Red Hot Poker Tour - Season 5 Tournament of Champions winner Sharmarke Osman
	Molly Bloom's, Toronto • Saturday, July 15, 2006
	Season 5 Tournament of Champions photos

The Red Hot Poker Tour Tournament of Champions is usually a joyous end to a triumphant season for the 120 or so members who earned a coveted spot to compete for the championship crown. But, despite the fact that July 15th was a beautiful and bright summer's day in downtown Toronto, this season's final tournament was played under a dark cloud. Red Hot lost one of its most iconic members last month with the sudden passing of Jim Graham, the very first Tournament of Champions winner in the tour's history. During the pre-tournament ceremonies Red Hot founder Dean McNeil recounted tales of spending time with Jim in Vegas last summer -- including one memorable moment where Jim courageously hit on an oblivious Evelyn Ng! -- and told the crowd that it was Jim's dream to one day see a Tournament of Champions held at Molly Bloom's, the Irish Pub he once managed. Jim would have been proud, then, to see the throng of poker players standing out on Molly's patio, waiting excitedly to take their seats at the 13 poker tables inside.

But before that could happen, it was time to honour the outstanding achievements of the regular season. After finishing as the bridesmaid the previous two seasons, Bill Bawden finally got to step up to the alter as the overall points champion for Season 5. Amanda Edwards, after a hard-fought season-long battle amongst many worthy combatants, emerged as the season's top female. And Lindsay Howatt was given the iron man award for most tournaments played, a stunning achievement in light of the fact that he doesn't drive! All three set new records in their respective categories.

And with that, the tournament was ready to begin. After everyone had taken their seats, and following a moment of silence in memory of Jim, the cards were finally in the air.

The early action was fast and unpredictable. Bad beats were everywhere, and sick calls were in heavy supply. A number of players had the good fortune to flop quads, and there was even a Royal Flush sighting on one of the downstairs tables. Adding to the pressure, and giving the tournament a palpable sense of importance, was the memory of our departed friend. Most notably, Shane St. John, playing in his 5th Red Hot Tournament of Champions, was seen using the laminated player cards from his 5 TOC appearances as card covers, obscuring most of the felt in his little corner of the table. "This is the one from when I met Jim," he said, with pride and determination, holding up the Season 1 edition.

A familiar face had a big stack early in the tournament: Season 4 Champ Jimmy Herrera, after being down to his last 1900 chips, used his patented "all-in" move to build his stack back up. Other notable chipleaders as players approached the dinner break included Mike Muir (50,000 chips), Rick Stewart (22,000), Sharmarke Osman (21,000) and Alex Cabraja (20,000).

After the dinner break, the tables got quiet and tense -- punctuated by periodic yells of exuberance -- as players battled to see who would make the top 20, thus qualifying them for entry into a special poker bootcamp with Full Contact Poker's Daniel Negreanu. At about this same time the spectators watched as Jimmy, once a big stack, wound up all-in with K-7. But he ran into a set of Jacks, which later became quads, and was eliminated with three tables to go.

As players neared the final table bubble, action went hand-for-hand. It seemed like nobody wanted to miss their shot at playing on Red Hot's biggest stage. Finally, John Gordon -- the fourth place finisher at the season 3 TOC -- pushed all-in on an ace-high board. Alex Cabraja thought long and hard, before calling and showing pocket tens. John could only muster a pair of fours in the hole, and our final table bubble had burst.

As dealer Indrek prepared the players who sat down at "Big Red", Red Hot's legendary final table, announcer Michael Bennett Leroux read out the chip counts:

Breaking from tradition, only 9 players made it to the final table this season. Seat #4 was left empty, honouring Jim, who sat in that very seat when he won the first tournament of champions April 2nd, 2005.

And so, with blinds at 4000/8000 (1000 ante), the players were ready for battle.

It took only 5 hands before we lost our first player. Mike raised, and John went all-in. Mike called and showed A-3. John had A-K. But 4 clubs came on the board, and Mike's 3 of clubs completed the flush, eliminating John in 9th place. Then, after losing a big pot against Rick, Nael was all but forced all-in on his next big blind just two hands later. Mike knocked him out with an ace-high, and Nael finished the tournament in 8th place.

Hand #8 proved to be the biggest turning point of the early final table action. Three players called chipleader Alex' opening raise, and saw a 6-high flop. Sharmarke was first to act, and moved all-in. After considering the action, Alex called. Sharmarke showed K-J for no pair, while Alex flipped over pocket sevens. But fate was with Sharmarke, and after a Jack peeled off on the river, he found himself raking in a 150,000-chip pot.

Mike, not respecting Sharmarke's newfound chiplead, took control of the table, raising pot after pot. Finally, Diane decided to stand up to Mike on hand #13, but her open-ended straight draw never came, and Mike's ace-high flush busted our last female standing in a respectable 7th place.

The players took turns stealing the blinds for the next two orbits, before Alex, still steaming over his earlier bad beat, moved all-in on hand #27 and got called by both Keith and Sharmarke. The two live players checked the hand down. Alex showed Q-10, but it was Keith who took the pot with pocket jacks. Alex played nobly all day, and earned his 6th place finish.

Once we got to 5-handed there was a dearth of dramatic confrontations. Keith, who quietly kept chopping out pot after pot to slowly but surely build up his stack, dominated play.

Finally, at the 50th hand of the final table, things started to pick up. Rick, whose stack was slowly blinded away after a dry run of cards, moved all-in. Mike called and showed 8-6. Rick's K-5 was in the lead, but when a 6 came on the turn, Rick's tournament was done in 5th place. The very next hand, Mike raised -- standard fare for this player at this table -- but Keith decided to play sheriff with his big stack and reraised all-in. Mike, after some thought, called and showed pocket jacks. Keith looked to be in big trouble when he flipped up pocket sixes. But a six on the flop bailed him out, and knocked Mike out in 4th place.

That big pot gave Keith a commanding chiplead as we headed to three-handed. Some in the crowd were delighted to note that we were about to have our first non-GTA TOC champion. But Sharmarke, showing grit and determination and tremendous will, wasn't going down without a fight.

On hand #52, Sharmarke cracked Keith's pocket nines with his A-5, when an ace came on the flop. Then, on hand #56, the same two players saw a flop of A-Q-x. The action went raise, reraise, all-in by Sharmarke... and call by Keith! Sharmarke flipped over A-Q for two pair -- which turned into a full boat on the river -- while Keith could only muster a pair of Queens. That pot was worth well over 250,000 chips. But Sharmarke wasn't done with Keith yet. The very next hand the two players got all their chips in preflop. Keith showed a very strong A-J. But Sharmarke flipped over an even stronger Big Slick! Sharmarke won with his better ace-high, and Keith, chipleader by a wide margin just two hands before, was now our third place finisher.

Following such scintillating action, the heads-up battle was almost anti-climactic. After a series of pushes by an extremely shortstacked Bob, he and Sharmarke finally went to war. Bob showed a K-5, but Sharmarke was in the lead with an A-2. The board didn't help Bob, and he was eliminated in third place. Making Sharmarke Osman our Season 5 Tournament of Champions Winner, and off to Vegas to take on Daniel Negreanu Heads-Up for $5000!

Afterwards, reflecting on his win in the warm night air outside Molly Bloom's, Sharmarke said that he was glad to be able to win the tournament in honour of Jim, who just happened to be a close personal friend. It was especially fitting that the whole event happened in a place Jim found so special. The appropriateness of the moment was not lost on our humble new champion.

Congratulations Sharmarke...