First off, thanks to Grover for hosting. He has one of the best setups for hosting a large RPT event and his hospitality and food are always impeccable. Hopefully we can play some more there in 2013.
The 2nd tournament of the year also brought a fair amount of new bodies to the tour. I would like to welcome the following folks to the RPT:
Rusty Parker who is a friend of Grover’s.
Craig Cubbage who is a coworker of mine from Constellation.
Giles Parker who is a high school friend of Michael Bayle who is a coworker of mine from Constellation… if I keep this going I can probably get to Kevin Bacon in 3 more associations…
Patrick Sapack who is a friend of Vince’s.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), none of the new guys cracked the final table in this tournament but I was impressed with Giles and his play. He was aggressive and would have been at the final table had his A’s not been cracked by Q’s… more on that later.
The 2nd tournament of the 2013 season was one of the largest that we have had since January of 2011 when we had 31 players. 30 RPTers came together at Grover’s Fun House in Mt. Washington to see if they could get lucky… and there was definitely some luck happening on this night.
The first person out was Alex Johnson. This is Alex’s 2nd Beer Bitch finish and the second in a row. The “Irish Streaker” appears to be getting taken down early. Everyone knows you can’t start off a party with streaking… you have to build up to it. Rookie mistake… you hate to see it… He is the first RPTer to record back-to-back Beer Bitch finishes since Grover did it in the Jan and Feb 2010 tourneys. Mr. Tinker also achieved this in the October and November 2008 tournaments. Dave Moore, Mr. Tinker’s brother, got back-to-back Beer Bitch finishes during the July and August 2007 tournaments. Must be in the blood… Trueman was the first to achieve this dubious honor back in April and May of 2005. He recorded 3 Beer Bitch finishes in 2005. Jay McClelland achieved the Beer Bitch Hat Trick as well in 2006 but none of his finishes were back-to-back. At this pace, young Alex could shatter the record for most Beer Bitch finishes in a season… and I know that Trueman would really appreciate someone taking that record away from him.
Craig Cubbage was the second out. After coming late to the tourney and leaving a pregnant wife behind with two children, Craig did the noble thing and made sure he was home early to care for them. His exit was not without fireworks though. After going all in with K-J and seeing he was up against A’s, he knew he was going to need a few cards to win this one. The flop gave him no help. The turn brought him an A which was like a kidney punch and then another A on the turn was the final haymaker. Michelle had quad A’s and Craig was on his way before his car even had a chance to cool down. Hopefully we will see more of Craig at the RPT.
The next player out was Michael “Bucket” Bayle. He was playing aggressive and was cruising along at our table. He was doing well until he got caught in a big hand with Voldemort. The Dark Lord had pushed all in on Bucket. After a fair amount of thinking, Bucket called and He Who Shall Not Be Named showed his nut flush and I think Bucket had a pair of 6’s. Bucket has plenty of skill and will be a solid player at the RPT whenever he wishes to play and losing a hand to Voldemort is almost a rite of passage.
We had 4 tables of action and it was difficult to really see what was happening at the other tables. The next most notable hand I recall seeing was right before we went to the final table. It was Giles and Vince in a big hand with Vince pushing with Q’s and Giles going all-in with A’s. The turn brought a Q and just like that, Giles was out. He too played excellent poker and I look forward to playing him at future tournaments.
The final table consisted of me (with a tiny chipstack that I had been nursing all game), Doug Deleo, Grover Sauter (who by now was well into his own private bacchanalia), Jeff Dixon (who was a late add to the tourney but glad he came), Vince Powers (with a MASSIVE chipstack thanks to Giles), Rob Schilling, Nita Cox, Jason Trueman, and Mr. Tinker. Grover was the first to go but he was happy to have made the final table as well as a fine level of inebriation. Doug was ousted next by Trueman. Jeff got caught in a hand with Vince and was also pissed to learn that he just went out in 7th place and right out of the money. The infamous “finishing on the bubble.” It sucks.
The 6th place finisher was Nita Cox how was playing excellent poker all night. I had the opportunity to play with her at an earlier table. She plays tight but consistent. I was in the small blind and she was in the big. Everyone had folded to us so I raised it to 2x the big blind. She called. The flop comes out A-10-8. I check and she checks as well. The turn is an A. I check. Nita goes all-in. I can only look at her and say “You shouldn’t have done that. I call.” and showed my pocket A’s. No need to even flip the river card. I lucked out with quad A’s and now had a decent chipstack for the first time all tournament.
This was just one of my lucky hands. Poor Vince was on the bad side of two bad beats vs. me. The first I had an inside straight draw and overs that I went all-in with and he called. A great call as I had a roughly 22% chance of winning the hand… well… I caught a 10 which gave me the straight I needed. That would have put me out early. After the hand with Nita, I tried to push again as Vince was the big blind and raised it up. I looked down and say an A-7 suited. I thought Vince may have just been doing a position raise. Once again, Vince saw through me and called my bet and showed his A-Q. I was dominated… but caught a 7 on the turn to pull that out and put Vince out of the tournament. Vince was on a roll and if it wasn’t for pure cosmic luck, he very well might have achieved back-to-back victories.
With Vince out, I now had a mountain of chips. Mr. Tinker was slowly getting blinded out by this time as the larger chipstacks were pricing him out of nearly every hand. He finally went out in 4th place leaving Rob, Trueman, and me. Trueman played really well all tournament but sometimes raw cosmic luck is an unstoppable force. He went out in 3rd place leaving Rob and me in a heads up match. I had probably a 3-1 chipstack advantage and Rob played well. A big hand came when rob raised and I called with a 9-8 of clubs. The flop brought 2 clubs and Rob went all in. I put Rob as catching the Q on the board so thought I was going for a flush draw. I did some math and took a chance of seeing if my cosmic luck would continue… it didn’t. Rob had a j-10 of clubs. The turn was an A of clubs giving us both flushs but his obviously higher. After a bit more jockeying, I caught a lucky 3 of a kind when the board paired up 6’s and I had one in my hand. And just like that, I had won the tournament.
This is my first regular season win since January of 2008 (hey… I was in Louisville for a few years). The 430 RPUs is the most ever won in a regular season tournament since Vince’s 405 last month… thanks to the increased buy-in. I now move into second place on the career wins list behind Tony Huckestein… though one of those wins has an asterisk on it. 🙂
Even with this victory, Vince is still in first place on the RPT standings. There is still plenty of time for folks to move up (or down) the standings. The only thing to do is show up each month ready to play and hope for the best.
Next month’s tournament is tentatively scheduled to be at Brian Bennett’s house. I have to confirm with him if he can still hold it as he mentioned it last month. If we have a space limit, I will honor first come, first serve until the seats are filled. All extras can be put on a waiting list if a space opens up. Hope to see you all next month.