The insideSTL.com Poker Tournament In Honor of Maplewood Firefighter Ryan Hummert

I got to be honest...I'm perhaps more surprised and disappointed by the turnout of last night's poker tournament than I have ever been with any other insideSTL.com event.

From what I'm told, accidents littered the highways between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m., and it caused a number of people to not be able to make it to The Church Key. However, I still would've expected more people to come out and play with some big names in St. Louis poker (and poker, in general), have a chance to win some great prizes, and pay homage to a 22 year-old St. Louis firefighter who lost his life in the line of duty last month.

Unfortunately, we only had 28 players last night...and I feel terrible about it, because I sincerely thought I'd be cutting a check for $6,000 to $7,000 to the Honoring Hummert Foundation. And, while those there on behalf of Ryan Hummert were thrilled that we even put the event together, I still feel like we let them down. Nonetheless, the tournament was run incredibly smoothly and the set-up was outstanding. Thank you to The Church Key, Jack Hillig, Ryan "Big Grease" Pickett, and Tim Pickett for taking care of just about everything to make this thing run so smoothly.

I actually think last night's tournament was a better poker tournament than the first one...which was damn good as well. We didn't just have Dennis Phillips there, but we also had Kyle Kloeckner (2 final tables at this year's WSOP) and Dan Nassif (final table at the 2006 WSOP) playing at The Church Key.

Bounties were on my head and the heads of the three pros...and that may explain how World Series of Poker Main Event chip leader Dennis Phillips got knocked out first.

Dennis had pocket aces. The player to his left had pocket 5's. Dennis bet preflop. His opponent called. The flop came...and no 5 came. Dennis bet big. His opponent called. The turn comes off...with a 5. Dennis bets big. His opponent comes over the top all-in...and that was the end of Dennis.

As "Poker Guy" would say: "Sick."

Kyle Kloeckner got knocked out when he was short-stacked and raised pre-flop with 88. He was called  by a gentleman with J9. The flop came off with two 9's. Kyle pushed all-in...and that was that.

Nassif was able to make it down to the final 3 tables before he was knocked out...and that left me as the only person with a bounty on my head.

And, just what I didn't need to have happen was happening: I was the chip leader at the final table.

Can you imagine all the hell that would break loose if I won my own tournament? Yikes.

"Fortunately," when it got down to three players, I was rivered to virtually cripple me. With the chip leader folding, I was in the small blind with Q8. I raised it more than 3x the big blind. Ryan Wamser, in the big blind, comes over the top of me all-in for another 15k. I had 23k left in my stack, and there was already way more than 45k in the pot...so I was getting more than 3 to 1 odds. I called...only to see I had been re-raised all-in by Ryan with J4.

My Q8 was ahead...all the way until the river...when a 4 came off.

I was crippled, and Tim Geraghty knocked me out 2 hands later when my J9 went down to his A5.

So, I finished in 3rd place.

Ryan and Tim went back and forth for a few hands before all the chips were in the middle of the pot as Ryan had A6 vs. Tim's JJ. Sure enough, on the flop, Ryan hit an Ace, and that was that. Tim wasn't able to catch another Jack...and Ryan Wamser took home the insideSTL.com Poker Tournament title.

For the victory, he won the following:

-An autographed ball by the 2008 Cardinals.

-4 tickets to a Cardinal game

-4 on-field passes for batting practice

-$100 gift certificate to Best Buy

Tim took home 4 lower bowl tickets to the Rams' opener versus the Giants along with a $100 gift certificate to The Sports Authority.

I won tickets to the Blues' opener this season and two tickets to another Blues' game, and I gave those tickets to the Honoring Hummert Foundation.

I want to thank---big time---the Cardinals, Rams, Blues, and Billikens...all of whom donated tickets to this event. I also want to thank Hooters, Hair of The Dog, B. Donovan's, and Kenrick's Meats for their donations of gift certificates...and I would like to thank The Church Key for their donation of 10% of the register last night along with Wachovia financial for donating additional money.

It was a great time, and I think everybody who attended had a good time. The tournament was smooth in operation. The blinds didn't go up absurdly quickly. And, we were able to raise money in honor of Ryan Hummert.

So, while I would've liked to have packed the place, I guess the bottom line is 28 St. Louisans got together to have a good time playing poker and doing it in memory of one of our own who lost his life in the line of duty.

Thank you to everyone who made that possible.

Charter Communications Presents The insideSTL.com Third Anniversary Party Tonight's Night At Lumen...And Penthouse On Demand Presents The insideSTL.com After Party At The Pepper Lounge

I'm probably jinxing myself by saying this, but this little cocktail party tomorrow night is shaping up to be a potentially fine evening of stuff that, at least I think, most St. Louisans thoroughly enjoy:

-Cardinals

-Blues

-Beautiful local lasses

-Delicious libations

-And, The ITD Morning After...at least 12 to 14 St. Louisans enjoy that.

I just want to go over some particulars...and then list the final 15 Girls Next Door who will be competing for the $1,500 first prize in the insideSTL.com Girl Next Door lingerie competition.

So...here's some stuff:

-Lumen is located at 2201 Locust Street (at the corner of 22nd and Locust).

-Valet service is provided.

-Casual attire is welcomed...but get dolled up however you'd like.

-There's a $10 cover charge.

-An invite-only VIP Pre-Party will go from 6:30 to 7:30.

-At 7:30, Lumen will open up the doors.

-At approximately 7:45, The ITD Morning After with me, Jimmy "The Cat" Hayes, and Doug Vaughn will take the stage.

-Our guests for the live broadcast on Team 1380 will include...live at Lumen:

-Cardinal starter Todd "The Toddalien" Wellemeyer

-Cardinal starter Kyle Lohse

-Cardinal outfielder Joe Mather

-Cardinal infielder Felipe Lopez

-Blues' broadcaster Kelly Chase

-Blues' defenseman Barrett Jackman

-World Series of Poker Main Event chip leader Dennis Phillips

-Penthouse Pet February 2008 Cali Taylor

-Following the broadcast magic, at approximately 9:45 or 10:00, we will begin the insideSTL.com Girls Next Door lingerie contest.

-First place receives $1,500. Second place receives $500. Third place receives $250.

-The winners will be determined by a combination of crowd noise (using a decibel meter which will be visible to all on the Lumen flat-screen TV's) and the scores of our celebrity judges.

-Fifteen Girls Next Door (13 from past months...2 from future months) will be participating. Here's an example of how the scoring will work...so as to prevent controversy (which probably won't prevent it anyway...but I'm trying):

-If a GND were to receive the loudest ovation based on the decibel meter reading, she would receive 15 points. If she were to receive the 5th highest score from the judges, she would receive 10 points. Her total score would be 25 points. If some poor soul were to finish last in both crowd noise and judges' scores, that lass would have a total of 2 points (1 for the noise vote and 1 for the judges' vote).

-If there is a tie, it will be decided by crowd noise on the decibel meters.

-Our celebrity judges will be:

Judge 1: Penthouse Pet Cali Taylor

Judge 2: Cardinal starter Todd "The Toddalien" Wellemeyer and Cardinal infielder Felipe Lopez

Judge 3: Wizard of Oz legend Mickey Carroll and The ITD Morning After's Rudy

-I'm thoroughly looking forward to who freaks who out more: Mickey Carroll or The Toddalien.

Here are pictures of the girls that are participating:

 Miranda

Alyson

Jessy

Samantha

 Lauren

Sloane

Angie

Amie

Danielle

Dana

Amanda

Lauren

 Sharayah

 Amy

-Following the lingerie contest, we'll move from Lumen to the Pepper Lounge for Penthouse On Demand's Presentation of The insideSTL.com After Party.

-This should be pretty creepy.

-Hope to see you at Lumen and The Pepper Lounge Tonight.

Log-in and post your comments below, or you can email me at tmckernan@insidestl.com.