March 2, 2006
This attitude to play in online free texas holdem satellite games is a breath of fresh air in a climate where bar owners have had their doors kicked down, and players have been cited, and equipment seized in prohibition-esque raids on free poker games in bars and taverns in several states across the US. The ordinance took steps to ensure responsible gaming, and compliance with the law by providing for things like licensed texas holdem tournament organizers to ensure a smooth tournament, and more importantly, fair play in the NFL, and fellow high schooler Joe Namath was making a name for himself in both football and basketball at nearby Beaver Falls. Tomko, however, found his calling in the tough texas holdem poker rooms of Pittsburgh where he matched wits with poker players twice his age.
Not surprisingly Lee Nelson is prominent in every part of the site; he is the Grand Champion 2000-2005, he tops the texas holdem leaderboard for 2006 as the Aussie Millions winner, his pictures are everywhere, and you can easily link to newspaper articles and interviews with him. He obviously accommodated the media as much as he could. When his wife Pen asked him what he wanted for his 63rd birthday he replied without having to think about it, "First place, honey!" The final day of this texas holdem poker tournament was held on the day that celebrated his birthday and he got his wish! His final three challengers had a combined age of 64 and that illustrates how poker has come to be dominated by young males. I thought Lee played great down the stretch and it was nice to see someone with so much emotional maturity win this featured event.
The player who was not at the final poker table created the biggest stir – Kenna James. Kenna was the free texas holdem satellite chip leader coming into the final day and his first problem was that they did not allow hats on the set (too many shadows, they said) and so KJ had to put his large cowboy hat on one of the cameras to 'oversee' the action. It must have seemed to texas holdem that they were taking his good luck charm away as he doubled up two short stacks and was disturbed enough to order a drink, an alcoholic beverage as we say in the trade. Now Kenna was the lucky one and as he caught what he needed (in the first hand post-drink he bet and a player raised all-in with the board seven high, the player held a set of sevens but Kenna had 10h9h for a flush draw, after some deliberation he called and made the texas holdem flush without the board pairing.) With positive reinforcement he continued to drink and his chip stack steadily grew. He now went off camera and out of my sight, back to the texas holdem poker room proper, which was 100 meters, or so, away. While there he amassed the amazing total of 2.5 million in chips out of 8.327 million total chip count and by now felt nine feet tall and bullet proof, lining up five drinks and pressing too much with the texas holdem hands he was dealt. Twice he tried to run over Lee Nelson when he raised from the button and Lee re-raised from the big blind by moving all-in while holding A9 and AQ. Unfortunately for him Lee held KK both times and had an easy call and did not suffer a beat.
Kenna's final hand was almost the stuff of poker legend. It had the makings, but fell on its own sword before crossing the texas holdem finish line. Someone limped up front and Nenad made it 100,000 to go from the little blind with QsQd and Kenna re-raised to 350,000 from the big blind with AcKc, the limper mucked and Nenad moved all-in, having Kenna covered. A surprised Kenna went into the tank and decided that he could not lay this hand down. He called and the flop came QcQh10c, so even though Nenad flopped quads Kenna could make a texas holdem royal flush! That would have made the movie for sure, but it did not happen and KJ was out in 9th place!
After Mark Vos (AUS) went out 8th the final table was set up for the seven remaining players. There were no live spectators allowed on the set to view the proceedings, although a feed was sent out via closed circuit to various locations in the casino. The local texas holdem poker games helped pay his tuition at Salem College, and Dewey entered the "real" world as a kindergarten teacher. Like others before him however, the late-night poker games just got in the way. How could he be expected to teach classes when he had stayed up all night playing poker - and won a month's salary in the process? Before he really gave it much thought, texas holdem poker won over as his sole-source of income.
