To The Winners Go The Spoils


2008-03-28 00:58:05
By: Gene Bromberg

When I woke up Tuesday morning to find my alarm clock hiccuping 12:00 I thought little of it. The occasional power outage only reminds us how wonderful the gift of electricity really is. I reset my alarm clock as well as the clocks on my stove, coffee maker and DVD recorder and, having exhausted myself, took a nap.

When I woke again I sat down at my desk and resolved to watch the final episode of The Best Damn Poker Show. When we last left the final table Phil Hellmuth's team was on the brink of disaster, and the first half of the show didn't provide Phil's squad with much reason to hope. Carl Wescott built his stack until he was nearly even with Annie's three remaining players, but Sully Erna was brought in to steer a shortstack and had to call with A-5 when Gary "debo34" DeBernardi moved in with pocket deuces. If Sully doubled up it would've given Team Hellmuth a real shot, and Phil and Mark "P0ker H0" Kroon leapt out of their chairs and beseeched the Poker Gods to let them win a hand, this one time.

But it wasn't meant to be. Erna couldn't catch up to Debo's ducks, and that was that. Annie's team won, and everyone on that team wins a seat in this year's Aruba Poker Classic. Which is, like, an incredible prize. One can imagine the jumping and shrieking that went on when that meaningless trey fell on the river to cinch the deal. Aruba, baby.

Now, Annie and Phil had a side bet on the match. If Annie won, Phil would have to get up in front of everyone and give a speech--one written by Annie. And considering how vehemently Ms. Duke and Mr. Hellmuth have verbally sparred over the course of the show, that promised to be some outstanding entertainment.

It was at this point, alas, that my recording of the show went kaput.

Yes, my power outage occured at, oh, 1:28AM. Because that's how much of the show I managed to record before the juice was cut off. I won't deny that I say some very bad words when I realized what happened, especially as I wanted to find out what the hell happened.

But the internet is a wonderful thing, and after a few days I was able to track down the episode online. By the late stages of the tournament it was every man for himself, and for the most part the man was Carl Wescott, who doubled up, built a massive stack, and bludgoned the table with it. Debo and Hollywood Dave fell by the wayside, leading to a heads-up battle with Tracy Scala. One thing I know about heads-up play is that it's a good thing when you get all-in holding Aces, and that's how Scala erased Carl's chip lead in one fell swoop. A few hands later Scala's Q-4 outlasted Wescott's 9-7 and Tracy Scala won the Best Damn Poker Show. And a seat in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event, which is a nice secondary prize, I suppose.

The speech Annie wrote for Phil was mildly humiliating, and I'm sure that most viewers were hoping that "mildly" wouldn't have been the adverb to describe it. But it was all in good fun, and I'm sure that when Annie's team reunites in Aruba there will be a few more stories that come out that didn't quite make it on the air.


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