As I start every write-up, a special thanks to Eric Johnson for hosting at his place. He has done some work to the old poker room and it is slowly turning into one of the most awesome man caves ever complete with bedrooms and all.
The August tourney had 19 players. A special welcome to a new player in the ranks: Robert Ratajczak. If I spelled that wrong that is because it is broke my spell check. I had to reformat my PC twice as the rare string of consonants caused my pc to string. In all seriousness, welcome to the RPT. A group of poker players who have come together through some of the oddest twists of fate around. Robert is the 142nd RPT player to ever sit in a chair. Hard to believe huh?
The tourney started off with pretty slow play. It seems like lately, we have had some early player loss (<cough>, <cough> Jim Wagner last month) so it was nice to see some basic play in the early minutes of the tournament. However, every tournament has to have a Beer Bitch. It is as expected as death and taxes… and Trueman’s bad luck. Regardless, this tournament saw Brian Harnish achieve that illustrious role of Beer Bitch. This was Harnish’s first ever Beer Bitch finish and it took him 21 tournaments to get it. That is a pretty good run. In other random facts, that was the first time Rob ever knocked out Harnish. The chief people that knock Harnish out of tournament are FedEx, Wagner, Mr. Tinker, and me. All tied at 2 times each.
Our host Eric Johnson was next out. Playing poker with EJ is a roller coaster. You don’t know what cards he has and you almost have the fleeting suspicion that he just likes betting at a pot to make you squirm. Our newest player was third out. I didn’t get a chance to play at his table or else I would give some more analysis. Overall, the verdict is that he came to the tournament to lose his chips to Voldemort and act as an unofficial “re-buy.” Nice try Voldy.
Though I would love to give a play by play of each player’s demise, I don’t have the time, memory, nor the data to do that. I only get to describe things I remember (or take a picture of). The one thing that I do remember is the last player to go out before the final table: Nita. She got into a hand where she had a pair of J’s vs. 2 other players who both had A-K. Needless to say an A hit the flop and she was pretty pissed. In all fairness, that was quite a turn of events beings how there were only 2 aces left in the deck at best. As Phil Helmuth says, “If there wasn’t luck in poker, I would never lose.” See you next month Nita and hopefully walking smoothly on the newly healed ankle.
The final table had Rob, Glenn, myself, Brian Bennett (who had very few chips), Doug, Darryn, Grover, Trueman and Tom Ross Sr.
Bennett was first out. Bennett continues to make final tables and rack up points. If he continues at this pace, he has a shot at the Final Table.
Glen was next out. Glen was very upset after I got my coin flip pair against his high cards won out. Glenn has been on a tear this year though and is easily becoming one of the more solid RPTers.
Trueman was out next. Trueman has some sort of curse on him because if there is a card in the deck that can beat him, that card will inevitably hit the board. As we joked during the game, if Trueman is in a coin flip hand with someone… he is already down 70/30. Tom Ross Sr. followed Trueman. Tom Ross Sr. continues to put up points when he is not out gallivanting across the globe on his latest vacation. He is patient which is a key to racking up RPT points.
The first hand to detail was between Darryn and Doug I think. Darryn was all in with Js-9s and Doug had Ac-2c. Darryn was dealing his own fate and the first card on the flop is a J. The next card is… another J. Just like that Darryn had 3-of-a-kind and was able to stay in the game just a bit longer… but not much longer as Darryn was out shortly after that. Darryn too is a patient player that gets RPT points with his conservative play but rarely sees a money finish.
Now – there were 4 players with Grover (I know, right? How is he still in the tournament?), Rob (Again?), Me (hold your applause), and Doug (Who?). Now, I have been getting lucky occasionally during the tournament… and none more than my 9-2 suited hand I pulled out vs. Doug to stay in the game. Well, the hand that knocked me out of the game against Rob was my luck turning against me. I had 10-3 as the small blind. Rob has already called and Doug is Big Blind who checks. The flop hits and it is A-3-10. I have 2 pair. I check to slow play it. Doug checks and Rob bets into it. I put him on an A and raise him a bit but not all in. Doug folds and Rob goes all in. I call and show. Rob has A-7. I am winning as long as rob doesn’t get another A or a 7. Turn: 7. And just like that, my luck had run out. I finish in 4th leaving Doug, Grover, and Rob.
The hand that got Doug out was another beauty. I may mess this one up as I don’t recall exactly. Grover gets Doug all-in. Grover has Ac-Qh and Doug has As-5s. The flop hits Doug hard with Ah-5h-Js giving him two pair. The turn is a 6s which also gives Doug a flush draw. The only outs for Grover are a Q (but not the Qs) or the board to pair the J or 6… so 8 outs. The river is the Qc giving Grover the higher 2 pair… wow. This was Doug’s first top 3 finish ever so congratulations are in order.
This left Grover vs. Rob.
Let’s cut to the chase: Grover won. And the peasants rejoiced. The picture below describes it better than I ever could (I laugh every time I look at it). Grover and Rob were roughly the same chip stack going back and forth about 10 times before Grover got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He bluffed at the wrong time with his 5s-8s into Rob’s Ad-Kc. Needless to say Rob called… and then the flop came with a 4s-As-Js giving Grover a flush. Just amazing. To make things more exciting, the turn came down as a Kd giving Rob a chance for a full house with another K or A… but the last card came with a 6s giving Grover an uber flush.
Rob finished 2nd and had his 4th top 3 finish of the year. If Grover didn’t catch his lucky break, this might have been Rob’s 2nd victory of the year. He is definitely playing well this year and moves up to 2nd in the RPT standings and just 6 points back from the #1 spot.
This was Grover’s first RPT victory of the year and a sincere congratulations to him. He is one of the most dedicated RPTers out there and always adds fun to any table he plays at. This is Grover’s 4th career victory and his first since 11/25/2011. This was Grover’s 3rd money finish of the year and Grover moves up to 3rd place on the RPT standings but 7 points from the #1 spot.
The Final Table standings are still really wide open with at least 13 players actively in the hunt. Also – everyone that attends six tournaments during the year has a shot at making the Final Table via the 9th Seat Lottery. If you are at five tournaments, it would behoove you to attend one more before the end of the year for at least a shot at the Final Table and the real glory.
See you all next month.