Duncan O'Friel won his second career SPT title last night, beating a tough final table that had 4 players making their second top 5 finish of the year.

 

The event started with 20 players at Barry Bonillo's house, and not surprisingly, Sean MacLean was the second one out as his set of 6's ran into Rick Thomas's set of Kings. Of course, John Walters was the first one out of the tournament.

 

Play went fairly smoothly, and Duncan even dodged an all-in with A-J vs. Stamp's A-Q when a Jack came on the flop. Duncan then had A-J flop two jacks vs. Stamp's pocket fives to knock out Stamp again. Duncan's luck continued as his A-7 took out Bill's pocket sevens when an Ace flopped.

The final table and chip counts looked like this:

 

Kevin Bristow 6,450

Duncan O'Friel 8,150

Dave Gutierrez 4,100

Chris 1,700

Steve L. 10,350

Greg Buhler 9,250

Sanjit Singh 9,800

Rick Thomas 5,250

Barry Bonillo 5,450

 

The first big hand came up quickly, as Barry, Dave and Steve L. all saw a flop of J-2-5, all diamonds. Steve checked, Barry moved all-in with A-J, Dave called with Q-J, and Steve called with the Ace of diamonds. No more help came, and Dave was out while Barry tripled up. Chris was on the short stack, and pushed in with K-J. Duncan called in the dark, only to find pocket aces, and Chris was out in 8th.

 

Steve's K-10 then ran into Rick's pocket jacks, and we were down to 6 players. Play went back and forth for a bit, until Barry limped with pocket aces. Rick then raised all-in with A-J, and Barry called. No help came, and Rick was out in 6th place, narrowly missing his second SPT top 5 finish.

Kevin Bristow was short stacked at this point, and was all-in with J-10 vs. Barry's A-J. An Ace came on the turn, and Bristow was out in fifth. He won $22 and 110 points in his 16th career top-5 SPT finish, and second this year.

 

Barry had a large chip stack, but refused to defend his blinds, even going so far as to declare "It's not like you're insulting my woman, I don't have a need to defend them". Duncan was the beneficiary, and steadily grew his chip stack with well timed raises. The two of them got into a heads up pot in the blinds, with the board reading Q-2-2. Barry bet out, and Duncan paused and sighed, then called. Barry then bet out 5,000 more on the turn, and Duncan instantly moved all-in. Barry called for his last 4,400 and showed Q-9. Duncan, however, showed K-2. No help came on the river, and Barry was out in fourth place. He won $45 and 134 points in his 11th career top 5 finish, and second this year.

 

At this point, Duncan had a large chip lead. However, Sangit and Greg were the one's battling it out. Short stacked, Sanjit moved-in with 5-6 of clubs, getting called by Greg with pocket Kings. Sanjit made a flush on the turn, however, to stay alive. He gave away a portion of it when he had A-Q vs. Greg's J-6, with Greg forced to call all-in. The flop of J-6-x kept Greg alive. Finally, Sanjit was forced to go all-in with 5-6. Greg called in the dark with 7-2. Amazingly, the 7 palyed as no help came on the board, and Sanjit was out. He earned $90 and 168 points in his first career SPT finish.

 

Heads up, Duncan had a lead of 48,000 to 12,000. On the first hand of heads-up play, Greg raised with A-2 of spades, with Duncan moving all-in with K-Q of clubs. Greg called, and was happy when a 2 fell on the flop. However, a queen came on the turn, and no help arrived on the river. Duncan had won, capturing his second career SPT win. He won $180 and 357 points in his 6th career SPT top-5 finish.

Greg Buhler won $112 and 226 points in his 7th career SPT top-5 finish.

 

Duncan noted that he'll be around for one more tourney, so this isn't quite the farewell. At first, it was reminicent of Matt Gilbert winning the last tournament he played in before moving to Iowa.

 

The next tournament is the second major of the year, the 2006 Spring Classic. This will be held on Saturday, May 6th at Dave's house. The Kentucky Derby will be going, Dave will be cooking mexican food, and Spicey will be returning for a reunion on the SPT.