PSP 2019.11B H.O.R.S.E.

A typical SoCal afternoon, 84 degrees in the shade, gave way to an equally lovely evening and the big door was wide open in the Garage Around Back for most of the H.O.R.S.E. tournament!   AND we had 18 players, that's crazy!  Three tables of six for a lot of rollicking fixed limit betting nonsense.

Shouts of joy and anguish came from every direction - fixed limit is a different beast of poker that's for sure.  It was well after the first break when we had our first bust out.  Jason left with both middle fingers held high in the air, vowing never to play "this bullshit" ever again.   Ok Jason, see you in March for Omaha/8.

As is the norm in fixed limit tournaments, everyone was deep stacked, until everyone wasn't.  Bust outs started with a trickle and then rapidly snowballed.  In a blink we were at two tables and the final table formed around 930.

G-Bone shows off his Hall of Fame card protector.  Congrats dude, long overdue!

The blinds rose without mercy and the bubble burst agonizingly on the new guy - Alan S. brought in by Rich.  We hate when the new guy bubbles!  Hopefully Alan will come back and play regular No Limit Hold-Em with us soon, tough way to break in Alan!

And then we were in the money, paying only four spots with a bit smaller prize pool than is normal.  (That happens when you have zero re-entries and "only" 18 players)

In the money!

What happens when I bust early, I get bored but creative with my pics!

Bobby B. had a gargantuan stack, but the cards had different plans, and he saw most of his plunder headed over to Dan L.  Bobby had to settle for a 4th place cash of $60 plus some bounties.

Jerry C. put a hammer lock on his POY lead among players without TOC seats, with his third place finish and $120 payout.

Speaking of POY - in the overall race, Mike P.'s high finish (7th) saw him leap over last month's point leader Colin, whose early exit (17th) saw him fall back a bit.  One more tournament this year boys!  Still anyone's bracelet.

And then we were heads up...

The real hero in this shot is Barbara, who dealt the entire tournament!

The fight was intense but brief - G-Bone doubled up right away, but Dan L. still had an overwhelming chip lead.  He'd had a big stack for the entire tournament in fact, and in the end it was just to much for newly inducted Legacy player Garner.

 Garner got $180 plus bounties and Dan L. raked in $260 and another $25 in bounty action.  Well done the both of youse!

A huge thanks to Barbara for dealing the whole shebang. Also appreciate Garner and Jerry doing their part in the dealing at the other tables.

And another thanks to all of you who came to throw down in H.O.R.S.E. - I recognize that for many of you this is a fairly big step out of your comfort zone, and I super appreciate you jumping in with both feet for the sake of poker and fun.

Our next monthly tournament is the last one of the year, boo!  It's of course regular No Limit Hold-Em and will be at 5pm on Saturday December 7th.     Stay tuned for the Evite and I hope to see you there!

Until then, peace and we out!

Garner K. - Longtime Player and Compatriot.  Inspiration for TOC and many other PSP improvements.

2019.11A Dia de los Muertos

17 eager gamblers gathered in the Garage Around Back on a lovely SoCal November afternoon - to throw down and fiesta with the amazing Dia de los Muertos poker chip set that has languished in my cabinet for almost a year!

Babs pointed out that I don't need to keep them locked away and only bring them out on the actual DdlM holiday itself - they can actually be used on other days of the year.  Okay, you're right, I will use them again soon!

We started promptly at 5 - and once again, everyone was full of hope and optimism; everyone truly believed they had a good chance of winning the whole thing.   Yeah, that feeling went away pretty quickly ha ha ha.

Ian apparently had a plane to catch as he was our only re-entry and the very first to bust shortly after break.

The Jeff and Tina also had to depart early, such a shame after driving so far to get here and also they dumped this off...

All aboard the diabetes express!

Jeff got super coolered with his set of 10s running into a set of aces.  Tina, don't know I wasn't there, but I assume the swings were big and the gamble was good.

This time around I went back to our original structure, with a 3/5/8 progression instead of the more standard 3/4/6/8 - this helped get us to a final table well before 9pm and the whole thing was done around 1030.

There's that hope and optimism again.

Newly inducted Legacy player Andrew (who would've been inducted earlier but he's been a bit of a stranger this year) was our unfortunate bubbler.  I myself busted just before he did, running my active playing style straight into pocket kings - three times in a row!  Yikes!

First to bust and cash was Dan G. getting his money back.

Four handed play lasted quite a while, almost 45 minutes -

Colin finally relented and bowed out in 4th place, collecting $80 and some bounties - he has been on a gargantuan tear this year, and this high finish puts him on top of the POY race with only two tournaments left to go in 2019!

And then there were three.

All told it was quite a battle - with stacks getting short and blinds getting big, no one wanted to give in; but eventually math did it's job and Dan L. succumbed in third place for $120 plus an impressive $25 in bounty action.

On the very next hand, the flop came out and the money went in, with Dog spiking top pair and holding on to take it down!  Legacy player FTW!

Hopefully this means Dog will come more often!  

A big thanks to everyone who came out and made this one super fun!

The next tournament is also in November, Saturday the 16th, and it's H.O.R.S.E.!   So let go of your silly hang-ups and come play mix games with us - it's a blast!

Until then, peace and we out!