[stevepa]

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These are 4 hands in the last 15 hands that led to Ambrose wining 1.3 million and take PCA championship. Shows how lucky you have to be to win a WPT final table.

Starts out with following stacks down to final 3:

1. David Singer - $4,000,000 (seat 2)
2. Steve Paul-Ambrose - $1,600,000 (seat 1)
3. Brook Lyter - $1,600,000 (seat 3)


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I think some of these hands are pretty interesting, so I'll give my comments on all of them.

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Hand 1:

Hand #90 - Steve Paul-Ambrose has the button in seat 1, Paul-Ambrose raises to $200,000, and Singer calls from the small blind. The flop comes As-8d-7d, Singer checks, Paul-Ambrose bets $500,000, Singer raises to $1.5 million, and Paul-Ambrose thinks long and hard before he moves all in for $95,000 more, and Singer obviously calls. Paul-Ambrose shows Kd-2d (flush draw), while Singer has Ad-9h (pair of aces). Paul-Ambrose needs to improve to survive.

The turn card is the Ah, and Singer makes trip aces. Paul-Ambrose needs a diamond to stay alive.

The river card is the 4d, and the crowd goes wild as Paul-Ambrose hits his flush to double up in chips. (His friends and family make up the largest portion of the crowd.)



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This hand I screwed up a bit. When I bet 500k on the flop, I didn't realize quite how many chips I had left. I thought I had more like 900k and was showing I was committed. That's why I took so long when he raised. I was basically berating myself for the size of my flop bet. Had I realized I had 1.4M behind, I would've bet more like 225k or so and 3-bet all-in if he raised. If he pushed or clearly committed himself to calling a push, I can probably fold. Also possible is checking behind the flop, but I prefer betting here. I was tired, I screwed up.

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Stacks for Hand 2; 7 hands later:

1. Steve Paul-Ambrose - $3,840,000 (seat 1)
2. Brook Lyter - $1,960,000 (seat 3)
3. David Singer - $1,300,000 (seat 2)

Hand #97 - David Singer has the button in seat 2, Lyter raises to $220,000, and Paul-Ambrose calls. The flop comes 8d-6c-2h, Lyter checks, Paul-Ambrose bets $400,000, and Lyter calls. The turn card is the Qc, Lyter checks, Paul-Ambrose bets $500,000, and Lyter says "All in" for a total of $1,255,000. Paul-Ambrose carefully considers the situation for several minutes before he calls with Qd-Jc (pair of queens). Lyter shows pocket eights (8c-8s) for a set, and Paul-Ambrose is drawing dead. (The meaningless river card is the 4s.) Brook Lyter wins a huge pot to double up to about $4 million -- and the chip lead.


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This hand looks awful but it only played out like that because of an earlier hand Brook and I played. He had raised preflop and I'd led into him after missing the flop. He acted very similarly to the way he did in this hand (acted very weak) and then called with KQ, no draw. We checked it down and chopped that pot. So his check-call on this flop wasn't all that scary, especially with what I thought was a bit of a tell. Also, he's seen that I'll bet flops occasionally with very little so he may do this on the flop with as little as 77 or AK. I still think checking behind on the turn is a little better than betting but not by a whole lot. Also, I think I had to call his turn push, getting almost 5-1, even though I'm virtually always behind.


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Stacks for Hand 3; 2 hands later
1. Brook Lyter - $4,000,000 (seat 3)
2. Steve Paul-Ambrose - $1,900,000 (seat 1)
3. David Singer - $1,400,000 (seat 2)

Hand #99 - Steve Paul-Ambrose has the button in seat 1, Paul-Ambrose raises to $225,000, and Singer calls from the big blind. The flop comes Qh-Jh-4d, Singer checks, Paul-Ambrose bets $350,000, and Singer moves all in for a total of $1.11 million. Paul-Ambrose calls with As-Ks (two overcards, gut-shot straight draw), but Singer shows pocket kings (Ks-Kh) for an over pair.

The turn card is the Ac, and Paul-Ambrose makes a higher pair to take the lead. Singer needs to catch a king (for a set) or a ten (for a straight) to stay alive.

The river card is the Qd, and David Singer is eliminated in third place, earning $436,200.


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Cardplayer screwed up here, I had AQ (you can tell they screwed up because they have 2 Ks in play. I had AsQs, he had KsKx). I think this hand basically plays itself.


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Final Hand; 6 hands later:
Ambrose 3.7 mill
Lyter 3.4 mil

Hand #105 - Steve Paul-Ambrose has the button, he limps, Lyter raises to $380,000, and Paul-Ambrose calls. The flop comes Js-9s-2c, Lyter bets $300,000, and Paul-Ambrose raises to $1.5 million. Lyter asks for a count of Paul-Ambrose's remaining chips while he makes his decision.

He really takes his time, and we're talking ten minutes here.

Lyter eventually moves all in for $3.02 million, and Paul-Ambrose reluctantly calls with Qs-10c (overcard, open-ended straight draw). Lyter shows Kc-Jd (top pair, king kicker), and he's made a great call here to hopefully double up, but he needs his hand to hold up first.

The turn card is the Qh, and Paul-Ambrose makes a higher pair to take the lead! Now Lyter is behind, and he'll need to catch a ten (for a straight), or a jack (for trips) to stay alive.

The river card is the Kh, and Steve Paul-Ambrose makes a king-high straight to win the hand -- and the tournament.

Brook Lyter is eliminated in second place, earning $681,500. Steve Paul-Ambrose wins the 2006 WPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, winning $1,363,100 and a $25,500 entry into the WPT World Championship.

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I think this hand is also fairly interesting. I'd been running over him to this point in the heads up. I think I'd won every pot except the first where he limped and we checked it to the river. His flop bet was a little strange, only betting what he raised preflop. He'd showed a willingness to make a lot of folds, so I think a raise is probably good. Given how much he considered folding KJ there, a raise is almost certainly good. Once he pushes, it's a clear call, and I was only a 60-40 underdog. Alternatively, I could've just called his flop bet, but given how often he'd folded to raises, I think the raise is a little better.

Steve