SHHNHB > SHHNHB #1 Recap

SHHNHB #1 Recap - Chang Wins! by Chang Kim
		The first SHHNHB was held tonight, and I won the championship at an intense final table, just edging out Andrew and Hubert. In the upset of the night, Annaka did not make the final table, though she and Lisa shared the win at the consolation table. Here is how the tournament unfolded. June 4, 2005

Semifinal #1 (race to 100, $5 to the winner) 018 - (1) Chang 054 - (5) Andrew 060 - (8) Gerald 102 - (4) Lisa I somehow managed to shoot the moon on the very first hand, despite a hand that included the AH, QH, and 7H. Nobody wanted to take one for the team, so I was quickly up 26 and cruised the rest of the way with conservative play. Lisa had one of those games where nothing goes right, and she was at 70 within the first three hands, so it was basically a race for second place between Andrew and Gerald. They flip-flopped positions the last 5 hands! It really could have gone either way, and it looked like Gerald was going to pull off the improbable upset, but as you can see from the score, Andrew managed to eek it out, dumping the queen of spades on Gerald on the very last hand to ensure his spot in the finals. Semifinal #2 (race to 100, $5 to the winner) 066 - (3) Hubert 070 - (7) Daniel 082 - (2) Annaka 120 - (6) Rob Daniel looked destined for 100 quick points while Annaka and Hubert were cruising according to seed with Rob solidly in the mix, but then things changed dramatically as Daniel held steady for 6 straight hands, Annaka had a horrid hold hand that cost her 21 points, and Daniel shot the moon on the second-to-last hand. The very unlikely and shocking end result was Annaka getting eeked out of the final table by Daniel, with Hubert taking the win. Rob was the victim of some unfortunate misplays that required hands to be redone, and he went from in contention to over 100 in three hands. Sadly, the Cubs' curse extends to their fans as well. Consolation (race to 200, $5 to the winner) 132 - (2) Annaka 132 - (4) Lisa 155 - (6) Rob 202 - (8) Gerald Weird that all the even-numbered seeds ended up at this table. Lots of moon shots in this game. Two by Annaka, including one to open the round, one by Lisa in between Annaka's two shots, and one by Rob to put the game on the verge of completion and give him a bright spot on the evening. Gerald ended up topping 200 shortly thereafter, and Annaka and Lisa tied for the win and split the $5 prize money. Nice job of salvaging things for those two after disappointing semifinal results. Championship (race to 200, $25 to the winner) 085 - (1) Chang 086 - (5) Andrew 087 - (3) Hubert 210 - (7) Daniel Daniel did a nice job just to get to the finals (the lowest seed to make it), and we were grateful that he eliminated our toughest competition, but he took the bulk of the points early, and it quickly became clear that it was going to be a three-horse race. Hubert took the early lead, Andrew led in the middle, and I took control late, though we were always less than a moon shot apart, and usually much closer than that. We always did a good job of nailing the guy who managed to take a lead, so no one was ever able to pull away for more than a couple of hands. And there wasn't a single moon shot; we were just too damn responsible and wary of each other. Nothing illustrates these two points better than the second-to-last hand, which was the best of the night and set up the dramatic finish on the next hand. I was feeling confident with a 19-point lead over Hubert, 24-point lead over Andrew, with Daniel just a queen of spades away from topping 200, when Hubert made a move to shoot the moon. Being the responsible guy that I am, I had passed him a heart that I could cover, so I wasn't worried. Out came the heart (jack), I played over (king), and that was that. Except that I ended up having to take the rest of the points, too (20 total)! Hubert had set me up to where I either had to let him shoot or take 20 points for myself! Freakin' brilliant, I must say (and aggravating!). Thankfully for me, Hubert took the other six points on that hand, so I was still able to cling to my now-slim lead. So heading into the final hand, it was 82 for me, 86 for Andrew, 87 for Hubert, and 187 for Daniel. Very little margin for error, and I needed every last ounce of it. Andrew dumped the queen of spades early in the hopes of drilling me (a mistake in retrospect), but it landed on Daniel instead, meaning I would win the tournament if I could prevent Daniel from shooting while taking no more than three hearts myself. He had five hearts in his hand, including the ace through jack, but I had the 10 with four others (I was extremely fortunate to have the requisite coverage), so I stopped his shot on the fifth heart trick and ended up taking exactly three hearts to beat Andrew by an excruciating one point, Hubert by a no-less-excruciating two points. I admit I had to get quite lucky to win. Over the long haul, the best players will consistently be in a position to win, but in any given game, certain irregularities can have a huge impact on the result. Annaka saw that in the semis, and in the case of the championship, there were 4 hold hands in the round, and I took a mere 10 points on those hands. By comparison, Hubert took 50, Andrew 38. Since the hold hand is where luck most comes into play, it's easy to conclude that I got lucky, especially when you take into account the winning margin. Eliminate the hold hands, and perhaps I finish no better than third. Or perhaps the other guys target me less, and things even out anyway. Regardless, the disparity in hold hand points was critical no matter how you look at it. Despite Andrew's excellent performance (two second-place finishes to the top seed), he still didn't manage to earn any prize money. It will certainly help his player ranking, but the career earnings list to date now looks like this: 1. Chang - $30.00 2. Hubert - $5.00 3. Annaka - $2.50 3. Lisa - $2.50 After the tournament concluded, most of us commented that the experience was very intense, much moreso than in, say, a Texas Hold 'Em tournament, because the level of competition was so high, and every hand really mattered. There was never an opportunity to take a mental break, because there's no such thing as folding a bad hand in Hearts. 2-7 offsuit in Hold 'Em? No problem. Queen of spades with no coverage on a hold hand or after the pass? Eat it. It didn't help matters that the championship was such a close, see-saw game, the closest ever in which I've played. And what a time for it. Even the consolation game ended in a tie! It was a great start to the SHHNHB, with the two founders/commisioners (Sea Hang and Heya) finishing top two, and the top four seeds all finishing in the money (how about that for validation of the rankings!). There were also plenty of moon shots, big upsets, ridiculous suit distributions, bone-headed plays...everything you'd expect when you put a bunch of crazy Hearts players in a room together for four hours. We definitely have to do this again. :)