2020.07 - Crazy Pineapple

 It was 93 in the shade yesterday afternoon, and faced with the daunting amount of work involved setting up on the patio - I foolishly opted to keep us in the garage.  A breeze was blowing through and I thought we would be fine.

Well we were fine alright, fine as roast beef in an oven!   It was frikkin' toasty as the breeze died and 21 sweltering degenerates took a sauna in the plywood cooker known as the Garage Around Back for some wacky and CRAZY Pineapple action!

Keeping with the tropical theme (of both the game and the temperature) - the legendary Tiki King chips made a long overdue appearance -

Yes, it was HOT - and the action was even HOTTER!!!!

The first to bust was reigning POY points leader Mikey P. - he left without re-entering before the break. After the break we'd had a handful of re-entries, and there was no relief from the heat or the hot and heavy action as the bust-outs continued in earnest.

I should mention that on the last level before the break, I stopped the clock with 8.46 remaining to make an announcement.  I pointed out to the players that it was 8:46am when the first tower was struck.  It was a nice moment to have, to express my appreciation for everyone being there and take a pause to be mindful and reflect on the day and what it meant.    It was very gratifying that everyone applauded and that many came up to me during the night to express their gratitude for me having taken the time to  acknowledge the sacrifices and heroism of that day.   I feel so so so blessed that my game has people across the full political spectrum who are still united as Americans in the shadow of 9/11.

Anyways, I must've been pretty emotional, because I mistakenly broke table 3 with 18 players remaining (I meant to break it with 16) but players were understanding and it all worked out as we continued with two 9 handed tables.

Newer player Laura was our final table bubble.  I was going to break table 2 when we reached 9 players, but she was part of a double knock out (at two different tables) so we hit Final Table Time (not Spew Time) with 8 of us at around 830pm or so.

Art's better half Priya was kind enough to take the FT pics, and yours truly got to be in the picture for once!

Dan G. was our unfortunate bubble in sixth place. Art snuck into the money thereafter for an $80 payout.

Finishing in 4th for $100 plus a couple bounties was my man Jason who tried to flip the table but gave up because my enormous stack of plaques were too heavy.

And then there were three...

The afore mention Plaque Mountain

I'd had the chip lead for about an hour or so, but as 3 handed player approached I relinquished it to both Kyle and Allen R, as they both were on my left and as we all know - both sticky and dangerous.

Fortunately for me, the cards started to go my way at 4 handed play, and as 3 handed play progressed I eventually wrested the lead back.

Kyle finally relinquished for a nice 3rd place payout of $140 plus bounty action.  Kyle has won more than one single table SNG, but he hasn't taken down a monthly yet.  I know it is inevitable that he will because he's always a nightmare to have on the left!

I looked at my super big ass stack of plaques and then proposed to Allen that we chop the money evenly if I could get the seat.  Allen pondered and then finally (and graciously) agreed as I had a 4 to 1 chip lead and the hour was nigh.

Allen got $270 plus $20 in bounties.  I got $270 plus $45 in bounties - a record for me but not the house record which is $50 by Bobby B. only a couple of years ago.

And so, the blind squirrel found a nut this year!

With this finish, I am shocked to say that I have vaulted just above Mike P. to eke out a POY points lead.   I thought maybe something was wrong with the spread sheet - so I checked and double checked again.  I'm sure that it is indeed right.   There are a couple of factors involved with this dramatic shift.

First, this was officially a NON NLHE event, meaning points were worth double. With 21 players that means it was a tournament with the equivalent of 42 players, easily the largest tournament of the year. Second, Mike had a re-entry in his last first place finish.  As we know, re-entry puts a serious dent in points awarded.  Finally, Mike just happened to finish last in this tournament - but this score will be dropped if Mike attends more than 10 tournaments total, so he likely will gain ground just by that alone.

But believe it or not, we still have a ways to go to finish this season.  We are just now past the half way point and there are 5 tournaments remaining.   Three will be non NLHE events, but our next one will not be.

As of right now September doesn't look good for another Monthly, so we will be waiting until the hopefully much cooler month of October to gather around once more - Saturday Oct 9 is the date - stay tuned for the Evite.

Until then, peace and we out!