Fusciardi Wins His 1st NPP Tourney – 1st Qtr. Seat in NPP Final Decided!

Nail biting time this round! A very exciting night with absolutely first class poker played!

Tonight twenty players decide who earns the first seat in the NPP finals – and everyone brought their ‘A’ game. I will tell you who won the seat as we flow thru the action. Patience!

NPP first wants to welcome two new players to the NPP family – Allinduces and Quagmire2752. It’s great to have you two aboard.

Now on to the action!

29 min: The play starts off slow and quiet as everyone seems to know what is at stake – a coveted seat in the NPP Finals. TheNewY2K (20th) hits his trips on the turn and moves in, only to watch Kensik make his flush on the river.

30 min: Now the action really picks up and the carnage begins as a short-stacked Absea98 (19th) (A8) and Allinduces (18th) (AJ) cannot overtake RKidder51400’s (AK).

35 min: In a bloody trips over trips confrontation, Bighousea2 (17th) (333) loses to Smookie27 (666).

39 min: Kensik (16th) makes his move when he pairs his hole (J) on the flop, but ThePunk75 has (KK).

42 min: Duder1123 (15th) sees his (99) make a heart flush on the river, but Fusciadi’s (AK) does too.

43 min: UMichPoker (14th) has her (AQ) run into RKidder51400’s (AK).

47 min: Mikeniks-Faldo (13th) is very short-stacked and calls all-in with an open ended straight draw, which fails to get there and loses to RKidder51400’s pair of tens. Now all current point leader Faldo can do is watch and wait to see if he gets passed by for the seat.

56 min: Akensi (12th) tries it with (Ad Qd) and ThePunk75, who must win tonight while keeping LittleRedElf and Rennzzo from finishing high, takes Amy out with his (TT).

58 min: ThePunk75 helps his chances immensely when his (Jh 4h) hits a [J] on the river to eliminate Rennzzo (11th) (AK). ThePunk is doing what he has to do to win the seat – maybe foregoing tonight’s prize money to get it. Impressive nub shown to NPP!

59 min: Biglou93 (10th) tries it with (AQ) and gets called by the ‘need to be’ over-aggressive ThePunk75 (A2) and Quagmire2752 (88). The pocket pair holds up.

1st Break:
ThePunk75 8145
Fusciardi 4950
CrackBuyer 4660
RKidder51400 4480
Smookie27 2980
Quagmire2752 2340
LittleRedElf 1070
Douge2 905
Tigercub8189 470

Here is the scenario: ThePunk75 must win the tournament, but at the same time prevent LittleRedElf from finishing higher than 4th, in order to take the seat away from LRE! It looks like it might happen at this point. Mikeniks-Faldo just needs LRE to not finish 4th either - to win his seat.

So it could be LRE alone with the seat - or Faldo and either one of these two fine players with a seat.

63 min: A short-stacked Douge2 (9th) has to make a move with (KJ). Smookie27 goes into the tank before calling with a flush draw (Jd 6d) – [5c Kd 7d] which gets there on the river [8d]. Ouch

67 min: Tigercub8189 (8th) finally goes all-in pre-flop with (5c 4c) and Quagmire2752 (66) and LittleRedElf (JJ) take him out. LRE is gathering chips!

82 min: Very tough poker being played! Quagmire2752 (7th) moves all-in with his two pair, only to find Fusciardi had hit trips! A beautiful job done by Quagmire, as 1st time players usually don’t make final tables here at NPP. Must be a player to watch, people.

But are not we all?

LittleRedElf moves closer to the 4th spot he needs should ThePunk75 wins this.

109 min: I could write a book on the fine poker played by everyone left at this final table in the last 27 minutes! Back and forth – up and down. LittleRedElf (6th) had climbed all the way to 3rd at one time.

After getting smacked hard by CrackBuyer, LRE has to try it and calls all-in with (Kd Td), but finds Smookie27 holding (KJ).

Faldo and ThePunk75 have the seats if Punk can win from here.

110 min: It is decided quickly as ThePunk75 (5th) has his (AT) run into CrackBuyer’s (JJ).

Faldo and LittleRedElf have won the 1st quarter seats!

118 min: RKidder51400 (4th) takes two tough loses in a row, spoiling a great game of poker played this evening! First her (33) makes trips on the flop, only to lose to CrackBuyer’s straight on the turn. Then, in the very next hand, her (KQ) is no match for Crack’s (AT).

2nd Break:
Fusciardi 11855
CrackBuyer 9745
Smookie27 8400

123 min: This was a fast close out. CrackBuyer (3rd) bluffs at the wrong time and runs into Fusciardi’s trip 9’s.

124 min: Smookie27 (2nd) has to try and play catch up and tries it with (Qs 8s) and hits his flush. The only problem is that Fusciardi is holding (As 3s).

Congratulations to Fusciardi for his 1st NPP win and making the Walk of Fame!
Congratulations to LittleRedElf and Mikeniks-Faldo for their seats in the NPP Finals in December.

1st – Fusciardi
2nd – Smookie27
3rd – CrackBuyer
4th – Rkidder51400
5th – ThePunk75
6th – LittleRedElf
7th – Quagmire2752
8th – Tigercub8189
9th – Douge2

Total Point Standings are on the right side of the blog.