Stolen from 2+2 :)

[Robbie Robb]

So we played last night. As expected, our resident donkey (at that's being kind) bought Moon's 59M stack for $60.

Here's the rundown of the winning bids with their respective (approximate) chip stacks:

58.9M - $60 (House Donkey) [Darvin Moon]
34.8M - $42 [Eric Buchman]
29.9M - $41 [Steven Begleiter]
19.6M - $38 [Jeff Shulman]
13.2M - $28 (DeCoder) [Josepha Cada]
12.4M - $24 [Kevin Schaffel]
9.8M - $20 (Me) [Phil Ivey]
9.5M - $13 [Antoine Saout]
6.8M - $10 (Nikita) [James Akenhead]
Total Prize Pool: $276

Also as expected, HD busted in 6th spot. When the bubble burst (we paid top 3 50/30/20) Nikki had actually built her 6.8M into the chip lead. Unfortunately (for us that is) she fell card dead and eventually was knocked out in 3rd.

In our version of the Main Event, good chip management, good plays, and good cards allowed Eric Buchman to slowly build his chip stack and take down first place for $138.

Here is the bust-out order:
9th: Kevin Schaffel
8th: Antoine Sauout
7th: Phil Ivey (at the same time as Sauout but had the bigger stack)
6th: Darvin Moon
5th: Joseph Cada
4th: Steven Begleiter
3rd: James Akenhead
2nd: Jeff Shulman
1st: Eric Buchman

So come November we'll have to come back and compare. I'm sure Andy Bloch would be happy with those results.

A few pictures will follow.

It was a lot of fun and I definitely think we'll play it again next year. The biggest issue was blind levels. We ran 20 minute levels as opposed to 2 hour levels which was definitely a disadvantage to the smaller stacks. As I type this I'm thinking that next year we'll start earlier in the day - mid-afternoon perhaps, play 45 or 60 minute levels, have a dinner break for pizza, and then resume play until we have a winner. That way, it will give me a bit better practice to see how I'll actually play my stack come November in Vegas.