PSP 2024-2025 Tournament of Champions - Invited Players REVEALED

REMEMBER

If you are invited to the Tournament of Champions and you didn't win a tournament - you get 35K in starting chips.

If you won a tournament to secure your seat - you get 40K in starting chips.

If you won more than one tournament - you get 5K extra starting chips for every extra tournament won.

Our Tournament of Champions (TOC) is coming up on Saturday, Jan 10 - cards in the air at 1pm.  

There is no entry fee, prize pool is $1000.

First, second and third places paying $500, $300 and $200 respectively. 

Here's who won a seat by winning a tournament - these players start with a minimum of 40K - (the players who won more than a single event will get an extra 5K per extra tournament won)

Jason - 40K

Priya - 40K

Dan - 45K

Ian - 40K

Colin - 40K

Chris - 50K

Jeff - 45K

Mark - 40K

Lea Anne - 45K

Allen R - 40K

                                        
                                         

So with 8 remaining seats available - here are the players who are now officially invited - these players received invites based on 3 factors, participation over the past season with an emphasis on newer players, legacy (longevity in the game) and 2nd place finishes without a win.

These players will all start with 35K

The invited players are - 

• Mr M.C. Played nearly every cash game + multiple tournaments + an ever growing legacy and loyalty to PSP
• Mr. Stuver Played nearly every cash game + Legacy HOF member
• Mr Art Played most cash games + multiple tournaments + Legacy HOF member
• Mr Alan S. Played most cash games + multiple tournaments
• Mr Rich Played most cash games + multiple tournaments (CANNOT ATTEND)
• Mr Wiz Was invited into game later in the year, but made almost every cash game and tourney
• Mr Peter newer player, came to many cash games and several tournaments.
• Mr Dan G Multiple cashes in monthly tourney + OG Legacy HOF member
• Ms Debbie Was invited into game late in the year, but has made every tourney since, also cashed multiple times and finished 2nd twice I believe.

Remember - just 2 years ago Mr. Stuver was an invitee who started with the minimum chip stack and still managed to take down the TOC. Just because you may only have 35K doesn't mean you can't win the whole thing!

This Tournament of Champions will not be the final tournament ever held in the garage, that will be in two weeks after this event, Saturday Jan 24 - when we will gather one last time in the 20'x20' confines of our beloved poker room.   Not because I am no longer hosting or because I'm done with poker in any way shape or form - but because we are selling our house in February and expect to move to a new home (for us) hopefully in Burbank but a bit farther away from the ever increasingly busy airport.

In that new house we will hopefully have a new poker room - that is the plan at this point anyways.  

Rest assured, in our search for new digs we are prioritizing a poker space, this time temperature controlled, a side entrance and it's own bathroom.  If we can't find such a place, we will settle for a big back yard and then soon build a turnkey poker annex from scratch.  

I would be delighted with an already suitable space, I would probably collapse from happiness if I got to build my own.  If the former scenario unfolds - it will probably be a couple of months before it's ready.  If the second scenario plays out, it will likely be a year or so.  It will suck to wait - but poker will be back!  At a different location, but nearby and with the same name - Pepper Street Poker!  

We aren't going anywhere! (Well, we are, but just a half mile away or so!)

2025.33

 After a week of rain, the skies finally parted and it was just a stunning day in Burbank.  White fluffy clouds drifting through a bright blue - just picture perfect.  Because it's winter time, the sun was fast setting when 5:30 arrived - and 17 poker playas gathered 'round the felt once more for a good old fashioned No-Limit Texas Hold-Em Battle Royale in the tournament streets.

This would be the very last tournament in 2025, and we were blessed with a very special guest.  Having gotten busy in life awhile back, it has been literally years since we've seen PSP Legacy Hall of Famer  Mr. Eric T in the garage.  It was so great to see him back in action.

Eric T. was the very first player PSP sent to the WSOP.  I believe it was 2011 - and he cashed in a $1500 event where his starting stack was 4500.  What a legend!   He is also the one who coined the very first catch phrase in the garage - it's Spew Time!  An expression once so common (though it's fallen out of favor today) that it produced a mighty neon sign that still occasionally glows bright.  Last night was for sure an occasion where once again the sign was illuminated!

I'm proud to say that 18 years of trial and error have led to what I believe is the most perfect two table tournament structure, that gives everyone tons of play early on.  It was well after the break, almost two full hours, before we had our first bust out.

Play continued hot and heavy, with more busts coming slowly at first and then as always ramping up later in the evening.  Yours truly spun up a stack early and then something crazy happened, since we were passing the deck and I wasn't a dedicated dealer - I got moved!  That almost never happens!

Where am I?

I want to say it was right around 10pm when the Final Table formed - Ms. Priya was our unfortunate FT bubbler, but she graciously snapped some shots when we redrew, so that you get to enjoy my ugly mug!

This November's Final Table I have to say, was one of the nuttiest and swingiest I can remember.  I'm not kidding when I say the chip lead was shared by a half a dozen players.  Unfortunately yours truly busted the estimable Mr. Eric (drilling a nasty gutshot on the river), but that put me near the top for awhile.  We also lost Art and Ian, and so it was the money bubble time - and Mr. Dan L. who had one point had ALL the chips (seriously over 100K while there were still two tables) succumbed and parted with a hearty handshake for his troubles.

And then there were five.  Jeff G. at one point had most of the chips, and then he had none.  Post bubble play actually lasted longer than the pre-bubble play, but Jeff eventually lost enough races to bow out in 5th place for a $100 payday.

And then it was your humble hosts time to give it up.  I had been the chip leader a couple of times at this point, but my AK was rundown by the Bud Saw's AJ, with yet another Broadway gutshot coming home on the river - yes, the King that I didn't want to see gave him los nutós.  I calmly collected $120 for my trouble, roiling with white hot rage underneath.  JK.  Sort of.

And then there were three.

Wiz also had been the chip leader for a good while.  And then he wasn't.  Battling with Allen R. repeatedly, making sick moves and sick calls - riding the variance rollercoaster until he had to succumb in third place for $160.

And then there were two!

As you can see, Lea Anne - who had been on fumes for hours at this point, finally got her rush and had spun up a somewhat commanding chip lead when it was time for heads-up play.   It lasted a dozen hands or so, and in the end she had too much ammo for Mr. Allen (who had also been a chip leader at length awhile ago) and he had to settle for second place and $260.

Lea Anne took down her second tournament of the season (which locks up a 45K starting stack in the TOC) and $400 for first place!  Noice!  

As we conclude the final tournament of 2025 and Thanksgiving approaches, I must say I am filled with gratitude.  Gratitude for my wife's cancer remission, gratitude for our little game which carries on with amazing people in it - and gratitude for an amazing life I've been able to live.  You can kind of see it in my face in this random and goofy selfie I took after the money bubble burst.  I am fully and truly thankful for this space and the friends who fill it.

We will still be doing cash games, for 2 more Fridays in December, starting with a Fix Limit Fiesta on the fifth and a Big Mix (dealer's choice all the games) on the 19th.  After that I'm on vacation with the fam well into 2026.

So that means it's no poker until Jan 10, when we will have the Tournament of Champions at 1pm.  All guaranteed seats have been won, 10 of them I believe, which leaves 8 seats open for invitation.  Keep your eyes peeled for a post here in a week or so to find out who gets the invite.   I can tell you right now, if you've played a lot of cash and tournaments, you most likely will get the call.

The TOC is a completely free entry with a $1000 prize pool.  $500 for first, $300 for second and $200 for third.  Plus a lovely trophy for the winner and their name forever displayed on our perpetual plaque on the wall.

Remember - invited players get 35K in starting chips.  Tournament winners get 40K.  Multiple tourney winners get 5K per extra tourney won.

After the 10th, there will be no cash the following week as I'm in Vegas for Moose International.  The following Saturday, Jan 24 at 1pm there will be a very special tournament.  This will likely be the very last tournament ever held in The Garage Around Back at Pepper Street, as we are putting our house on the market in February.

We will still do cash games of course, but the big effort of tournaments will be put on hold until we find our new place and get it ready for pokering.   Eventually when the house sells and we move (to a new home in Burbank we are hoping) - Pepper Street Poker will come back to life, keeping the name in a new location.  

I anticipate our new digs will have the facilities for a poker room, but if it doesn't then we plan to make every effort to build one.  In either case, it may be a month or it could be much longer - but there will be a delay, a pause in playing poker at my house if you will.  I hope it's short, but you never know.

I will miss the original garage, and all the amazing memories it brought - but I'm looking forward to a change of scenery and hopefully an improved facility.  We are looking for a temperature controlled room with it's own entrance and bathroom - we've already seen a few places that fit the bill that we can afford, so we know it's out there!  Here's hoping!

Until we meet again at the poker table my friends, either in the garage or elsewhere, peace - and we out!

2025.32

 

It was a dark and stormy Friday night in beautiful Burbank - and that meant it was time for another spectacular pokerpalooza at Pepper Street!

For a long time we had 7, then we had 10, then we had 11 players - and then one player had a leak in his roof, another had to bail for work and we were left with 9 friendly folks still willing to brave the weather to gamble!

Your humble host was dealing all night - so I barely had time to grab photos - but I must say, the ones I did grab are pretty great!

Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you, that is indeed the one and only Willie - who has left the cozy confines of Berkeley (our hometown) to come live in the craziness of L.A.!  Even though W is not too close (about 45 minutes away) he still happily took his life in his own hands to brave the storm and join us!  Here's hoping he comes back again and again and again!

He did indeed, I believe, finish well up into a 3 figure profit.  Lea Anne also cashed out well up, as did the estimable Mr. Alan S.

The rest, as per usual were up a bit or down a bit, and some of us were downright stuck!  Yes, that would be me, down a bill and a half after over six hours of rollicking fun playing all the games.

The first half of the evening was mostly Omaha variants, as we were 9 handed.  After a few had succumbed to exhaustion (and empty wallets) so we moved on to the "B" games (Badugi, Badacey, etc) and an epic round of Dramaha that saw me with too many outs and too few chips at the end, ha ha.

I have to say though, even when I have a losing night in the garage - I still truly feel like a winner.  We really have the very best times playing cash, especially the Big Mix!  I'm so grateful for what our little game has turned into - from almost exclusively monthly tournaments to now weekly cash games that always have thrills, chills and lotsa laughs!

Our next poker night is indeed one of those still existing tournaments - next Saturday at 5:30.  Everyone is invited, so if you didn't get the Evite please let me know!  This will indeed be the final tournament of 2025, there's only one guaranteed seat left to the Tournament of Champions on Jan 10 at 1pm.  

Our next cash game will be the beloved Fix Limit Fiesta format - we will be skipping Thanksgiving weekend, but it's game back on the following Friday, December 5 at 730.  Be sure to let me know if you're not on the cash game invite list and you want to be.

After that game there's probably two more poker nights in 2025, on the 12th and 19th.  After that we are very likely done until next year!,

Hope you can come play some poker with us in 2025, it would be lovely to see some of you that have been away for a minute.   Remember, the door is always open for you at Pepper Street.  

Until we meet again on the felt, peace and we out!

2025.31

 

It was the perfect November night in Burbank for the biggest and baddest cash game night we have at good ol' PSP - the Big Bet! That means the Cadillac of Poker, the one and only No-Limit Texas Hold-Em for the first three hours, followed by a 2/1 NLHE/PLO mix after that.

We also threw in a new version of the Nit Game that sort of worked, and there were also Bomb Pot's o'plenty, both the single board NLHE kind and the double board PLO variety!

The evening would prove to live up to it's namesake - there were indeed Big Bets, all the time!  Three-bets especially were plentiful, it seems our little game is all grown up, with everyone now knowing how to play the game.  People were not shy at all about applying pressure and in general putting chips to work!

Our Nit Game went at 9:30, and this time around we tried it a bit different - instead of the traditional Nit rules, we switched to the Hustler stream's "Stupid Game" which is also known as the "Squid Game" elsewhere.

The rules are as such - there are 10 Nit buttons set aside.  When you win a hand you win a button.  When all the buttons are gone, anyone without a button pays each button a penalty.

In our case, we made the penalty $1, which means that if you didn't get a button, you were only stuck $10 (as opposed to our old Nit Game where you could be out of up to $18!). The better news for anyone with multiple Nit buttons, is that you could potentially make a lot more money as there could be multiple people paying!

For example, if I had collected 6 buttons, and three people didn't get a button, that's $18!  

Unfortunately, or maybe it's fortunately, in this first time Squid Game all players except one won a button.  Boo!  I won two buttons and so did Wiz, so we each got $2, everyone else except the loser of the game, just got $1.

The good news is that the loser was only stuck $10, which for some players is merely an opening raise lol.

I'm hoping we can play this version again, it seems that there should be more action as people realize there's a great incentive to win multiple buttons.  Ah well.

Lea Anne left at her usual 10:30, well up in profit.  Others stayed and played until they were felted.  M.C. had been up for the No-Limit Hold-Em portion of the evening, unfortunately he left with dust after PLO kicked in at 10:30.

A couple of others also took their leave with nothing but lint in their pockets I'm afraid.  Big Bet night is not for the faint of heart!

The remaining players were close to even, up or down a little.  Your humble host finished up almost $100 in profit.

And then there were two bigger wieners - the affable Mr. Brent proved that his skill at Mix games also translated to Hold-Em and PLO, finishing up in 3 figure territory.  The estimable Mr. Wiz was an even bigger winner though, cashing out for over $400.  Nicely done sir!

Our next poker night is next Friday, Big Mix - meaning dealer's choice of ALL the games.  I will be sending out the Evite right after this post.  As always, let me know if you're not on the invite list and you want to be.  We play almost every week nowadays, and I know not everyone wants evites all the time ha ha.

After Big Mix the next event will be our last tournament of 2025 - Sat Nov 22 at 530pm.  Everyone should be on that Evite, if for some reason you didn't get it, be sure to let me know.  Very much looking forward to our final tournament bow of the year!

Until then, peace and we out!