The June tournament brought the drunken hoards of RPTers out to God’s country: Hampstead – home of the headquarters of Jos. A. Bank (who would have thought?) We had 20 people for the tourney which puts us right in line with our historical average for a tournament. Thanks to Rob Schilling for hosting this month. I think it is great to literally have people competing to host future tournaments. One of the most important elements to keeping the poker tour going is having a place to play as well as keeping new blood circulating through the tour every year. Be sure to reach out to friends and family to see if they want to have some fun with some degenerate, drunken gamblers every month.
We also had a new player in Melinda Herd who came with her father and brother. Welcome to the RT Melinda.
The tournament itself had quite a few highlights. Rob Ratajcak got his first ever Beer Bitch finish at the hands of Tony H. It is ok Rob – everyone has to have at least 1 Beer Bitch finish in their RPT careers. FedEx quickly followed at the hands of Tony H. once again. The board had made a straight and FedEx went all-in. Tony called… and had a higher straight than the board. Tough luck FedEx. Needless to say, Tony was an early stack leader. Voldemort was third out and brought his new girlfriend to watch him go down in flames. I am sure he was talking up his game the whole drive to the tournament… only to be out so early. It is ok – the poker gods were kind to him and showered him with cash table winnings.
Because I do the write-ups, I can whine about my own misfortunes. Grover knocked me out in 10th place. Damn you Grover. I raised 4x the blind under the gun with 10’s. Grover is big blind and goes all-in and he easily had me covered. I basically thought I was at worst a coin-flip so after some thought, decided to call. Grover showed his 8’s. Pre-flop: I am roughly an 82% favorite. Grover catches an 8 on the turn and my night is over. Got to put all your money in when you have the best chance to win. This little bit of luck is a bit of foreshadowing…
So – mid-way through the tournament, something happened that has never happened in the 10 years of the RPT’s existence: a Royal Straight Flush. Wally had a Kc-Jc before the flop and the flop came out As-10c-Qc. Wally had flopped the straight against Grover. The turn comes… and there it is. Ac. Wally has a royal straight flush on the turn. The river is a 5h. Grover gets away before too much damage happens by folding after the river… but Wally showed his monster hand. Amazing. The odds in a 7-card poker game like Texas Hold ‘em are 1 in 30,940 hands… or 0.003232% if you like percentages. Just amazing.
Grover got stuck in a hand with someone… I sadly don’t remember who now (Wally?)… but as you can see in the photo below. Grover’s boat got out boated. He was drawing dead and just to add insult to injury, he got a full house that was beat by a bigger full house.
After Wally, the rest of the final table went down with Craig Bare next. Craig is having a solid season so far sitting in 6th place with a beer bitch finish and a missed tourney. Newcomer Melinda was next out. For her first tourney, she did quite well. I know we can be a little intimidating to new folks but if you can get through your first tourney unscathed, that is a great start.
Brandon Smyth met an untimely demise. After not calling an all-in with the best hand (and kicking himself for it later), he then goes all-in against Tony’s flopped-straight. A disappointing turn of events for Smyth who had played a rock solid tournament. Smyth sits in 12th place and has missed three tournaments. Plenty of opportunity of move up the ranks if he keeps showing up.
Angie was next out and finished on the bubble. Fantastic tournament for Angie who now sits in a tie for 8th place with Doug Deleo. She is quite volatile either finishing early in tournament of getting late into the final table.
The final 4 came down to Tony H (but of course), Rob Herd Jr., Rob Schilling , and Grover. Schilling was the small stack and after a couple amazing “staying alive” moments, went out in 4th place. This was Schilling’s best finish of the year. Tony was a big chip leader throughout the tournament but had dwindled down over the course of play and ended up getting knocked out by Rob Jr. in 3rd place.
Tony has been on a tear this year. He has 24 points over 2nd place Nita in the RPT standings. He is running away with player of the year. This was Tony’s 4th Top-3 finish… THIS YEAR. That’s right. 4 of the 6 tournaments we have played and Tony has been in the top 3. Just amazing… but he is getting a reputation like Jim Wagner used to have: always the bride’s maid and never the bride.
This now left Rob Jr. vs Grover. Grover had achieved a solid level of inebriation by this point and I believe his subconscious was now starting to make decisions for him… and it was working. A big hand had Grover doubling up with J-something and flopping 2 J’s. Rob went all-in and Grover quickly called – showing his 3 J’s. The final hand had Rob go all-in pre-flop and Grover called. Rob showed Ac-2c against Grover’s Qh-Jh. Pre-flop, Rob is a 55/45 favorite. The flop of 7s-As-Jc now moves Rob to a roughly 81/19 favorite. A Qs hits on the turn giving Grover 2 pair and Grover is now the 82-18 favorite. The 4h hits on the river and the game is over.
Rob Jr. had knocked out 35% of the players in the tournament making this the 8th most deadly performance since the RPT started keeping track of kills. This is Rob’s 2nd top 3 finish of the year since he won the March tournament. This moves him up to 4th place for the year.
This is Grover’s 5th RPT victory and moves him in a tie for 2nd place all-time with me and behind Tony’s 7 wins. This is Grover’s first money finish this year and moves him up to 11th place in the standings.
See you all next month.
you were right Brian….it was Wally that out boated my boat