It is August already and the summer is almost over. With autumn fast approaching, that means we are coming down the home stretch of the Ross Poker Tour season.
The August tournament had a brand new host in Stan Lynch. Stan had a perfect place for poker complete with a pool table and ample space for our RPTers to lounge about and play some cards. Thanks to both Stan and JD (his hetero life partner… not some same sex partner… not that there is anything wrong with that). I look forward to having a poker game there again in the near future.
We had 22 players come out to Rosedale for some poker. We should have had more but we had two no shows who also failed to send any text message or email or anything. This is where I like to put public shaming so if you are reading this Paul O’Connor and your friend Mark Nelson, consider yourself publicly shamed. I don’t like to boot anybody but one of the worst things you can do is tell me you are coming and not coming. Not cool. Regardless, the 22 of us that did show up were ready to go.
We also had 2 new players join. Henry Caldarazzo is a long-time business partner of Stan’s wife JD and also the brother of a former RPTer and current Ross Machine employee. Smalltimore. When Paul and Mark didn’t show, we were going to remove their chips when JD decided she wanted to play and take over one of the stacks. That has to be the first time in my memory that this has happened but I saw no issue with it as the stack had been blinded out accordingly. So, welcome JD Lynch as well though I am not sure she will be playing much in the future.
Now is the time when I point out the Beer Bitch and this month, it was the loveable Don Berry. Don got involved in a handful of hands early and ended up going all-in against my top 2 pair. This is Don’s 2nd career Beer Bitch finish. His last BB finish was back in November of 2014.
As for the rest of play, I waited too long to write this so I have basically forgotten all kinds of cool hands. So, I guess I will just get to the results.
Dan Ferris finished on the button. He was so close to getting into the money too and he was pretty ticked. He got knocked off by Robert Herd who was just enjoying getting lucky. Sorry Dan.
Robert Herd was the 4th place player. This was Rob’s second RPU finish of the year and his first since finishing 2nd overall in the March 2015 tournament.
In third place was Chris O’Hara. This is Chris’s 2 top 3 finish and his first since finishing in 2nd place in the April 2015 tournament. In 6 career tournaments, Chris as 2 top-3 finishes. That is an excellent start and Chris is someone to watch.
In 2nd place was Chet Ruby III. This was Chat’s best finish in his RPT career… though that career has only lasted 4 tournaments. Chet is starting to make a name for himself at the poker table.
In first place was… Me. This is my 2nd win in a row and the funny thing is that I am the 2nd person to have back-to-back wins this year. Matt Straffin had back-to-back wins the two tournaments before me making me the 5th person in RPT history to accomplish the feat. This win puts me in a tie with Tony Huckestein for 1st all-time with 7 career wins and moves me further up with 23 career top-3 finishes. This was a tournament where the board was very friendly all game… and I mean friendly because the best hand I had all night was pocket 9’s… and that is not a lie.
I will be away next month so we will need a host and an administrator. While I am out, please be kind to the stand-in. See everyone next month.