Tournament Details

For those of you who truly believe that the fickle finger of fate has more to do with victory at the poker table than say - skill, daring, or nerve - you’ve got ample evidence to support your case in this seventh special edition of the WPT’s popular Hollywood Home Game. Playing for their favorite charities, as well as a coveted $25,000 guaranteed seat at the WPT World Championship, this is how the lineup looked on the green felt at the World Poker Tour Hollywood studio set:

In Seat 1, “new school" game show host Mark L. Walberg (Temptation Island). In Seat 2, “old school" game show legend Bob Eubanks (Newlywed Game). In Seat 3, the lovely and talented Michelle Clunie (Queer as Folk). In Seat 4, Franco-American hunk Michael Vartan (Alias). In Seat 5, tough but lovable Erik Palladino (of ER fame). In Seat 6, easy-going Canadian David Sutcliffe (I’m With Her).

Each player started with 250,000 in chips, antes and blinds started at 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000. David Sutcliffe jumped out to an early commanding lead. Then, on the first critical hand, he caught 9s-9, and raised it the minimum to 20,000, finding a field of takers: Walberg with As-Jh smooth called, then Vartan, with big slick Ac-Ks, came over the top all-in for 183,000 more and Palladino with Ah-Qs quickly (and smartly) hoisted his red card to consult with WPT advisors Antonio Esfandiari and Phil “Unabomber" Laak. The pros scanned the table and quickly advised a fold, which Palladino executed. Antonio and Phil were new faces as the ‘red-card-duo,’ as regular consultant Daniel Negreanu joined Mike Sexton in Vince Van Patten’s chair. Sutcliffe called the all-in to go heads up with Vartan after Walberg got out of the way. When the flop came Qc-Jd-3d the biggest wince came from Erik Palladino, who would’ve been leading, and indeed would’ve won, as the turn and river came 7c, 5h. In any case, it was a quick end to Vartan’s hopes, and he went out in 6th place, taking $1,500 for his charity, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.

Bob Eubanks showed his moves with a couple strong blind collections and Michelle Clunie took down a monster pot. Then, with antes and blinds going up to 2,000, 8,000, and 16,000, Walberg found himself nearly short-stacked, and decided to stake all 108,000 on As-5s. As fate would have it, the new school host met the old school host head up when Mr. Eubanks with Ac-Qd, called. Without much fanfare, the board ran out 8h-7h-4h, Ah, 3d, and so did Walberg’s night, going to the rail in 5th place, with $2,000 for his favored charity, Goodwill Industries of Southern California.

The next stage of the game was all about Erik Palladino, who refused to let a lack of cards stop him from amassing a powerful stack of chips – and the chip lead – with a succession of bold, stone bluffs. One of his victims on that rampage, Eubanks, found Ah-2s, and decided to risk about a quarter of his remaining chips bringing it in for 50,000. Unfortunately for Bob, Clunie was sitting right next to him with the monster of monsters, pocket Aces. She came over the top for a nice “massaging" with 100,000 more, as Daniel Negreanu pointed out for the home audience, and after Palladino reluctantly mucked K-T offsuit (one of his few decent starting hands!) Eubanks called. The flop came Kh-Th-8h, causing Palladino to rub his face with pain, seeing he would’ve flopped top two pair, but also picking up the nut flush draw for Eubanks, who promptly got his last 57,000 in. Clunie quickly called, and Eubanks needed a heart to fall. It wasn’t to be and the gracious Bob Eubanks uttered a humorous “say goodnight, Bob" and went smiling into the night, with $2,500 for his long time charity, Variety Club of St. Louis.

Michelle Clunie now sat atop the chip lead, as the price of poker again went up, antes and blinds to 5,000, 20,000, and 40,000 (putting 75,000 into play before every hand). As Mike Sexton has said on numerous occasions, “there’s a saying in poker that ‘all-in’ works every time but once." Erik Palladino found that out the hard way. Finding Kc-9h, he made it $100,000 to go, only to have Michelle, with 7s-7c, come over the top of him for the minimum. But before she could complete the raise, Erik beat her into the pot with the rest of his 495,000. Michelle took a chance on her middle pair, and called, making for a 1,300,000 pot. The first card off the deck, dealt by Palladino himself, was a prophetic 7d! It would not improve for the amiable New Yorker, the board going 7d-Qd-4h, 2d, Ad. Just like that, the contender was sent out of the ring in 4th place, taking $4,000 to the deserving kids at his charity, Boys & Girls Club of Hollywood.

Now down to two, Clunie sat atop a veritable mountain of chips, a seemingly unassailable peak of 1,350,000, while her heads up opponent, Sutcliffe, held barely enough to make three big blinds, with a miniscule 150,000. Here, dear reader, is where that fickle hand of fate would poke itself solidly into Michelle Clunie’s ribs. Pushing all-in 3 out of 4 straight hands, and being called each time with dominating odds against him, Sutcliffe outdrew her every time. The uncanny – one could say ‘fateful’ – feature of each hand was that in each of these three pivotal hands, the two players shared a card, with Clunie holding a better kicker: Kh-Qc over Ks-5c, only to have Sutcliffe pair his 5 on the turn; Qd-9d over Qc-4c, he made the wheel straight on the turn; and finally, Ad-4d over 5s-4h, he again made an 8 high straight, hitting a six-outer on the river. Incredibly, Clunie even folded a fifth consecutive dominating hand during this sequence, As-6d over Kh-6h, when Sutcliffe pushed all-in. But given the nature of this run of hands, who’s to say that it wasn’t fate that she would’ve lost that race as well.

Unbelievably, Sutcliffe was now the chip leader, 1,090,000 to 410,000 with antes and blinds again escalating to 10,000, 30,000, and 60,000. With Michelle now on fumes, she pushed in her final all-in bet with Kd-Td, only to find that Sutcliffe had the edge, when he called with Ac-7d. The flop came 6c-4d-2h, helping neither, and then an emblematic As at the turn sealed the deal. After a perfunctory Qc on the river, David “Draw Out" Sutcliffe (as Mike Sexton dubbed him) had claimed the title of Hollywood Home Game Hero, collecting $10,000 for his charity, Hollygrove Children & Family Services, at the same time reserving a $25,000 seat at the WPT World Championship. Michelle Clunie, good natured about her devastating bad run of luck, took 2nd and $5,000 for her charity, Destination Foundation.