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!