Derek 2 Phil Gordon 0

Hurricane Katrina Relief Tournament
Full Tilt Poker
Friday, September 2nd 2005

As you all know, Full Tilt Poker and Pokerstars have been kind enough to run a few charity tourneys online for the Hurricane Katrina victims. Many of us signed up to play in Full Tilt's Friday event. It was great to see the turnout. A bunch of poker bloggers played too. In total, 718 people played so I think we raised over $14,000 (including the FTP match). Several pros played including Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Paul Wolfe, Steve Brecher, David Singer, David Grey, and Kristy Gazes. I played and finished in 33rd place. I made the money and I think I will just donate the winnings back to the Hurricane Katrina fund. Full Tilt Poker is going to run another relief tournament on Sunday. Details are below.

Where: Full Tilt Poker
When: Sunday Sept. 4th at 9:15pm ET
How Much: $20 + $10

As with the Friday event, Full Tilt will match your $10 entry fee and it will be donated to the Red Cross' Hurricane Relief Fund. Also, don't forget about the 4 charity events that PokerStars is having in the upcoming weeks. Many thanks to Wil Wheaton for his efforts in getting this set up at Pokerstars. Check out the Pokerstars blog for more details. Poker Stars will also be giving money from the prize pool to the American Red Cross.

Back to Friday night's Full Tilt event . . . I took down two hands against Phil Gordon late in the tourney and I even rivered him once! Before I get to the suckout story, there was a sick hand that happened before Phil and I got seated at the same table. If it wasn't for this hand, I would've been KO'd much earlier in the night.


Me and Phil Gordon
I was dealt QQ in the SB. The button had KK and someone in EP had AQo. EP moved all in preflop, the button called and I re-raised all in. KK called and this was the board . . . A-Q-9-7-7. I flopped a set and hit my miracle one outer! This win got my stack up to over T7,000.

I got AA on the button. The SB had AKo, Phil Gordon had QJo, and the cutoff had 87s. I re-raised all in since my stack was getting chipped down. I got 3 callers including Phil. The guy who had 87s was the shortstack. The board came down 4-T-8-7-K. I lost to the guy with 87s but thank goodness he was the shortstack. I was excited enough to at least beat out the other two guys in the pot. I held onto a little over T8,000 in chips after this hand. The guy with 87s 4x up and his chip stack was up to T15,000. Those chips should've been mine but that happens. It's for charity, right? The real stat that mattered the most was . . . . Derek 1, Phil Gordon 0.

This next hand was the big one. I rivered Phil Gordon and it felt really good. lol. We were down to 4 tables or so and I was getting shortstacked again. I had ATo in EP and decided to move all in. Phil was sitting to my immediate left and asks me if I have AQ. Haha . . . I had something worse! Phil called with 55. He had me covered by alot. The flop came down 3-K-J. The turn was a 2 and the sweet river card was a Q! El maldito rio!! I rivered a straight on Phil to double up! I had over T22,000 in chips by then. Phil's only response was to type the word RIVER into the chat several times. lol. I quietly typed . . "better lucky than good" into the chat. Derek 2, Phil Gordon 0.


Phil has been RIVERED!!
Soon enough, I got KO'd in 33rd place when my A9 ran into AJ. Phil outlasted me and finished in 31st place. I had a great time and I got a chance to do something good and donate some money to people in need. If you have the time and money, sign up for one of the other charity events that will be going on. There's plenty of chances to donate to a worthy cause! Plus, you may get a chance to river a pro!!!!