November 2013 Tourney Results

Before I go through all the drama and suspense of the November tourney, let me thank the new part saint of the RPT, Eric Johnson.  As we conclude our 9^th year of poker, hosting has and continues to be a challenge.  As we were coming up on the date for the tourney, Eric reached out and said that we could use his place.  He was scheduled to have rotator cuff surgery on Thursday but he would be happy to host.  That, my friends, makes Eric eligible for RPT canonization.  Though Eric’s surgery got moved to next week, we wish him a speedy recovery and I speak on behalf of the rest of the RPT with a sincere thank you for hosting.

 

 

Now, the November tournament was a very important one as it would decide the Top 8 for the Final Table.  In year’s past, we have had November tournaments which perhaps meant some jockeying for position around the 6-7-8 spots but never was there more movement than this year’s.

 

 

Before the tournament, the standings were very tight:

 

 

 

The most interesting races were around the POY between Rob and I as well as the battle between 6^th through 11^th.  With FedEx not attending this event, it could cost him his spot in the Top 8 if certain players had a great tournament… this is called foreshadowing…

 

 

The first player out was Craig Bare.  The prestigious Beer Bitch recognition.  This is Craig’s s2nd ever Beer Bitch finish and his first since Sept-2011.  Craig missed most of the 2013 season but was able to attend the last two events.  Always good to have DJ Leko around…

 

The second person out was yours truly.  Coming into the tournament, I had not done the math but knew that Rob was right on my tail in points so having a good showing was important.  I had folded every hand until I was in late position and got 8s-9s.  I figure this hand could do some damage if the right cards fell.  I raise to 175 in 25-50 blinds.  Everyone folds until Grover calls in the small blind.  Big blind folds.  The flop hits Qh-7d-4s.  Not the best flop for me but I have position.  Grover checks and I bet 200 – roughly half the pot.  Grover calls.  At this point, I am pretty sure he has nothing and is hoping for something.  The next card is a 6s.  This now gives me an open ended straight draw, a flush draw, and something that could give me middle pair.  Grover puts on some bad acting and checks.  I figure he might actually have hit a pair of junk with that 6.  Might as well check and see if I make my hand.  The river is a great card for me.  7s.  This gives me a flush on runner runner.  There is no way he was expecting that from me.  Grover checks.  I bet 400. Grover raises to 900.  I think that at best he hit trips or two pair.  I call.  In Grover fashion, he throws down his cards and says “Get your camera.”  He has 3s-5s.  He hit a straight flush which beats my 9-high flush obviously.  I was out quickly thereafter.

 

Just to take a second and analyze this hand.  Before the flop, I am a 65/32/3 favorite. After the flop, I am still a 64/35/1 favorite.  After the turn, Grover has hit a straight and he is now a 75/25 favorite.  The last card was the one spade I didn’t want to see.

 

Tony dubbed this hand the most talked about hand in RPT history as Grover and I argued back and forth.  What I wanted to know is: 1) Why would he call a 3.5 times raise with 3-5 suited pre-flop and 2) Why would he call a bet after the flop with only a gut-shot straight draw?  AS we debated the specifics of the hand, Grover seemed to think that the flop had 2 spades.  After several people vouched that there was only 1 spade on the flop and he saw the picture, Grover then said “Well, why would I have been in the hand?”  Exactly, Grover.  But this is the craziness that makes poker so fun, unpredictable, and frustrating all at the same time.

 

Regardless, with my early exit I knew that my chances at staying #1 were pretty much done.

 

From here, our tournament flowed.  One of our newest members Bob Herd Sr. was out third.  His son Rob had neck surgery so we wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing both of them more in the 2014 season.

 

Glenn was next out and his position at the Final Table was now subject to the performance of some of the other players.  Wally was out next and followed by Doug.  Doug needed a strong showing and poor showings by several other players (Trueman/Bennett/Darryn) but all of those guys were playing well.  Ostendorf and Mandell were the next two players out.

 

The next player out was Rob.  He was caught in a big hand with his J’s vs. Darryn’s A’s and I think Tony had Q-8 or something. The deal had a card flipped over so there should not have been a burn card on the flop…  but after the whole hand played out and Darryn got another Ace on the river to presumably win, Nita quickly notes that Grover had burned a card as well…  The table decides that they want to rewind the cards as the players are all in and there is no impact to what the betting activity would have been throughout the hand.  Historically, we just let the cards lie because cards are random.  That is what people bet on and generally, there are betting sequences that cannot be reversed.  In this case, the cards are reversed and redone without the burn pre-flop.  This does not impact the winner of the hand and Darryn still wins.  Rob was out with 9 points.  I shake his hand for a good season as he played well throughout the year.

 

It was here that I entered his results into the RPTDB and then refreshed the standings.  It appears that Rob was consistently great throughout the year and his lowest point totals were a 4 and a 7.  In other words, after his latest result from this tournament, his 9 best tournament scores were 1 point less than my 9 best tournament scores.  I had no idea and had been telling Rob while he was playing that he already won, etc. I should have not said a word but to be honest, I thought he had won. Overall, that was not how I wanted to win the POY and my new mantra to do anything with results or placements is “look it up yourself or what until after the tournament when the results are posted.”

 

Grover was out next and we now had plenty of time to wax philosophical about the hand from Hell (or Heaven from Grover’s side).  With Grover out and Glenn out, we could now see the top 5 for the Final Table was set: Me, Rob, Grover, Nita, and Glenn.  The 6-8 spots were very much in contention.

 

With FedEx unable to attend, his point total was known and his nightmare had come true: Tony, Darryn, Trueman, and Brian Bennett were all very much alive in this tournament and racking up points.

 

Tony was the next one out and his point total of 11 moved him up to 108 Final Table points moving him past FedEx who had 103.  Tony now had the 6^th seat and the rest of the field of Darryn/FedEx/Trueman/Bennett were all fighting for 7-8 spots…  but based on the math as I look at it now…  it was here were FedEx fell out of the Top 8.  The perfect cocktail of solid play by all of the contenders for the 8^th spot put Fedex from 6^th…  to 9^th…  After many of us were making suicide jokes about FedEx hearing about this, we all said that he had tons of points for the 9th seat drawing.

 

Nita was out next and finalized her spot at 4^th overall but that was decided pretty much when Glenn went out.

 

The tournament was now down to: Trueman/Bennett/Darryn/and Rob R.

 

 

 

Bennett was the first to go out but he went out in epic fashion…  See the picture below.  He went all-in pre-flop and Trueman called.  Trueman had pocket J’s compared to Bennett’s pocket 6’s.  Flop hits and there is a 6 for Bennett.  Man, Trueman’s luck (or lack thereof) never ceases to amaze me.  Trueman stays cool and collected though as the turn hits a blank and then the river: J. Trueman’s luck reversed and just like that, Bennett was out in a crazy rollercoaster hand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bennett was also in a tough situation as he was 1 point behind Darryn and Trueman and here they both are sitting right in front of him in the final 4 players.  Really, Bennett would have had to won and had Darryn/Trueman get 3^rd/4^th place to have made the table.  Regardless, a great run by Bennett.

 

 

Trueman finished in 3^rd place.  When he left, he did not know the final standings as I was done giving my opinion after the stuff with Rob but looking at the math now, he secured 8^th place with his great tournament.  This was Trueman’s 2^nd top-3 finish of the year, the last back in Feb-13.  Trueman moves up to a 3-way tie for 2^nd all-time in top 3 finished with 14.  He shares this with Tony and Wagner.

 

The heads up match was between Rob Ratajcak and Darryn.  This was only Rob’s second tournament at the RPT and Darryn is an old timer by RPT standards as he has been playing since 2007.  The heads-up matchup was long as the two players played conservatively. The final hand put Ad-8d against AK offsuit.  The board held and Darryn was the November 2013 RPT Champion and secured his 7^th place finish in the RPT Final Standings.

 

Congrats to Rob R. on his first ever RPT money finish.  We look forward to seeing him and his fedora next year.

 

As for Darryn, this was his 3^rd ever RPT victory and his first since 6/18/10…  it has been 27 tournaments and 1,246 days since his last victory…  that is quite a dry spell.  This is also Darryn’s first money finish since 4/15/11 which is 945 days.  This victory moves Darryn up to 4^th place in both career victories as well as career top-3 finishes.  Congrats to Darryn.

 

 

With the November tournament over, the RPT Final Table Standings were official.  Here they are:

Rank	Name	Nickname	Final Table Points	RPUs
1	Brian Ross	Full of Himself	134	740
2	Rob Schilling	Volatile	133	905
3	Grover Sauter	Broken Cactus	126	520
4	Nita Cox		121	155
5	Glenn Tana	T & A	109	1035
6	Tony Huckestein		108	670
7	Darryn Graham	The Dark Horse	107	305
8	Jason Trueman		105	240

 

 

 

With Tony, Rob R., and Darryn all in attendance, I thought we might as well do the 9^th seat random drawing as well.  The players eligible are:

Name	Nickname	Total Points
Dave Levin	FedEx	107
Brian Bennett	Agent Double Zero	103
Doug DeLeo	Raven Doug	92
Jason Ostendorf	Voldemort	90
Brian Harnish	The Bobsleigher	76
Wally Cox	Wally World	67

 

 

 

Each player basically gets a chance to win for every point they accumulate over the year.  Poor points, more chances.  The players were loaded into the Random picker model and the winner of the 9^th Seat at the RPT Final Table is….  WALLY COX!  The lowest chance player hit it!  What an upset!  The FedEx suicide jokes quickly started up again as the worst possible thing happened while FedEx was unabe to attend the tournament…  Sorry FedEx.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also pulled back-up players in case Wally cannot attend.  The 9^th seat backups are FedEx first and then if FedEx cannot attend, then it is Doug Deleo as tertiary backup.

 

 

Well – an action packed night to say the least.  I look forward to seeing everyone at the Final Table.  We have cash games as well as the annual awards that are given out for announced based on everyone’s play.  Come and hang out just for the night and relax even if you are not in the Final Table.

 

 

 

Be sure to recruit some players in for next year as new blood is always beneficial and getting involved in January gives you the best chances of getting a seat at the Final Table.

 

 

Happy Holidays everybody.