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Sometimes in a poker tournament, experience counts,
most of the time; a huge chip stack REALLY counts.
Jeff “AJ Trips” Walsh used both of these to his
advantage at the latest NJ Free Poker Bar Tab
tourney, as he defeated nearly 70 other players to
walk away with the victory.
A longtime NJFP player, dating all the way back to
the early days of Woody’s, Walsh came into day two
on Sunday, April 12th, with the highest
chip count of all the players remaining in the
competition. That stack was helped because of a
truly remarkable hand that he won in the first leg
on Saturday, at Pip’s Tavern in Garfield.
Any poker player will tell you that it’s not very
often that you come away from a hand with four of a
kind. Even rarer still is when you actually FLOP
the quads. But when you combine that with your
opponent starting with a higher pair who hits his
set as well… you have the makings of a truly rare
poker moment; and that’s exactly the scenario that
took place ….a pre-flop battle of Walsh’s pocket
queens vs. Herb “Man Hands” Menchan’s pocket aces.
When the flops produced a couple of queens to give
AJ four ladies, from the outset, he did what any
good poker player should do…. checked until the
river. Once Herb filled up with an ace on the
river, it gave him, what he had to believe was the
winning hand, a full house. Unfortunately, for
Herb, he was dead in the water, and that enabled
Walsh to take all of Menchan’s chips and give him
enough ammo to cruise to the second day, and
eventually the victory (And for the record, “The
Lord of The River” did not deal that hand. That
honor went to “Red-Headed” Jon).
“I really enjoyed playing in this tournament,” Walsh
said. “It was a different game than what we’re
normally used to here at NJFP, and it was a lot of
fun. It was nice to be able to actually play poker,
instead of just trying to survive the blinds. The
quad queens didn’t hurt my cause, either!”
Although the final table consisted of many NJFP
stalwarts, including 3rd place finisher
Andrew “Tire Slasher” Scala, Wally “Big 2” Brackett,
power couple John “Ponytail” Hanti and Dorothy “Big
Game” McGuiness (who enhanced her reputation by
making yet ANOTHER final table in these special
tourneys), and eventual runner-up Peggy “The 3
Amigas” Pena, Walsh withstood the onslaught to claim
the final $100 prize.
Sunday’s hand of the match:
Eric “Blind Stealer” Sita, who was chipped-up in
his own right and in prime position to acquire
control of the final table, went all-in, pre-flop,
with A-K. After a long, VERY careful deliberation,
Walsh called, and found out he was in danger of
losing most of his chips, as he was dominated, with
his A-Q. Sita was in the driver’s seat,
particularly when they both flopped an ace.
However, no one could believe it when the poker
gods intervened and Walsh hit his queen on the turn,
netting him two pair and ending Sita’s day in 8th
place. Sometimes you have to be lucky as well as
good. On this weekend, Jeff Walsh was certainly
both.
Congratulations to Jeff Walsh for the win, and to
everyone who participated. A special thank you to
Rob Grosch for organizing the event and to all of
the NJFP Dealers for another job well done. Here’s
how they finished:
FINAL TABLE BAR TAB RESULTS
10 – Greg Ferraiolo
9 – Ron Trent
8 – Eric Sita
7 – Wally Brackett
6 – Lorraine Maguire
5 – Dorothy McGuinness
4 – John Hanti
3 – Drew Scala
2 – Peggy Pena
1 – Jeff Walsh
The next Bar-tab Tournament locks out at the end of
May, so remember to hand in your bar tab receipts to
qualify… Shuffle up and deal!
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