February 6, 2010 (CAP PR Wire) — Five of the top six students from the Absolute Poker College Challenge (“APCC”) Main Event swapped the virtual felt for the real deal, competing for a share of over $25,000 in free tuition, including first prize of $10,000, a custom-made APCC championship ring, and the chance to tell their story to the poker world via BluffMagazine.com.
At the end of the day, it was MSBHVNTWIN, better known in the offline world as Mike Hofer from Phoenix, Arizona, who rose to the challenge and emerged as Absolute Poker’s College Player of the Fall Semester.
“I’ve been so impressed by Absolute Poker’s hospitality, and all the Pros. I tried to pick some good spots to chip up, and it worked for me. This has been amazing,” said Hofer.
The APCC’s ‘Fall Five’ qualified for the live final by finishing in the top six at the end of the APCC Main Event on November 30th, 2009. They’ve had to sweat it out since, before converging on Los Angeles late last month to continue the battle in a land-based final table, with all the action streamed live at BluffMagazine.com and AbsolutePoker.com
Picking up where they left off in the November APCC Main Event, the chip count looked like this when the final table got underway on the morning of January 21st:
FUHRANKLAN (Frank Alberts)
23,100
18 year-old freshman at City College of New York
MSBHVNTWIN (Mike Hofer)
17,500
28 year-old
freshman at Anthem College in Phoenix, Arizona
CRISSTOOPHER (Greg Shevach)
14,100
20 year-old sophomore at ITT Technical Institute in New York
MOONLIGHT220 (Vincent Lay)
10,200
21 year-old student at New York College of Technology
KAZIBETTA (Bryan Wooley)
4,200
22 year-old business student at Ashworth College in Georgia
BROCK_1923 declined the invitation to travel to Los Angeles due to a clash in his study schedule, and automatically accepted 6th place to take home $2,000. That left five alive in the hunt for College poker supremacy.
Having steered their way through the Main Event field of College hopefuls, and with big bucks up for grabs, the APCC final table promised to be hotly contested; it didn’t disappoint. Awarding prize money ranging from $10,000 for first place, through to $2250 for fifth spot, the stakes were high for this handful of College students looking to fatten their student funds.
Play was cautious until early afternoon, when the action finally started to kick in and the pace picked up. FUHRANKLAN, the original chip leader, was the first to fall. His Q-5 pocket cards were outclassed by MOONLIGHT220’s two pair – kings and fours – at the showdown. The 18 year-old Florida native won $2250 for fifth spot.
MOONLIGHT220 continued his run to deliver the second blow of the afternoon, knocking KAZIBETTA out with Ad-As and 6s-6d up against K-high. KAZIBETTA pocketed $3,000 for finishing 4th. Soon, the tables were turned on MOONLIGHT220. He went all-in holding 7d-6h and lost to MSBHVNTWIN’s Ah-Qs with Ks-Ac-5d-Ad on the board, and the native New Yorker was sent packing back to the Big Apple with the $3500 3rd place prize in his pocket.
After dominating play for most of the day, the Computer Networking student, MSBHVNTWIN, had the upper hand at the start of the heads-up battle with 59,000 chips vs. CRISSTOOPHER’s 10,200. Seconds later, the 20 year-old Upstate New Yorker was forced all-in. With 4c Ac to MSBHVNTWIN’s Ad 9h, CRISSTOOPHER was praying for a 4 on the river, but when the 7 of clubs hit the felt, the Absolute Poker College Player of the Year was crowned.
28-year-old Phoenix native MSBHVNTWIN earned $10,000, an AP College Challenge ring, and a profile in Bluff Magazine. Runner-up on the day, CRISSTOOPHER, took home $5,000 for second place.
“I started playing poker in college, so to see these guys have a chance to pay for their tuition was fun to watch. I wish Absolute Poker offered this chance when I was coming into the game,” said Absolute Poker Pro Matt Vengrin. “From the first hand I could see Mike was the most aggressive. He continued to put pressure on his opponents who seemed scared to risk the bigger prize money. MSBHVNTWIN is a deserving winner, and a great addition to the AP Poker Room,” added Vengrin.
Interested viewers were able to follow all the APCC action streamed live online at AbsolutePoker.com and at BluffMagazine.com. Expert commentary was provided by AP Pro player Matt Vengrin and Team UB Pro Joe Sebok.
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