2025.15

 

Well the 30+ player spectacular I had envisioned didn't come to pass - instead it was a mere 14 poker-crazed degenerates who found themselves into The Garage Around Back for our first ever World Series of Poker Warm-Up event!

An astute player asked me "How is this about the WSOP?" My answer - "It isn't I guess, but it's a bit deeper structure and a slightly higher price point to get our feet wet for Vegas this summer."   Also, it works out that even folks who aren't headed for grown-up summer camp can still play in an $80 NLHE Poker Tournament and have a grand old time.  

If we had made it a traditional satellite, I'm sure we would've seen even fewer players, so I was happy to make it a satellite in spirit - with the top four spots paying out cold hard cash - including $500 on top!

I did however, make an honest effort to theme the tournament to the WSOP - including the cards and table toppers!

I also used a card capper that was an original Binion's tournament T100 chip!  

As for the tournament chips themselves, I went with my old Havana Club / Mayfair Sun-Fly ceramic hybrids (39mm w 48mm 5Ks) as they were based on the original Rio Secondary tournament set that you saw on ESPN for years and years.

The real deal back in the day...

     

Also - we were offering a 1K bonus chip for everyone who came wearing or holding WSOP merchandise.  Here was my humble offering (although my card capper would also count)...

Action got underway promptly at 1pm - and it was a heck of a lot of fun!  Half hour levels meant a lot more play.  25K stacks meant we were a bit deeper than usual.  We had only 3 busts before the break, but a $60 price point for re-entry meant that everyone stuck around.

You may notice some different faces in the above snap - Joe F. has played with us sporadically for many years, with his better half Carla typically showing up instead.  Joe has a work schedule that unfortunately conflicts with our typical Saturday night offering - but the 1pm start was doable!  So glad you could make it sir!

Also, for those of you that know her, poker enthusiast extraordinaire Mrs. Deborah finally joined us in the garage - and her delay in getting here is entirely my fault as I've been meaning to invite her (and a half dozen other Moose poker players as well) for several years at this point!

Short handed tables at first meant that even though we were all deeper than normal, we still played a lot more hands.  Yours truly built up a nice stack early, and then unfortunately I punted it off later to Reverend Jeff - crippling myself by saying his exact hand out loud and then calling anyways - ala' Daniel Negreaneau lol.

Our second break came at just over 3 hours into the tournament, and shortly after that the 10th player busted and we were down to the final table.

Colin was in the bathroom.

Because stacks were still healthy it would be almost three full hours more before the tournament reached it's conclusion.  It was a lot of fun to watch - though I confess it would've been funner if I'd listened to my psychic powers and not paid off the Jeffy lol.

Not sure the order of busting - but I do know that Mr. Emanuel (who has moved to South LA and thus is no longer close and no longer able to play with us regularly) did exit shy of the money I'm sad to say.  It was great seeing you E!  I hope you can make it work again to make the journey - you are a much appreciated PSP vet!

I do sadly remember who our bubbler was - the one and only kind soul Mr. Jonathan H.!  He took his bubble boy fate with grace and even hung out a bit after.  You are a good egg good sir!

And then there were four...

...happy to be still playing, and happier no doubt to be in the money!

First to exit in fourth place for $160 (twice the initial buy-in back) was the honorable Wiz, who was happy to cash and just as happy to go home and rest for his big day tomorrow in the WSOP Main Event Satellite at le' Moose.  (Wishing Lea Anne, Hubee and Colin the very best of luck in that one too!)

Exiting in third place for a delightful $280 was the one and only Mr. Allen R. who had chip lead most of the final table before the inevitable flips and swings took their toll.

And then there were two...

As the dealer, I'm glad to report that two very capable players did their thing and in the end it was simply the cards (and the chip lead at the start of heads-up play as well) that saw Jeff end up taking it down.

Our newest PSP'er (though I've been playing poker with her for years at this point) - Deborah was happy enough (I hope) with $360 in second place.

And once again Reverend Gilmore ended up on top - scooping up $500 for first as a nice booster for his WSOP bankroll this summer.  Jeff will be playing in the 10K Main Event for the second year in a row, as well as side events no doubt, so I'm happy our WSOP Warm-Up winnings will be put to good use in Vegas. 

Our next NLHE Tournament will be back at the usual time of 5:30 with the normal $60 entry.  Look for the Evite soon, the date is looking like Saturday, June 7.

The Evite I'm sending out immediately after finishing this post will be for our next Cash Game - next Friday night, May 23 at 7:30 PM and will be a Fix Limit Fiesta!  All the games in the Fix Limit format that you know and love - at our exciting $2/$4 betting levels, including Full Kill Pots as well!  It's technically our biggest game - so I hope you'll join us if you haven't yet, it's a hell of a lot of fun.  Very much looking forward to it.

Until then, peace and we out!