A drizzly afternoon was the setting for a spectacular poker-palooza all day and night marathon of Mix Game Madness! From 1 PM to 4:30 PM we played the cash, choosing from 22 different games!
Over at table 2 it was Barbara, Colin, Emanuel, Jeff G, Joe and Stuver. Both tables had a rocking good time, table one was a more traditional PLO and even NLHE mix, table 2 was overheard playing the wackiest of the wacky, including Badacey!
As always with cash, the players mileage varied. A couple of folks saw the felt, others finished down a little bit or up a little bit. A handful of us had nice profits, including yours truly who pocketed almost $200 in the green! Very nice to book a solid win!
4:30 PM finally arrived, and it was time for players to take a meal break and for your host to set up the tournament. We had to say goodbye to Michele who had to meet up with her sister, Barbara who had a plane to catch, and Stuver who avoids tournaments like the plague. Everyone else was sticking around though! We had a big old Omaha eight or better tournament ahead of us! It has to be a record - 21 runners!
For the first time in a long time, I want to say close to a decade, our annual Omaha/8 tournament was played in the pot limit format as opposed to the fixed limit style. It made for a ton more action, right from the get-go. I didn’t bother with a last longer bet because I knew we would have re-entries, and believe it or not we had six of them, including two re-entries from two players!
The first to depart, alas, was the always affable Mr. MC who at least had a decent run in the cash game. Next out was this guy, he finished the cash game with a nice profit as well…
Let me just say that it is a great loss to our little game to say goodbye to a guy who is both a ferocious player and a very kind and genuine person. But we will still see him online, and God willing at the World Series of poker every summer. Congratulations Joe on your new adventure!
Out next was Mr. Jeff G, followed by his good buddy Eric P. While Jeff had played in the cash, Mr. Eric had not and so they both sought out further cardplaying adventures, apparently down the street at the Guild Hall!
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| Looks like Uno or pinochle or some shit |
Next out was the recently engaged Mr. Arthur! His better half Priya was in Palm Springs, so we only got to enjoy 1/2 of the power couple. Still, I know non-Hold-Em events are not really Art’s thing and I appreciate him making the appearance very much!
And then we were at two tables! Probably much faster than we would’ve been had we been still playing a fixed limit. I believe it was less than three hours that we found ourselves with 16 players.
As you can see above, yours truly was spinning up a big giant ass stack. Unbeknownst to me however, an even bigger stack accumulated at the other table with Mr. Allen R as the spinner.
Play seemed to slow down just a little bit, but then it ramped up abruptly. In just over an hour we lost Kyle, Emanuel and Lea Anne.
And then, after another tiny lull, we lost four players almost simultaneously! A double knockout at each table.
I busted out two of my oldest and bestest poker buds Tony and Ian, who were both short, in a ridiculous three way all in that saw me suck out from well behind to scoop all the chips.
At the same time over at the big blue table, Dan and Chris R ran into Allen R’s wall of chips to find themselves hitting the rail.
Because of this bloodbath, we redrew for a final table with just seven players remaining! Officially Tony was the final table bubble and then Ian and then Chris did make the FT technically in that order.
We were paying five, and so there were two players to get through before we could enjoy the cash. Colin was the first to exit and then Mr. Jeff S, who incidentally is also moving out of state soon (more on that later) was the official bubble boy.
And then there were five! Play continued for another solid half hour before we had our first moneymaker. The first to bow out was the once seemingly unstoppable Allen, who had to settle for $120 and fifth place.
Four handed action lasted, and I’m not exaggerating, a good 45 minutes longer before the next exit. Nobody wanted to die, we were all playing cockroach. And truly, all four of us rode the roller coaster of big and small chip stacks. It truly was anyone’s tournament.
At long last, our long-suffering dealer Mr. Jason had to take the L, or rather settle for fourth place and a $180 payout.
Allow me to take this moment to say a giant thank you to Jason for his excellent dealing of the entire tournament. Yes, he did indeed stay for the rest of the night to deal it out. He also stuck around afterwards and helped your host clean up entirely. Greatly appreciate it my man!
And of course I would be remiss if I didn’t also think our two other dealers, Mr. Ian on table 3 and Mr. Colin on table 2. Having dedicated dealers in these mixed events makes all the difference, and you guys are total rock stars!
And then we were three handed…
As I mentioned, the swings in the pot limit format were wild. At one point Stephen B. looked to be the sure fire favorite, but after a big bad beat and another crazy hand, it turned out that he finished third after all. His reward was $220. Well done my friend!
Brian B. Was the one who busted Stephen, and started heads up play with your host as a prohibitive chip leader. Unfortunately for him, the blind structure had finally reached its nadir and there was no room to take a hit without it being rather catastrophic. And that’s just what happened, and at this point it truly was just variance, and I was lucky enough to come out on top when the dust settled.
Brian had to settle for second place, but a nice pay out of $320. Your humbled host locked up the win and $460, all told in addition to my juicy profit in the cash game, it truly was a great day financially
But far more important than the cash, which let’s face it for poker players is simply how we keep score, is the great blessing and reward for being surrounded by so many good friends in my very own greatest home game on the planet. You are all simply the best in my book, and I am quite literally tearing up as I write this. I just can’t believe how lucky I have been in hosting you all for all these years.
******
And here in the blog is normally where I would write about what our next event is going to be and to stay tuned and peace and we out and all of that blah blah blah.
But I have to shift gears here and write some things that I never thought I would.
PLEASE, I’m sharing this with you all but I would ask that you not share this on social media.
Life has thrown my family a curveball this last month, my wife has been diagnosed with cancer. It is a nasty and aggressive type, but we are hopeful because it is just stage one. A cure is very much a real possibility, and we are in great hands medically.
That said, this is a great disruption when it comes to me playing and hosting poker. Once Beverly is in chemotherapy she can’t be around a bunch of other people, and really neither can I because I can’t catch a cold and give it to her.
She is insisting we might be able to figure out a way to make poker still happen, I myself am ready to put it on pause for as long as it takes. Not sure what is going to happen but I can say a couple of things.
This is indeed the end, for now.
Poker is indefinitely suspended while I attend to the love of my life, and those of you who know me know that she is indeed truly the greatest.
I pray that we will both get through this, and in my heart I truly believe we will. But until we do, poker must take a back seat.
Those of you who learned of the news last night and many of you before that, I cannot tell you how much your kind words, hugs, warm food and endless offers to help out have meant. I truly do love you all, and I’m beyond grateful for your kindness and compassion.
To those of you who are just learning now, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to share this information with everyone all at once, I just did not want to stand up there and make a big announcement. Please feel free to email or text anytime if you feel the need, if not that’s perfectly fine too. There are no wrong answers here, simply your thoughts and prayers are truly meaningful to me and my wife and daughter.
So right now, as far as PSP goes, things are truly up in the air. I doubt very much that poker will come back anytime soon, but if it does it will be different all the same. I thank you so much for your patience in this matter, I will definitely update if anything changes.
Until we meet again, let me just say what a great honor and privilege it has been to host and to play with you all.
God bless.
Chris
