Minnesotan Josh Barnes Wins Again!
Since Barnes' move to the Bloomington area, he hasn't been able to catch as many league nights as he used to. But, that hasn't stopped him from using up the bronze, silver and gold tokens he's won through our online site. That's how he managed to qualify for Sunday's tournament, where more than 65 players took a comfy seat in front of their computers in hopes they would be the next big winner. When we asked Barnes about how he managed to take down Sunday's event he told us the story was a bit embarrassing. Well, Josh we've all had those "embarrassing" poker moments ourselves! Here's how he explained the action went down.
"I was short-stacked not long after the tournament began," he said. "In fact, at one point I was down to only 2k in chips. I couldn't seem to catch anything. But I battled through and soon ended up winning three big hands in a row with a A/K, Q/Q and 10/10 pre-flop. By the time the final table started I was back up to 20k, but the chip leader had nearly 50k. Again, I hung on and before I knew it I was heads up with Bill Madison, AKA "Donkey0820" from Fergus Falls, MN. We were pretty much dead even with around 150k in chips each and battled back and forth for more than 20 minutes.
"Before long though, Madison had won five hands in a row while I had junk, and I was down to 38k with 6k/12k blinds. Knowing I wasn't going to last much longer at that level, I knew I had to start catching some cards and playing more aggressively. Luckily, I picked up a few decent hands to even out our stacks and then we were in what would become the final hand. I held a Qh/5h pre-flop and min raised him to make it 24k. He responded with an all-in shove and I called because I knew I had him covered. He showed a Ah/Kh for a 2 to 1 favorite, but I still felt like it was the right call. Turns out it was because the board flopped 3 to the straight and I ended up catching a Q on the river to win."
Embarrassing or not, in poker anything can happen and you don't win big if you don't play big -- regardless of your hand. We got your back on this one Josh! Fortunately, Madison didn't leave the table empty-handed. For his outstanding play we're sending him an iPod shuffle!
Congratulations to the both of you! We're sure looking forward to seeing Josh again20k final this December 19th at the Golden Nugget!
(Pictured: Josh Barnes at this summer's Destination Las Vegas WSOP 2010 National Championship Event at Caesar's Palace.)