2013.12 & a preview of 2014

It was Saturday night in the garage around back and it was cold... outside!  Inside my handy dandy space heater got things plenty toasty as 19 festive and kindred spirits gathered 'round to sing Christmas carols and drink egg nog.  They also partook in some form of gambling, some kind of card game or something.  But even better, they gambled before they even did that!

A stuffing for the stocking to scratch the degenerate itch.

Believe it or not this year, multiple people got lucky, with several "ticket" prizes and Dan G. collecting $10 from his ticket.  Ship it!  Holla bolla y'all!

A festive spirit was in the air, holiday music kept the mood light but players were surprisingly snug in their play.  It was a good two and a half hours before we had our first casualty, well after the first break as John S. succumbed and hit the rail with a cacophony of profanity and rude gestures as he took his leave.

Yes, this really is a "Super" table.

Set over set grossness.

Jason flings his chips, ever so artfully so as to mesmerize his fellow poker playas into folding. 

It was just before 10:30 when we drew a final table, and barely an hour later when our Dan G. busted on the bubble.  He got two gift cards, a $10 from Amazon and a $15 from Best Buy which no doubt eased the sting.

Tony G. was next to fall, collecting his buy in back, as well as a gift card.

It was well over an hour of four handed play before the next eliminations.

No gift cards for the next two out, Amy and Barb, both got double their buy-in for 5th and 4th place respectively.

I was the short stack in third place when I got knocked out in a three way pot that saw my baby sooted ace dominated by Jeff, but it was Julie who spiked a set to eliminate me and deal a massive blow to Jeff's stack.

When the dust settled she had a bit of a chip lead and they both agreed to split the first and second place cash evenly and battle for the trophy.

How fitting that it was the two players that have both won two tournaments faced down at the end of the year.  I wish I could tell you it was a long and spectacular battle - but it was actually one hand.  And very understandable.

A cooler for a cool night.

Julie found herself on the better end of what you see above, and so for the THIRD time this year took home the hardware.  Holy shit well done Julie!

Bizness as usual beatches.

Jeff had a good consolation - just as much money to collect as Julie AND an official lock on the player of the year award!  After they had both left I performed my last official act of 2013...

All in all a great night to cap off the year.  A big thanks to Daniel L. for bringing in a new player Francois, who was yet another friendly fellow that I hope will return to the fold.

Thanks as well to everyone else for eschewing their families and friends in favor of degeneracy.  I say it every year, but I really could not ask for a better bunch of folks to play poker with every month and I feel very humbled and grateful to have such a friendly group to battle with on the felt.

I was going to have a cash game next week, but alas the schedule got too full so it looks like we are done for the year.  Our next monthly event, which will start with a bracelet ceremony for Jeff, will be on Saturday, Jan. 18 at the usual time.  The Saturday before that there will be a single table satellite for the Mega Millions event at the Bike, read on for more info on that.

To one and all - have a safe and happy holiday!  I look forward to seeing you all again in 35 days and getting our gamble on once again!

But until then, to tide you over, read on to find out what's in store for 2014!


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Another great year has come and gone here at Pepper Street.

A big congrats to our newest Player of the Year - Jeff S., who took down two tournaments and finished high up enough the rest of the time to easily take down the POY bracelet.  Good on ya Jeffy!

To my fellow poker players, I do say verily unto thee - suck it.

I'm very happy for Jeff and it's very much well deserved - but for next year the POY award and how it is given is going to change.

Thus far, the Player of the Year award has only been partially successful - while certainly exciting for the top 2 or 3 (or sometimes 4) players typically in contention about three or four months into the year - everyone else is pretty much mathematically out of it very early on.

Also, in five years we have had basically only 2 winners going back and forth (this year was finally an exception although we had a different player tie for first 2 years ago).

Same old song, over and over again.

So to make this contest WAY more exciting, the POY Bracelet will be transformed from a linear points system to a Tournament of Champions battle royale.  Here's how it will work.

A small amount will be deducted from each monthly tournament and set aside into a prize pool for a year ending Tournament of Champions freeroll.  Players will qualify for entry into this TOC by winning first place in a 2014 monthly event.

At the end of the TOC the last player with all the chips will win the bracelet.

In addition to making the race for a season champion MUCH more exciting, this system will also mean MUCH less work for me.  Instead of having to track the finish of every single player - all I have to remember is who won!  Sweet!

I realize that this will not really accurately reflect who the best player of the year is - it's more like a Champion of the Year rather than a Player of the Year - but I don't really see this as a bad thing.

One of the key components to why the game and economy of poker survives and thrives is that it everyone at the table legitimately has a shot to win in the short run.  I strongly believe that Pepper Street Poker will find even more success with this new system of rewarding the "best" player because that person could be any of us on any given night.  Everyone has a shot to make it - whereas a long and tedious linear point system rewards only the people who show up the most and have the best long term results.

I've come to realize that truly I don't think I do the player pool any favors by tracking every single result.  People who play for fun, and this includes me, are for sure happier and play more often when they are less concerned with the big picture.  A Champion of the Year system, rather than a Player of the Year system (even though the award will keep the name, as I'm not springing for a new plaque) will, in the end I believe, be much better for our game.

Click here for all the particulars on the TOC, including the structure and information on potential Wild Card seats.

The 2014 T.O.C. will take place on the second Saturday of January, the 10th of 2015 - starting at 12 NOON.  Mark your calendars now!

I am very excited to embark on this new adventure with you all and I have no doubt that the action and excitement will be off the charts in 2014!  And speaking of excitement...

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2014 also promises to be a fantastic time in the Garage Around Back because we are going to be potentially playing even MORE poker.

Our once a month tournaments aren't going anywhere, with the trophies and the prestige that go with them, not to mention being able to gain entry into the Tournament of Champions - but I am also now planning on having a new side series of tournaments.  As many of you know, I have beta-tested this tournament series twice this year already.

These tournaments will be a single table / 10 person max tournament - a sit-n-go if you will.  Originally I had envisioned these tournaments as a once every other week during the week kind of thing, but realistically it will likely be once or twice a month and likely on a Friday.  

I'm calling these tournaments the PSP SNG series, a fun way to get our tournament poker fixes without having to truck out to the industrial and/or crummy reaches of our fine city and play with sad and angry (and often smelly) degenerate strangers.

PSP SNG SERIES - You know, for kids!

Frankly, I've spent way too much time in card clubs over the past two years, and while my results have been decent, I always have more fun in my own game and I very much prefer being able to tuck my kid into bed and to climb into bed myself later without having to risk my life on the 5 freeway before I can do so.

Entry is $60.   We will start with 20K in chips and a super awesome no-ante structure which can be found here.

Click here for all the other particulars, including rules and payout.

The evite for each PSP SNG will go out one full week before the tournament.  Once the table is filled additional players can sign up as alternates, and they will be contacted first come first serve if a seat opens up.  If the game gets crazy popular then priority in inviting people will always go to the more senior PSP players.

For you live game lovers, this added tournament at Pepper Street is unlikely to hurt the cash game shenanigans too much. I am still planning on a cash game once a month, as I did last year - which resulted in six actual cash games happening.  I expect it will be about the same in 2014.

I'm not shelling out for trophies for the PSP SNG's, but I will have a small token for the winners - check out this sexy bastard!

Suh-weet.

Can't wait to get going on these bad boys!  Hope you all can come and come often.

The rest of the year at the PSP Monthly Trophy Tournaments will be the same as 2013.   We still have a wall of hardware to give away and all the multi-table shenanigans that go along with them!


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Other changes for 2014.

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While I think the structure for our monthly events is about as perfect as it can get - I recognize that there has been some complaint by players that it is still simply too fast at the end.  I disagree with this on one hand - if we are to keep an ante free structure (much easier for everyone, especially me) then I don't think I could make the levels much flatter.  But on the other hand, as far as the timing of the levels, and especially in light of the forthcoming Tournament of Champions, I think there is a way to make the ending stages more equitable.

Starting in 2014 we will play 15 minutes levels after the second break IF we have 16 or more players.  If we have 16 or less players we will stay with 20 minute levels. (This is basically the same policy as previous years.)

When we reach the real money, that is the "money back" bubble player busts and collects their entry back - we will then switch to 25 minute levels for the remainder of the tournament.

The idea here is to get people out the door who haven't made the money by 11-11:30 or so.  And then once folks have made at least double their buy in, they will be less inclined to want to flip coins for more money and less inclined to hurry out the door knowing that there is still some real poker to be played.  So we will go to 25 minute levels, and this I think will give us a ton more end game play, without making the levels too flat.  Hopefully this will still get us done at about one am at the latest.

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The side games stay mostly the same - but in the spirit of less work for me (which is the major theme for 2014) the "Show-Em" chips will now be pre-placed on the Ace seat and the 6 seat.  Since I always play in the Five seat on the big green table, I will not be participating in the Show-Em chip goodness.  Boo-hoo for me.  If this gets too much for me to take, at some point in the year I may draw for my seat along with everyone else.

Also, once the Show-Em chip is used it will now go to the player it's used on - instead of disappearing. That player may then use the chip, and so on and so on.  All Show-Em chips will still be pulled at the first break.

The Rabbit Hunting Chip was utterly and entirely an embarrassing failure and so is now officially retired - though if you reeeeally love it, and are an avid reader of this blog and therefore learn about what I am about to offer - you are welcome to ask for a Rabbit Hunting chip at the check in table and use it at any time during the tournament!  I only have a limited amount of these chips, but if you do get one you don't have to get rid of it after the break, you can tilt someone hella hard when you're heads up for the trophy!  The Rabbit Hunting Chip may be used only once - and then it is pulled from the table.

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Regarding a World Series of Poker Satellite - I am VERY inclined not to have one this year, as I would rather just save up and enter directly.  BUT, as our satellites are always very popular I'm sure I'll give in to having at least one.   And truly I would like to keep it to one satellite only, likely in April or May.

This one satellite I can guarantee you, if it does happen, will not be for one  hundred dollars, it will be for a minimum of $200 and I'd like to have it at $300.  My goal is to give away ONE seat to the largest event we can AND include some real travel expense money and have basically a single table of staking players.

We have proven that we can cash in the WSOP smaller events, and that's wonderful and great; but all we've gotten is less than our buy in back spread across a dozen or more backers.  I would love to see a four figure payout for each participant, and a five figure score for our representative.  I'd also like to dream big and see if we can't muster enough bodies and/or monies for a WSOP Main Event seat. We will see.

Other much cheaper non-WSOP satellites are very likely to go in 2014, probably close to a three or four times during the year.  There are so many great local tournaments, including the WSOP Circuit and the WPT, that we will often switch out our regular SNG's for the chance to send someone to a big local event.

The first one we should for SURE go after is this one...

This is an awesome multi-starting day event, which offers 4 ways to enter. Click here for the full scoop.

As you can see, there are four ways to enter - I think the best route for us is to have a $60 satellite and go for the $550 entry which gives over twice as many chips to start as the cheaper option and also moves 10% of the field on to day two instead of 5%.

A bit later in the month the LAPC at Commerce will also have a million dollar guarantee tournament over 2 weeks.  Event #2 on the schedule.

There is no bigger buy-in option for this event; it's a one time $150 entry.

For this one I think we should pay our own way in, but all play on the same day so we can commiserate and cry in our beers when we bust.

Or more optimistically I should say that we should all be there to support each other and cheer from the rail as inevitably several of us are bound to go deep and probably final table.

If you look down the schedule you can see that there are bigger buy in events later in the series as well as mega-satellites for 10K seats to the WPT Main Event.  I'm totally open for taking a shot at one of these, be sure to let me know if this is something you think is worth doing.

Well I think that covers it for now.  I can't wait for the new year to start!

Until then, I wish you all the safest and happiest of holidays!

And as a parting gift from me to you, I recently made a little poker video, along with the help of several outstanding professional and semi-professional players that I've met and become friends with over the years in card clubs and at other home games.  They were very generous with their time and helped put together what I think is a truly outstanding instructional program for home game players at all levels.  Watch and enjoy!

2013.11

Good thing I started setting up the garage super early.  By the time 7pm rolled around the numbers had swelled from 19 players to 28!

This month's creative seating chip display - the peace sign.
Or what I like to call, the footprint of the North American Chicken.

Sexy Red table is ready to go.

And so is Old and Busted Greenie.

One of my favorite moments in life - Saturday night at about a quarter after 6.

And then...  BOOM.

Damn that's a lot of degenerates!

We only had one bust before the break, the super friendly Mr. Bob F.  But I wasn't too far behind as I succumbed to my spewy tendencies just after we came back.

Play was fairly hot and heavy, with a few hands of note.  Allen Q. had quad 8's at one point and shortly before I exited I managed to get thin value with a straight flush.

The river's actually on the left, hence the thin value bet and not all the chips in the middle.

This month's table of doom.

Murderer's row baby.

Sexy Red - aka the "fun" table.

You can still see my stack - I didn't piss it away yet, ha ha ha.

Some serious poker shit afoot.

Action was fairly fast and furious and we broke the third table just before 10pm.  We redrew for a final table at 11:10, with Jacob M. as the lucky final table bubble.

Big ass monies ready to get paid out.

Jeff W. finally didn't cash, just missing the money in 7th place. Our money back bubble was Andrew R. who got his buy-in back in 6th place.

Next to fall in fifth - for double his buy in ($80) was Daniel L., followed by another Dan, Dan G., who finished fourth and took home $100.

The top three got some serious cash - $200 went to third place, the 2013 power poker player Jeff S., who with this high finish has a virtual hammer lock on the Player of the Year race.

It's waiting for you Jeff!

And finally it was heads-up.  Brian A., a brand new and super friendly player brought in by Jacob (I think) couldn't overcome the chip leaders monster stacken but seemed very happy to take home $300!  An amount that is typically a first place payout.

$400, plus more than a couple bounties, plus the trophy, plus the Glory went to perpetual PSP cashing machine Mike K.!  Mike has probably made more money at Pepper Street than most, but believe it or not this is his first NLHE title.  He won a H.O.R.S.E. event a few years back.  Well done Mr. K!

Good thing USC had an afternoon game eh?

All in all it was a fantastic evening - a big thanks to Daniel L. and Andrew R. for sticking around to shuffle - it's a pain in the ass job but it makes three handed and heads up so much more enjoyable, and it is very much appreciated.

And thanks to everyone for coming out and making it such a great night.  Our very last monthly tournament  of the year will be on the second Saturday of December, the 14th.  As is tradition, our December tournament will be chock full of extra prizes, goodies and surprises. Hope you can make it!

Also - a few of us PSP regulars are making a pilgrimage to Commerce Casino next Saturday at 3pm to play in the L.A. Poker Open event #12, a two day $200,000 guarantee event for a $150 buy in. Click here for all the details.  It would be lovely to have you join us.

Until next time - peace and we out!

2013.10

A warm October Saturday night saw 20 enthusiastic poker players gather round the felt for some No Limit Texas Hold-em tournament poker action.

And doggie makes 21.

This month we had ZERO players bust out before the break - yay.  After the break PSP Vet and two time Player of the Year Mike P. was first to hit the rail but seemed happy to get going as his Santa Ana wind induced allergies seemed to be rather out of control.

Thereafter the action continued as it usually does, first a trickle, then a tumble and then a tumult.  The sexy red table was this month's table of doom - thankfully I didn't play there.

Brand spankin' new player and friendly fella Colin, who was brought in by Paul C. fell victim to a set over set and we redrew to a final table shortly thereafter as 11pm approached.

The final table was a spanking good time.  But just before it formed we had this interesting hand;  Julie A. rivered an ace high flush but reluctantly called off Marc F.'s chunky value bet on the river as she correctly deduced that she was beat and he did indeed have the straight flush.

Six card straight flush = yucky icky stinky poo-poo.

But despite this poker pile driver Julie battled back and it was Marc who found himself finishing in 6th on the money back bubble.

My brother the good doctor David busted next in fifth for double his buy-in.  This marks his 4th cash in 5 tournaments played this year - including a first place and two second place finishes.

Amy L. rode her roller coaster stack up and down until finally settling for fourth place and $80 as well.

Poker mad man slash genius Josh F. took down third place and $100.

Yours truly battled it out long and hard with Julie for the trophy - actually it was one hand and Julie got it in good and her cards held up.  Well done Julie!  This is her second trophy this year as well as a top cash prize of $300.

The Tigers may have lost - but I won!  Detroit represent!

Our next monthly event will be on Saturday, November 9th at 7pm, hope you all can make it!

BIKE OKTOBER SATELLITE

It was a dark and stormy night.  Well, maybe not stormy, but it was dark... well maybe not dark at 7pm, but eventually it did get dark and 10 wannabe poker geniuses gathered round to play a winner take all satellite for a seat in the Bicycle Casino's Big Poker Oktober Main Event, which is happening this weekend.

Each of us put up only $60 and we played for a $550 seat, with a 60/40 split for the winner if he/she cashes at the Bike.

The main reason I was looking forward to the tournament was so that I could put my long ago purchased Sit-N-Go set of chips into action.  They are three racks exactly and perfectly match out to give ten players 20K chips each, with a 20 stack of 5K chips left over.  They also happen to look exactly like the Rio DDS chips that are used in the WSOP.  (Google it!)

Why hello my beauties.

My Card Protector - made before the internet.  Also made before the airplane.

Before the game my kid reads from the Cleary classic "Henry Huggins".

Allen R. busted before I had a chance to take any pics.  Also, unfortunately the video crapped out and didn't record, so you'll have take my word for it that it was a cray cray night of teh pokerz.  In a way I'm kind of glad the video recording didn't work, for some reason we didn't play any music; which meant that every profanity laden comment and every obscene observation likely came through way louder and clearer than usual.

Nick does his best Teddy KGB impersonation.

Mike P. left and eventual winner Tony G. right.

Are you guys through dicking around so I can deal the river?

My stack before I gave it to the chip leader.

I played well until I didn't.  In the end it was Tony G. who won the seat - with Dan G. finishing second, taking his spot as the alternate if Tony can't make it as well as $50 to almost recoup his buy-in back.

Good job Tony!  Sorry I was too sleepy to remember to take your picture.  This is actually the second satellite Tony has taken down at Pepper Street, he won a WSOP seat a few years back.  Run good my man!

UPDATE: 10/14/13 - Alas, Tony did not make day two or the monies for that matter; he busted out late Sunday afternoon after a valiant fight that saw him pretty much card and flop dead for his entire tenure at the table.  Better luck next time Tony!

The good news is that we will for sure have another Satellite for a local big tournament;

The next one coming up is for the Main Event of the L.A. Poker Open, a WPT regional event at Commerce - which has a $1650 buy in, but I don't think I'm going to do a satellite for that one - as it takes place the weekend before Thanksgiving and goes for three days, starting at 2pm on Monday for day 2 and 2pm Tuesday for the final table.

What I would rather do for that event is play in one of the smaller two day events for $150 and maybe send out an evite to you all so you could join me.  The one I'm looking at playing takes place on the weekend of Nov. 15/16, click here for the schedule and structure.  It is a turbo with 15 minute rounds, but I'm very familiar with the structure as it is the same as the Commerce dailies and is very beatable.

The tournament that I am thinking we should for sure do a satellite for is the January 2014 Mega Millions Tournament at the Bike. Click here to see what's what with that.

As you can see, there are four ways to enter - I think the best route for us is to again have a $60 satellite and go for the $550 entry which gives over twice as many chips to start as the cheaper option and also moves 10% of the field on to day two instead of 5%.

We will likely have the satellite on Friday night, Jan 10th, just before the event.  Also, the LAPC at Commerce, which is also a WPT event, will also be in January; but they haven't released the schedule yet.  As soon as they do I will likely also arrange a satellite for one of their larger buy-ins, though probably not the main event which last year was 10K.

If we do four or five of these satellites in a year, including one of course for the WSOP, this could be a very profitable year indeed for Pepper Street!

2013.09

Kinda forgot to take pics of people during the tournament, so these'll have to do.

And here's the other side.

 It was a delightful September evening as 17 gamblers gathered in the garage out back.  And by gamblers I mean GAMBLERS.  For the first time ever, that I can remember, we had four, count them, FOUR bust outs before the first break!  Crazy!

Two were eliminated in a three way hand that saw AA lose to KK and Ac7c when all the money went in on a Kxx flop that was all clubs.

That's right, AA vs. KK vs. Ac7c.  A7 flopped the nuts, KK flopped a set and AA of course was AA.  Now I'm never one to question play on this blog, in fact I know I have NEVER done it.  Lord knows I make enough questionable decisions that it would take a lot of chutzpah for me to venture an opinion here.  But I think I have to make a special exception here, as this was an exceptional collision that probably never should have happened.

I think it's a fair question for any poker player to ask why A7 was ever ever EVER allowed to see the flop on this hand.  I didn't see the hand, but I can barely imagine a scenario where it wasn't three and four bet pre-flop and if it was (as it should have been) A7 should have been long gone.  I'm guessing AA and KK limped or maybe there was a single raise. This is only looking for trouble, and indeed -trouble was found.

Anyway, after that bit of fun (fun like a root canal can be) we also had 2 more bustouts shortly after that!  Barely an hour into the evening we had gone from 17 to 13.  That shiz was cray cray.

After the flurry of gambooling, things did settle down for a bit with only a couple of bust outs over the next couple hours.  Finally at 10:20 we had our final table and it was over an hour later that the bubble finally burst with Allen Q. winning his money back.

Final table was full of fun hands like this.

And this. Three way nastiness.

Yours truly exited next with a fourth place finish and double his monies back.

Third place went to newish PSP playa Daniel L. who pocketed $100 for third place.

When we finally got heads up, it had been quite a battle of roller coaster hands going up and down.

Thanks to Allen for dealing and my better half for shuffling.

Both Jeff W. and David M. had been both whittled down and piled high with chips several times over.  When they agreed to chop the money at $250 apiece it was the good Doctor Dave who had the chip lead...

After the chop, David's stack was the bigger of the two.

But when battle commenced for the trophy it was Jeff W. who saw the cards turn his way and in turn the chips and the trophy.  Well done Jeffy!  It is worth noting that David has played only 4 tournaments this year, he has finished first once and second twice.  The fourth time he bubbled in a field of 28 players.  Quite a feat.

Happy happy joy joy beatches.

All in all a fun night of poker mayhem for one and all.  Sorry for those who got busted out so early, honestly, it's never happened before!  Hopefully things will go better at our next tournament on Saturday October 19th at 7pm.  No costumes are required this time, no chip bonus for dressing up either - but we would all love it if you did any way.  Hope you can make it!