Three-Peat for John "Jack" Jackson
On Saturday May 7, 2011 twelve of New Jerseys best players came to Kabobs for our State Championship Tournament. Two players, Mike Berardesco and John Jackson started the day with 20,000 in chips while the other ten started with 10,000. The game started precisely at 2:00 pm. Frank Talty was the first player out after 3 hours of play. (Frank won the best dressed award hands down, pictured standing middle).
After Laura Schauble was knocked out we moved all ten players to one table. Mike Berardesco, Bob Winegar and Jeff Rhinesmith all put in a good effort but just came up short and were knocked out of the game. As play continued Don Weigeshoff (runner up in our 1st state championship) and Eric Vendola were also taken out of the game. George Reidel (chip leader at one point in the game) was taken out by John Jackson with A-Q.
Now down to our final four, a few hands in Dan Marion went all in with 4-4 against John Jacksons J-J. The pocket J's wound up turning into a full house leaving Dan in 4th place. The very next hand Brooks Nicholson raises with a Q-10 on the flop and Tim Neal moves all in with a 7-5 and also catches a full boat, knocking Brooks out in 3rd play. Brooks will be playing online at the end of the month in the BubbleBoy game for a trip to Las Vegas.
Heads up between John Jackson (winner of last two State Championships) and Tim Neal. Both players held on for an exhausting 6 1/2 hour tournament, chips were being exchanged back and forth until, John raised Tim to 18,000. Tim returned the favor and pushed All-In. Without any hesitation John instantly called with A-10. Tim’s Q-Q were looking good. Unfortunately for Tim and A came on the flop and held up through the turn and the river. Making John Jackson our 3 time back to back to back State Championship winner. Tim Neal also won a seat in the tournament in Las Vegas along with an instant TV supplied by Kabobs.