Boother36 Reports on His Outstanding Showing in the Heartland Poker Tour

Take it away Boother36:

“All in all, it was even better the second time around!!! It was a huge mine field to navigate through, so I feel fortunate to have made it back to the final table. While I wish the outcome would have been different, looking back I really am lucky to have made that far again.

We started play at 5:00 PM on Saturday night with 296 players and played till about 11:30 PM. That got us down to 82 players.

The average chip stack was about $50K at that time and I had $81K. Not too bad for the end of day 1. Ken and Gary (from my poker club) were up there playing in the tourney too. The 3 of us made a KILLING on a BJ table late Saturday night. But that’s a story for a different day!! (Ed. Note: Got to hear that one! Faldo can’t win at blackjack if I got 20 every time.)

Play resumed at 9:00 AM on Sunday. Steady, conservative, tight play got me into the money at 30 players. My cards turned dead shortly thereafter and I was able to fold my way from 25th or so to the final table. We ended up playing for almost 2 hours with 9 players. My demise came about when I went after stealing the monumental antes and blinds ($4K/$30K/$60K).

I had Js10s in middle position. I went all in for just over $400K (ave chip stack was $495K at that time). Of course, the SS had to have AJ and called. Nothing hit my hand and I ended up losing about 2/3rds of my chips on that hand.

The very next hand I got KsQs and went all in again for about $140K. Play folded around to the BB (the 2nd chip leader), and after properly analyzing that he should call my “barely more than min raise amount” with any 2 cards, he did so. He had Kd2c. Even though I had him dominated, as luck would have it a 2 comes on the river!! Just like that, I was out (9th - $10,588).

With this run of luck I have had at this venue, I can’t wait for the HPT to get back to the Soaring Eagle!!”

Thanks Boother, for the report. And again, great job!

For those of you that have never been there, The Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant has always ran a nice poker room. Faldo and Thai Food haunted that place profitably for years. Then, just before the Chris Moneymaker boom, they closed the poker room.

Excuse me for the joke, but the Indians timing on that was worse than Colonel Custard. They had a great poker room, clientele and experienced dealers. But decided they would make more money with more slots (probably true).

Then – BANG! They had to rebuild it. I played there a few times after the re-start, but it was not the same or as busy. But it is obvious it is back now – and better than ever.