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You know the old saying…“It’s not the size of the
dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the
dog”. That old adage certainly held true, in the
third monthly Bar Tab Satellite Tournament at
Woody’s Grillhouse in Clifton, on Sunday, April 29.
Grizzled veteran Ren “Double Down” Buonomo, who
entered the final table with one of the lowest chip
stacks, tenaciously battled his way past nine other
competitors, to capture the victory.
John “Love Shack” Ishak, with only $500 in starting
chips, was quickly eliminated in 10th place, before
he could get anything going. But then the fun
began; Tatyana “The Mad Knitter” Kasmtanova, was the
chip leader at the outset, with over $18,000.
Tatyana used her stack and her no-fear, aggressive
approach, to try to bully the other competitors, and
appeared ready to take a commanding lead, at the
expense of Jose Garcia, in what would constitute our
“hand of the match”.
Garcia, using the same tactic, that has defined his
style of play in recent months, made an
authoritative move against Tatyana, when he glanced
down at his top pair of 10’s, with a Queen kicker,
on the flop. Unfortunately for him, “The Mad
Knitter” had flopped a straight, and decided to
raise, rather than slow play. Now pot-committed,
Garcia eventually put all of his chips into the pot,
and then hung his head, when he saw his opponents
straight, fully resigned to the fact that his
tournament life was all but over.
History does repeat itself, and as in the previous
Bar-tab Satellite, 30 days ago, Rob “Lord of the
River” Grosch pulled a King, on the turn, and
finally, in a moment that even surprised him,
dropped a Jack on the river, giving Garcia a higher
straight. As Jose stared at the board in disbelief,
Tatyana could not hide her absolute shock, at being
“runner-runnered” right out of the lead, with one
flip of Rob’s wrist. The lesson of the story … you
can run and you can hide, but you can never escape
“The River”.
After that demoralizing loss, Tatyana became, what
is affectionately known as, “card dead” and
eventually bottomed out and finished in ninth place.
From thereon, the list of eliminated players read
like a “who’s-who” of veteran NJFP players… Cynthia
“Player Down” Wilkes, Ron “Eyes Genie” Phillips, Joe
“The Lip” Lipari, Jennifer Groff, and Mark “Air
Mail” Vega, were all knocked-out, in quick
succession.
And then there were three. After hanging around for
as long as could, Hung “The Mad Caller” Pham
finished in a very respectable third and a $50
satellite seat. Jose Garcia used his amazing luck
on that one hand to acquire chips, which carried him
into second place and a $100 satellite.
In the end, however, it was the experienced veteran
of the table, Ren “Double Down” Buonomo, who would
eventually prevail and claim his first place prize
of a $150 satellite seat. This old-dog certainly
knows plenty of new tricks!
Congratulations to all of the winners, and thank you
to everybody, for participating. Don’t forget to
hand in your receipts and we’ll see you when the
fourth tourney rolls around, in June. |
