The July RPT founds its home at the FedEx Distribution Hub… also known as FedEx’s house in Laurel.  Only 17 brave souls braved the highly constrained roads to play some poker.  To those 17, I say thanks.  I also say thanks to FedEx and his family.  It was great doing baseball trivia with Reese and Mrs. FedEx is a gracious host.

 

 

 

Here are the Top 5 rarest creature sightings in the world:

• Unicorn
• Albino Sasquatch
• Jim Wagner
• Wild Panda
• Blue Whale

 

 

 

 

There was a very rare occurrence at FedEx’s house… a Jim Wagner sighting.  For those newer members who may not know what a Jim Wagner is, he was a former RPTer that, rumor has it, was a decent poker player in the glory years of the RPT.  Since this mysterious creature has gone into hiding, the facts around his poker abilities are rather dubious.  Since 2013, Jim has averaged less than 7 points per tournament with 2 Beer Bitch finishes in 7 tournaments.  Jim has averaged just over 2 tournaments a year… and this is his second tournament of the year…  We may not see the Jim Wagner until 2016…  He is man bordering on myth.  As such Jim was in attendance and it was good to have him back around.

 

 

 

 

 

Every tournament needs a Beer Bitch and for the second tournament in a row… the RPT host was the first to exit the event.  FedEx got caught up in a big hand where the board had quad 8’s and FedEx was banking on his full house to win.  Unfortunately, a full house is immediately a loser when the board is quads.  Tough one but FedEx was a dutiful Beer Bitch and that is quite commendable in my book.  This is FedEx’s 4^th Beer Bitch finish in his career… which includes 80 tournaments so that is a very small number.  This does move him into a tie for 5^th on the All Time list.  FedEx still sits in 3^rd place for the year in the RPT standings.

 

 

 

 

The Jim Wagner was out quickly following FedEx.  There was a question regarding Jim not showing his losing hand after his all-in.  As this was a tournament of technicalities (more on that later), it is good to document these items for posterity’s sake as well as general erudition.

 

 

 

 

Bob Herd Sr. called Jim Wagner’s all-in bet.  Bob quickly showed his winning hand.  Jim folded his hand and did not show.  Now, usually when a player calls another person’s last bet, the player is paying for the right to see the other player’s hand and the cards must be shown for the player to win.  Since Bob showed his cards first, Bob tacitly declined the right to see Jim’s hand.  As such, Jim now had the option of showing his hand and, by not showing, Jim loses all chances of winning the hand.  Jim Wagner is a good man and I had said something to him regarding the hand (before I had all the details).  Jim took it upon himself to contact Maryland Live and confirm.  Here is the text he sent after the tournament:

 

 

 

 

“I did not have to show that all-in hand simply because the guy that called me [Bob Sr.] showed his hand without technically having to do so thus giving up the right for me to have to show mine.  Just called Maryland Live and confirmed it.”

 

 

 

 

When there is money between people, then contract is sacrosanct.  Our contract as players are the rules of poker.   When rules are tested, the contract will win despite the player’s intentions.  Unfortunately, thems be the breaks.

 

 

 

 

 

This is further highlighted by another hand we had later in the night.  Again, technicalities are important features of poker as this hand will demonstrate:

 

 

 

 

Angie, Voldemort, and Paul O’Connor are in a big hand.  Voldemort is all-in and has a side pot while Angie and Paul continue to play for another pot between them.  Angie bets after the river and Paul folds.  By default, this gives Angie the pot that was just between Angie and Paul.  As soon as Angie folds, she says “I win!” and throws her hand FACE DOWN into the “muck” (defined as the place on the table where all the folded and discarded cards are).  Voldemort is quick to point out that Angie’s action is an act of folding and that the side pot he is part of is his winnings.  He is correct as a winning hand must be shown and cannot be “fouled into the muck.”  Though Angie grabbed her cards and did show what would have been the winning hand, that is the equivalent of showing your folded hand.  I had to honor that Voldemort was correct and reiterate that in our league, cards talk… but they must be shown to talk.  We have had many hands when one player showed their hand thinking they lost but had a flush or something that they did not see.  The cards talk rule is a must have but can only be used when the cards are shown.  And yes, Angie was pissed.

 

 

 

 

Back to the action.  Since we had a small tournament of 17 people, it was not long until we were down to the final 6 people.  This included Voldemort (because of the technicality above), Angie, Travis Marquess, Dan Ferris, me, and Bob Herd Sr.  With the tournament only awarding RPUs to the top 3 players, all players were conscious not to finish on the bubble.  I was the dealer and see A-10 in my hand.  Angie, Dan, and Bob Herd Sr. all call before the flop.  Seeing that Dan and Angie only had a bit more in chips, I raise it up to 2500.  Angie goes all-in for 1000 more to make the total bet 3500.  Dan has the same amount of chips as Angie and he also goes all-in.  Bob has a bit more chips and raises all-in.  I call all of the bets.  We all show.  My A-10 is in the lead and there are no pocket pairs.  I think I get an A on the flop and the board holds from there.  In one hand, I knocked out Dan, Angie, and Bob Herd Sr and put Travis, Voldy, and me immediately in the Top 3 and in the RPUs.  And yes, Angie was pissed.  However, Angie should not be too pissed as she is in 2^nd place behind Brian Bennett in the annual standings.

 

 

 

 

 

In the final 3, the action was quick and I was getting great cards.  Travis was the first to exit the tournament.  This was Travis’s first Top 3 finish and his second RPU finish in only 5 tournaments.  Congrats to Travis.

 

 

 

 

 

It was now Voldy vs. Me heads up and as we start to play, Voldy decides to go to the men’s room.  We had just had a break 10 minutes before hand so it was quite amazing that he needed to go to the men’s room in the middle of heads up play.  Well, technically this wasn’t a break so the action continued without Voldy.  Every hand I would raise Voldy… who was not there to call.  And it is probably better that he wasn’t there because in the span of about 4 hands, I had Q’s and K’s…  I can only assume that those hands would have given me a very good chance of wiping Voldy out.  I had the majority of the chips anyway.  After a couple all-ins, I had won the latest RPT.

 

 

 

 

Voldy and I are now tied for 7^th on the RPT standings (however I have more RPUs so would win the tie-breaker there technically.  This is Voldy’s first Top-3 finish since he won the Jan 2015 tournament.  He moves up to 6^th place in all-time Top-3 finishes.

 

 

 

 

This was my 6^th win all-time which puts me in 2^nd place all-time behind Tony Huckestein’s 7 all-time victories… though 1 of them should have an asterisk as him and Rob basically did a coin flip…  Yes Tony…  I will always remember.  This was my first victory since February of 2013…  Wow.  What a drought.  And, because I like random stats, this is the only time in RPT history when a player was Beer Bitch in one tournament and then won the next RPT tournament.  Wow.  I am touched.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, we have a couple host possibilities for next month.  Please send me details if you are interested and I look forward to seeing everybody there.  Also, every August we plan around MashOut which many of our players attend so we have an asterisk in the schedule regarding the tournament date.  We are using the alternate date of 8/14 to plan around MashOut.  Just FYI.  Enjoy your summer.