THE BAYOU CHAINSAW MASSACRE
New Orleans, LA (December 20, 2009) – Sometimes, dealing with Allen Kessler can be a bit like juggling a whirling chainsaw.  Make that a chainsaw with the power revved up to “high.”  In recent years, he’s developed a reputation on the poker tournament circuit as once of the game’s most prickly personalities.  He’s demanding.  He’s opinionated.  And, he can certainly be razor sharp.

Vroooooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmm.  And, as Kessler’s most recent tournament victory in the Bayou Poker Challenge championship shows, he can also shear down plenty of other players who believe they can whack him at the poker table.

Kessler, a.k.a. “Chainsaw,” won this year’s Bayou Poker Challenge Main Event, held at Harrah’s New Orleans.  The $3,000 (+120) buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament attracted a highly-competitive field of 80 entries.  This was the final event of 15 on this year’s Bayou Poker Challenge schedule.  The three-day championship generated a prize pool totaling $221,798 – the biggest payout of this year’s winter Bayou series.  The top nine finishers collected prize money.  

Kessler is a full-time poker player in his mid-40s, who lives in Las Vegas, NV.  He is originally from Philadelphia.  However, Kessler’s true home in recent years has been whichever casino is hosting whatever poker tournament.  He’s been traveling around the tournament circuit for a full decade.  And with this victory, Kessler has now amassed nearly $1.5 million in tournament winnings.

This win marked Kessler’s seventh major tournament victory.  He has numerous in-the-money finishes -- most notably wins at the United States Poker Championship in 2006, and a gold ring victory at the 2007 WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Las Vegas.  This time, Kessler was officially paid $70,976.  He was also awarded a seat into the $10,000 buy-in Main Event at the 2010 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, plus $1,000 for expenses.

The tournament was played over three consecutive days during one of the busiest weekends of the year in New Orleans.  With tens of thousands of pro and college football fans in the Crescent City, the Harrah’s showroom offered just as competitive an event as anything going on at the Superdome.  In fact, this was one of the more intriguing final table matches of the year, with several highly-skilled players, and interesting poker personalities.  It's exactly what one might expect from an ecclectic lineup that included players who go by names such as Chainsaw, The Destroyer, Monkey, and Car Wash.  Not only was the defending champion (Justin “Lockdowntex” Allen) present but so too were unpredictable personalities such as Kessler and Will “the Monkey” Souther.  The final table also provided an interesting contrast of different generations – with players ranging in age from 22 up to 78.

When final table play began on a Monday afternoon following 26 hours of play during the first two days, Kessler had a sizable chip lead over his rivals.  He enjoyed a nearly 2 to 1 advantage over his closest adversary, Ed Corrado.  Kessler lost his chip lead a few hours into play, and was actually all-in for his tournament life on at least two occasions.  But he won enough key hands at critical moments to regain his chip lead until a deal was crafted when play became four-handed.

Players finished in the following order:

9th Place – Phil Hall, a 61-year-old software engineer from Kemah, TX finished ninth.  He has previously cashed six times in major tournaments – including twice at the WSOP in Las Vegas, and twice at the WSOP Circuit held in New Orleans.  Most interesting is the fact that out of his seven major cashes, three have been for ninth place.  Hall was eliminated about 20 minutes into the final table action when he took 5-5 in a race against A-K.  Hall’s pocket fives lost when a king hit the board.  That gave Hall $8,317 in prize money. 

8th Place – Will “the Monkey” Souther, a poker pro from Biloxi, MS ended up finishing in eighth-place.  He currently has nearly $300,000 in career tournament winnings, including 14 WSOP Circuit cashes, to date.  Souther, who is nicknamed “Monkey” for his occasional cardroom outbursts, has six cashes at WSOP Circuits played at Harrah’s New Orleans.  Yet for all his success in tournament poker – including 25 final table appearances at majors around the country (and seven second-place finishes) -- he has only one win, which took place last year at the Imperial Palace in Mississippi.  About 90 minutes into the final table, Souther started getting low on chips and moved all-in with pocket jacks on what turned out to be his final hand.  He was snap called by a player with pocket kings.  Neither hand improved, which put Souther on the rail with $9,426 in prize money.  

7th Place – Ben “the Destroyer” Mintz, a 26-year-old poker player from New Orleans, LA was the seventh-place finisher.  He arrived at the final table ranked third in chips, but ran into problems on a number of hands during his three-hour stay, resulting in being short-stacked when play became seven-handed.  Mintz tried to steal a round of blinds and antes by raising all-in with Q-J on his final hand.  But he was called by an opponent holding pocket queens, putting him in a dominated position.  Mintz managed to catch a jack which made things interesting.  But he missed the draw and ended up with a consolation prize totaling $11,090.  Mintz, nicknamed “the Destroyer” for his online poker savvy, currently has nine WSOP Circuit cashes.

6th Place – Justin “Lockdowntex” Allen, a 22-year-old poker pro from Dallas, TX finished in sixth-place.  Allen arrived as the defending champion from last year’s Bayou championship, where he won $158,290.  On fact, combined with his seventh-place finish in the WSOP Circuit championship held last May, Allen has now made it to the final table in three straight championship tournaments at Harrah’s New Orleans (Note:  Lou Esposito is the only other player to have accomplished this).  However, Allen’s performance in this event was a mixed blessing.  He never was quite able to gather the chips needed to seriously challenge the chip leader, but nevertheless did receive $13,308 for his sixth-place finish.  

5th Place – Michael “Car Wash” Schneider, a 42-year-old self-employed businessman from Covington, GA finished in fifth place.  Schneider, who is called “Car Wash” because he once owned such a business, played his short stack as well as anyone during the last several hours of the tournament.  When play was at 12-handed late on Day Two, Schneider was down to just a few rounds of blinds and antes, yet managed to win just enough hands to squeeze into the money and make it to the final table.  Then, despite being the lowest stack when play resumed on Day Three, Schneider still crawled four spots up the money ladder.  Schneider picked up $16,080 in prize money for a nice effort.

(Note:  Play went four-handed for more than four hours.  The four finalists agreed to a deal.  The terms were not disclosed.)

4th Place – Jim McBride, a 62-year-old retiree from Slidell, LA ended up taking fourth place.  McBride was a thorn in the side of everyone throughout the long finale.  He was down to the felt a few times, but managed to stay alive long enough to officially cash for $19,262.  McBride has enjoyed several cashes at majors played elsewhere.  However, he has yet to win a major poker tournament.

3rd Place – Moutray McLaren, a 26-year-old professional poker player from Greenville, SC finished in third place.  His parents are from Northern Ireland.  McLaren played college tennis when he was a student at Furman University.  During a break, at least one player sitting at the final table made the astute observation that McLaren was actually the best player of the final nine, certainly high praise when coming from an opponent.  McLaren proved his obvious talent, by taking the chip lead at one point and seemingly being on his way to a major win.  But he lost a few critical pots late in the event and accepted a deal which gave him third place.  The official payout was $28,279.

2nd Place – Ed Corrado, a 78-year-old retiree originally from Chicago now living in Naples, FL was the runner up.  Recently, he has been traveling around the country with his wife, playing in many WSOP Circuit events.  Corrado has enjoyed three major tournament wins, and 20 final table appearances.  He accepted a nice payout in this tournament, totaling $44,360 in prize money.

1st Place – Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler, a mid-40s poker professional from Las Vegas, NV was the winner.  He was paid $70,976 in prize money, plus a gold ring, commemorating his victory.  Kessler also received a voucher good for a $10,000 seat into the 2010 WSOP Main Event, to be played in Las Vegas next July.

Following his victory, Kessler sounded nothing like a chainsaw.  In fact, his comments were music to the ears of Tournament Director, Steve Frezer and his staff.  “I really like supporting these events,” Kessler said.  “These are great structures.  It’s one of the best tournament structures I’ve seen for this buy-in amount.”

Immediately following his victory, Kessler darted off to the high-limit section where there were plenty of $5 video poker machines from which to chose.  Once could sense that in the casino, yet another chainsaw massacre was about to take place.