A warm and sincere thanks goes to Grover for hosting the May tournament. His clubhouse is simply one of the best establishments to have a home poker league. It has everything you could ever want: parking, ample space, kitchen, bathrooms, and a central location. It even has cable TV and space for storing the food. I personally love it there so thanks Grover.
The May tourney was a small one by recent standards with only 17 players in attendance however the smaller tournament was nice for a change as it seemed more relaxed for some reason. It is probably just my impressions from not having to try to coordinate 30 people.
The first victim of the night was Mike Bayle. Just like the great bambino Babe Ruth did in the 1932 World Series off of Charlie Root, Bayle called his shot earlier in the day saying that he was going out early because he had “other things to do.” On behalf of the RPT, I would like to thank you for coming out and donating money to our cause. We all appreciate it. This was Mike’s first Beer Bitch finish ever and also one of the worst Beer Bitches as he left almost immediately without serving anyone a single beer… bad form and will be noted.
The second victim was pretty epic: Voldemort. Glenn and Voldy got into a big hand very early on. Both had won dome previous hands so probably each had 2000ish in front of them. After the turn, it was Voldy who dropped the $500 chip and Glenn called. After the river, Voldy took his time and slowly counted all his chips before declaring all-in. Glenn immediately called and flipped over A-7 which gave Glen a pair of 7’s… which was like the third highest pair on the board. Voldy had like A-9 but ace-high was not going to win this one. Glenn knocked out Voldemort on a huge call of his bluff with nothing much himself. Just amazing to watch and this set the stage for Glenn as he was now a huge chip leader.
The early exist moved Voldy to the top of the leader board for the prestigious “Most Volatile” poker player. Sorry Rob – you are now only 5th…
Newcomer Angie Brower was the next out. A last second addition to the tournament, she was quite the calling station and got caught in a lot of hands that she probably should not have been in but she was a good sport and hopefully she had fun hanging out with a bunch of drunken gamblers.
The rest of the tournament seemed to go by relatively smoothly until a pretty tragic hand happened between Grover and Tony. Grover bet big before the flop and Tony called. The flop was 2s-6s-5s. Grover goes all-in and Tony said a line that he probably said 8 times during the night “Well, I guess I have to call.” They turn over their cards: Grover has Ac-Qc and Tony has 7s-7c. Tony has the flush draw and high pair. At this point, Tony is an 87% favorite to Grover’s 13%. The next card brings a 9s which now gives Tony a flush and the hand. The river card is an 8s which now gives Tony a straight flush. Wow. Grover would later say that if Tony didn’t get a straight flush and a different spade would have hit on the river that he would have split the pot… not true as Tony’s 7s would still have played. Just trying to clarify. Tough luck Grover.
The final 4 players were Nita, Glenn, Tony, and Darryn. The chips were mostly between Glenn and Tony. Nita and Darryn were grinding though. Nita was pushing her stack whenever she could and winning. Darryn would get down to 1400 chips or so, get froggy, and then double up. Eventually Darryn was stuck having to go all-in with a not so great hand and finishing on the button. Nita was now making moves and at one point, was the new chip leader at the table. That didn’t last long as Glenn was on just too much of a roll. Nita finished third for her first RPU finish at the RPT. Congratulations Nita.
Heads-up was between Glenn and Tony. Tony had won last month’s tourney so this would be a nice back-to-back victory… unfortunately Glenn had 95% of the chips. After 2 hands of heads-up, Tony effectively commits suicide to end the game going all-in with basically nothing. Glenn’s cards held up and Glenn is the latest RPT champion.
Glen succeeded in putting the last 5 players out of the tournament. That is quite a feat as he personally killed 7 of the 17 players in the tournament in total. This showing puts Glenn in 4th place on the all-time most dominating tournament performance… only slightly behind Tony’s showing last month which was the 3rd all-time most deadly tournament.
This was Glen’s 2nd career RPT victory (the last being 1 year ago in the 2012 May tourney) and his 2nd top 3 finish of 2013 (finishing 2nd in the March tourney). After winning last month’s tourney, Tony’s 2nd place finish gives him back-to-back RPT finishes. This top 3 finish also moves Tony up the list for 3rd all-time in RPT history with 13 (tied with Trueman and Wilenski).
See you all next month and enjoy the last days of Spring.