17 sweaty degenerates crammed into the garage on a balmy summer evening in Burbank to throw down with yet another No Limit Texas Hold-em tournament.
The stakes were small but the fun was big - as both tables right out of the gate bloated pots and pushed the edge of aggression damn near to it's limit. We had 2 re-entries and 1 stack surrender before the beak after the dust had settled.
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| My stack before I punted it off. |
The evening marked the return of antes to the monthly Pepper Street MTT, but we didn't do it in a conventional way - we copied the Super High Roller Bowl and made the big blind antes for the whole table in the middle.
This actually allowed me to flatten the structure a bit, and also more importantly it promoted action as the pots post-break were a lot more worth fighting for. Just like in a real tournament, imagine that. Best of all, players only had to remember to ante once a round, and at the same time they had to remember to post their big blind. So for the most part it worked like a charm and will be a permanent fixture in MTTs from here on out.
One tweak - instead of calculating the ante to correspond with the number of players at the table, next time we will simply match the full ante amount with the current big blind. Last night more often than not the chips in the center of the table lined right up with the big blind, sometimes a chip or two over, sometimes a chip or two less - the Super High Roller just makes it the big blind, and that's what we will do from now on.
Our first bust after the break was the unlikely (I say unlikely because I thought it was going to be me) Randall. BUT, he spun the 'Wheel-O-Fun and hit the single JACKPOT slot, winning $40 - his entire buy-in back, minus 5 bucks. Well done Randall! This marks 2 MTTs in a row that the wheel has landed on the Jackpot, hmmmm.... not sure what to do about that. Changes might be coming...
Also this happened...
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| One player asked to be removed from the photo - hence the mad photoshop skillz. |
So, the final table formed at quarter after ten (a bit earlier than usual) and there was still lots of poker to play...
It was 7 handed and we were paying 5 with 5th getting their money back, and then this happened...
An 8 spiked the turn and the hand belonged to Mr. Eric T. who collected a GANG of chips from Colin and Emanuel - the former was busted, the latter still had some life left in his stack.
The money bubble had burst around 1130, with Colin spinning the wheel o' fun and collecting a deck of cards for his trouble. And then there were 5.
Emanuel had gone from chip leader to short stack when his Aces were cracked by Eric T.'s 88 - it was not the first time AA had fallen during the course of the evening. And so it was that Emanuel was first to exit, collecting his buy in back plus a single bounty to get him unstuck for the night.
Eric L. exited next, doubling his buy in and his bounty money. And then there were three.
Garner had had a large stack through most of the night, but he was unable to overcome the mountain range that was Eric and Jerry's chippies. Exit Garner with $120 plus a bounty or two.
Heads up was fairly brief, coming to an end at quarter after midnight. Both players were reasonably deep, but the cards dictated that Eric would be this month's champion. Jerry collected $180 plus two bounties, Eric Collected $260 + $20 in bounties. Both players threw the house a bounty, which is very much appreciated. Well done the both of youse!
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| Been a minute since the last one Eric! Long overdue and well deserved. |
Until then, peace and we out!
