The Jackson Invitational for the Spring of 2009 kicked off shortly after 6:45 p.m. and saw the second largest amount of entrants ever (28).
The players battled for long hours until the final table was finally reached at around 11:30. Nancy Crilley (the second place finisher from the Season 4 SPL Championship) was the first casuality of the final table as her AK failed to improve against Rydell's 88, crippling her chip stack, she was knocked out the next hand.
Jeff Payton followed soon after in 8th place. Rydell Carter followed not too long after in 7th place when he finally lost a race. Rob Gossett, who was short stacked for much of the final table, moved all in with 77, and was called by Brian Falb with AK, it looked like Rob would double up, but an Ace hit the river and sent Rob home in 6th place.
Shortly thereafter, Gary Crilley found himself all-in and was unable to improve and was sent packing in 5th place. This left 4 players, with only 3 getting paid, the mood became intense as the players tried to avoid becoming the bubble boy.
But, Matt Arrasmith would become the bubble boy, as he raised with AK on the button, Brian called in the big blind with 33, the flop came AQ3. Brian bet, Matt raised all-in and Brian insta-called, the turn and river provided no help for Matt, who finishes in 4th place, and unfortunately goes home empty handed.
Third place was awarded to Heath Tigar courtesy of a patented Phillip "Bryan" Hadley suck-out. As Hadley called the all-in pre-flop with K8 pitting it against Heath's AJ... the board came 6 10 7 J Q... and Hadley hit the straight on the river and Heath went home with $150.
The heads-up battle lasted only around 15 minutes, as Phillip was able to take nearly a 4 to 1 chip lead into heads up play. After 8 hours and 20 minutes of play, the final hand ended at around 3:30 a.m. with Phillip Hadley's AJ holding up against Brian's K9. Brian Falb took home $240 for his second place finish and Phillip Hadley captures the Jackson Invitational Championship for the Spring of 2009 with winnings of $450.
The complete order of finish is listed below:
1. Phillip Hadley - $450
2. Brian Falb - $240
3. Heath Tigar - $150
4. Matt Arrasmith
5. Gary Crilley
6. Rob Gossett
7. Rydell Carter
8. Jeff Payton
9. Nancy Crilley
10. Scott Mehl
11. Jake Null
12. Ashwin Sivanesan
13. Matt Kahn
14. Tyler Trimble
15. Amanda Jackson
16. Brad Jackson
17. Josh Moore
18. Jane Lee
19. Mike Jackson
20. Ralph Doak
21. Eric Kahn
22. Chris Pennington
23. Abby Harvey
24. Leon Jiminez
25. Shad Siddell
26. Jon Carson
27. Dar Faroughi
28. Bob Parsley
The next Jackson Invitational should be held sometime this fall.
