Loading...Run-Good Challenge: Event 1 in the Books!
Published by: Matthew Showell
Posted In: The Poker Reporter Blog, Run Good Challenge
It's been two days since the first event of the inaugural PokerListings Run-Good Challenge and everyone's had a chance to let the gravity of what happened on Saturday sink in.Master of PokerListings.com strategy Dan Skolovy bested a field stacked with the best and brightest in the poker-blogging world, lending at least a little credence to his position as head strategizer here at PL.com.
If you missed the introduction click through and bring yourself up to speed. For those whose lives are simply too full to spend time clicking through here's the Reader's Digest version. Ten poker-blogging luminaries from the four corners of the interweb were called out, challenged to sit down around the virtual table and do battle against two of PokerListings' most deadly.
Dr. Pauly, Michele Lewis, Spaceman, Shamus, Kid Dynamite, Poker Shrink, Michalski, Amy Calistri, Chops, and Change100 all made it out but, as previously mentioned, none of them would lay claim to the juicy $600 first-place cash.
I didn't get much going, and after laying down top pair, top kicker to a turn shove from Shamus, my stack was whittled down until I found myself hovering around the 10 BB mark. As the blinds notched up one more level I picked up A-7 a few spots off the button and shipped it in when it was folded to me.
I iz buzted!
Michele Lewis made the easy call with pocket queens and, after an uneventful board came and went, I was gone. Michele was the first one to make any cash in this event as she collected the $25 bounty on my head.
The tournament progressed and the field was correspondingly narrowed down as we approached what was most definitely the hand of the tournament. Dr. Pauly had shown up late, big surprise, and was short-stacked with around five big blinds. Pauly open-shoved with 7-2 and got snap-called by Kid Dynamite, who tabled pocket queens.
The flop couldn't have been much better for KD as it rolled out K
5 3
. Pauly then jammed the chat-box with "HAAMMAAH!" as the 2
hit the turn. The river was the 2 and, miraculously, Pauly had pulled out the running deuces to stay alive. Poker takes skill, seriously.
When we reached the bubble it was Skolovy in the lead, Pauly and Shamus fighting for second-biggest stack and Michele Lewis hanging on in fourth. Skolovy had been playing fast from the start, running over his table and basically winning every hand, which must have contributed to how Shamus's last stand played out.
Shamus blogged it in depth so surf on over to Hard-Boiled Poker and check it out. Skolovy also added his two cents in his recap here on PokerListings which will be up later today here.
With Shamus out of the way, Skolovy, Michele Lewis and Dr. Pauly were all guaranteed a piece of the money pie. It only took one hand to reach the final two as Michele hit the road in third.
Dan "The Boy" Skolovy
The heads-up match didn't end nearly as quickly. The final count put the number of hands at over 140 and saw the chip lead see-saw back and forth between Dan and Pauly. Head on over to Tao of Poker for Pauly's exhaustive take on the match. It's the second post on this page.
As I explained in the intro blog the three preliminary events all have points attached for the top six finishers. When we're done the three prelims we'll have our six contestants for the grand final, the five best-performing external bloggers and either Dan or myself, whoever performs better.
Here's a look at the top six results from Event 1 and, consequently, the leaderboard as it now stands.
| 1st | Dan Skolovy | 6 points |
| 2nd | Dr. Pauly | 5 points |
| 3rd | Michele Lewis | 4 points |
| 4th | Shamus | 3 points |
| 5th | Amy Calistri | 2 points |
| 6th | Spaceman | 1 point |
Since our own Dan Skolovy isn't eligible to keep the cash, seeing as how he works for this event's sponsor, the $600 will be rolled over to next week and distributed along the same 60%, 30%, 10% payout structure on top of the original $1,000. This means Event 2 will be even fatter, with payouts of $960, $480 and $160 for the top three spots.
Make sure to hit us back later in the week for another hilarious lead-up blog and, if you have the time, log on to PokerStars at 11 a.m. PDT on Saturday and watch Event 2 of the PokerListings Run-Good Challenge!
If you have a poker blog, and the ability to run good, ship us an email at support@pokerlistings.com to get involved.
Read more Run-Good Challenge Blogs
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