The 2014 RPT season is officially underway and what better way to start a season than with the 100^th RPT tournament ever.  This is the start of the 10^th year of existence for the RPT.  That is quite an accomplishment for something that started as just a reason to get together with friends and family once a month.  Though I have done this many times, I would like to thank Jim Wagner for running the RPT while I was in Louisville.  We would have ever gotten his far without his drive and commitment.

 

 

Before we get into the results, it is a good time to reflect on how far the RPT has come to get to its 100^th ever regular season tournament (counting Final Tables, we would have hit 100 early last year).

 

 

RPT Macro Level Statistics for the first 100 tournaments:

 

1)      The average number of players in an RPT regular season tournament is 19.28.

 

2)      There have been 2,121 buy-ins combined to all of the regular season tournaments.

 

3)      There have been 52,875 RPUs distributed combined in all of the regular season tournaments.

1. Including Final Tables, there have been 67,005 RPUs distributed.

4)      There have been 45 unique players to ever win an RPT regular season tournament.

 

5)      79 unique players have received RPUs

 

6)      147 unique players have sat down and played an RPT tournament.

 

 

Thanks to Darryn, all of these macro level statistics are now available on the website.  Feel free to check it out.

 

 

Now to the results:

 

 

Everything starts with thanking the host and Grover gets his first of 4 thank yous this year for hosting the January event at Grover’s Playhouse.  Grover won “Host of the Year” last year and is starting this year with a bang to get the prestigious title once again.  Grover is also shooting for a new award category for “Drunkest Host.”  Grover has 4 tournaments to make his impression for this new award.  Speaking on behalf of the RPT, we all support Grover’s ambitious goal.

 

 

The 100^th ever RPT tournament brought in 27 players.  The early year tournaments always seem to be bigger as people make a point to “start the year right” and make a run at the Final Table.  We had a new player show up in Brad Hudson.  Brad is a friend of Voldemort.  Always good to see some new blood.  In addition, we also had some RPT ghosts come back for the 10^th year.  “Shaky Bets” Dan Ferris and John “The Matador” Wilenski made their RPT comeback after last playing 9/19/08 and 9/21/12 respectively.  Wilenski has a special place in the RPT Hall of Fame as he was the first RPT Player of the Year back in 2005.

 

 

The Beer Bitch is the 100^th tournament was Wally Cox.  Wally was knocked out by newcomer Brad Hudson early on.  Wally recently had surgery on his ankle so was unable to adequately perform his duties as Beer Bitch.  Regardless, after Wally’s 2^nd place finish at the 2013 RPT Final Table, Wally is sticking to his mantra of “varying his play.”  This is Wally’s 2^nd Beer Bitch finish in his 12^th tournament.

 

 

The tourney saw a lot of last year’s top players find early exits.  Glenn Tana was out 4^th after winning the 2013 Final Table.  Trueman was out 5^th after running into some big hands with A’s and K’s in front of him.  Rob Schilling was out 7^th as well.

 

 

One of the more miraculous stories of the tournament was Voldemort.  At one time, Voldemort was down to 65 chips and would have been out around 3^rd overall in the tournament but he kept catching hands and winning his all-ins.  By the time the final table came together, Voldemort was one of the chip leaders.  It was really an amazing turn of events.

 

 

The final table consisted of me, Jeff Dixon (who claims he will be coming to ever tournament this year… time will tell), Angie Brower, Tina Fuller, Voldemort, Craig Bare, Joe Fuller, T-Huck, and Darryn Graham.  Angie was first out… and then Voldemort went on a killing spree.  He knocked out Tina, Darryn, Tony, Jeff, and Joe back to back in succession… this left me, Craig, and Voldemort in the top 3.  Voldemort probably had 80% of the chips with Craig and me around 10% each.

 

 

I was third out after calling an all-in from Craig where I was dominated with his A-K vs. my A-7 suited.  He played me like a fiddle with me thinking he had some small pair and I wanted to have a coin flip.  Well played DJ Leko.

 

 

This left Voldemort vs. Craig Bare.  Voldy had a mountain of chips but the tide turned when Craig went all in after the flop with middle pair and Voldy has top pair…  but Craig caught a card on the river to give him 3 of a kind.  This put the stacks in a much more competitive position.  After a few more hands, Craig was calling Voldemort’s all-ins… the winning hand does not appear too amazing but it was enough to give Craig the victory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was Craig’s 4^th RPT victory in his career.  His last victory was 4/15/11.  Craig now moves up to a multi-way tie for 3^rd in career RPT victories behind only me and T-Huck.  For Voldemort, this was his best finish since 6/21/13 when he won an 18 person tournament.  This is a great start for these two players in the race for the 2014 RPT Player of the Year and Final Table standings.

 

 

See everyone next month.