Absea98 Win the NPP Championship for 2009!

Slow, steady, persistent and improving all year, Absea98 chooses the last night of the year to win his first NPP tournament! And it just happened to be the Finals is all!

This is what I have said the entire time. Persistency pays off. Chugging thru the season, picking up points when he could, Absea made it to the finals with a Total Points seat, and not by winning any quarter. Or winning a tourney in any quarter! Its called ‘grinding’ in the truest sense.

Let’s see how it happened:

<1 min: ThePunk75 moves all-in first hand. Twss

21 min: Blinds 15 – 30: Theedouble*d (6th) (830 chips) is the only one who calls Absea98’s raise to 120. The flop is [5s Ah 6d] and they get them all in. DD with (Ac Jc) and Absea with (55), and DD doesn’t catch up.

40 min: Blinds 25 – 50: A battle of the blinds as Absea98 calls Tomservo2’s (5th) BB. The flop is [2c 5s Th]. Absea bets a blind and is called. The turn [4h]. Absea bets two blinds and is called. The river is a [7c]. Absea (A3) bets enough with his straight to put Tom all-in, and Tom calls with his two pair. Ouch!

44 min: Blinds 25 – 50: ThePunk75 (4th) goes with (Ac Qh), but Absea98 is holding (Ad Ks). Normally, the suits would not matter in a hand like this as a [Q] falls on the flop. But so do two spades – and runner runner spades ships it to Absea. One of those painful behind – ahead – lost hands.

Break:

Absea98 5315
LittleRedElf 2440
Douge2 1245

66 min: Blinds 75-150: The two short-stacks (SS) have to collide. And Douge2 (1020 chips) (A9) moves in and LittleRedElf (1765) (KQ) calls. Our run away season point leader is in trouble.

68 min: Blinds 75-150: LRE gets even with Doug chip-wise as his (A8) hits an [A] to defeat Doug’s (99).

71 min: Blinds 75-150: At it again! This time Douge gets crippled as his (33) gets over-paired again by LRE’s (AJ) on the flop. Doug is down to less than two big blinds!

74 min: Blinds 100 – 200: Absea98 calls Douge2’s (3rd) blind. The flop is [6d 3s 5s] – a floater’s paradise. Absea bets a blind and Doug calls. The river is an [As]. Doug moves in with (Th 4c) – bluffing the flush or {A} - with an inside straight draw, but Absea is not going anywhere with (A2). A blank falls on the river.

Heads up: Absea98 6600 - 2400 LittleRedElf

86 min: Blinds 100 – 200: Absea 5720 (8d 8c) - 3280 LRE (Ah 5d)
Absea raises to 800 and gets called. Flop [Ad 9d 4h] and it is checked.
Turn [Td] and the Elf moves in and is called. Elf takes the lead!

86 min: Blinds 100 – 200: Absea 2440 (As Ks) - 6560 LRE (Kd Js)
LRE raises to 600 and Absea correctly moves all-in. LRE calls, and we are all even!

90 min: Blinds 100 – 200: Absea 4480 (Kh Js) - 4520 LRE (Ad Ac)
LRE raises to 600 and Absea calls. The flop looks like death for Absea [Jd 2s 3c] (18%) as all his money gets in and LRE (82%) of course calls. But a [K] hits the turn and it is all but over.

91 min: 100 – 200: Absea 8960 (5d 3d) - 40 LRE (Ah 8s)
LRE (2nd) has to go with (Ah 8s), and Absea has to call with anything (5d 3d). The flop had a 3 and the turn was a 3, and Absea is NPP’s 2009 Champion!

Congratulations to Absea98 first win at NPP (49th player), and it came at the best possible moment.

And congratulations to all the Finalists, and to LittleRedElf on his dominating league total win.

1st – Absea98
2nd – LittleRedElf
3rd – Douge2
4th – ThePunk75
5th – Tomservo2
6th – Theedouble*d

Watch the blog for statistics and voting preferences for next year! - Faldo