2023.02

 After over a month long hiatus, it was time once again finally to gather around and throw down in a good old-fashioned no limit Texas hold ‘em tournament in the garage around back!  

First thing was first, we had a Hall of Fame induction, the first in a long while and the very first double induction! Priya and Art, longtime legendary players both tournament winners, and now frequent cash game attendees, we’re given their custom Legacy bounty chips, and duplicates of those will be on display in the Hall of Fame case going forward. Congrats you two! Very well deserved and overdue.

21 jubilant degenerates squeezed in and ponied up 60 bucks each to battle on the felt. We had four re-entries and no busts before the break. We also had new friends in the form of chips, a set that I had forgotten I had purchased almost 3 years ago. Tell me that you have too many chipsets without telling me you have too many chipsets.

I got off to a great start, and never looked back. I was never all in for my tournament life the entire tournament.

First to depart after being all in and almost dead, running his trips into a boat and then escaping with a chop earlier in the evening, was the one and only Dan L.  Jerry and Collin were next, followed by Lea Anne, Priya, Dan and Randall. At that point we broke the third table, and we were already down to 15 players before we knew it.

My stack throughout the night always looked like this, enormous!

The last picture shows a three way all in, Kyle had the kings, Ian had the tens and Art had the bullets. After a safe flop, a 10 spiked the turn naturally. Poker is a fickle mistress. Ian had both of his opponents  covered, Art had slightly less chips so he was the next to bust and then Kyle. Barbara was out shortly thereafter. Over at the other table Laura made her exit and we were at our final table of nine.

 

Jeff S was kind enough to take the picture this time around so yours truly got to be in it. I then took a selfie so you could at least see the back of Jeff’s head.

Allen R was out next, followed by Andrew and then Kenny. And it was bubble time! Stephen B was the unlucky player to burst it. He made his graceful exit with both middle fingers extended and we were in le’ money.

First to collect some cash, double his buy-in at $120, was Mr. Jeff S, exiting in fifth place.

Next out, after riding his roller coaster stack up and down from big and threatening to finally short and then nonexistent, was the wrecking ball Mr. Joe, pocketing $160 in fourth place.

Three-way action continued for a while, and it was truly anybody’s tournament with stacks evening

 up and then Ian finally pulling away. Jason and I got our chips into the middle and I had him pipped with a slightly bigger ace that held. Jason got $220 and seemed pleased enough to cash in third place.

With that elimination, my stack was now very close to Mr. Ian’s. I offered an even money split ($340 each) and mentioned that I would of course love the seat. I didn’t necessarily expect him to accept the offer, but he very graciously did, commenting that he already had his seat locked up. This of course was true, but I do still appreciate so so very much. Ian is sacrificing potentially an extra 5K and chips in the TOC. Lots of tournaments left though, the player of the year and TOC seats are all very much up for grabs. 

It has always been my own personal policy, that if I already have a seat and I end up heads up with someone, if our chips are anywhere near close to each other, I will always offer the seat. So now that I have my seat, if you and I are heads up in the future, you can have the seat provided I don’t have a prohibitive chip lead!

Our next tournament is scheduled for Saturday, April 8 at 5:30 pm. And yes, as per tradition, the third tournament of the year as always, will be Omaha/8!  The Evite will go out shortly. The event will be fixed limit, so there will be unlimited re-entries up to and during the second break. Also, as always, there will be an optional $20 last longer bet to juice the prize pool in the face of what will likely be fewer runners. Also, don’t forget, non-hold ‘em events are always worth double player of the year points. 

Hope to see you there!  Until then, peace and we out!

Do you know the TV show that these chips are inspired by?