2015.03

A surprisingly hot March evening saw a whopping 23 poker enthusiasts crowded into the garage around back for another monthly installment of the No-Limit Texas Hold-Em thang.

As always, with more than 20 players, I had to bring out the kiddie table.

Nothing but mature players here. 

Big Greenie. 

Big Blue.

The tables were replete with new players - four in all, brought in from over yonder in Garner's game.  Dan W., Dan S. Sheyna and Randall.  All four were an absolute delight and I hope they'll come back soon.

It was not too long after the first break that we had our first handful of casualties (yours truly included) and the red table broke.

20 good little children left.

Tony - raging pissed off as usual.

Quads - yet again.

Action was hot and heavy, with the suck-outs and the suckers and all of that - but it wasn't until well after 11 that we finally had our final table, and just around midnight when the money bubble burst.

Dan was ecstatic to make another final table.
A split second after this photo was taken, two cars mowed down the players.

Also, this one time,  Allen played a hand.

But the absolute most amazing thing of all was not that Allen played a hand, though that was pretty remarkable, no - the most incredible development at around 10:30 was this...

Yes, this is... a CASH GAME!!!!!

Thanks to the new and newer players, who are apparently much more true poker players than our crusty old regulars, we had more than enough warm bodies for some smoking hot $20 cash game action.  It's been many a moon since one of these broke out, and there were indeed some wild hands.  And because I was playing (and losing) in the cash game, you get to enjoy some of the highlights.  Or some would say lowlights. 

All in pre-flop.

The 9 is actually the river.

J2 will now forever be known as the Jason, after all the money was in and his lower two pair in big trouble, he binked a deuce on the river to drag a big pot from Teresa who had smoke coming out of her ears at that point.

Meanwhile, three hours later (or at least it felt like that) the final table decided they were going to fold their way to victory. 

Well, that didn't work out - as the blind structure had other ideas.  A three way knockout exploded suddenly just before midnight and we were in the money, with Brian busting in fifth shortly thereafter to win his buy in back.

Next out was poker juggernaut Stephen B. who plowed his lower pocket pair into aces and scooped up fourth place monies of $100 plus bounty action.

New guy Dan W., who at one point had a mountain of chips, was next to bust and had to settle for third place cash - $140 plus another $20 in bounties. 

And then there were two.  It was just after 1am.

Shockingly, both players still had enough chips to maneuver and play poker, and so it went - almost another half hour before the dust settled and we had our champ.

Julie A. ends her drought - not cashing more than once or twice in all of 2014 after winning three tournaments in 2013 - by taking down the third tournament of 2015.  Well done Jules!  She will take her rightful seat at the TOC table in December.  In the meantime she will be counting her winnings, $300 for first place plus another $45 in bounty action.  

Allen Q. had to settle for the not too shabby second place amount of $220 plus another $15 in bounties.  He is on quite a heater in 2015, having finished second in the TOC and cashing last month as well.  Rock on Mister Q.

Another great night is in the books - I want to say a huge thanks to all who came out and made it super fun as usual.  I'm especially grateful to those who stuck around and fed my gambling addiction by indulging in the cash game madness.  Even though I ended up down another $40, it was an absolute blast and well worth the good times!

Our next monthly isn't until May - April is a jam packed month for me and I have to squeeze in our annual World Series of Poker satellite.  However, I may have a Friday night tournament or cash game at some point, stay tuned for those invites.  Remember, senior players get asked first for single table events.

Until next time, my homies, peace and we out!

2015 Schedule Set

For ease and convenience - I've taken a good hard look at the upcoming year and I've pretty much determined that I could schedule it out.  This postcard will be available at the March tournament. (It also has my phone number and e-mail, I've covered them for this blog.)

Obviously, as it says, all dates and times are subject to change - but my life is busy enough now that all of my work obligations and scheduled vacations are known to me well in advance so barring any emergencies, this should stick.

What is not included on this schedule is the occasional cash game and single table tournament - those, as always, will be scheduled for Friday nights when I have time and interest to host.  Also as always, since space is limited, senior players get the invite first.

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The first date I would like to point out is April 11, when we will be hosting our first and likely only World Series of Poker satellite at 1pm.  I don't have a regular tournament that month, as my work schedule is simply too full to host.  There likely will be a single table tournament on Friday night at some point.

The buy in will be $160 and we will play for a $1500 seat to a bracelet event of the winner's choice.

If by some miracle we get more than 13 players we will play for both a $1500 seat and a $565 seat to the Colossus.

If we get 7-9 players we will just play for two Colossus seats.  If we get 6 or fewer players I will cancel the satellite.

I understand that this buy-in is pretty high, but what makes this such a great value is that whoever wins the seat must share his or her monies with all the satellite participants in a 60/40 split.  So even when you bust out of the satty, you are still very much in the running for some serious cash.

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The next date of note is July 18.  At 5pm, after burgers and dogs, we will partake in the first ever Pepper Street Poker Main Event.   There is a bigger buy-in, $60 instead of $40 and a $40 optional one time only rebuy/add-on as well.   We will start with 20K, the rebuy/add-on gets you an additional 30K.

The prize pool is likely to easily exceed $1000.  We will also be playing for a one of a kind bracelet instead of the usual trophy.


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Finally, you can see that I have already scheduled the date and time for the 2015 Tournament of Champions.  I do this to give Champions the best chance possible to make the date.  Regardless of how many Champions we get between now and then, this will almost certainly be the date and time for the event.