Whew! This was a marathon of a day for Derek Raymond and Mark Tenner. We can honestly say that both players deserved the win in this tournament. Each played masterfully and with guts. At the end, however, it was Raymond who hit the hands he needed to hit when he needed to hit them.
Raymond started the day in 9th chip position of the 23 players remaining. He steadily and quietly climbed the counts as player after player was eliminated. Coming into the final table, Raymond was positioned well for a deep run. He was fourth in chips and in no danger of an immediate bust.
In the end, it was stamina and resolve that brought Raymond the bracelet -- and perhaps a timely run of cards. No one can deny that limits were high at the end. This thing could easily have gone the other way. But it didn't, and Derek Raymond is our deserving champion.
Raymond had been assiduously whittling away at Tenner, forcing him to fold on various assorted flops and turns, and finally we saw Tenner all in preflop following a raising war.
Good lord. Our blinds are up, as you may have noticed, and you'd think our old friend Variance would maybe kick in around now. Nevertheless, here we are with two players on almost identical stacks, at 3am.
Tenner check-called a bet from Raymond on the river of the board, but then mucked to Raymond's flush.
Derek Raymond's been trying to get his chips in, but those pots just keep ending up chopped.
Most recently he called a preflop raise from Tenner and then bet out on every street of the board. Tenner called him all the way down, and duly they chopped.