Jackpot Tournament Announced

Upcoming Jackpot Tournament

I am planning the Jackpot Tournament for Saturday, August 11 – Noon.

Mark your calendars.

Format

Freeze-out with 1 Add-on - Deep Stacks (30K start) and Long Blinds (40 minutes)

Add-on for 20K for $10 at the end of the third round or if you Bust (zero chips) before the end of round 3

Buy-in Cost = Points Rank + $4, or $25 for those ranked below 20th

So if you are ranked in:

Position 1, you pay 1 + $4 = $5 ($20 discount)
Position 5, you pay 5+ $4 = $9 ($16 discount)
Position 20, you pay 20 + $4 = $24 ($1 discount)

Position 21, you pay $25 (no discount)

I will add in the Jackpot as of that point. The current Jackpot and standings are here.

I am opening up a third table to host up to 30 people. You must have at least 5 points (one buy-in to one tourney since January) to play in this tourney.

Here is the remainder of the tournament schedule before August 11th.

We have three dates selected at this time:

Saturday - June 30th - Announced by evite
Saturday - July 14th
Saturday - July 28th

So, play some poker and move up on the list, or if you haven’t played, play and qualify for the big game with a large payout (estimated 800 - 1000 with 30 people). 5 - 7 places paid depending on entries.

I will be sending an evite soon, but I am open to early sign-ups by email or comments to this post.

Signed up:
1) Joe
2) Kitty
3) Mike Baaaaaaaa
4) Jeff

Lucky, Lucky, Lucky

We had a nice showing for the last tourney of 15 people. The players included:



We had a newbie - Alper. He played well for his first time and showed down several big hands. Welcome Alper.

Play was a little looser than normal with 11 rebuys in the first hour. Alper and I rebought twice each. Nearly everyone added on.

After the first hour, we had our first casualty. Clara - AK - got it all in with Stuart - 88 - no help for Clara and she was out in 15th.



Jeff had a tough go of it. He had ran his boat aground twice. He was very unlucky to run two full houses into QUADS! Finally, Joe sunk him with a flush. Jeff finished 14th.

Alper made a move with AK. Joe had JJ and his JJ held up and Alper's debut ended for him in 13th.

Stuart filled his 10's up with a 3373Q board, but Armando's KK's made a bigger boat. Armando knocked out Stuart in 12th.

Armando went on a wild run and cracked Kitty's JJ wirh AJ. The magical A on the flop did the trick. Kitty was out of lives in 11th place and we were at the final table.

The chip counts were as follows. I have decided to list the average stack now to show the relative chip positions with respect to the avgerage. I did a little math and Armando has 31.8% of the chips with 10 players left = IMPRESSIVE!



Joe and Scott mixed it up with an AJ vs KK matchup. Props to http://www.twodimes.net/ for giving us the stats for this one:

Preflop:
Scott = Ks Kd 70.82 % to win
Joe = As Jc 28.77 % to win

The flop is Ad 4h 8c

Scott = 8.79% to win
Joe = 91.21 % to win

The turn is a K and now Joe is drawing dead. Joe is out in 10th.

Armando commits a double homicide on Rico and Todd. In a huge pot - Armando has KJs, Rico has A9, and Todd K8. They get it all-in. The flop brings nothing but air, but the turn brings a J and Armando whacks the both of them Sopranos style. Todd had Rico out chipped, so Rico gets 9th and Todd 8th.

Armando has knocked out 4 of the 8 out so far and has TONS of chips.

Armando turns his blade on Mike Baaaaaa. They get it all in with Armando holding TT and Mike Ac2c. After the flop, Mike had a club draw, but Armando's TT hold up. Mike is out in 7th.

Armando has knocked out 5 of the 9 out so far and has TONS and TONS of chips.

"It's hard work. Gambling. Playing poker. Don't let anyone tell you different. Think about what it's like sitting at a poker table with people whose only goal is to cut your throat, take your money, and leave you out back talking to yourself about what went wrong inside. That probably sounds harsh. But that's the way it is at the poker table. If you don't believe me, then you're the lamb that's going off to the slaughter." --Stu Unger, three-time WSOP Champion

I am NOT saying Mike's a lamb, but on this night, Armando was a butcher.

Nick played well and it was nice to have him out. He mixed it up with our bad ass soldier, David (has run a marathon - with a 50# pack) in the Baatan Memorial March. David is a reservist and I would like to give my thanks to him and another poker regular (when he's not in Iraq), Joel. Armando put it well in this post and I echo his appreciation to both of them.

Nick had Q5 and David A9. David flopped the nut flush on the flop and Nick was out in 6th.

With 4 places paying and 5 players left, we negotiated a safe for 5th place.

At this point, I was pretty low in chips with an M of about 7. I needed to push when I had position and/or a decent hand. I found 9To on the button and decided to make a move with Stacey on the big blind. She turned over AJ and I thought I was gone. I got real lucky and flopped a straight. I was kicked to the couch and Stacey finished in 5th. Good thing we secured the 5th place Safe or it would have been the curb.

As many of you know the "Jimmy" is KQ suited. Well, this was a first. A Jimmy vs. Jimmy hand matchup one hand with KQ of hearts and the other with KQ of spades. I had the spades and David the hearts. I managed a flush on the turn and David was out in 4th. A HORRIBLE beat.

And then there were 3. Scott, Armando and I played for some time. We were moving chips around and I managed to double-up through Armando the monster with A4 vs. A9. I made a questionable call when Armando raised, but I didn't put him on an Ace.

After the suckout, I had 110K and was third in chips with a little breathing room. Scott had a slight chip lead over Armando at this point.

The very next hand was brutal. Scott with KK and Armando with AA got it all in. The very first card off the deck was a K and Armando wasn't happy - but gracious as always. I didn't realize he was on tilt until he wrote this. Sorry bro.

Scott and I got started heads up. I love to play heads up so I didn't offer a chop. besides it would have been absurd with a 4:1 chip lead Scott had when we started.

I managed to double up once and win a few pots. With the blinds at 10/20K it was significannt to win (or lose) any raised pot. Before long, I was lucky enough to gain the chip lead.

We got it all in. Scott slow played trip 5's and I caught a flush on the turn. I managed to take this one down. This was my first win in a long time. Admittedly, I was one lucky bastard! See the latest results here.



Oh, I wanted to mention that Henry won the tournament before this one (5/25/07), but I didn't do a write-up on it because of our trip to Phoenix and Vegas. I need to make this up to Henry somehow. Here it is!




Thanks to everyone that brought food and stuff. We are looking at hosting on June 30th. I will send an evite out in a couple of days.

Vegas Trip

Stacey and I went to Vegas from June 10th - June 12th. We went with her parents. We stayed at Paris. The rooms were pretty nice, but not as nice or spacious as the Rio. The Paris Poker Room is an after-thought, off to the side of the bar, and the dealers and floor are retards.

Paris is connected to Bally's and Bally's has a pretty active poker room. 8 tables of $1-2 NL with a $300 max buy-in. Paris had one table for cash.

The first day managed to be very profitable for me. I played the 1-2NL game at Bally's and made $550 profit. The game was soft - like butter. I had good table image and was the boss most of the day. My reads were good and I played tight-aggressive.

I played only a few negitive-equity games like Pai-gow craps, roulette, black-jack and Let it ride. I basically broke even on those games.

The second day - I went to the Venitian to see if I could satellite into their $330 no-limit tournament - I was late and the game had already started. I trekked back to Paris and found Stacey in their $65 freeze-out. There were 48 players signed up, and once again, I was too late.

I wished her luck, and headed over to Bally's and bought in for $300. I played tight-aggressive again and won a few pots. I was up about $100 when I found AA in middle position. I raised to $25. I was re-raised to $50 by a guy with $180 behind. I went all-in.

He said, " I know you have AA but I am going to call anyway."

He showed QQ - Q on the flop - and I'm done - down $230 in one hand. I cashed out and checked on Stacey.

Her tourney was down to about 3 tables and she was average in chips. I cruised over the the Pai-Gow tables with Stacey's Dad and lost $80 in about an hour. I cashed out to check on my girl.

Stacey had made the final table!!! They were paying 5 spots and the final table had 9 because two people busted in the last hand before the final table.

While the tables collapsed we talked strategy. Stacey didn't have many chips. But, neither did three other people. One guy had tons of chips, another guy had some (2nd in chips) and he was a Donkey (saw him call an all-in that would have crippled him if he lost - he had J8o). Our strategy was to fold all but AK, AA, KK, and QQ. If we had a good hand she would jam. 2 people got knocked out and Stacey was sitting in 7th. She found AK and jammed. One caller with AJ. She was a 70% to 30% favorite to win, but a J on the flop was all it took to knock our girl out in 7th. Bummer - but a nice showing.

I chilled for the rest of the day. I wanted to come home profitable and decided to play the same tourney Stacey played after dinner (7:30PM).

I bought into the tourney and got placed on a pretty solid table. We started with 2,000 chips. Two of the three ladies at the table played in the Ladies WSOP event. One of them cashed.

During the first orbit I got TT in late position. I was planning to raise 4 or 5x. But the pot was raised and re-raised so I folded them.

I did find QQ four times in the first 40 minutes:

• First time: I raised 3x and had 2 callers. I bet 1/2 pot and they folded.
• Second time: Same thing, same result with one caller.
• Third time: One lady (not the WSOP's) went all in for about 925 chips, I went all-in to protect my hand and isolate. We were heads-up and she had KK. No help for me.
• Fourh time: next hand after the all-in. Two limpers I push with a little stage show of tilt. No callers.

After that I was card dead. I was getting binded away and with an M of about 7, I jammed on the button with JTs. The small blind showed KK and I was out.

Stacey and her Dad also played this tourney, but were out soon after I was.

I went up to the room and chilled out before a long cash game session planned for that night.

I went again to Bally's and got into an incredible game. There were two very drunk Donkey's just shoveling chips to the table. With a $300 buy-in one guy was up to $1600+ in chips. I decided to avoid this guy unless I had a monster. I was again card dead for about an hour. Finally I was in the BB with 89o and no raise, so I checked. I flopped the nuts with 899!!!

I checked, both the donkeys were in the hand and one of them checked. Donkey #2 bets $67. A huge bet considering the pot is about $10. I call. Everyone else folds. The turn brings a 4. I check and donkey #2 bets $67 again. I push all-in. He calls and shows KK. I am a 20 to 1 favorite.

A K on the river gives him KKK99 which beats my 99988. Down another $300. I play a few table games and quit for the night down about $300 overall. Ouch.

All-in-all, I can't complain. I played good poker, but got some bad beats. I could have easily been up over $1,000. We left the next day and I didn't want to play negative equity games and there wasn't enough time for a tourney or more cash games.

I look forward to August...

Stats for the last tourney are up... finally

Been real busy, so all I got up are the results, no write-up. Congrats to Henry on the win.

I will write-up this weeks game.

I will also do a brief write-up about Vegas last weekend.