Well, another tournament came and went. It is crazy to think that the first one I had was only with 10 people and started at midnight. That was way back in April of 1999!!! Craziness! Well, this tournament was over in a heartbeat. We started at 6:30PM and it ended at 11:59PM. I couldn't believe that we ended before midnight.

    We lost our first player at 7:14PM (Al C.) Tony A., who was the previous champion and is a 2 time winner had a very early exit. He placed 32nd and was knocked out at 7:44PM. He lasted a little over an hour. He was quoted earlier in the day saying how he felt a repeat coming on. Not this time! The Greeks did not put on a good show this time as 3 seasoned players had early exits. John A. placed 33rd. Steve was 30th and Harry "Short Stack Master" placed 29th. Former champion Dino, who survived a bunch of "all ins" only placed 21st. Last tournaments runner up George L. was midway this time and exited out at 18th place. Last years Player Of The Year, Ray Wolf placed 14th. Former champion Nick, was busted out on the same hand with Ray and placed 13th. The guy who busted out both of them was Hank. He was a massive chip leader at this point. He had trays of chips lined up at his side. Hank, who finished 4th last tournament was ready to stroll into the final table at this point. As for myself, I was scratching and clawing to stay alive. I ended up 10th place, but with no stories. I was short stacked the entire time. Leave it to Whip to catch a card on the river to eliminate me.

    Well, after I am gone, we have only 9 left. Hank and Mike Sw. are the 2 chip leaders.....and they are at the same table. Hank had about 6500 in chips at this point and Mike Sw. had a little less. Well, what do you know...these 2 guys end up in a hand together. After the flop comes out with crap, Hank moves ALL IN with pocked 5's. Mike Sw. calls him with a pair of 9's (one 9 in his hand and the other on the board) The 9's end up holding and Hank goes from chip leader to TILT leader. What a turn of events. He was so fired up, he goes ALL IN on the next hand without even looking at his cards. He ends up losing the hand and places 9th. Amazing how this game is....Hank goes from massive chip leader to out of the tournament in 2 hands.....Mike Sw. had some big balls calling that all in. He became HUGE chip leader after that hand.

    By 11:01PM, we had our final table of 7. This tournament was humming along. Last tournament it was 12:33 when we had our final table. Newcomer Gary was first to leave the final table of just missed making the money. He placed 7th. Former Champion Mike S. had some nice bets along the way, but his run was over at 11:24PM. He placed 6th. Mike M., who has only been in 2 tournaments, placed 5th. Newcomer James, who is a very good player, put on a strong performance and placed 4th. He had a target on his back ever since taking down Ray Wolff's tournament last year. He made some comments that got some of the "Edison Crew" fired up. Ever since then, he has been a player we want to eliminate first. I must say though, he does play a good game. He was eliminated at 11:52PM. Now we are down to the Final 3. Who are they......well, 1 player we all know.....yup, you guessed it....it is 4 time Champion, Whip. When does Whip not finish in the money??? The other 2 players were Ken and Mike Sw. This was Mike Sw.'s 2nd tournament appearance. The last one he entered, back in October 2004, he placed 4th. Ken, the last of the Greeks put on a good show. I noticed he was short stacked at the final table and was able to place 3rd. Not too bad when your going against some heavy hitters. Ken was eliminated at 11:57PM. Now, we are down to heads up play with Mike Sw. (who had a HUGE chip lead) against 4 time Poker Champ, Whip. Can you believe that the very first hands of heads up was the final hand of the tournament. Whip gets dealt JJ and calls the 500 blind (Blinds were 250-500) Mike Sw. checks and the flop comes K 9 4. Whip, who is first to act moves all in. Mike Sw. quickly calls. He had K6 and was a huge favorite to win the hand. The turn card was a 7 and the river was a Queen. Whip was not saved by the river this time. I am still amazed that heads up play lasted only 1 hand. Mike Sw. is our new champion. Congrats to him for winning the 13th Ambro Poker Tournament. Whip, who I recall when we were down to 14 players and he had the same amount of chips as me (which was not much), managed to overcome his short stack and take it all the way to 2nd place. Congrats Whip and congrats again to Mike Sw. for winning the title. I hope everyone had a good time and hope to see you at the next one.

    The next one will most likely be in September. I am going to try to have 2 more this year...1 in September and 1 in October. Stay tuned for details.

    Congrats again to Mike Sw. for winning Ambro 13. See you all at the next one!!!!