This afternoon I’ll be playing in the PokerListings Run Good Challenge II Grand Final. I’d love to report that I have some momentum going into the GF, but my performance has deteriorated throughout the Run Good II Series. After placing second in the first event, I definately lost some steam. Luckily I squeezed out a fifth place finish in the second event after being the short stack with ten players left. But my non-money finish was good enough to lock up my place in the Grand Final. In the third event I was shooting for a first place finish or an early bust out. Needless to say, I came up with the latter.

I’d like to think I could repeat in the GF. I finished second in the inaugural Run Good GF, finishing behind change100 and just edging out Michele. Actually I’d like to see all three of us pull off the estrogen trifecta again. But we’ll have some tough competion today.

Benjo’s troubles in the first event had nothing to do with cards. Riding a high-speed train, his internet connection would have been faster by carrier pidgeon. Benjo made up for his first event trials and tribulations by completely steamrolling everyone in the second event. Of course the Poker Shrink will be there. I swear the Shrink has busted me out of a tournament more times than Russ Hamilton’s seen hole cards.

Matt Showell will be our resident PokerListings nemesis. He missed the first event, but pulled off a stunning second place finish in the last event to lock up a spot. Matt, as host, can’t technically win any money today, but he’s really been looking forward to his “spoiler” role. Luckbox has played pretty damn consistently throughout the series. My only hope is that he tied one on last night.

The last spots in the line up were decided in a sudden death three-way playoff. You know what they say about three-ways…they always end in tears. Well this one sent Pauly to the rail first, locking up spots for Kid Dynamite and Spaceman. Kid Dynamite was first to bust out in the first two events, both on ridiculously bad beats. I have a feeling he’s looking for revenge today.

I promise to do a post game tomorrow – as well as talk about the newest member of the poker community and my latest radio show with Lou. And hopefully by then, we might have some links to preliminary drunken posts from all the bloggers in Vegas this weekend. I can’t believe I couldn’t make it this year. I’m totally bummed.