Chicago Poker Club

The third and final event of the Main Event Charity Games, televised for Windy City Poker Championship, weekend (seems like that should have 30 hyphens) was the "Winner Take All" event, featuring poker greats, and poker faces known only the Chicago enthusiasts.  The 8-player table featured Richard Roeper, Jerry Yang, Mark Kroon, Nick Brancato, and Scotty Clark. The table also included Chicago locals David "The Fish" Backstrom, "Sergeant" Sergeant Gary Carr, Kevin Boyd and our Deep Stack Event runner up Ted Leahy.

The event had a $1500 buy-in, with the winner taking down the full prize pool.  The winner is disclosed after the break.

First to be eliminated was our good friend Scotty Clark.  In a post-elimination interview, Scott said that he regretted the way he played one hand in particular against Jerry Yang.  Scott had been dealt QQ pre-flop, and decided to slow-play head's up against Yang's pre-flop raise.  Clark assessed that Yang likely held a hand like AK, and on an "all unders" flop and turn, Clark called Jerry's first two bullets.  A nasty Ace on the river put baby in the corner, and gave Yang a big pot. Scotty Clark's approach kept the pot small enough to have some chips after that hand, but in a winner-take-all style event, players need to find spots to accumulate chips, not merely try to avoid elimination.  Clark's efforts were unrewarded, and he found an early departure.

Boyd, Roeper, Kroon, Leahy, and Backstrom were eliminated in succession (not necessarily in that order - tune in to find out how it happened).

In a long battle, sure to make for some good TV, Jerry Yang, Nick Brancato, and Gary Carr endured battle after battle.  Carr was eliminated in third place, and the WPT Boot Camp instructor and the WSOP Main Event Winner went toe-to-toe.  In the end, Brancato was victorious, taking down the trophy and the prize pool.