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!
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| A stuffing for the stocking to scratch the degenerate itch. |
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.
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| Yes, this really is a "Super" table. |
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| Set over set grossness. |
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| Jason flings his chips, ever so artfully so as to mesmerize his fellow poker playas into folding. |
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.
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| A cooler for a cool night. |
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| Bizness as usual beatches. |
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!
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| 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.
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).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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!
