The Red Hot Poker Tour's™ Season 9 Tournament of Champions

LADIES' FIRST: JENNIFER GARLICKI WINS TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS 9
by Michael Stone

In his introductory speech, welcoming the top players from the Red Hot Poker Tour's ninth season to the Tournament of Champions, league 'commissioner' Dean MacNeil highlighted that a record five of the 14 regional champions were women. In other terms, 35% of the Regional Champs were women, while only 12% of the national membership is female - truly a dominating season by the ladies.

He also honoured Lise Noel, two-time winner of the Top Female award and holder of every single season female record, for finishing third in the overall leaderboard standings. After eight previous kicks at the can, would this be the Tournament of Champions where a woman finally finished the tournament holding all the chips?

	Red Hot Poker Tour - Season 9 Tournament of Champions winner Jennifer Garlicki Saturday, December 1, 2007 Montana Restaurant 'M-Lounge' - Toronto
	Tournament of Champions 9 photos

Things didn't start out so rosy, as Lise was the first player eliminated from the tournament. She was in good company, though, as hardcore champion Don Johnston, fresh from setting a new record for most tournaments played in a season, busted soon after her. Four-time season points champion Bill Bawden and unofficial Red Hot ambassador Carlos Munoz, also honoured by Dean in the pre-game ceremony for remarkable seasons', were still alive and kicking.

So were many others, in fact. As the early stages of the tournament raged on, nobody could jump out to a big chip lead. As the blinds steadily increased there were no real big stacks in the room, creating a free-for-all as players jockeyed for position. The tight play was in evidence at the dinner break, as only Jim McNeill, Bob Hopkins, Andrew Lacasse, Russ Bursey, Joanne Verstegen, and Simon Smith had stacks over 20,000. With blinds at 500/1000 (300 ante), and 38 players left, that meant there were a lot of short stacks in the room. Shortly after the break, Russ won a big pot, taking command of the chiplead, and breaking down a table in the process

The epidemic of 'shortstackedness' created a lot of pre-flop action. Many utilized the push-all-in-and-stand-up-to-put-your-jacket-on routine that Jimmy Herrera popularized during his run to glory at Tournament of Champions 4. And in almost every case the jacket-wearer won!Jimmy himself used this trick to fine effect, going all-in blind at one point from the big blind, only to reveal pocket aces when his cards were finally shown. "Boo-yah!" the former champ yelled, as he snapped his fingers in delight.

As the number of tables shortened to four, trouble for the ladies continued to pile up, as, in hands that happened almost simultaneously, pocket queens got cracked on two separate tables. First by pocket nines, which flopped a set, then by KT, when the flop came king-high. Still, there were a number of women players left, fighting it out with big stacks and not going gently into that good night. Also still alive, but with very few chips, was Carlos Munoz. After he finally went broke, Carlos rose to an enormous standing ovation, showing just how popular and well-loved the second place finisher on the seasonal leader board really is.

With three tables left, tensions rose and players were left with big decision after big decision, as they made a run at the elusive final table. Andrew Lacasse pondered a huge call, for a huge pot, by getting up from his seat, walking around the table, and asking himself over and over, "How do I call this?" After what seemed like an eternity, he made the call... only to find out that his top pair of fours was crushed by the set of fours held by Prince George (BC) Champion, Jason Rutledge. Andrew took a big blow to his stack, and Jason soared to the chip lead, winning a pot worth over 50,000.

With two tables left, the tournament featured two former finalists, and three women. Bob Hopkins, who finished second at the Tournament of Champions 5, busted in twelfth place this tournament, and dryly remarked, "Kitchener's done for the day". On the other table, Windsor's Santos Ortiz was using his big stack to repeatedly come over the top of his opponents, forcing them to lay down what sometimes turned out to be the winning hand, as Santos showed bluff after bluff. But he wasn't bluffing when his pocket jacks busted Barry Jeffrey and Jason Rutledge on the same hand, to cut the number of players left down to 9, and burst the final table bubble.

As dealer Matt Hopper readied the final table players, and "veteran voice of the octagon" Michael Bennett Leroux introduced those lucky enough to sit down at Red Hot Poker Tour's 9th Tournament of Champions final table, each one still hoping to win a seat to a World Poker Tour event in Tunica, Mississippi, Los Angeles, or Atlantic City:

Richard Hebert became the third person -- and third former champion -- to get to two Championship final tables. But, more significantly, for the first time three women had made it; Jennifer Garlicki, Joanne Verstegen and Vinny Chachra all had a chance to break the male-only stranglehold on the Champion Winner's List.

However, with blinds at 3000/6000 (1000 ante), they had a tough road ahead of them, as only overwhelming chip leader Santos Ortiz had a comfortable stack to work with. Not for long, though, as Stuart Kerridge went on a quick rush, doubling through Richard Hebert on the first hand with pocket eights, then busting the former champ on the second hand with pocket tens. Vinny, one of the other short stacks, remedied her situation at the hands of the chip leader, doubling through him twice... the second time with pocket aces!

Joanne, card dead throughout the first orbit, finally succumbed at the hands of Jennifer, whose flopped two pair busted Joanne in eighth. With her big stack, and an early rush of cards, Jennifer's supporters -- a loyal group of Londoners seated in the back row of the room -- started chanting "Garlicki! Garlicki!" at every turn.

"At least it's better than '6-1-3', over and over again," they noted with a smile, referring to the area code chant that soundtracked James Reinhart's run to the title two seasons ago.

The doubling-through party next took a stop at Vinny's house, as, newly flush with chips, she returned the favour for both Jean-Guy Daigle and Gary Nakashima on successive hands. In the former, Jean-Guy flopped a straight. In the latter, Gary flopped trips. No matter, as Vinny went back to the deep well of chip leader Santos -- for a double-up of her own.

After coming to the table second in chips, Gary fell victim to a series of aggressive plays by Jennifer -- "Garlicki! Garlicki!" -- who had position on him and the willingness to use that power. But in the end it was Vinny who took Gary out in 7th, as her pocket jacks held up against his ace-rag.

After doubling up another shortstack -- this time Terry Rynyk got the best of it with his pocket queens -- Santos decided to take matters into his own hands. After check-raising Jean-Guy on the flop, and then betting out on the turn to get his opponent to fold, the aggressive chip leader showed ten-high, for his first of a series of bluffs as the table got short-handed.

Not to be outdone, Jean-Guy began a stretch where he, seemingly, was in there raising every pot. After winning three out of four hands this way, Vinny had had enough. She decided to re-raise all-in with her KQ. Bad timing, as Jean-Guy flipped over pocket aces, busting Vinny in 6th place.

The aces were everywhere. Santos would walk head-first into them three times, and Jennifer would wake up with them three times herself. But it would be a seemingly innocuous hand that would knock out Stuart, when at showdown Terry's 5-2 hit the board, and was good enough to beat Stuart's short stack all-in, and knock him out in 5th place. But Terry wasn't safe yet. After losing a series of all-in confrontations to Jean-Guy, he was forced to call all-in with pocket fours. Jean-Guy flopped trip Kings to bust Terry out of the tournament in 4th.

Jennifer and Santos each tried to exert force as play turned to three-handed. They split the first eight pots during this stretch, before Santos took a huge chunk of Jennifer's stack, after check-calling her all the way down in one hand, then re-raising all-in on the river to get Jennifer to fold. This was the last hand before the break, and it left Jennifer as the short stack, while propelling Santos back to near his former chip position ... and raising his spirits after being rained on with Aces:

After a short break, with blinds at 6000/12000 (2000 ante), Jennifer and Santos reclaimed their positions on the battlefield, as Jean-Guy passively stood by to watch the carnage. At one stretch Santos took down five hands in a row, but doubled Jennifer up on the sixth when he check-raised her all-in with an open-ended straight, and Jennifer's gutsy call with just second pair was rewarded when Santos missed his draw.

Jennifer used this momentum to win a series of pots of her own. But, just as Santos had done before, she ended this run by doubling-up Jean-Guy, when she called his flop re-raise all-in with a gutshot straight flush draw. Again the draw didn't hit, and Jean-Guy's slow played pocket jacks held.

The blinds quickly escalated to 8000/16000 (3000), and Santos was starting to show frustration. His former dominant chip stack had withered away, despite his aggressive efforts to keep himself solvent. On his last hand, after running into pocket aces so many times during the final table, he hit yet another cooler. On a flop of Q-T-8, Jennifer raised his bet all-in, and Santos reluctantly called, knowing full well that he was beat. Sure enough his top pair was no good as Jennifer showed J9 for a flopped straight. Santos, after ruling the tournament for much of the last several hours, had busted in 3rd place.

Despite staying out of the action for much of three-handed play, Jean-Guy brought 281,000 chips into heads up, a slight lead over Jennifer's 227,000. But Jennifer would immediately take charge, winning the first 9 pots to take a commanding chip lead. Jean-Guy would only make one valiant stand -- getting her to call his river bet when he held tens full -- before finally succumbing on hand #87 of the final table. After raising pre-flop, and getting called, Jean-Guy immediately moved in when the flop came 6-6-7. Jennifer thought for a while, and finally decided to call with 9-8, just an open-ended straight draw. Luckily for her Jean-Guy flipped over AQ, for just ace-high. The turn was a 4, but the river was an 8, knocking Jean-Guy out in 2nd, and making Jennifer Garlicki the winner of the Red Hot Poker Tour's Season 9 Tournament of Champions!

And with that, a lot of Red Hot milestones had been reached. Jennifer had become not only the first champion from the London region, but the first female Champion in Red Hot's nine season history. And, as she noted in the wake of her victory, this turned out to be Jennifer's first live win at Red Hot ever! Great timing to come through, indeed.

Postscript: as Season ten began, Jennifer continued her torrid run, winning her very first regular season tournament the very next day, and then finishing second in the Red Club TS Championship online tournament on Monday night. Here's hoping she can ride this hot streak when she represents Red Hot in Los Angeles, making a run at a World Poker Tour final table!