Home / Poker News November 2010 / PokerStars.net million-dollar challenge – Ray Reid in action
PokerStars.net million-dollar challenge – Ray Reid in action
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2010-11-22 11:15
This week's contestant on the PokerStars.net million-dollar challenge was Ray Reid, a Jamaican born amateur player who is currently residing in Canada. Before the action kicked off, Reid made it pretty clear that the million dollars would end up in just the right place if he won. He said that he would use the money to thrust his life out of a rut and to help his father, a minister, built a church. In order to make all those dreams come true though, Reid would have to get past ex-NBA player Gary Payton in round one of the challenge and
PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein in round two, not to mention Negreanu himself in the final round.
The rules for round one stipulated that the challenger could turn to PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu for advice and that he could even call one timeout to discuss strategy with his coach. The challenger would obviously have to win the first round in order to move on to the second. Victory in a first-round would be rewarded with a trip to the Bahamas.
During round two, the player would be coached by Daniel Negreanu from an isolated booth through a headset. Unlike in round one, Negreanu would see the challenger's hole cards too.
The first-round action went as smoothly as possible for the challenger. Gary Payton was all-in on the very first hand, with A,10 on a board full of rags. Pot-committed himself, Reid immediately called a timeout. Negreanu urged him to go all in, which is exactly what he did.
In the second round, Reid took the early advantage by winning a couple of hands, and it wasn't long before his challenge life was on the line again. To make matters worse, Greenstein evoked the Dome of Silence, thus preventing Negreanu from offering Reid any sort of assistance. Reid proceeded to make a straight in that hand to win the second round.
The third round saw the challenger square off against Daniel Negreanu himself. After suffering a terrible bad beat seeing his flush fall to Negreanu’s boat, Reid was eventually eliminated on a 7,6o vs 3,6o match-up.
