The Poker Star finale

I was at trivia on Wednesday night when the finale of The Poker Star was on One HD plus I hadn't watched episode 7 yet. As the day was winding down today I was doing some invoicing and decided to catch up on the show.

By far the funniest part of episode 7 was the challenge:


The look on Josh's face when Joe tells him he needs to go back across the plank is just priceless!

I was a little disappointed to see Ben go because I thought he deserved to get to the top 3. Unfortunately for him he choked, defending his big blind and then folding when he was just out-kicked. Anyone who's played a bit of poker would know that with the ace and an 8 already on the board it was most likely going to be a split-pot. That slip-up cost him his spot in the final week and I'm sure he's regretting it now.

The interview challenge was entertaining watching the players stumble under the pressure of the questions. Clearly Josh froze but the others didn't do too much better. It was great to see PokerStars Team Australia get added to the tournament to mix things up. Everyone knew Chris's suckout was coming in the first hand. Sure, Emad could have been raising light, but first hand of the tournament you'd imagine his range was jacks or better pairs or ace-queen, ace-king. Chris was racing at best, behind a lot of the time ... but went all-in with ace queen and took the risk of getting knocked out first hand.

I was a little surprised Amanda became the Poker Star. I thought Josh was the one most likely but I think he failed to show the charisma and personality that Joe was looking for. His reputation as The Robot cost him dearly. Chris was just too aggressive and even tho most of the tournaments were short-handed, he needed to pick better spots and be more patient.

Amanda did very well to make it to the final and obviously win the ultimate prize. She really struggled with some of the more fearful challenges but showed a lot of heart and courage to get through them. It'll now be interesting to see how she does in the big tournaments.