AL BANCO wins Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E.

The December 20th edition of Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E. poker drew a crowd of 144 runners looking to take down the $9,000 top prize. Cyndy Violette and Jon Tuner were among the Full Tilt Poker red pros that played in the event.
Sixteen players finished in the money in this event and among those that made the money but fell short of the final table were Bryan Micon in 14th and the youngest WSOP bracelet winner in history Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billarakis in 10th place.

Former champions Mike Leah and Pocket Five both made the final table of this event as well as former FTOPS event winner dave3318. WJacko entered the final with a substantial chip lead. This is how the final eight players started final table play:

alanbate87 71,380

POCKET FIVE 35,315

solohomer 59,477

Crisp86 45,805

WJacko 118,619

dave3318 41,439

Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah 44,975

AL BANCO 14,990

Former champion POCKET FIVE was the first player eliminated from the final table. He only had 3,315 at the start of a razz hand and put it in with a door card seven. WJacko, dave3318, and AL BANCO all called. Dave3318 bet on 6th and only AL BANCO made the call. On the river, AL BANCO bet out and dave3318 let it go. AL BANCO showed a seven low and POCKET FIVE mucked his hand and hit the rail in 8th.

Dave3318 was down to his last 17k and had it all-in during stud on fifth street against AL BANCO. AL BANCO had a four flush and dave3318 held a pair of queens. AL BANCO proceeded to catch runner-runner two pair and dave3318 failed to improve. Dave3318 finished in 7th place.

A big hand developed during stud 8 between solohomer, Mike Leah, and AL BANCO. Solohomer three-bet on third and Leah called all-in. AL BANCO called along as well. Solohomer proceeded to bet out on every street and was finally all-in on sixth street. He found himself well ahead of both players. AL BANCO held only ace high with a low draw. Mike Leah held a four flush and a better low draw. Solohomer had what he started with, rolled up jack. The river brought a pair for Leah and AL BANCO stole away half the pot by catching his low. Leah was left as the man holding the short straw and was out in 6th.

Crisp86 put his last 44k to risk during stud 8. He had a made eight by sixth street, but unfortunately for him, AL BANCO had made a wheel on sixth. Crisp86 was drawing dead and finished in 5th place.

A deal was discussed between the four players but solohomer held out saying that he only wanted a chop without playing it out or he was out. The deal was cancelled and in the next hand, WJacko was all-in with split fours against the split aces of alanbate87. Neither player improved and we were down to three players.

Players started discussing a deal and again solohomer just wanted to chop and end the event. However, after seeing that his take home from the deal would not be adversely affected by agreeing to play for $1k, he agreed to play it out for $1k and the money was chopped up according to ICM. Third place would receive no additional money for playing it out. 2nd received $291.67 and first would get another $708.33. This is how the prize money was divided between the three.

Solohomer was knocked down to a short stack by Holdem and decided to play fast to either get chips or go home. He managed one double up but then blew the rest of his chips away with A-3 on a queen high board. AL BANCO had pocket kings and sent solohomer out in 3rd.

Going into heads-up play, AL BANCO held a 310,866 to 121,134 chip lead over alanbate87. Alanbate87 actually took the chip lead a couple of hands later, but then he pretty much lost his mind. He proceeded to drop several large pots to AL BANCO. The first seemed to be a suckout on the river by AL BANCO when he rivered broadway. However, two hands later, the action was three-bet pre-flop. Then on a queen high flop, action went alanbate87 bet, AL BANCO raise, alanbate87 three-bet, AL BANCO cap, and alanbate87 fold. Two hands later, there was a lot of action on a board with multiple straight possibilities. AL BANCO took down the pot with a rivered two pair and alanbate87 was down to just 1,134.

The next few hands had alanbate87 all-in in the blinds and he managed to win four hands in a row. The fifth, and final, hand had him all in with 4-5 against 8-3. Alanbate87 flopped a pair of fives, but AL BANCO hit runner-runner straight to finally put an end to the event.

AL BANCO made an unlikely worst to first comeback at this final table to take down this week’s edition of Sunday Night H.O.R.S.E.. He picked his spots and was able to claw his way into the lead. Once three-way action was reached and the deal cut, the other players seemed content to roll over and let him have the title. Earlier in the event, AL BANCO told the players they better chop or he would steamroll over them. He kept true to his word, and walked away this week’s champion.