Four additional LuckyDog Poker columns have been posted, including reports from January’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas and the coinciding tournaments in Tunica, Miss. — the World Poker Open (a WPT event) and the World Series of Poker Circuit.

There’s also a column that offers a reader the pros and cons of playing tournament-style poker in home games vs. the time-tested straight cash/chip format.

As always, your poker questions and comments are invited for possible use in future columns. Just send them to russ@luckydogpoker.com.

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ROSENE BLOOM

(Editor’s note: I missed getting a photo of Rosene while I was in Tunica, but her son Mo sent me this one. I’ve re-posted the entry so you can put a face with her story.)

TUNICA, MISS. — You meet the nicest people at the poker table.

During a $1-$5 stud session Monday afternoon at the Horseshoe Casino next door to the Gold Strike, at my end of the table were Lori from Missouri, who was on a poker vacation with her husband; Leslie from the Tunica area, a solid regular who was wearing a stunning red leather jacket, and Jason Atwood, a poker pro just relaxing at the smallest game in the house.

And then there was Rosene. “That’s R-o-s-e-n-e,” she said, “but most people don’t know that’s my real first name. And Bloom is my last name. Nice, huh? Most people just call me Rosie.”

Rosie Bloom of Memphis is known by the poker staff and most every regular in the room, where she has played since the casinos opened here about 10 years ago.

The diminutive sweetheart of a gal has a million stories to tell, none more compelling than her 54 wonderful, loving years of marriage with her husband, Harry.

“We played poker together all the time, in Las Vegas, here, just about everywhere,” she said. “Harry taught me a little about how to play, but I’ve played some sort of cards ever since I was a young girl,” said Rosie, with, I swear, a twinkle in her eye.

However she learned to play, the lesson took. Rosie is a confident and observant player who sticks with stud because it’s a game that makes you think. “Hold’em is too much of a crap shoot,” she said.

Knowing she’s only in a hand with the goods, once I checked the river with a big flush, figuring that she had a draw on the end to whack my big hand. Even after I told her, in good spirit, to “Get out of my pot” when the third spade hit face-up giving me the flush, she said she couldn’t get out because she had a big hand, too.

She had two pair on fourth street — jacks and tens — and I thought it prudent to check blind on the end. She didn’t hit, nor did she whine about losing the hand. Perhaps that was one of the things Harry taught her about playing poker — be a gracious winner AND loser. I even got a hug when I left the game.

“I had the best husband ever,” she said, remembering the glory days of her happy marriage.

“Harry passed away eight years ago on Valentine’s Day. I never mourned a minute because we had such a great 54 years together,” she said.

There’s a lesson there we all should learn.

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TUNICA, MISS. — Brett Faustman called it “destiny” that he would win the World Poker Open here. There’s no one left seated at the table who can argue with him.

After nearly two hours of mostly heads-up, small-ball skirmishes with popular pro Hoyt Corkins, the rookie from Mason, Mich., was holding pocket queens when he heard those beautiful words from Corkins: “I’m all in.”

Faustman called immediately with the board showing 9-3-9, although he did first ask Corkins: “You have a 9, Hoyt?” Hoyt didn’t answer, of course, but once Brett called, all Hoyt could show down was pocket deuces.

The board ragged off with a 6 and a jack and touched off a celebration of youth over experience, of two months of hot play against 20 years of poker success. The rookie bagged $892,413 while the “Alabama Cowboy” with two WSOP bracelets under his belt and nearly $4 million in lifetime tourney winnings roped in $458,267.

” I think I was meant to win this tournament,” Faustman, 28, said with two cards to come. “I think it was destiny,” said the former wrestler who won his way into the event via a $1,000 satellite.

Seconds after the final card, he accepted Hoyt’s congratulations and told him, “Hoyt, I have a great deal of respect for your game.”

Hoyt’s “game” heads-up mostly was one of small pots and timely bets, waiting for the chance to spring a trap on the relative newcomer to poker. But Faustman was unafraid all week long to go toe-to-toe with top players, and the same held true at this final table.

The all-in bet with pocket deuces, then, came as a bit of a surprise once the cards were tabled and provided a somewhat anti-climactic hand for the tourney finale.

There was plenty of other action worthy of cameras during the night and the week, however, because WPT host Mike Sexton announced that the WPO show will be expanded to four hours of coverage instead of the usual two when it airs later this year on the Game Show Network.

In the post-tourney on-camera interview, Faustman told Sexton that for the past two months he’s been “playing the best poker of my life”, so he came to Tunica with confidence he could win.

How sweet it must have been for him to hear Sexton say, “Brett, you performed brilliantly.”

WPO/WPT Champ Brett Faustman

Brett Faustman, 1st place, WPO

Hoyt Corkins, 2nd place, WPO

Brett Faustman tries to relax just prior to the start of Thursday’s final table of the WPO. Behind him exchanging notes are tournament director Johnny Grooms, right, and assistant director John Bastarache.

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TUNICA, MISS. — The prize money is on the table, the young ladies in evening gowns have left the WPT set, and we’re just about ready for heads-up actions between upstart rookie Brett Faustman and the likable top pro Hoyt Corkins.

Faustman holds a slim chip advantage, $2.72M to $2.47M, but Corkins holds a huge advantage in experience. An online search indicates Faustman has never cashed in a qualifying tournament, and Brett already has declared himself just a “little boy on vacation” going up against some of the game’s best.

Play is resuming at 10:40 p.m. (CST)…

EARLY ACTION HEADS-UP: (Fresh entries added as needed below!!!)

Faustman has shown major spunk in the early going. Twice already (first 5 hands) he has come over the top of Corkins’ raises after the flop and taken the pots away from the pro.

I thought Corkins would play “small ball” in this heads-up battle, but he has come out aggressive and it’s backfiring….

THIS IS SCARY:

After that first flurry of betting by Corkins, it appears he has indeed settled into a limp-check style of play against Faustman. There has been a flop almost every hand, without a raise, and there have been checked turn cards, too.

Hoyt is winning pots with ace high and a pair of fours and such, with almost no risk to his stack.

Just like I thought he’d do… Scary.

HUGE HAND, HUGE POT:

Faustman seems anguished after Corkins raises his $200K bet to $600K on a flop of 5-6-6 with two hearts. “Have I screwed myself?” he asked. He slaps both hands down on the table over and over, trying to decide what to do.

Faustman calls, which triggers checks by Hoyt and then Brett on the 7 of hearts turn card. Hoyt checked again when the 4 of hearts came on the river, putting an open-ended straight flush on the board, but Brett pushes $400K. Hoyt folds and Brett shows A-A with the ace of hearts for third-nut flush.

The win sends Brett to about $3M vs. $2M for Hoyt at about 11:20 p.m.

THE COWBOY STARE-DOWN:

Hoyt just put a big stare-down on Brett after a flop of Q-8-6. Brett bet $180K, but Hoyt puts on his meanest stare for several minutes, making Brett wait and wait.

Then Hoyt pulled the trigger for $800K. It took Brett about 4 seconds to fold after all of that!

The win and the next couple of pots have sent Hoyt into a 3-2 chip lead about 11:35 p.m.

CHIP SHIFT:

Brett has won several small pots more than Hoyt in the past 15 minutes and has taken a $3.35M to $1.95M chip lead. There have been a number of min-bets of $80K on flops (blinds $40K-$80K).

A big pot can explode at any time, however, as both players are playing mostly a trapping game.

A MILLION-DOLLAR POT

Brett just snagged a pot of about $1M with A-4. With the board showing 9-4-4-J, he bet $120K, was raised to $350K by Hoyt, and just smooth-called. Brett looked at the king on the river and went for the check-raise, but Hoyt didn’t bite.

Nonetheless, the chip count has swung to about $3.5M to $1.7M in Brett’s favor…

TV guys are changing tapes for the next 10 minutes. Play should resume about 12:10 a.m. (CST)…

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TUNICA, MISS. — Men “The Master” Nguyen had one bite too much to eat against Hoyt “Cowboy” Corkins.

With his famous “All you can eat, baby” push, Men risked his tournament life on K-10 of diamonds after Corkins had raised pre-flop to $220K ($30K-$60K blinds) with black pocket jacks.

As the crowd shouted each player’s name simultaneously before the flop, the dealer spread the 8-9-3, with two spades. The 7 of spades on the turn was a most-interesting card, giving Men additional outs to a straight and Hoyt the flush draw. The queen of clubs on the river emptied the Corona glass for Men, sending him into the night about 10 p.m. with $241,193.

The heads-up battle should be a good one, with both Corkins and upstart rookie Brett Faustman holding more than $2M each in chips.

The WPT telecast is on break, getting ready for the money presentation and heads-up action.

Men Nguyen, 3rd place, WPO

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TUNICA, MISS. — Brett Faustman just busted Freddy Deeb out of the World Poker Open (9:40 p.m. CST), but it was Men “The Master” who had put Deeb in trouble just a hand or two before.

Deeb pushed his last $450K into the pot with 8-7 of diamonds and was insta-called by Faustman holding A-K of hearts. Hoyt Corkins remained to act and thought for a bit before open-folding pocket sevens.

Those were terrible cards for Deeb to see, of course. A board of 4-6-6-6-9 sent Deeb, chip leader at the day’s start, home in 4th place with $168,835.

Two hands prior, Deeb, Faustman and Nguyen played a limped ($30K-$60K blinds) that put Deeb’s stack in dire shape. Men bet $80K on a flop of 7-8-9 and Deeb called. Deeb checked the 4 on the turn, then called Men’s $150K bet. The same sequence on the river (queen) involved a $250K bet by Men, who showed the nuts, J-10.

Deeb shoved his last $195K into the next pot and was called by Nguyen, who was going for the kill with A-2. But Deeb delayed the end when his K-6 found a king on the flop.

That set up the fateful final hand for Deeb.

Freddy Deeb, 4th-place, WPO

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TUNICA, MISS. — Brett Faustman does, indeed, seem to have picked up a second wind.

Just after a TV timeout ended at 9 p.m., he came over the top of a Freddy Deeb raise to boldly take a pot away from the pro.

Freddy pounded his chips on the table and told Brett to “Wake up!” because Faustman had put his head down on his hands, not looking at Deeb after the re-raise.

Brett didn’t move. Freddy folded. Brett showed K-9 offsuit and stacked the chips. He probably shouldn’t be giving the pros that much information at this stage of the game.

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TUNICA, MISS. — Brett Faustman just survived an all-in against Hoyt Corkins and doubled-up into the apparent chip lead when his A-4 got lucky against Corkins’ A-K.

All the money went in before the flop on a rather impatient all-in move by Faustman for $800K more than Corkins’ $100K initial raise. Faustman has seemed annoyed by some of the banter going on by Men Nguyen and Freddy Deeb in the past hour or two.

Faustman called for a 2-3-5 flop “to get it all over with,” and almost got his wish. The flop was 2-2-3. The winning 5 came on the turn, meaning only a four on the river could yield a chop pot and save Corkins a ton of chips. The river bricked a 6.

Players were sent on a 10-minute TV timeout at 8:40 p.m. immediately after the hand. Corkins probably wishes he had time for a trip to the bar after that bad beat!

Here’s an updated chip count:

Deeb - $1.285M
Faustman - $1.84M
Nguyen - $1.435M
Corkins - $625K

During the break, off-camera banter on closed-circuit TV caught Faustman telling the three pros there are “three other players I can name who I’d rather play against. I’m just a little boy on vacation here.”

The big pot against Corkins seems to have snapped Faustman back to attention after seemingly getting a bit frustrated with the banter and pressure play.

Play has resumed at 8:40 p.m. (CST) with 11 minutes left at $20-$40K blinds.

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TUNICA, MISS. — Gabe Costner made his stand at 7:45 p.m. in the World Poker Open with pocket fives, but was eliminated when Hoyt Corkins flopped an ace to go with his A-J in the hole.

Costner open-raised to $100K, Corkins re-raised to $300K, then the short-stacked Costner quickly announced “all-in” and got called.

The flop of A-8-6 put Corkins in the lead, and a 6 and 7 on the turn and river sent Costner packing with $123,008 added to his checkbook.

The new approximate chip counts show a tight race:

Corkins - $1.5 million
Nguyen - $1.3 million
Faustman - $1.1 million
Deeb - $1.1 million

Gabe Costner, 5th place, WPO

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TUNICA, MISS. — After a second break at the World Poker Open, here are the chip counts:

Freddy Deeb - $630,000
Brett Faustman - $1.5 million
Men Nguyen - $1.72 million
Gabe Costner - $255,000
Hoyt Corkins - $1.15 million

The action heated up for a while with blinds at $15k-$30K, but there also were several hands when players went into the tank for long periods trying to decide whether to call a big bet.

We’ve played for more than two hours without losing another player since the early ouster of John Spadavecchia.

Now the blinds have just gone to $20K-$40K with a $5K ante at 7:25 p.m. (Central), so look for things to heat up even more.

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