The 2013 Final Table consisted of 9 players. Eight of the players earned their spot by being in the top 8 in the standings. The 9th player winning a lottery by attending at least 6 tournaments. The Final Table consisted of:
| Player | Position |
| Brian Ross | 1 |
| Rob Schilling | 2 |
| Grover Sauter | 3 |
| Nita Cox | 4 |
| Glenn Tana | 5 |
| Tony Huckestein | 6 |
| Darryn Graham | 7 |
| Jason Trueman | 8 |
| Wally Cox | 9 |
I would like to thank Tom Ross Sr. for hosting the event as he usually does at the Ross Compound. Always a great place to gather and play some poker. A special thanks as well to John Wilenski for dealing the Final Table. The Matador is a RPT veteran and nobody deals a poker table quite like him. He was solid.
The action at the table was pretty furious early on. I think it was the third or fourth hand that had Trueman and I squared away. Trueman bet 105 into a 15/30 blind. I called. The flop comes out 3-8-Q of spades. Trueman bets big – 750. I have pocket 8’s so I have just flopped a set… but there are a ton of spades out there. With Trueman’s bet, I assume he is protecting top pair or betting at a solid flush draw he has. Either way, my only decision is to fold or to… go all-in. I push all-in and now Trueman has to do the thinking. He eventually folds. I learned later that he had A-Q of clubs. His pair of Q’s had him behind in many ways. Bummer luck for Trueman but gave me a few chips early on.
A few hands later, Tony was in a big hand with Rob. Tony and his K-Q had hit a Q on the flop. Tony bets at the pot and Rob goes over the top. Tony shows his K-Q… Rob shows his K-K. Tony was the first one out in the tourney. Tony got the short end of a few early hands. Hard to battle back from that.
Nita was next out. She lost a huge hand when Darryn flopped a full-house with A-J in his hand… and A-A-J on the flop. Nita ended up making a fullhouse o the turn or the river but it was not as good of a full house. Big portion of her stack was taken. I had an A-K versus her K-10 later on. She caught a 10 but I ended up getting an A on the river to knock her out.
Grover was next out. He also got caught in a few hands. Trueman bit it next. Trueman battled most of the tournament as he kept getting stuck with crap flops for him and money flops for others. The saving grace was that he appeared to dominate the cash table later in the night. He had a mountain of chips when I went over there.
The tourney was now down to Wally, Glenn, Me, Rob, and Darryn. Darryn and I were the low stacks. Wally was playing quite well and Rob had amassed a pretty large stack. Glenn was doing what Glenn does… whatever that means.
The rest of the tourney is pretty much a blur of frustration for me… So I will summarize the results:
5th place: Darryn Graham. Darryn had a solid year and made final table after he only played in 8 tourneys. Hard to do. Wally was the one to finally end his year.
4th Place: Rob Schilling. Rob took a chance in a hand with Glenn and was way behind when he called Glenn’s All-In. Regardless, Rob had an awesome season. He lead the tour in kills and had 4 Top-3 finishes over the course of the year.
3rd Place: Me. Wally had chopped me a few times with a check-raise into a set of A’s he flopped and now I stupidly slow played two-pair into a flop with a flush draw. The third heart hit and what do you know: Wally had the other two. Slow play and sometimes you get burned. Not to brag, but the last 4 Final Tables I have been in, I have finished in the Top 3 inclusive of two wins in 2012 and 2007.
Heads up came down to Wally and Glenn. Now, I don’t keep final table positions anywhere in the database. I am pretty sure though that Wally has achieved the most success of any 9th seat winner in the RPT history. Wally and Glenn battled back and forth until Glenn took down Wally. Wally had made a move with The Hammer (7-2 offsuit). See the picture below.
This is Wally’s best showing of the year. Wally played in 9 tournaments in the year and only knocked out 1 player. In the Final Table, he tripled that total. Wally also didn’t win a RPU all year. In the Final Table, he earned 410 RPUs. Wally definitely showed a new side of his play. Congrats Wally.
For Glenn, this helps complete a great season. He lead the tour in RPUs won and then added another 740 RPUs at the Final Table. This was Glenn’s first Final Table and he made quite a splash with winning it all in his first showing.
The website has the 2014 schedule already up. Please plan accordingly. Also, please recruit some new players to keep the tour alive with new blood. The tour is made up of people like you so the more, the merrier.