Red Hot Poker Tour - Season 3 Tournament of Champions winner Adam Domenchini Bert & Ernie's - Sunday, December 11, 2005

TOC 3 photos

Can the Red Hot Poker Tour players get any better? I guess so… After our best season yet, 128 players sat down to duke it out at Bert & Ernie's on Sunday, December 11, 2005. It was unclear if the reason was the season, but the scene was one of the most festive Tournaments yet. Great spirit, camaraderie and friendly posturing was in the air as the players waited anxiously for their table assignments.

Players were also enjoying their advance copies of CardPlayer Magazine -- the only poker magazine worth reading -- and on the cover is emerging poker star Gavin Smith, another Canadian (from Guelph). People also seemed to be focused on Daniel Negreanu's article on strategy, and an article questioning the value of Big Slick.

Just before the Tournament kicked off, awards were passed out to the Tour's leaders for number of Tournaments, and overall points. Ross Cameron, who apparently was on a mission made it to a staggering 96 tournaments in Season 3, but not to be outdone, Richard Borrow topped all players this season with a whopping 12,750 points. What is even more impressive about the Tour's players, is that although he had roughly 5000 more points than our top player in Season 2, Richard was a fight to the finish with incredible competition from Bill Bawden, Waseem Hermiz, Ilario Circosta, Jonathan Vanstone and Chris Taylor.

The final announcements before the Tournament started, set the room on fire (red hot?) the first was that the winner of the Tournament of Champions 3 gets a guaranteed sit down with Daniel Negreanu. And starting in Season 4, Daniel has invited the Red Hot Poker Tour's Tournament of Champions winner to play at a ten person table Tournament to see who will be his Protégé for 4 months.

After a grueling 9 hours of play, countless bad beats and incredible wins (quads were everywhere) the final table was set: Colin Esbensen rocked all day and arrived at the final table flush with almost 30% of the tournament chips (151,000). John "Commissioner" Gordon and Adam Domenchini both arrived with 88,000 in chips, Mike Berger and Ryan Raqueno were at 59,000 and 58,000. Adam Wetstein after a few late beats had 46,000 and closing out the final table were Cherryl Achaiba-Jardine with 29,000, and Steve Pietraszko with 17,000.

The action started fast with Steve as the short stack coming out guns blazing and All-In on the first hand, but the flop was not kind and Steve was the first out. Adam Wetstein, who couldn't seem to catch a break, finished in 7th position and then Ryan the one-time Tournament chip leader was not far behind, after a solid day of poker. Pot after pot, Colin continued his strong play building a bigger and bigger stack, while Mike Berger also made a stand and began to slowly build his arsenal. 'Commissioner' Gordon and Colin, who were on either side of the dealer, began to battle repeatedly, and with every called hand by the Commish, he added (confusingly) "you better win this thing Colin." Well, it was not to be, as Colin's great stack was chipped away and he finished in 5th position.

The final four were set, Adam Domenchini, Mike Berger, Cherryl Achaiba-Jardine and 'Commissioner' Gordon the chip leader, and all began to trade pots. Cherryl aggressively pushed All-In multiple times and Gordon's luck seemed to be running out, as Cherryl doubled up and put him out of the Tournament.

The next hour was some of the most amazing poker on the Tour, with no player able to dominate the table, so the chip lead continued to switch hands, with all three being the leader at least once. Mike joked that he was channeling "Cher" on his walkman, and made some great moves to build a wall of chips. Cherryl Jardine was not so lucky and after entering the final table with only 29,000, was able to finish in 3^rd overall, and is the Red Hot Poker Tour's top female for Season 3.

Mike "40G" Berger, who'd had some big beats, but always seemed to be able to rebuild his stack of mostly black 1000 value chips, set the pace by repeatedly pushing 40,000 into the pot, while Adam, who seemed to have almost all of the 5000 value chips, analyzed every hand and made some quick wins and smart lay downs.

The action went back and forth until the final hand when Mike announced All-In, with just slightly fewer chips than Adam. Adam, with the Tournament championship in his grasp, thought long and hard about the call (see picture below) while the crowd sat silent around the final table waiting. When Adam finally made the call, the crowd rushed to the table as the players flipped over their cards to reveal no one was heavily dominated. However, up came the Turn, then the River and with it the end of Mike's great Tournament run. Mike was disappointed, but a gentleman and the first to congratulate Adam Domenchini, our Season 3 Champion!

Thanks to all, and we look forward to a big Season 4!

View photos from the Season 3 Tournament of Champions