Mix Game Madness!

Recently PokerGo has had a bunch of Mix Game tournaments on both their own pay site as well as on YouTube - I've had a blast watching them, and it's made me want to add more mix game tournaments to the PSP calendar.

However, I'm well aware that even today the majority of our players prefer the good old fashioned No-Limit Texas Hold-Em tournament format well above all the other choices.  That's fine and dandy. These monthly Saturday events aren't going anywhere anytime soon - in fact, there will now be more of them than ever.

Rather than be content with the current format of a monthly NLHE tourney or two followed by a less popular mix event - I've been thinking - How can we make it so BOTH player groups win here?

In other words, what if there's a way to have more NLHE Tournaments AND Mix Game Tournaments?

I think I might have stumbled on a way to make it feasible - read on for all the info!

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Introducing a new once a month Friday Night Mix Fix Tournament series!

Here's how it will work -

• Mix Game Tournament held once a month on a Friday night at 730pm. 
• Buy-In is $60 with a single $40 re-entry. 
• 20K starting stack with 2K on time bonus.
• Two tables MAX
• Lots more info HERE

With all this mix game tourney action now available - that means good news for NLHE Tournament enthusiasts as well.  

All monthly Saturday Tournaments from now on, with one exception, will be No-Limit Hold-Em only.

The exception is our annual Dealer's Choice Legacy event, that one isn't going anywhere! (Though it is moving from June to December).

Additionally - I've decided to amend the schedule a bit, honestly I've been having such a great time that I've determined that we WILL be hosting monthly Saturday NLHE tournaments during the summer after all, June, July and August!  IF the forecast for the day is for a high of 86° or higher, we will be playing out on the patio.  

If the forecast is for a high of 93° or more, then we will also move the tournament start time to 7pm - like we did for years back in the day.   Likewise for these Friday night Mix Fix events, if the high is 86° or more during the day then we will be playing outside at the usual time of 730pm.

Here's the fun part - the schedule of Friday Night Mix Tournaments!   (all subject to change of course)

• Big O (April 18)
• Razz (May 16)
• Kansas City Lowball Draw Mix (NL 2-7 Single Draw, Limit Triple Draw & Baduci) (June)
• PLO (July)
• Stud Mix (Stud, Razz, Stud8) (Sep)
• Omaha Mix (Big O, PLO, PLO8) 
• California Lowball Draw Mix (Badugi, Triple Draw & Badacey) (Oct)
• SOHE (Nov)
• Dealer's Choice Legacy Event (Saturday - Dec)

And of course don't forget our usual Dealer's Choice Legacy Tournament, which will still be on a Saturday. I'm going to move it from May to December - so it will serve as our Mix game finale as well as the last Saturday event of the year.  Again, all other Saturday tournaments this year will be No-Limit Hold-Em.

I expect most of these Mix tournaments to be single table events, which is fine - I would love if any one of our capable players would volunteer to deal full time for these events.  If you deal full time it's a discount of $20 off of your first entry.  You are expected to stay until your table breaks.  If you are at the final table, the host can take over after 11pm.

Payouts will always be 3 people, 50/30/20 - unless we get two completely full tables.  Then fourth place will get their money back, $40 from 1st and $20 from 2nd.

2025.09

For only the second time in the history of The Garage Around Back, the biggest chip set ever purchased - 1300 in total - was hauled out and set up for a full evening of Fixed Limit rotation cash game play.

The numbers were just right, for 13 old school poker enthusiasts to gather 'round the blue and green felts for classic variations of stud, board and draw games that were played in the perfect order (in this humble hosts opinion) for maximum action and fun!  Occasional Full Kill pots made sure that the stakes were indeed meaningful.

Yours truly was rather pumped up, and I saw my stack start to grow almost immediately.

The whole fam damily.

Table one featured moi', Allen R, Jeff, M.C., Wiz, Lea Anne and Art.  Table two was crazy boisterous early on and showcased Peter, Priya, Colin, Stuver and Ian - with the estimable Mr. Jason also playing and dealing full time as well.

My stack after only an hour or so.

Observant players might have noticed that the massive blue and green tables were up against the wall, and a brand spanking new (but smaller) table was in use, as well as one of the Barrington's that's been in the garage for a few months now.  Yes, we are downsizing the size of the tables - just to allow for more space in the garage.  Since all games (including tournaments) are officially 8 handed now (as much as we can) - it seems to be the right choice.

Interesting to note, it took us nearly 4 hours to complete a single rotation.  A bit past the half way point, in Seven Stud 8, Mr. Jeff backed into the mother of all hands for a scoop!

Dang Daniel!

Meanwhile, over on Table 2, the boisterous behavior continued!

Around 10:30 some players started to call it a night.  As always, a few left with dust, some about even, and others with a bit of profit.  Happy to say that your host was doing just fine, and with nowhere to go but to my own house which was about 100 feet away, I stuck around to gamble into the night!

And gamble we did!  At one point I was up well over $400 in profit.  Alas that did not last, as we launched into the second full rotation (altered slightly because at one point the table was 9 handed and limited some of the games) I took some hits here and there.

Still, I believe I was the big wiener on the night - just under $300 in profit.  Other successful players were Mr. Colin (who had to beg off well after midnight) and Mr. Jason who stayed until the very end which was - WELL AFTER 2AM.

Yes, we broke a record last night and early this morning!  The longest evening cash game in PSP history, just shy of 9 full hours!

Peak Stack!

A huge thanks to all the true poker players who revel in Mix Games!  I can't tell you how happy I am that so many of you dig variety, it really is the spice of our poker lives!

No poker next week, but the following Saturday, April 5 - will be a traditional No-Limit Texas Hold-Em Tournament event.  I've already got 20 players two weeks out, this is going to be a big one!  Looking forward to seeing you all there!

Until then, peace and we out!























 

2025.08

Once again the time was right for another array of amazing poker games, a giant MIX if you will, of all kinds of super fun variants. 10 dandified degenerates gathered around big ol' blue to partake in the mix madness on a calm but rather chilly Friday night.

Too many choices?  Nah.

Something I've wanted for a long time - the game logo on the felt!

Wiz, Colin, Lea Anne, Priya, M.C., Allen R, Jeff G, Stuver and yours truly made up the motley crew, and we gambled onward into the night!

At first we were a bit limited in the game selection.  A full ring table of 10 means no draw games and no SOHE either.  But after a few hours, the night wore on and people either got felted and called it a night, or simply cashed out.  As usual, a few (actually more than a few this time) left with dust, and others were up or down a bit. Eventually we did get to the vaunted SOHE!

As you can see, my stack was relatively healthy.  It stayed this way most of the night, but I believe around 11 or so I forgot that Omaha is a nutted game and was content to stack off with second best both ways into the nut-nut of Mr. Jeff.  Oops.  Reload!

I was not alone in my fateful collision with Jeffy - others also donated lol and by the time it was time to call it a night (about 1am I think) - one side of the table needed load bearing support to hold the weight.

Yes, that's well over $300 in profit there, nicely done Jeffrey!  Other winners on the night I believe included Mr. Colin and Ms. Lea Anne.  The rest of us... well... the night was a lot of fun!  I was stuck a c-note, which is a small price to pay (these days about the same as an LA bar tab if you're by yourself) for such a lovely evening and great company.

Our next cash event with be a Fix Limit Frenzy - not this Friday, but the following week, March 21 at the usual time.  Keep your eyes peeled for the Evite.  As always, I try to keep people who aren't interested off the list, but if you are, please by all means let me know.

A big thanks to everyone who came out and made it a great time as always.  I really am the luckiest poker host there is!  Until next time...

Peace and we out!

2025.07

Another month, another chance for tournament greatness!  This time in the poker variety known as Omaha Eight-or-Better.  19 degenerate gamblers gathered round in The Garage Out Back to try their hand at a different game than the usual 2 card slugfest, this time it was a four card Pot Limit format, where a bit less than half the time the pot is split in half, with the high hand and the low hand dividing up the spoils.

We had one new player - a Mr. David L. brought along by Mr. Ken, and we also had a new line up of clay composite soldiers to dazzle and delight.  43mm of buttery goodness known as the Tiger Palace line up.  Enjoy some nice chip pron here for a moment...

And so action got underway.  We had two dedicated dealers, Mr. Jason and Mr. Colin, who made slinging cards and calculating pots more than effortless.  Your service is greatly appreciated gentlemen!

We had a few lovely faces that we haven't seen in awhile, Mr. Dan and Mr. Jerry both came back into the fold.  Alas, neither made the money, but Jerry did indeed make the final table.

But before that happened there was a ton of poker to play over two tables.  Action was hot and heavy right out of the gate - with multiple re-entries generating a very nice prize pool for five lucky players later in the evening.

Probably too many shots of chips, but oh well...

Final table time came just before 10pm.  Jason got a reprieve from his dealing duties as Art stayed to pitch the cards for awhile, at least until his better half Priya busted, but let me back up.

Yours truly was going great gangbusters (see the chip shots above) but then I ran into it against the only other big stack.  Mr. Allen R. saw a flop with his QQxx up against my AA52 sooted and of course spiked a boat immediately, at that point half of our chips were already in so there was no escape and that was that.

Final Table Gang

With blinds high and the evening late, final table play was brief and bloody.  Me, Lea Anne, Jerry and Brian B. busted within half an hour, leaving six remaining.

Ken's guest Dave had long busted out, but Ken himself stuck around quite a bit longer to be the bubble.

After that Mrs. Priya busted in fifth and took home $100 for her trouble.  With that, we lost our dealer Mr. Art and your humble host was happy to take over the duties.

As you can see from the above pic, Mr. Rich was next to fall.  Bowing out in fourth place for $140.

And then there were three, with payouts of $180, $300 and $420 remaining.  If you are a math genius like Jason, you can see that if all that money were divided three ways it would amount to $300 apiece. When Jason floated this idea the hour was late and the blinds had just gone up - so it was quickly accepted by Allen and Lea Anne.

Though they all got the same amount cash there was only one TOC seat and card protector trophy available, and so because Jason had maybe a 3 to 1 chip led over his opponents - he got the goodies!

Long overdue and well deserved my friend, nicely done!

Our next several events are cash games over the next month on most Friday nights.  Our next tournament will be good old fashioned No-Limit Texas Hold-Em, looking most likely to be on Saturday, April 5 at 530pm.  

A huge thanks to everyone who came out and played a different and greatly underrated game from the usual.  This host greatly appreciates your friendliness and enthusiasm to play a different brand of poker than the every day.   Very much looking forward to seeing everyone on the felt again soon!

Until then, peace and we out!