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Most
serious poker players know the story of Dan
Harrington. In 2003 and 2004, Harrington made
perhaps the most amazing back-to-back run in the
history of poker, when he made the final table, in
two, consecutive World Series of Poker Events.
Well, Jeff “AJ Trips” Walsh may not have had
to go through over 2500 players (as Harrington did
in 2004), but he has become NJFP’s version of
“Action Dan”. At the Colorado Café, on June 28,
2008, Walsh overcame almost 60 players and close to
6 hours of poker action, to win the Bar Tab
tournament for a second, consecutive time.
“Wow!” Walsh profoundly exclaimed, after realizing
what he accomplished. “This was a great event. Doing
the whole thing in one day, it really felt like a
true poker tournament, because we all had our
endurance tested. It just seemed like whenever I
decided to make a play, it worked out in my favor.
This was fantastic preparation for the finals, which
is now what I’m gunning for.”
Hand of the match, three players left: It was down
to the final three players; Mark “Met Lover” Kline
made a strong raise with his pocket queens. “Cowboy”
Joe Quispe decided to make a move of his own, and
re-raised, all-in. Kline immediately called, and
although he was in danger of being eliminated, he
was happy to see that all Quispe had was A-4 suited,
putting Kline in prime position to double up. After
the flop and turn netted no help to anyone, the
tension mounted. Quispe only had 3 outs, but that
didn’t stop Kline (or, for that matter, “River” Rob)
from being nervous. Sure enough, as has seemingly
been his life story at NJFP, Rob “rivered” a miracle
ace, to the shock of the crowd and the utter dismay
of Kline, who would finish in 3rd place. As crazy as
that was, however, that would end up being nothing
compared to …
Hand of the match, heads-up: Quispe and Walsh
exchanged back and forth wins for a good twenty
minutes, but Walsh was a fairly, heavy chip leader,
going into the final hand of the match. Quispe,
desperate for a double-up, made an all-in move with
K-2 off suit, and Walsh called with J-9 suited.
Walsh would later explain his call: “I felt my cards
were live, pure and simple. I didn’t put Joe on a
strong hand, and even if my read was wrong, I still
would’ve had close to $90,000 chips to play with. So
for me, it was worth the gamble”. Walsh initially
regretted his call as the flop came out K-2-7,
placing Quispe in a dominant position, with two pair
and Walsh with little hope, except a runner-runner
miracle. The turn was an 8, which meant that Walsh
needed a 10, and only a 10, to give him an
improbable, but possible, straight. Sure enough,
with you-know-who dealing the cards… BAM! 10 on the
river! The crowd gasped, and it was like déjà-vous,
all over again…Jeff Walsh became the back-to-back
Bar-tab Tournament winner, and took home another
$100.00 sponsored satellite seat and another 1st
Place trophy for his growing collection, from NJ
Free Poker.
Top 10 results:
10- Heather Hanlon
9- Pat Varasllona
8- Kristina Smith
7- Robert Tapler
6- Kavish Y. Dhaibar
5- Mily Davila
4- Jim Roche
3- Mark Kline
2- Joe Quispe
1- Jeff Walsh
Congratulations to all who played, and thank you to
Rob Grosch, and all of the NJFP dealers for another
successful event.
Season V begins on July 7th, when all scores are set
to zero… The Wild Card game for players not in the
Top 250 with at least one win, takes place on July
17th at the Whiskey Café, and the Semi-Finals
Shootout follows, on the weekend of July 19 & 20.
The top 30 players and semi-finals survivors will
battle it out at the two-day NJFP Finals, on July
26th and 27th. Please see the website for details
and registration information, and we’ll see you on
the NJFP circuit!
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