A lucky 9 were chosen to take a seat at a brand new table - courtesy of my good friend Mark who was ESPN's Technical Director of last years World Series of Poker; he provided me with the very same felt that graced the television feature table!
Behold!
As you may recall, the 2010 WSOP hosted a Tournament of Champions, an invitation only tournament that featured - Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, Allen Cunningham, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman, Huck Seed, Dan Harrington, T.J. Cloutier, Sammy Farha, Howard Lederer, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem and Antonio Esfandiari.
So yes, all of those players have played on the very same felt that now sits in the garage. Not to mention anyone and everyone who final tabled in any of the 57 WSOP bracelet events last year, including the likes of Tom Dwan and other similarly talented folks.
As far as a home poker table goes, I guess we win. Pretty damn cool.
Speaking of cool, it was just a little bit too chilly to play under the stars. Hopefully we can do that next month. Though it was cold outside, the action heated up inside after the break. Jeff M., who, in this humble writers opinion, is easily in the top handful of players at Pepper Street (a very small group in my my mind, a group in which I do not include myself) has had a pretty unlucky 2011 so far and was first out; variance will inevitably swing the other way soon Jeff!
Even with 26 players, I predicted early on that my patented super-awesome blind structure (designed to give everyone plenty of fun poker to play, but to still get people home early enough to not face the wrath of an angry spouse) would do it's job - and it did. As Marc F. as my witness, I declared the under over for the end of the tournament to be at 12:15. Read on, to see how close I was.
Yours truly busted out exactly midway - 13th, and the final table formed at around 1040pm, at the same time - a cash game broke out on one of the smaller tables!
Let me just take a moment to give acknowledgement and gratitude to the truly amazing Mike P., who has been invaluable at filling in the gaps that I leave when I try to play and run things at the same time. From re-buys to just generally keeping things correct, thank you so much Mike for being so kick butt last night - especially getting the cash game going and taking care of everyone.
The DVD winner, aka the bubble before the bubble, was Bill Kelly, who snagged the latest Star Trek movie for his collection.
The "bubble" who gets his entry fee back, and last night also got his bounty back as well - was the always crafty yet amenable Allen R.
First to make money was Jason H. who pocketed $90 for fifth place. Next was cashing machine Mike K. who vaulted into the Player of the Year top five with a fourth place finish worth $120.
Perennial PSP favorite Robert A. navigated past the multiple tournament land mines all evening long before finally succumbing to the monstro-blinds and snagging $150 for finishing third.
And then the final two - many would say it was a coincidence, but others would say it simply had to be. Our two World Series of Poker seat winners, Allen Q. and Eric T. were the only ones left when the dust had cleared.
As their stacks were very close at the onset of heads up play, I reminded them that they had the option to chop the cash and play for the trophy, they declined and preferred to flip a coin. Again, I will defend my blind structure to the death - even in the face of rumblings and grumblings (of which there were a few last night); I will absolutely not have people in my garage at 3am for a $40 tournament. A huge part of what makes this tournament so great, is that it literally is for bar tab stakes (and a very small bar tab in L.A. for that matter.) We are here to have fun, and if we happen to improve our game along the way that's great, but our goal is not honing our No Limit Hold-em prowess through a grueling gauntlet marathon of ruthless poker, where the best warrior always wins. Our goal first and foremost is to enjoy ourselves and that MUST include getting home at a reasonable hour.
I set the over under for the end of the tournament at 12:15pm, the final hand went down at 12:13. I know, I was WAY off.
In the end they both got it in with live cards and Eric was the binker with Allen being the binkee. $200 went to Mr. Q and $350 went to Mr. T, along with his first PSP trophy in only his third monthly tournament at Pepper Street! Congratulations Eric!
Allen Q. graciously mentioned to me at the end of the evening, that he felt really good that Eric got the extra $150, as Eric had only won $1000 even in his satellite while Allen had pocketed $1200. "Now he gets a little help with his room and food" said Allen. Yes indeed, it worked out pretty good for both of them.
Another HUGE thanks is in order for the official recruiter and all around really cool guy (who also ALWAYS stays late to shuffle and help clean up) Marc F. who brought ANOTHER new player last night, the jovial Chris S. who seemed to enjoy himself and hopefully will be back soon. A big thanks as well to super cool gal Julie for bringing her friend John R. into the game. I didn't play at his table, but he seemed to be having fun and I also hope he'll return soon.
The next one will be here before we know it - Saturday, June 11 at 7pm. Hopefully it will be nice and hot during the day so we can have a divine evening out of doors; especially if we get a crazy number of people like we did last night! I have to say, even though it is a lot of work, I find it very gratifying to put on these events, even more so when we have close to 30 players!
After the 11th, it's off to Vegas! Jeff M. has informed me that he will very much try to make it, and Allen R. mentioned that he would like to make the trip as well. So that's potentially six Pepper Street degenerates in Sin City at once! The mind boggles. See my post below for my plea, I hope you can join us for a whole lot of fun for the weekend of June 25! (I'll be there for the Monday and Tuesday beyond as well). Hope to see you then!
