2015 TOC Preview

Herewith is the traditional annual TOC preview post, peppered in profanity, back-handed compliments and some outright insults.

The action starts Saturday, December 5th at 1pm!  Non-participants are of course invited as well to stop on by and rail our champions, hard.  If you happen to show up a bit early there will be grilled meat products to consume including burgers and big juicy wieners.

Also, there will in fact, 100% be a cash game, starting at 7pm for sure.  We already have 7 confirmed players who are not in the TOC, and there will very likely be some bust outs who also take part.  Buy-in is the usual $50 with 25c/50c blinds - it is No Limit Hold-em only.  There will be a break at 10pm and an anonymous vote to add PLO8 to the mix - if we get at least 8 players to go along with it, so it will be.

So who is playing the TOC this time?  Let's meet our champs!

Mike K. is a stone cold pimp who knocks back more Coors Light than anyone except Tommy of course.  He also enjoys long moonlit walks on the beach, golden retrievers and hates dirty fingernails and rude people.

This is his third tournament trophy in his nearly decade long stint at PSP, one was a H.O.R.S.E. trophy so it doesn't really count - but Mike is pretty much a cashing machine, he has like, Barbara statistics.  Crazy right?

Chris M. is a right bastard who typically luck boxes his way into the money and somehow managed to bink a tournament early this year.  When asked how he managed such a feat, after taking down only 3 tournaments prior in over a decade of PSP play, he responded  "Hell if I know.  God the music here sucks.  When are they going to play some Skynard?"

Chris M. says most of his poker strategy is centered around trying to get Tony G. off a hand - strangely enough, even when Tony G. isn't playing.  He can often be seen at the table mumbling quietly under his breath to himself his most famous catch phrase "I can't believe I'm losing to these assholes..."

Jason H. saw that Chris had won the previous months tournament so immediately concluded that he would have to win the next one so he could suck out on Chris once again with a 3 outer to eliminate him and take down the TOC.

To insure that this would happen, he wore his eye bleeding-ly orange lucky jacket, which he has also refused to wash since he won the previous TOC wearing it.  Good news is, we will know when he arrives even before turning our heads to see who it is.

Julie A. won 3 tournaments in 2013, then got tired of embarrassing people and didn't win any in 2014.  Well it looks like she's back to her soul crushing ways.

Like Mike, Julie also loves golden retrievers and happens to have 3 of them.  Unlike Mike, she has no qualms about defending her small blind with J3.

Onetime Player of the Year winner Marc F., the second such winner to make the TOC this year after Jason, plays poker about as well as he shuffles, yet still finds away to crush in the aquarium that is the PSP garage.

This picture is for sure the greatest ever, eyes closed, donkey sign right over the head.  Yes, it was my revenge for losing to Marc, yet again.

What in the heavenly FUCK is this jerk-wad doing here again?  Oh yeah, looks like a broken clock is right twice a year I guess.  Now he will be absolutely insufferable, especially with an extra 5K in chips at this years TOC.  Who came up with that provision anyways?

Representing the new guard at PSP in 2015, Lalaine, star of stage and screen, will be bringing her enthusiasm and mad skillz and almost always hidden face to the table in the TOC this year.

Since the poker bandit is new around these parts, we'll spare her the usual blatant insults and instead wish her all the best in her mad rush to stack off with top pair.

JHMFC.  Who keeps donating to this donkey?  And a bracelet too? And another 5K added to his TOC stack?  Good job PSP players, you let dip-shit think he's God's gift to poker.  Just be sure you don't  let him win this one, it will be the ever-loving end.

This year, the guy who only showed up once and won a trophy category, will be filled by Jeff W.   Like Greg H. last year, Jeff carries on a proud tradition in the long line of poker players who think "Oh yeah, this poker shit is easy.  It's like free money.  Just show up, sit down and CASH IN."

As soon as Jeff S. found out that another Jeff had won a trophy this year, he made it his life's mission to take the next tournament down and did so with aplomb.  Also his quiet table demeanor, massive amounts of bluffing and keeping his cards secret at all costs.

Noticing that there were no Dans yet with a trophy in 2015, Daniel L. put a stop to it and quick.  Using his formidable acting chops to cut through the competition like a hot knife through butter, Dan rocked the short stack and the big stack hard like only he can.

He was proud of his win, especially since he took it down with the dope ass Q9 of diamonds, aka, the DAH.  (Dope Ass Hand).

Just in under the wire, Sheyna locked up the last regular tournament of the year, dealing her nephew Randall a devastating blow in the heads up battle to two-out her way to victory.

Like Lalaine, she is a newer player here so we will spare her the usual needling and instead wish her the very best of luck in her perpetual quest to get her chips in as a massive underdog.



So there you have it.  All of our champions and their secrets laid bare.  While it may seem that this blog post is little more than a passive aggressive rant, hammered out hastily just to belittle and disparage - at least I did include myself, so therefore all is forgiven.

Also you may have noticed I just cut and pasted that paragraph from last years preview post.  If you did, you need to get out more often.  It's a perfectly fine paragraph so fuck right off.  I'm about to cut and paste the next one as well.

Good luck to all of us, every one!  And don't be cheap bastards and take off right after you bust.  Hang out, help shuffle or deal, do something productive for once.  When 7pm rolls around there will also be a cash game going so you can get unstuck.  Oh wait, this is a free-roll!  You have no excuse!

December 5th can't get here soon enough!  See you then!

2015.11

Another lovely afternoon turned into a divine evening in beautiful Burbank at the garage around back.  I found myself setting up not for the 18 players that had signed up over the last 30 days, but for a whopping 24 players, 6 of which had responded over the last 24 hours.

First time in awhile I was able to do this.

7pm came and went and not everybody showed up on time, so they missed out on the bonus chips.  But interestingly, we had 5 new players who didn't know about the bonus chips, and every single one of them managed to find parking and walk in through the gate before 7!

Jessie and his better half Kat, Ken, Brad and Josh V. all joined us for the first time.  All were friendly and fun additions to the fray and there was lots of hot and heavy gambooling early on.

Action was so hot and heavy, sweaty really, that we lost 2 players just before the first break.  The third table broke around 10:30 and two tables formed up for the next hour or so.  Sadly, I was not among the surviving players.

Set over set bad beat - 9 in the window, ace underneath on the flop.

The final table formed up at 11:30, there were some crazy ass bad beats there as well.

Final table gang.

Yep, your full house is no good sir - the river gave your opponent quads with an ace kicker.  Please play better.

Not from Pepper Street, but me getting 3 outed after all the chips went in on the flop.

And finally, just after midnight, the bubble burst and we had our money gang.

Regular Allen R. was first to fall and collect his buy in back, plus a single bounty for an exact recoup of his expenses.

Finishing in fifth place for double his buy in was Brian C. who at one point had a freaking mountain of chippies and looked to be the for sure winner.  Oh well, poker.

Next to bust was friendly new fella Brad, who tripled his buy in and also still had a bounty or two in fourth place.

And then there were three.  Kramer at this point had a prohibitive chip lead, but a fairly big cooler saw him exit in third place for $180 in and another $20 in bounties.

And then it was heads up time!  A family affair between aunt and nephew!

The battle didn't last long, but it was intense - culminating in one of the craziest deciding hands I've ever seen at PSP or anywhere else.

Yes, the 8 was the river.  2 outers feel great.

Randall played the hand expertly, getting Sheyna to call off on the flop dead to two cards.  A harmless ace peeled off on the turn, and then the card from hell hit on the river.  Randall was crippled and all in for less on the very next hand, which held for Sheyna.   He got $240 plus bounties for second place, an amount that typically is close to first place cash.

Our champ Sheyna got $300 in first place monies plus several bounties on top, plus the last remaining seat for December's Tournament of Champions.  Well done Sheyna!

Cha-ching!

All in all a great evening to cap off poker in 2015.  We aren't entirely done however, we still have the TOC, at 1pm on Saturday December 5.  Even if you don't have a seat, feel free to drop by and rail our champs - we might even get a cash game going for the bust outs.

After that there won't be any monthly tournaments until January 2016 -  I may have a few mid-week single table tournaments and cash games; I invite senior players to these events first, so don't feel bad if you don't get an evite, these games fill up fast.

Once again I can't thank you all enough for keeping it cool and fun at Pepper Street.  Next year will mark the 10 year anniversary of this little home game, which is not so little any more and keeps getting bigger and better.

Stay tuned for the January 2016 evite - until then, peace and we out!