2025.03

Another Friday night was upon us, and so once again that meant it was time for Poker in the Garage Around Back!  Your humble host found himself with plenty of time to set up two tables for 10 degenerate gamblers who would arrive shortly to play ALL the games!

But in the meantime, it was time to play the waiting game...

And then it was 730 and Jeff, MC, Colin, Lea Anne, Allen R, Priya, Rich, Ian, Stuver and yours truly were ready for the small stakes and big fun that is Pepper Street Poker at the end of a long week.

As you can see, action was 5 handed right off the bat - with the chips flying fast and furious almost immediately.   Yours truly found himself nearly tripling up in a massive pot of SOHE (Simultaneous Omaha and Hold-Em) in the very first orbit.

Jeff had to leave a bit early for non-poker reasons, nothing too serious I hope, and so we took a vote and everyone preferred to form up 9 handed for the rest of the night.

We still played almost all the games, including a fair amount of stud - but mostly Omaha variants which saw monster pots back and forth for several hours.

As always, a few were up and a few were down and a few left a bit early with dust.   Our beloved MC was one of the latter - and laughingly shared his t-shirt for the camera before his departure.  I had no idea there was a Tijuana Colorado, remind me never to go there.

As everyone who plays poker knows, sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.  We've all been there MC!

Play continued 8 and then 7 handed - with truly ALL the games coming into play.  Especially fun was no less than several rounds of 2-7 Triple Draw, a bit of Badugi and even the vaunted Drawmaha!

This host was up quite a bit, then down a bit, and finally about $40 into profitville at 12:30 am when we finally surrendered to fatigue.   Winners on the night were Stuver, Colin, Priya and Ian - I honestly can't remember who the biggest wiener was, but all four of these playas walked out with more than they brought in.

So yet another fantastic night of poker was in the books!  Our next gathering will be a classic No-Limit Texas Hold-Em tournament, scheduled for 530pm next Saturday on February 1st.  Stay tuned for the Evite.  

After that we will throw down in the cash streets again - but this time for the first ever entirely Fix Limit evening of a pre-set rotation of Mix Games.  This may throw some of you for a loop, but I hope you'll give it a chance!  

Other players who shy away from Big Bet cash games, where you can lose your whole stack in a single hand - understand, in Fix Limit cash you are protected from this.  Losses are capped by the betting Limits - in our game the Small Bet is $2 and the Big Bet is $4, with four bets max per street.  So your whole $100 starting stack won't vanish easily in a single hand of Omaha/8, multiple players have to go ham for this to even begin to be a possibility.

Buy-In and Betting Limits -

• $100 Buy-In, reloads/add-ons uncapped (it's Limit so it doesn't matter too much)
• Antes $1
• Bring-In $1
• Blinds $1/$2
• Betting Limits $2/$4
• Kill Pot Limits $4/$8 (click here for more info on Kill Pots)

Games are a set Rotation - not dealer's choice!  8 hands each of - 

• Hold-Em
• Razz
• Omaha/8
• Badugi
• Stud
• 2-7 Triple Draw
• Stud/8
• Badacey OR Baduecy (Cut the deck to determine)
• Drawmaha

The game will absolutely be capped at 8 players!  Very excited for this new format and hope you'll give it a try!

Until then, peace and we out!

2025.02

 

It’s been a very rough week for Southern California. Fires have ravaged LA County and devastated people’s property and lives. Thankfully, none of the eight gamblers who gathered in The Garage Around Back to partake in teh pokerz have been directly affected, though of course most of us do know people who have.

Before I set up the game, I took a walk with my wife and took these pics of a blood red sunset seen through the smoke of fires in the distance.

Beautiful but tragic.

Then it was out to the garage to set up.

And after, we had a perfect table of eight dear friends, and we managed to take a break from the stress and enjoy the Cadillac of poker with some good old fashioned No Limit Texas Hold- Em cash game action!

Allen R., Lea Anne, Ian, Priya, Colin, Jeff, Art and yours truly had a pretty great time splashing around and being silly and gamble prone.

Your humble host found himself felted early on with a bit of a cooler. I did manage to climb back though and rebuild my stack.

It was Allen R.’s birthday and he was able to take advantage of a bit of birthday run-good, including getting paid with quad eights!

I believe he finished up a bit when all was said and done.

Between Bomb Pots, a raucous Nit Game at 930 and PLO thrown into the mix after 1030, it was a wonder that more people didn’t get felted more often. But I believe there were only two players who left with dust. Everyone else either broke about even or finished with a decent profit.

By midnight everyone was pretty beat, and so we all cashed out and headed home, grateful for the good times and the gamble as well as having homes to return to at all. Like I said, it’s been a rough week!

Our next poker get together will again be Cash, a Big Mix dealers choice format on Friday night in two weeks. Our next tournament will likely be Saturday, February 1st at the usual 5:30 pm. Once again it will be No Limit Hold-Em.

Stay tuned for the Evites! Hope you can make it! 

Until then, peace and we out!

2025.01

 

It’s been almost a year, but with the return of my wife’s immune system, we were finally able to see the return of tournament poker to The Garage Around Back!

First things first, we also had a pre-tourney cash game! I forgot to take pictures as I was dealing the whole time, but rest assured - it was a great deal of fun, with lots of different games (including Badugi, Drawmaha and NL 2-7 Single Draw among others.) Peter, Priya, Ian, Jeff, M.C., Lea Anne, Sean L and yours truly made up the merry crew, with Priya, Jeff and Lea Anne among the winners and your humble host a small loser after a rollicking three hours of play.

Also, about an hour and a half in we also welcomed a special guest - the one and only Eric L who now lives in the Bay Area. He happened to be in town and was able to join us for both cash and the tournament. I believe he finished up as well.

Too much time on my hands over the break means - new chips!

We had 19 people coming on the Evite for weeks, but in the past few days the numbers jumped to 24 players!  What an amazing sight to see the little garage packed with good friends who have been away for almost a year.

Definitely a lot of great folks that have been away even longer than a year! Haven’t seen Tommy, Brent, Sean or Carlos in a minute! Also great to see Carla, Sheyna and Randall who haven’t been away quite as long, but still have busy lives and have been away long enough to make it really great to see them.

We were also pleased to welcome Jeff G’s oldest son, Joshua! Josh has been online with us for awhile, but this was his very first live poker event! By all accounts he did great - very nice having you my man, hope you had fun and hope you’ll be back!

Action started off slow at our table, but quickly heated up. We were the table of doom in my opinion, eight potentially dangerous players who were not afraid to put their chips to work. You don’t need much more proof that seat selection is completely random, the chances of me putting together a table like this on purpose are nonexistent ha ha!

I knew I was in for a good night early on when I rivered this hand -

Yes indeed - straight flush ridiculousness.

We had more than a handful of reentries before the first break, building up the prize pool nicely. The bust outs came in a flurry after the first break, but it was still well after the second break that the third table broke and we were down to 16 players.

That last picture is the stack owned by yours truly, I got lucky more than a few times to accumulate a nice big amount of chips. By the time I got to the final table, it was bigger, but not as big as three or four other stacks, I want to say I had about 25 big blinds or so at the outset.

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the full final table, I am definitely rusty with this tournament thing. I will remember next time, but for now it will have to be enough to say that we were paying five and Ms. Sheyna was the unfortunate bubbler.

We were in the money just after 1030, and five handed play continued for a while before Jeff was the first to exit. He took home $140 for his efforts, giving him a nice profit on the day including his cash game winnings.

And then there were four! And I remembered at that point to take a couple pictures.

It was definitely a roller coaster for me, that last picture I believe was taken after I dragged a decent pot and it was three handed.

Ms. Carla bowed out in fourth place, after a valiant battle. She pocketed $200 for her trouble.

Three handed play continued with yours truly, Mr. Colin and Mr. Dan L.

It was definitely a touch and go for a while, and truly anybody’s tournament as I doubled up Colin at one point.

Just before 1130, Colin finally succumbed in third place, taking home $300.

At that point the hour was late, and Mr. Dan L had a very large chip lead. It wasn’t insurmountable, but it’s typically my policy to offer a deal when I have already secured my TOC seat, and if you recall I won the last tournament that we had in March.

My deal was generous, but fair as Dan had at least a 3 to 1 chip lead.

He would get the seat and the trophy, I would get a slightly increased second place prize of $420 (blaze it). Dan walked away with $540 and a giant grin!

Dan the Man takes it down!

Tournaments really are a whole heck of a lot of fun, despite all the extra work. I am super grateful and appreciative to Colin and Dan for stacking up all the chairs afterwards, it makes a big difference!

So that’s it for now! Our next cash game will likely be next Friday, and will be no limit hold ‘em only, with some PLO thrown in the later hours. 

I know there are a ton of players who only do tournaments, I try to keep you off the cash game list so you are not bothered, but be sure to email or text me if you are not getting invited and you want to be.

Our next tournament most likely will be February 1, I will send that Evite in a week or two.

Once again, a huge thanks to everyone who came out and made it such a fun time. The killer app to this poker game is definitely the players, you all are the ones who make it great. Until next time…

Peace and we out!