March 05 2004

The first tournament of March brought the advent of the OPT Heads Up Tournament. With only one week before the Spring Break Major OPT Tournament, twelve players gathered at the house of Luke Shortridge to see if they could master a different style of tournament play. The winner would take $24.00 while second place would rake in only $5.00. Would someone grab their first win of the year in this new game? Or would one of the leaders keep their dominate position at the top of the OPT leaderboard? With twelve players, four were given bys right into the second round using the OPT leaderboard to seed the top four players.

Round #1   Sara Ritter vs. Chris Rutkowski Eric Swindel vs. Randy Tunison Winner to face #1 seed Luke Shortridge Winner to face #4 seed Ray Welch

Kristi Coe vs. Christina Zimmerman Jeff Hartman vs. Matt Gonzo Winner to face #2 seed Josh Cowan Winner to face #3 seed Tim Dugan

The first round took a little while as the first eight players battled it out to see who would take on the four leaders on the OPT leaderboard. Sara, Christina, Eric, and Jeff each won their matches, moving onto the second round of play.

Round #2   #1 Luke Shortridge vs. Sara Ritter Eric Swindel vs. #4 Ray Welch The Battle of the Engaged Couple The Newbie vs. the OPT/Online player

#2 Josh Cowan vs. Christina Zimmerman #3 Tim Dugan vs. Jeff Hartman The Battle of the Second Engaged Couple The Battle of . . . the other two players in the tournament

The second round brought on some interesting battles. Both engaged males took out their counterparts as Josh took Christina out of the tournament with a full house and Luke pulled out a victory over Sara. Meanwhile, it looked for a while that Eric had Ray right were he wanted him by jumping out to an early chip lead. However, showing all that he could play short stacked, Ray finally over came the challenge of the Newbie. Finally, Jeff and Dugan battled it out in a sea-saw game, but it was Dugan who came out on top when it was all set and done.

Round #3   #4 Ray Welch vs. #1 Luke Shortridge #3 Tim Dugan vs. #2 Josh Cowan The One Hand Wonder The Five Minute Game

It was round three that lasted considerable shorter than any of the other rounds. As the name suggests, Ray put Luke out with his Tens full of Kings to Luke's two pair of Kings and Tens in the first hand of their game. In the other game, Josh broke Dugan's pocket Aces with a Flush within the first five minutes of their game, setting up a quick final round.

Final Round #4 Ray Welch vs. #2 Josh Cowan The Longest Game

By contrast to the previous round, the final match lasted around forty minutes. Who would take the victory in the first ever OPT Heads Up Tournament?

After a long match, Josh pulled out the victory from the jaws of defeat at least three different times.

The Heads Up Tournament was over, but the night was not as nine OPT players, including Emily Bean who couldn't make the last tournament, threw their money into another game. This game was the normal Freeze Out poker tournament style, with the winner looking to take home $21.50 for his or her trouble. After the exhausting match between Ray and Josh, would either player be able to keep it rolling in the next game? Or, would someone else jump at the chance to win the game?

Josh picked up his second victory on the night, bolting him back into a dominating position on the OPT leaderboard going into the first major tournament of the OPT season.