crystal quads and left Matt immediately drawing dead, finishing in 12th place. This was the second time in the past two tournaments that Crystal had knocked out her husband early in a tournament (though Matt has also won his fair share of big hands against Crystal in this ongoing spousal rivalry).
Next up was Quang, winner of Event #1, who suffered a pretty tough beat at the hands of Peggy over on the Red table. On a board of J-A-3-3-7, the two players put nearly 19,000 chips in the middle, and Quang was feeling pretty confident when he turned over A-3. He had flopped two pair and improved to a full house on the turn. But Peggy had hung on till the river when her 7-7 made a better full house and knocked Quang from the event in 11th place.
Just a few hands later, the knockouts continued on the Red table as James—the newly-minted Pinnacle Poker Moneymaker—was eliminated in 10th place by Kasra, marking only the second time all year (and only the third time since 2022) that James failed to make the final table.
Then, with the players one elimination away from the final table, it looked like Chris would be the next former winner to fall. Down to about 9,000 chips with the blinds at 800-1,600, Chris picked up A-Q and moved all-in. Crystal was also relatively short-stacked, with only about 15,000 chips, but she called and showed J-T. The flop of A-6-4 gave Chris a bit more comfort, but Crystal’s history of beating the odds still had him feeling nervous. A harmless 5 on the turn and 8 on the river secured the double-up for Chris.
Two hands later, Chris had an opportunity to turn the tables on Crystal, putting her tournament life at risk. Crystal limped from under the gun with only about 4,000 left in her stack. Chris picked up A-9 in the small blind and moved all-in. Crystal immediately called and turned over K-K. Chris could not believe it; this was the fourth time in seven tournaments that Chris was up against K-K in an all-in situation. The previous three times, he had been knocked out (twice by Crystal!). When the flop came 7-4-2, it looked like Crystal would double up and Chris would be left wondering how he kept running into Kings. But an Ace on the turn and 9 on the river gave Chris the lucky win, and a bit of retribution against those dreaded pocket Kings. Crystal, the winner of Event #2, was out in 9th place, and the remaining 8 players moved to the final table.
Altaf and Shea Dominate Final Table, and Three Players Have Best Finishes of the Year
About half an hour into final-table play, it was Peggy’s turn to be on the losing end of a cooler when she picked up A-Q and flopped two pair on a flop of A-K-Q. She and Shea proceeded to pile chips into the pot as the board ran out with a 3 on the turn and a 5 on the river. When the cards were turned over with more than 40,000 chips in the pot, Shea revealed that she had had Peggy beaten all the way with her A-K. Peggy was left with only about 15,000 (less than 5 big blinds).
Just a couple of hands later, Peggy picked up A-5, a good hand to put the rest of her stack in, but she ran into Chris’s A-9. The K-Q-2-J-6 run out was no help, and Peggy was out in 8th place.
Then it was Kara’s turn to move all-in. But she fared better as her 8-3 suited flopped two pair on a board of K-8-3. The Ten on the turn and Queen on the river were no help for either Shea’s A-9 or Tania’s 9-9, and Kara tripled up.
After that, it was the Shea-and-Altaf show all the way to the end. The short stacks continued to get desperate and just three hands later, both Kara and Kasra were all-in, Kara with Q-J and Kasra with T-6. Shea covered both players, and had the best hand with A-7. The board of 9-A-6-J-5 was not enough help to either Kara or Kasra, and both players hit the rail, while Shea continued to rake in the chips, increasing her stack from around 45,000 to almost 85,000.
Kasra finished in 7th place, only his second finish outside the top 5 all year (and only his third such finish since 2022).
Kara was out in 6th place, capping off her 4th final-table run in 5 tournaments.
Then it was Steve’s turn to move all-in holding K-Q on a flop of 9-4-2. Altaf’s A-T was in the lead and held up when the 9 on the turn and 6 on the river failed to improve Steve’s hand. Steve exited in 5th place, his second best finish of the year, and Altaf continued to rake in chips, increasing his stack to about 70,000.
Then, with blinds of 3,000-6,000, Chris looked down at A-K in the cutoff and moved his remaining 27,000 chips into the pot. Tania called from the big blind holding A-Q and sitting on a stack that appeared to be about the same size as Chris’s. As the board ran out 9-3-4-6-K, Chris took down a pot of around 60,000 chips. But after a careful count, Tania was not eliminated as she held about 10,000 more chips than Chris.
Tania didn’t have to wait long to pick up another good hand to put her tournament life on the line with. The very next hand, Altaf, the big stack at the table, raised from the button trying to push the blinds out. Tania looked down at 8-8 in the small blind, a great hand to put the rest of her chips in with, especially once she learned that Altaf held only J-5 of spades. Tania was a 2:1 favorite to double up and get back in the game. The flop of 7s-4s-4c improved Altaf’s hand a bit, but Tania was still a 60% favorite to survive. The 3 of diamonds on the turn gave Altaf a straight draw to go along with his flush draw and over card, but Tania’s chances of winning the hand climbed back up to about 68%. Unfortunately for her, the 3 of spades on the river gave Altaf the flush and knocked Tania out in 4th place, her best finish of the year.
A few hands later, with Altaf, Shea, and Chris playing three-handed at blinds of 5,000-10,000, Altaf raised to 30,000 on the button and Chris moved all-in from the small blind for 35,000. Shea folded, and Chris found out that his Q-7 of spades was in bad shape against Altaf’s Q-J of hearts. Chris had only about a 30% chance of staying in the game. The flop of K-T-4 was no help for Chris and, in fact, gave Altaf an open-ended straight draw to go along with his best hand, cutting Chris’s chances of survival in half. But a miracle 7 on the turn put Chris in the lead with a 75% chance of doubling up. Altaf would need an Ace, a Jack, or a 9 to knock Chris out. Once again, Altar was the beneficiary of a helpful river card, as the Ace of diamonds sealed Chris’s fate and knocked him out in 3rd place.
As heads-up play began, Altaf held a huge chip lead on Shea (220,000 to 40,000) with blinds at 5,000-10,000. But Shea immediately began to chip away at that lead, picking up Q-Q on the second hand of heads-up play, moving all-in and doubling up as Altaf’s K-3 didn’t improve on the board of A-J-6-6-A.
With Shea’s stack up over 80,000, and Altaf down to 180,000, Shea was now within striking distance as one more double up would put her in the lead. But she still had only 8 big blinds to work with, so she needed to find a good hand to put her tournament life on the line.
Shea continued to chip away, winning another small pot with A-9 against Altaf’s 8-7 on a board of Q-J-4-5-5, adding another 11,000 to her stack.
The very next hand looked like it would be a big one. Altaf limped on the button, and Shea checked from the being blind. The flop came out 9-9-8, Shea checked, Altaf went all-in, and Shea called. Both players held trip 9s and Altaf turned over 9-4 and Shea turned over 9-6. Shea held the advantage, but there was about a 70% chance that the players would chop the pot. And that is exactly what happened as a Jack on the turn and Queen on the river gave both players the same kickers.
The final hand came just moments later. With the blinds at 8,000-16,000, Shea put her final chips in the pot with K-9, but got unlucky to run into Altaf’s K-Q. Shea would need some luck to overcome the 3:1 odds and stay in the tournament. The flop of J-T-4 gave both players a straight draw, but Altaf’s draw was better and he had the best hand, so Shea’s odds of surviving dropped under 20%. An 8 on the turn improved Shea’s straight draw, but with only one card to come, her odds of survival were just 15%. A final 8 on the river made it official. Shea was out in 2nd place and Altaf was crowned our first Main Event champion after personally busting 5 of his 12 competitors, including the final 4 in a row.
This event marked the best finish for both players at the Pinnacle Poker Club.
Stay Tuned for 2024 Season Details and Launch of Pinnacle.Poker
With the 2023 season officially in the books, we will release details about the 2024 season, including a tentative schedule and the season structure, on the Pinnacle.Poker website in the next few weeks. In the meantime, mark your calendars for the January 13 return of the Pinnacle Poker Club!