Change100 Wins Run-Good Grand Final!

The inaugural PokerListings Run-Good Challenge is complete. Three preliminary events and one Super Happy Grand Final Championship saw the elite of the world's poker bloggers slug it out for run-good supremacy and, of course, the honor of being crowned Run-Good Challenge champion!

 

In the end it was the implacable Change100 who took it all down. Before we can elaborate on that, and offer Change our congratulations, we've got to backtrack just a little bit.

In case you've been living under a rock for the last month and somehow missed everything leading up to the Grand Final, check out a few of the recaps in our Run-Good blog category. Now that you're all caught up we can get down to business.

The six top performing participants not only won some fairly substantial cash, substantial for bloggers at least, but they also lassoed a seat at the final and another guaranteed payday. Some people might say winning real tournaments like the WSOP Main Event or the PokerStars Sunday Million is the fastest road to fame, but in reality our freeroll series overshadows them all.

What Event 4 would have looked like if it was live.

After all, how many times do you see players in real events enthusiastically open-shoving with the hammer or spending more time trying to sneak dirty words past the PokerStars chat censor than actually focusing on their cards?

Short-stacked Shamus, Dr. Pauly, Amy Calistri, Michele Lewis, Change100 and our own Dan Skolovy occupied the top six spots on the points leaderboard and were therefore sent the code to the finale. Some say e-mail is secure, but we don't believe them. The PL.com ninja corps was dispatched, killing off anyone and everyone standing in the way of their mission.

With the password safely in the hands of these six players we could sit back, relax and watch the carnage unfold on PokerStars.

Skolovy managed to win the first two prelims, but his run-good seemed to have run dry in Events 3 and 4 as he was the first eliminated in both.

Just to get it out of the way, here's a look at the results from Saturday's bloodbath.

1st	Change100	$1,235
2nd	Michele Lewis	$802
3rd	Amy Calistri	$494
4th	Shamus	$247
5th	Dr. Pauly	$185
6th	Dan Skolovy	$123

Michele Lewis was the one to busticate Dan this time around and she put his chips to good use, riding them all the way to a second-place finish.

After Dan was out it was Dr. Pauly's turn to test the limits of running good. Michele opened and Pauly repopped. The flop came down T T 5 and Pauly shipped, pretty much the only option since he was holding 7-2.

Cougarrific!

Michele made the easy call since she had flopped trips and that was all she wrote for the good doctor. With Pauly's exit Shamus became the last surviving man in the field. He wouldn't have to handle the pressure of that for long, however, as he found himself short and forced into action not long after.

For a full rundown of the event from his point of view click through here.

Amy Calistri was the next one to hit the bricks, leaving Michele Lewis and Change100 to duke it out for the lion's share of the prize pool.

The two fought valiantly but in the end it was Change100's run-good expertise that would come out on top. Not exactly a wasted day for anyone involved but Change certainly made the most of it. She actually had an additional obstacle in her way - after Event 3, she had been tied with Spaceman for sixth place.

They battled it out heads-up for the last seat at the finale and Change, obviously, was the victor.

So that's it for the first-ever Run-Good Challenge. We'd like to thank all the participants for playing and, as of right now, we're ringing the bell for Series 2 which will be starting in the next few weeks.

If you think you belong among this group of superstar bloggers drop us a line at support@pokerlistings.com and get involved. Stay tuned to the Run-Good category for more news as we begin preparations for round two, or what we're calling the Run-Hot Challenge!