Week 28 - Rich Stack, Poor Stack, No Stack

Location:
1st (10p / 1k / $35): Harry "Red Red Wine" Jarvis
2nd (7p / 1k / $15): Ray "Low Pocket Pairs" Flowers
3rd (4p / 1k): Heidi "What Would Randall Do?" Ivey
4th (2p / 1k): Randall "Well, I Wouldn't Do That" Ryan
5th (0p / 0k): Martin "Pokerus Interruptus" Galway
Medium Stakes / 4-1/2 Players / 1 Table / 11:45pm Endtime

Martin, pulling out just before the game climactically begins, nevertheless creates an illegitimate big money night poker. Because Dad's not watching and we want to play some damn cards!

Harry opened the night by opening a bottle of zinfandel, which also opened up his crazy vault, and Harry was out early. But wait...a re-buy.

Ray and Randy big-stacked.

(10 minutes later) How did Harry get so many chips?

(30 minutes later) Ray and Randy small-stacked.

Ray all-in, and doubles up.
Randy all-in, and doubles up.

(15 minutes later) How the hell did Harry get so many goddamn chips?

Randy all-in w/ pocket Ks. Heidi...has pocket As. Nice.

The rest of the night was mostly spent with Randall dealing and Heidi asking him if she was making the right moves whenever she folded, awaiting the answer that rarely came.

In the end, Heidi decided that Ray was going all-in far too much (and winning every time), verbalizing "He can't win 3 in a row. It's got to end some time." And it did...but it was about 6 hands later when Heidi was dealing and Harry knocked Ray when his K-Q suited paired, and Ray's pocket 4s never improved.

Week 27: Please Play With Us. Please.

Location: Chez Bates
1st (10p / 1k / $25): Julie "Wears the Pants" Bates
2nd (7p / 2k / $10): David "Yes Ma'am" Bates
3rd (4p / 3k): Lee "Never Bet a Pair of Jacks" Nichols
4th (2p / k): Martin "Not Out First" Galway
5th (1p / k): Heidi Ivey

After desperately casting about for a quorum, and annoying everyone in the McJo's mailing list with 1,284,883 e-mails, we finally settled on the Bates household up in Cedar Park, because those two gave us sufficient players. Nice digs, and they even had a keg of Shiner (not likely to be a feature at future games there).

I'm late for work and not nearly as funny as Randall, so you'll have to settle for a dry recitation of the facts:

I built a good stack early on with kills of Martin and Heidi, both of whom re-bought. Dave then sent Heidi home when her cowboys lost to his 9-5. Seriously. He hit two pair on the river.

Martin spent some time bleeding out and finally did a desperation all-in and I beat him on the river. I'm pretty sure my three kills was a personal single-game record, but they were ultimately for naught: My J-J all-in got smacked down when Dave, with one 10 in his hand, hit two more on the flop.

This put our gracious hosts into a marital spat, with Julie working David hard with the verbal attack. Mr. Bates was big stack by four or five times, but Mrs. Bates cut him down to size. Sorry, can't remember the major hands, but it was some serious spousal abuse. Martin and I (the dealers) at one point thought the evening was over until we realized the Bates family had a K-3 boat chop. The evening finally ended just after midnight when David's QJ ran into Julie's AQ, and another A on the board cinched it.

Week 26 - What's that smell, Harry? Oh...it's your cards.

Location:
1st (10p / 2k / $): Ray "Biding Time" Flowers
2nd (7p / 1k / $): Harry "Gotta Flop" Jarvis
3rd (4p / 2k): Randall "Wordsmith" Ryan
4th (2p / 1k): Lee "Low Budget" Nichols
5th (1p / 0k): Seamus Rail
6th (1p / 1k): Martin Galway

Top Five things signifyed by Harry Jarvis's return:

5. Martin is no longer "Least Likely To Know It's His Turn To Act"
4. Martin is no longer "Most Likely To Push With Bull Shit"
3. Unemployed musician/consultants can't take one more unemployed Californian moving to Austin
2. Poker nights will undoubtedly run much later
1. Always play 5-3 offsuit

6 people. We should be done early, right?

Oh. Hello Harry.

At 10:15 there were still 6 people at the table (with 2 rebuys). But, Martin had managed to go from big stack (stop me if you've heard this one) to the first person out. Seamus, who had run everyone away from calling Martin's all-in by going all-in himself with K-J offsuit (Martin's A-x held) was karmically the next to fall. And then Harry took over.

Harry goes all-in, Ray calls. Harry has K-8 offsuit, Ray has pocket 8s and has Harry well covered. The flop comes and Ray quads his 8s. Except...Martin & Seamus were dealers, Martin throws down the board, but Seamus had the play deck. So, the correct board has Harry catching his K. Harry survives.

Lee, who's getting quite proficient at playing the short stack well nevertheless succumbed. And then Harry started pushing. Since no one gets a 15-minute run of cards, the smell emenating from Harry's cards began to fill the air. Finally, Harry called all-in when Randall had A-J suited. Harry had 5-3 offsuit.

Flop: 3 (EEK)-J (whew)-8. Turn: 5. River no help, Harry is $1500 over Randall and goes heads-up with Ray. So Heidi bails, but Harry takes her place. Maybe it's "Things That Start With the Letter H."

Alas, Harry's luck ran out as Ray slowly bled him dry. Oh, there was some up and down, and heads up did go a long f-ing time, but eventually it ended.

Welcome back, Harry.

Week 25 - Heidi Goes Marching In

Location:
1st (10p / 4k / $30): Heidi "Who Dat" Ivey
2nd (7p / 1k / $10): Randall "Catch the Ball, Pierre" Ryan
3rd (4p / 1k): Aaron "A-A-R-O-N" Wanstrath
4th (2p / 1k): Paul "Favred" Suvunrungsi
5th (1p / 0k): Lee Nichols
6th (1p / 2k): Martin Galway
7th (1p / 0k): Ray Flowers
8th (1p / 0k): Staci Patterson

Heidi pontificating at the end of the night: "I have been reading philosophy based on quantum physics. People close themselves off to possibilities all the time, seeking something that is very specific, and not being open to other situations that might be better. I'm trying not to close myself off, but instead looking for what's best as opposed to 'this thing' or 'that outcome.' "

This translates literally to: "If I have even one out, I'm not folding."

Of course, Heidi was helped early by Staci pushing hard pre-flop, Heidi calling, Lee going over the top, Staci declaring all-in, Heidi calls, Lee now pot-committed and priced in (NOTE: he was neither pot-committed nor priced in) calls as well. Lee has Ks-Qs, Staci has K-K. Heidi, of course, has A-A. With Staci having virtually one out and Lee needing runner Qs, runner straight or runner flush...well, you know where this one's going.

Staci did provide a fair amount of humor with an unintentional 1-hour imitation of Mick, often punctuated by lamentations such as "Why do I play this game?" "I suck at this." "I must like to deal because I keep coming back." High entertainment.

Ray was knocked out the first time when his pocket 10s did not hold up to Heidi pairing Ks on the river. (Spoiler alert: there is a trend here.) Eventually his rebuy succumbed to various bleeds and pings, again mostly from Heidi.

Martin was next to fall. Then Heidi took out Lee by rolling a Q that paired the board, but didn't beat Lee, before giggling and turning over her 2nd card...revealing a flush that did, indeed beat Lee. Caught on the river, of course. Phrase: Nice Hand.

Paul fell to Randall. Then Aaron, who had survived a couple of...ahem...close calls earlier to come back from the felt to a decent stack got into a little war with Heidi. Pre-flop decent bet from Aaron, Heidi calls. Flop comes A-J-6. Heidi pushes. Aaron calls without hesitation. Turn is something low, like a 3. Heidi pushes. Aaron calls without hesitation again. Flop is a J. Aaron goes all-in. Heidi calls. Aaron reveals A-Q. Heidi reveals...J-8?? So...Aaron was ahead the whole time, Heidi pushed with 2nd best hand, until, of course, she tripped on the river. Well played. Phrase: Well Played.

Heidi & R2 heads-up. Heidi with humongo stack, but Randall digs in early & often. They get to just about even. Randall is dealt K-7, Heidi K-4. Flop comes K-4-10. Heidi bets, Randall calls. Turn is a 10. Randall goes all-in. Heidi calls, thinking she's got 2 pair. Well, she does, but her 4s have been counterfeited by the 10s. So anything below a 7 (other than a 4) is a win for R2, virtually wrapping up the night, and anything 7 or above is a split.

River is a 4.

Phrase: That's Poker.

Maybe Tracy Porter reads the same quantum physics-as-philosophy publications. And maybe the staff from Madame Tussaud's will come and pick up their Colts coach figure.

Week 24

Location: Casa de Flores
1st (10p / $75): Lee "Last Minute" Nichols
2nd (7p / $35): Seamus "Better Late Than Never" Rail
3rd (4p): Heidi "Grace Period Is OVER" Ivey
4th (2p): Randall "Rock Star" Ryan
"Medium" Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 12:00 Endtime

After very nearly not playing (I usually don't play Big Money Night), the reduced $10 fee and the realization that I could put off some work until later enticed me to jump in at the last second. I jumped into an early lead after a lucky Q on the river early on helped me take a big chunk out of Ray's stack and almost double up. That cushion proved to be helpful later when my luck turned and I found myself at low stack.

Thankfully, it wasn't as low as some stacks I've had, and the rising blinds never put much pressure on me. I steadily worked my way back with a series of modest wins (I twice had runs of three consecutive), and found myself in the Final Four.

My memory of exactly how the major hands went down is foggy (thanks for the Scotch, Ray), so please correct me if I'm wrong on these. I can't remember who took Randy out, but it likely was Heidi. (Seriously, folks — after coming in the top 3, including a win, at about half of her appearances, I think it's time to stop giving her any "newbie" charity.) Heidi then made a misstep against Seamus, which gave him a 2-1 or maybe 3-1 advantage over me.

That advantage was reversed when (I think I'm remembering this right) I hit a straight on fourth street and he didn't believe me. We kept trading blows at the $2K-$4K blind level for a while, but I finally (again, I'm not certain about this) I drew A-8 and an ace on the flop. Other cards came indicating a straight possibility. Seamus made a bold all-in, and I had to wonder if he had A with a better kicker or if he'd played a suited 8-9 for the straight. I finally decided my chip advantage was enough to risk it and called, and it turned out he was bluffing with nothing. A laudable way to go down, as he very nearly ran me off.

Week 23 - Ray's It Up

Location:
1st (10p / 2k / $30): Ray "Pushy" Flowers
2nd (7p / 2k / $10): Seaumus "Suit Molester" Rail
3rd (4p / 0k): Laura "Sigh" Zeiner
4th (2p / 2k): Randall "Huh" Ryan
5th (1p / 1k): Heidi Ivey
6th (1p / 0k): Martin Galway
Low Stakes / 6 Players / 1 Table / 11:40pm Endtime

Randall writing for Ray, because Ray can't type, has no wit, and is internet-illiterate. Since game now at Ray's, Randall be good citizen and type for Ray. However, Randall very tired, so Randall make it brief.

Ray won. Ray dickhead.

Fire bad.

WEEK 20 - Mike Takes Offense

1st ($90 / 13 pts): Mike "No Fluke" Kart
2nd ($50/ 9 pts): Ray "No Respect" Flowers
3rd ($0 / 5 pts): Randall "No Pair" Ryan
4th ($0 / 3 pts): Martin "No Love" Galway

High Stakes / 6 Players / 1 Table / 11:10pm Endtime

Have you people figured out yet that I, Mike Kart, am better than you? I can bluff you, I can bait you. I can sit back and watch you kill each other. I can steal your blinds. I allow your arrogance about your own play and disdain for mine work against you. And this time, I brought Dallas so I could beat him straight up as well.

I am Mike Kart. Your worst poker nightmare.

Or maybe I am just stupidly lucky. Like it matters.

Week 18 - Dallas Sends a Surrogate

1st (40$ / 10pts): Mike "Lackey" Kart
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Randall "Foiled Again" Ryan
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Martin "Jacks Suck" Galway
4th ($0 / 2pts): Ray "I Had GOOD Cards" Flowers
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 1140p Endtime

The poker list says Dallas Dickinson is going to play. So...we all trundle to Ray's abode in breathy anticipation. Has fatherhood changed him? Is Bioware beating him up? Will he have the same wry sense of humor, or has life made him fat, incosolable and suicidal?

Who knows, because "Dallas" was actually "Mike." Who had some lame story about having a baby with Dallas and being part of his baby circle of friends. Well, that was obviously just crazy talk; Dallas has no friends since he disowned us. The antennae were up. Whatever "Mike's" stated story was could have no bearing in reality. Clearly, he was a plant. And no, not a ficus. Nuclear, perhaps.

So the bottom line is that Mike won. Is he a good player? Who knows? When you have pocket Kings, Aces and Queens on a consistent basis, it's tough to lose. How, one wonders, did he get them so consistently? Let's take a poll:

a) "Mike" actually can stack the deck
b) Dallas was in Ray's kitchen window giving "Mike" signals
c) The 1,980,426:1 odds that "Mike" would get 42 pocket pairs in 4 hours actually occurred
d) "Mike" is a prototype robot that Dallas is testing for the new game.

Ultimately, we know the real answer can't be that McJo's regulars get beat by new people because the new people are actually competent poker players. Now THAT'S just crazy talk.

Week 17 - Heidi Ho

1st ($35 / 10pts): Heidi "Pretty Cards" Ivey
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Randall "Newbie Bait" Ryan
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ray "No Can Bluff" Flowers
4th ($0 / 2pts): Adam "He Lives" Joseph
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 1105p Endtime

My name is Heidi. I want to learn to play Texas Hold 'Em. Last week, my new friends treated me like they were Roto-Rooter and I was a backed up septic system. So this week, they felt sorry for me and actually tried to teach me things. Here's what I learned:

First, when you have bad cards, it's a really good idea to fold them instead of waiting for the floppy thing and then folding. Or staying to see if the turny thing or the river thing help.

Second, I now know what a flush is! Isn't that funny?

Third, getting dealt a pair of aces is really good. But three of something else is even better. Like 6s. And you can actually beat those people who think their aces are the best! It's fun!

Finally, it's ok to beat the person that introduced you to these swell people. After all, they all have a good sense of humor and lose very gracefully. I can't wait until I'm invited back. Maybe I'll bring cookies.

Week 15

1st ($ / 10pts): Lee "Drought Ends" Nichols
2nd ($0/ 7pts): Martin "Hang Up the Phone" Galway
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ray "Good Neighbor" Flowers
4th ($0 / 2pts): Margaret "I'm Tired" Bridgeman
Low Stakes / 6 Players / 1 Table / 12:10 Endtime

Finally, some rain. I can't remember my last victory, but I know I didn't collect a single one last season, after winning three the year before. So probably been almost two years now. (EDIT: I went back and looked it up. This was my first win since Feb. 27, 2007. And I was wrong, that three-win season was way back in 2005. How can it be that my first season, when I supposedly didn't know @#$% about poker, was my best?)

After almost canceling for lack of a quorum, we moved the game from Chez Flowers to Chez Bridgichols a few blocks up the street and roped Margaret into the game.

The Bates family went out first, the victim of Galway the Merciless. Lee then took out his lovely wife when his KQ hit a Q and took out Margaret's 6-6. KQ was deadly again when Martin hit a KQQ flop, destroying Ray and wounding Lee.

But Lee fought back until he was slightly over Martin, 58K to 52K. Lee decided to raise with his K9, Martin re-raised, Lee called all-in, and Martin, sitting on a pair of ladies, called. Right call at the wrong time: Lee hit a K on the flop and got another on fourth street for good measure.

But the real highlight: Mick and Adam brought over the baby!

Week 14 - The Battle Of Cullen

1st ($60 / 10pts): Martin "Victanimous" Galway
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Ray "Wilted" Flowers
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ken "Austintatious" Neafcy
4th ($0 / 2pts): Randy "The Writer" Ryan
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 1:07am Endtime

Randy likes to write the updates even when he ISN'T the winner... I suggest a change to the rules, Adam! Randy writes ALL the updates!!!

Quite a frugal night, I walked away with "only" $60 (so $55 up from when I walked in the door). Only our awesome hosts re-bought - both of them.

Lee drank from hand #1 and was the first player out. Unfortunately I was the one who kept him coming back for more (punishment).

Margaret was totaled by my great cards twice (including an awesome runner-runner-straight-to-the-Ace) and was out next. In case you are needled by this, Margaret, here's an olive branch:

http://www.nextag.com/turntable-needles/search-html

At this point we enjoyed free Blizzards courtesy of the New Parents who graced us with their presence (and my camera) for half an hour or so.

Eric folded a lot... went all-in a lot... drank a little... and finished 6th.

David was small stacked for much of the night, and finished fifth.

===== THE TOP FOUR =====

Randy, who enjoys writing about himself in the third person, had crap cards all night, and started showing to confirm. He ended up fourth despite "crap cards all night" so what does that say about his playing skillz?

Ken, at his final regular McJo's Poker game before he does the impossible and LEAVES AUSTIN, ended up at the felt at one point but was able to stage a decent comeback to make third. (Ken we will miss you...)

Finally at heads up, Ray and I tussled and I was able to fight back to roughly equal, with lots of small wins. I actually didn't realise how well I'd been doing, since Ray had been chip leader for some time, and playing very well BTW. At head to head, having ANYTHING in your hand is worth a decent raise, and I had five-six of Clubs. So I bet a decent pile of chips. Ray, with Queen-six offsuit, called, and the flop came 3-4-5. We went all-in... I can't remember who first, but the other called. I was looking at top pair with a 6 kicker... Ray was looking at open ended straight. Unfortunately when he didn't get what he needed, it then transpired that I had more chips, and he was toast.

Watch out folks, I am BACK!!! :)

KILLBOARD:
Randy 1
Ken 1
Ray 2
Martin 5

Week 12 - Battle of South Waco

1st ($120 / 13 pts): Randall "One Card" Ryan
2nd ($60/ 9 pts): Ray "Mouthy" Flowers
3rd ($0 / 5 pts): Donnie "Pouncy" Worsham
4th ($0 / 3 pts): David "My Home, Dammit" Bates
High Stakes /7 Players / 1 Table / 11:00pm Endtime

"You're leaving this early?" says the CW.
"Yep." Says me.
"How come?"
"I have to drive to Cedar Park."
Silence. "Should I pack some food?"

Ok, it's not really that far, except after you turn off the highway. THEN, it's that far. Which is probably what will be said next week when poker is hosted in North San Antonio (aka, the Ryan abode).

So, the pokering portion: Julie & David graciously opened up their home to the likes of Ray, Martin and myself. On the first hand I had pocket Js, which tripped on the flop. I took David for a fair amount of chips (for Round 1) and was big stack. A few other early victories led me to exclaim (correctly, as it proved) "I'm not sure I like this. Good cards early probably evens out late."

But for the first 3 rounds things went well, with my never going much below 1.5 times a buy-in, and mostly sitting around $20K-$30K. Staci...well, pocket Qs traditionally do poorly vs. pocket Ks, and all-in with A-9 when you still have a sizeable stack and Paul calls...let's just say she was dealing at about 9:40pm. To add insult to injury, Martin took most of her chips over the course of several hands.

Next to go was Paul, who had fought back from the felt to building about $20K, only to lose it in the space of a few minutes to Donnie and myself. The final hand was one where he had J-8 (I think), Martin had J-10, they had both paired on the flop, but I had also paired on the flop with a Q. They rolled at the end, Martin beating Paul. I made the mistake of only rolling my Q, and was beaten up unmercifully by the remaining players for not showing both cards immediately. Ah well...lack of sleep, no other excuse.

Then play slowed down for a bit until Martin's pocket Qs ran into my pocket Ks, which took out most of his stack. And then, the cards went cold. Not just sort of cold...ice cold. 2-4 off-suit. 10-3. A-6. 8-5. For about an hour. And I'm big stack. But...big enough stack to just bide my time and not do anything stupid while everyone else picked themselves off. Which is basically what happened.

Martin finally succumbed to the inevitable as the blinds grew. Then the wacky hand where David flops a straight, Donnie's on a flush draw and I am fortunate to fold an open-ended straight draw with an A kicker. Donnie flushes on the turn and takes out David.

Play stays reasonably tight with a lot of blind-stealing, until the cards come back in a big way for me with pocket As. Donnie bets $5K pre-flop, I call. Flop comes 3 low cards, but 2 are clubs. I posess no clubs. Donnie bets $4K, I raise to $20K, Donnie goes all-in…on a flush draw with pocket clubs. Thankfully, no more clubs on the turn or river, and I am way, way over Ray.

Ray's strategy is simple and obvious: go all-in all the time. This lasted 2 hands.

And hence, we were done at 11pm. Which means that I got home by 1am.

Just kidding. See you next week. By the way, it's warmer down south.

Indigo "the Kid" McJo arrives!!!

Hail, Hail the newest McJo has emerged! 7lbs 11oz

Week 10, 2009 - Not so epic

1st ($55 / 10pts): Aaron "4 Lives" W
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Ray "BattleShip" F
3rd ($0 / 4pts): David "So Close" B
4th ($0 / 2pts): Adam "85% to win 1 of 2" J
Low Stakes / 9 Players / 1 Table / 1:45am Endtime

Sometimes you don't play your best poker, and you still end up winning.

I had all my chips in 3 times tonight while behind.

Event 1: Pre-River All-In vs Stacy. 8 Outs, 17%, ~5 to 1. Right call on the river, wrong bets everywhere else. Hit. Stacy did not take this well. Sorry Stacy.

Event 2: Pre-Flop All-In vs Adam. A9 vs A10. 37.5% chance to win/tie. Board double paired and we split. Adam tasted blood here.

Event 3: Pre-Flop (sm)All-In vs Adam Q9 suited vs A10, AJ?. ~40% to win. Caught a straight on the turn. Ended Adams night.

I avoided danger elsewhere. The final 3 played very tight and well. Ultimately it came down to who hit something on the flop. Ray & I lasted 1 hand heads up. I hit on the flop, he didn't. Game Set Match.

I didn't notice at the time, but the game ended on my Birthday. So Happy Birthday to me.

Week 9, 2009b - Epic

1st ($ 65/ 10pts): Laura Z
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Staci P
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Mick M
4th ($0 / 2pts): Ray F
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 1:15Endtime

Okay, it wasn't "EPIC." It didn't even go all that late. ... and I was distracted by the fact that I couldn't remember the alternative to Cliff Notes when I was in high school. ANYBODY???

One of the things that keeps me sane during a poker game is that I have an uncanny ability to forget what I had mere seconds after I muck my cards. This is great for my peace of mind, but it makes for a lousy poker recap, so I'm just going to give a stream-of-consciousness ramble about what I do remember:

Things started off slowly enough, with Adam winning a big pot or two early. Martin wasn't there, so there were no crazy 5K bets right out of the gate. We talked about pregnancy a lot. Everyone speculated on Mick's nipples. There was a huge takedown of two people in one big hand. We allowed an extra buy-in because we are nice people (read: greedy bastards). Mick got an urgent red-button phone call from the bead store which caused her great consternation because her straight was cracked by a flush. Dammit! Julie was out early, and even though she claimed to be okay with it, we were still all a little afraid of her. Something about Ken and donkeys. The Dread Pirate Eric started drinking, and that is always worth watching. Then, Staci turned into a big scary bird and started using her pointy beak and sharp talons to peel the very flesh from the bones of her rivals. At least I assume that's what happened; I couldn't see her over her gargantuan stack of chips. Mick brought out a box of coins, and I got distracted again. In the end, it was a battle of the women (well, two women, and one big scary bird), and when Mick was vanquished, I was sure I was next. To my great surprise, I became an uncharacteristically pushy cow, and Staci and I were about dead even for the last hand. We both limped in and the flop came 5-4-6. Ray said,"Your 2-3 is good here." I agreed, since that's what I had, and ended up taking the final hand. Yay!

The end.

Week 8, 2009b

1st ($65 / 10pts): Laura Z
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Staci P
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Mick M
4th ($0 / 2pts): Ray F
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 115 Endtime

TEMP // TEMP // TEMP // TEMP // TEMP

(Laura - You can't edit this one! Just start a new post using this info!!)

Week 7, 2009b

1st ($160 / 13pts): Adam J
2nd ($60/ 9pts): Ray F
3rd ($0 / 5pts): Randy R
4th ($0 / 3pts): Martin G
Low Stakes / 6 Players / 1 Table / 1130 Endtime

To begin with I played super tight. Actually for the first part of round one I didn't play at all. Eric H was at the game, but not to play of course - big wuss - just to visit. Having not seen us in a while he, Christie, and Simon brought over some fine chinese to share with Mick and I.

Once I joined the table I began playing my more speculative game. And though I cashed through Martin G with my first buyin, I quickly found my self digging for another 20d and the accompanying reload.

Ray F made a great call to blow up my All In using his top-paired Ten with a King kicker against my same pair but by out kicking my Queen. In the first three rounds Ray was the killer of all four of the players who would rebuy. On the strength of this smash-and-grab play, he had amassed a dominating chip stack.

Martin G had also played an impressive early game (as he is very capable of doing), but once again I took the roll of his nemesis. I encouraged his own aggression and then pounced on his AllIn bluff with my made boat.

As the game wound down I was also the beneficiary of yet another of the Poker Goddess' penchant for cruelty. The board showed 965/9/5. Randy and I both had a 9 down. Using his 9, and the 9's and 5's on the board he boated. Unfortunately he was U-Boated because I held 96. So my 9's full of 6's, snapped his 9's full of 5's.

I used this boost to my stack to continue my attack on Ray. I was fortunate to be sitting immediately behind him and as he bemoaned after the completion of the game, "Every time I looked you up you had the goods."

Week 6, 2009b

1st ($45 / 10pts): Mick M
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Aaron W
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Donnie C
4th ($0 / 2pts): Brad P
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 1215 Endtime

With the advent of later stages of Mick's pregnancy, she has taken to asking permission to play without the requirement of having to deal when she goes out. But it has been pointed out that this would not be an issue as long as she wins. So to make it easier on everyone else this is just what she did! But it was not so clear that this would happen at first.

Mick was well below everyone when the game went to four-up. But as she has said for a long time, "I really know how to play the short stack..." And using this powerful knowledge she did just that, and slowly overtook everyone. This included Aaron W who compiled the most kills, and subsequently the biggest stack. That is until Mick began her steamroll to the win. Though she conversely had only one kill, it was the one that mattered.

(Ghost written by permission of the mistress.)

Week 5, 2009b

1st ($65 / 10pts): Donnie C
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Ken N
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ray F
4th ($0 / 2pts): Randy R
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 200a Endtime

// TEMP // TEMP // TEMP // TEMP //

(Donnie - You can't edit this one. Start a new post noting this info.)

Week 4, 2009b

1st ($50 / 10pts): Adam J
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Donnie C
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Aaron W
4th ($0 / 2pts): Lee N
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 1215 Endtime

I guess this is the very embodiment of the "at least write something," rule that has been added to the regulations this year...

We had several discussions regarding culture, lewd language, and making fun of a player who not present. Ultimately Lee N played very well, Aaron W played better (and actually had a dominating stack for a while), and Donnie C played exceptionally well - but not quite good enough.

Week 3, 2009b - finally...

1st ($45 / 10pts): Paul S
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Aaron W
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Adam J
4th ($0 / 2pts): Julie B
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 1230 Endtime

well, well, well...i finally got lucky and was able to slay the beast that is aaron. don't really know how (actually, i was anointed by the card gods and really was dealt some pretty good and lucky hands).
the first part of the game was kinda blurry but the final four came down to me, aaron, adam and julie b. aaron was mortally wounded near the beginning, but made a major comeback and had the table pretty much leaning towards him. julie played valiantly to the end even with the bad cards she was getting she was still able to make it to the end without having to rebuy. next was adam who played his usual dominating style. i believe he took a stab at aaron but was unable to catch. now, it was me and the big stack. he had me out chipped by at least 6 or 7 times. it took several hands but i manage to finally take him out. hopefully this wasn't a fluke and i'll be writing more blogs in the future.

Week 2 - 2009b: Just some good old boys...

1st ($185 / 13pts): Aaron "Bo Duke" W
2nd ($95/ 9pts): Adam "Luke Duke" J
3rd ($0 / 5pts): Ray "Rosco P Coltrane" F
4th ($0 / 3pts): Lee "Uncle Jesse" N
High Stakes / 9 Players / 1 Table / 1:30am Endtime

Pyrrhic.

The story tonight isn't so much about the game, but the misery of the following morning. 2am is entirely too late (early?) to finish a poker game when you have to work the next day. I may have won the match, but I'm positive that Adam enjoyed his Wednesday more.

Notes from the night:

New Don was extremely dangerous early. He assaulted the table at will, running over everyone until 1 ill fated hand against Adam. It was an epic collapse.

I've decide that Lee should be drinking at all games from now. Clearly he plays "better" that way.

I think the Dukes of Hazzard qualifies as a cop show.

Week 1 - McJo's 2009b Season

1st ($55 / 10pts): Adam J
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Aaron W
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Randy R
4th ($0 / 2pts): Martin G
Low Stakes / 9 Players / 1 Table / 1230a Endtime

To be honest I don't have great, broad recollections of the game. Most of the evening went on in a manner very similar to games of the past. New and changes to the rules were discussed. The flow and speed of the game was severely impeded at some point by a distracting discussion about one or many of the following topics:
politics (sensibility verses Aaron),
culture (musical history verses Aaron),
technology (Aaron verses his own company),
and bad beats (Aaron... well this time it's Aaron along with the rest of the table verses Martin).

I do have one actual recollection of the night. With four players left we all basically had equal stacks, and everyone was playing very tight. The prospect of a super long game started giving all the players who had real jobs, long drives home, or both great trepidations. It was shortly after this that the one player who had "none of the above," swooped in and won.

SupaTourney Leaders Board & Graph

Here's the Graph:
McJosPoker09TrnyGraph.pdf

Here's the Grid:
McJosPoker09TrnyGrid.pdf

SupaTourney VII - Results

1st - Aaron W - $430 - Only player to win TWO times, nuff said
2nd - Lee N - $240 - Aaron won but Lee had the most impressive performance I've seen. He came back
from 2,750 against 300/600 blinds in round 5 to this amazing finish, and it was NOT a fluke or just lucky play
3rd - Adam J - $150 - So close, but no dice
4th - David B - $90 - Solid, solid play, but ended up hitting second-best hands
5th - Donnie W - $50 - Super stacked at one point, but the cards went cold

6th - Keith N - A great player who got caught pushing
7th - Ray F - Another excellent player who couldn't seem to catch a break
8th - Staci P - A powerful player who got busted speculating
9th - John SD - His solid tournament play just didn't pay off
10th - Jeff K - The out-of-towner who others thought would be a fish, but found a shark

Well done to you all:
11th - Mick M
12th - Ken N
13th - Brad P
14th - David C
15th - Randy R
16th - Jon K
17th - Margaret B
18th - Adam S
19th - Laura B
20th - Eric H
21st - Seamus R
22nd - Jen N
23rd - Martin G

Week 48

1st ($45 / 10pts): Adam J
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Staci P
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Margaret B
4th ($0 / 2pts): Aaron W
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 1200a Endtime

Week 47 - Long awaited return

1st ($60 / 10pts): Aaron "Not Born in the 60's" W
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Adam "Born in the 60's" J
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Laura "Doesn't rhyme with Weiner" Z
4th ($0 / 2pts): Paul "the Mouse" S
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 1:00am Endtime

Tonight was a grind. As with all grinds, from my perspective, it was not very exciting.
I was never the chip leader until at least one round into the heads up match with Adam. Adam did the vast majority of damage at the table. He devasted most everyone's chipstack throughout the night and was firmly in control until the heads up finale.

Mick was out in 15 minutes, losing all of her chips to her husband. The second rebuy coming with an inconsequential pair against Adam's set of Kings. I think everyone at the table knew he had those. Come on Mick! Read the tells! :) I'm pretty sure that he rivered her on the first rebuy as well with one of his many straights during the evening.

This early ousting was particulary rough on the rest of table as Mick proceeded to share her love for Twilight and defending why her dreamy vampires twinkle like diamonds in the light vs bursting into flames. That performance, followed by a Central Market Peanut Butter sugar high, meant that we were averaging around 5 hands per round for the first 3 rounds. Rough.

Martin showed up late, left early.

Julie and Dave exited back to wetback.

Ray got caught in one of Adam's many rushes, which seemed to go on-and-on-and-on.

Margaret held on a long long time before exiting quietly in fifth place.

When we were down to five players, Adam had an enourmous chip lead with the rest of the table being +/- 15K of eachother. Adam had aquired this chip lead through hitting no fewer than 6 straights, at least 3 of which were river triumphs.

I can't recall how Paul exited. It was a small all-in I believe after being bled down round after round. Paul was very quiet the whole night. Shhhhh, the children are the sleeping.

Laura had worked up a decent chip stack before calling me down with mid-pair on a fairly large pot. After which, Adam and I had her outstacked fairly well and it was just a matter of time.

After Laura and Paul had exited, Adam & I were left heads up.
I had roughly 60K, Adam around 160K. The heads up match lasted 3 full rounds and swung back and forth several times. In the end it was my AQ vs Adam's pair of 6's. I hit a queen on the turn and an Ace on the river and it was over.

Week 46 - Neafcy On Call

1st ($60 / 10pts): Ken "Too Fucking Lazy to Blog" Neafcy
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Aaron "Whatever" Wanstrath
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Randall "Streak Ends" Ryan
4th ($0 / 2pts): Wayne "Table Talk" Galway-San
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 11:50p Endtime

Ken sucked out Adam horribly on the river to end Mr. Joseph's night early.

Ken wasted at least 5 minutes of playing time switching sunglasses before betting, checking or folding. He wasted another 12 or so pretending to be thinking before folding until Adam (long since out of the game) called him on it.

Not learning from his last visit to McJo's as big stack, Ken routinely went up against Aaron's big stack and lost. Fortunately, Aaron doinked his chips (and Ken's) off to others along the way.

Ken sucked out Ray eerily similarly to Adam. Ray was ok...he went from $30K to $2100 but just wasn't skilled enough to survive past one more hand.

Ken straighted on the flop to knock me out when I had top pair.

Does anything else matter?

Earth to Wayne alert section:

-Deal only the cards that come off the deck, not the ones that come out of your hand or from the burn/discard pile.

Do not tell people what someone else's cards were after the hand is over, or someone will write you into their blog and not present you favorably ever again.

It is useless to give the cut card to someone else, and then decide to ignore using it until all the cards have been dealt and you've already put out a flop.

And what is your real last name? Until imparted, you are Galway-San, named after he who sired you.

Week 46 - Rivers of Hell

1st ($120 / 13pts): Randall "Final Kill" Ryan
2nd ($60/ 10pts): Martin "Suck-Out Specialist" Galway
3rd ($0 / 5pts): Mick "Not the River" McNulty
4th ($0 / 3pts): Margaret "4th Again?" Bridgeman
High Stakes / 7 Players / 1 Table / 11:44p Endtime

Martin kills Donny on the river when a 3 comes to two-pair his K-3. Donny had K-10. Worse yet, Donny had to deal for the next hour or so.

Martin horribly cripples Adam when he pairs on the river after being way behind.

I cripple Mick when my K-9 straights on the river to beat her A-Q. (At least I had 7 outs at the river instead of merely 2 or 3.)

And those are just the ones I can remember. There were at least two other river suck-outs.

As for the actual ebb and flow, Adam went out after Donny. Aaron was really never in the mix, but managed to hang on for a while. The blinds finally got high enough that he had to make a move and was clobbered by Martin's flush.

Margaret kept a decent stack most of the night, and stayed out of trouble with some seemingly prescient laydowns. For instance, she folded pocket Js pre-flop and rabbit hunted; the board would not have improved her hand and I showed pocket Qs. But late, she lost a huge amount to Mick on a semi-bluff, and was taken out shortly thereafter by Martin.

Mick was big stack at the 2nd break and was even larger 1 round later at about $65K. Then she lost some key hands and was under $20K and fought her way back to having almost $50K, only to have it all disappear in about 3 hands. First the suck-out described above, and then her all-in move ran into Martin's pocket As, which did indeed hold up.

Heads-up went very quickly when my K-Q hit top pair on the flop and straighted on the turn. Martin, unknowingly drawing dead, went all-in. Oops.

3 wins in a row. I've undoubtedly got some horrid weeks coming up.

Week 45 - Beat the Meatles

1st ($55 / 10pts): Randall "On a Roll" Ryan
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Brad "I Got Rolled" Patterson
3rd ($0 / 4pts): David "Reauxling" Bates
4th ($0 / 2pts): Ken "Roll Over" Neafcy
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 125a Endtime

Week 45 notes, observations, and oddities:

-Adam showed up 1 hour late and had only lost $1K to the blinds. In 3 hands he proceeded to rebuy.

-Aaron won a hand, which meant he didn't finish last: he made it all the way to 9th.

-Julie didn't win a hand all night, but showed Aaron how to make the most of it by surviving to 8th place.

-Ray and Adam spent much of Rounds 4 & 5 sitting around $10K. Both tried to claw their way to significance. Both failed.

-Stan was down to $2900 with 10 minutes left in Round 3, built his stack back up to $30K, then lost most of it when Ken refused to go away with Q-8 vs. Stan's A-Q, because Ken mystically knew his questionable hand would 2 pair on the river to beat Stan's top pair/top kicker. Well played, sir.

-In a similar vein, Ken built an enormous stack early that didn't appear to be able to be cracked. He then proceeded to get into a pissing match with Brad, the other big stack, and over the course of about 30 minutes managed to create a gargantuan stack. For Brad.

-David proved that his newbie win a few weeks ago was no fluke. He finished 3rd, but a few unlucky breaks kept him from building a stack much past $30K late, and he finally succumbed at about 1am.

-At about 12:30am, Brad had a 3:1 advantage (about $130K) to the next closest chip stack. Adam, seeing a moment where he could influence the outcome, declared "This is Brad's to lose; everyone expects him to win, so anything short of that is failure." The jinx now fully in place, Brad crapped his pants and obligingly began doinking off his massive stack over the next hour.

-I didn't think it possible, but Mick's iPod might be more annoying than Jeremy's, if only because she has a tendency to like Loopy McLoops A Lot groups. I'm sure they're good to dance to; unfortunately, not a lot of dancing going on at McJo's. I'm declaring an end to the paint-by-numbers computer musicians, and am showing up next week with my iPod full of acid rock/jam band tunes so we can hear music droning on repititiously and annoyingly as played by talented musicians.

-On a related note, we all found out that tonight's table denizens all like Styx, to the amazement of everyone at the table: each person figured they were the only one. Well, except Aaron; he didn't know Styx was anything other a river in hell. Wrong, sir: it was also your all-in hand.

So, this looked a lot like last week..only different. For starters, I did have reasonably decent cards scattered throughout the night, instead of hours of nothing but crap cards. But the play was somewhat similar: a lot of time spent with about 20K until towards the end, a lot of shifting gears on playing style, and enough luck to win pots at the right times.

Week 44

1st ($ 45/ 10pts): Randall "The Prodigy" Ryan
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Ray "The Promoter" Flowers
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ken "The Final Suckout" Neafcy
4th ($0 / 2pts): Margaret "The Wannabe Newbie" Bridgeman
Low Stakes / 8# Players / 1 Table / 1245a Endtime

There are weeks that you win because you had great cards. And then there are weeks like this, where great cards get cracked, pushes have to happen with mediocre cards, you must scratch/claw your way into the wee hours, and then catch a few lucky breaks and have one memorable hand.

I prefer the latter. It gives the illusion that you know what the fuck you're doing, and for at least one week you can pat yourself on the back and say 'damn, I'm good.' Although if one is honest, after allowing yourself 24 hours to savor your victory you realize that your ass probably now has a big target on it for the next week or six.

But I digress.

Early on, I was having the worst possible scenario: catching pre-flop hands that would ultimately be 2nd or 3rd best. I lost with suited big slick, unsuited slick, 10s, A-Q (2 or 3 times) and pocket Qs vs. pocket 7s....only to see the board hit 3-4-5-6. As they say, that's poker. Which of course is code for "fuck you AND the hand you played."

Discussions tonight centered on (what else) the return of Margaret and her assets, why 'nice hand' and 'well played' ere thinly veiled insults, and why we all seek out and listen to music from our past that we now acknowledge to be crap.

So back to cards: Aaron went out first, to the delight of Ray and maybe a couple of others. I'm not sure how long Aaron dealt, but there were 3 mutual friends who had a child, one couple got divorced, another moved to Portland, someone changed jobs, and Aaron was still dealing. No one could take control of the table. At any time, 5 of the 7 remaining players had between 20K & 35K, but no one was dominant, and even the small stacks were always above 10K, making their all-in moves significant. But finally around 1am...ok, maybe 11:00...the dominoes started to fall. Donny, who had a decent stack for much of the evening, finally succumbed. Then a series of suck-outs and chip changes eventually led to the demise of Adam (sucked out by Ken) and Laura (sucked out by me). Margaret desperately courted extra luck by trying to convince herself and everyone else that she'd been away so long that she was again a newbie. Unfortunately, there was no poker doctor to repair her poker hymen, and her run only meant a 4th place finish and relegation to the hell of dealing until it all ended.

I didn't get any kills until late, but isn't that when you want them? Laura and then Margaret added to my chip stack, plus a significant earlier take from Ray (my straight held up against his higher straight draw) gave me a seemingly dominating 130K vs 35K advantage heading into heads-up.

But this was me vs. Ray, the one person who's historically been my nemesis. And at first he put some dents into my armor, building his stack to around 55K. But I continued to push...and he pushed back. We both probably took pots that we shouldn't have due to bravado.

And then I entered a pot with 9c-7c. Flop came: 10c, Jc and 9h. So, I've caught a piece and I'm on both a flush and a gut shot straight draw. I check. Ray bets 6K, I call. Turn is a K. I check again, Ray bets 8K, I call. River: 8c. I have hit the elusive straight flush. I think how to play it and bet 4K. Ray raises to 8K. Margaret (dealing) blurts out "I want to see this go to the end, because I want to see the straight flush." I put Ray all-in, he calls, and he has straighted to the Q...but alas, it is no match for the straight flush.

So I enter week 45 with a target on my back, an outside chance of being a bounty at the Supa Tourney, and the knowledge that, at least for one week, I fucking rock. And the full understanding that it's likely I'll be kicking my own ass next week for cards badly played. But hey...that's poker. Fucker.
.

Week 43

1st ($45 / 10pts): Adam J
2nd ($10 / 7pts): Aaron W
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Paul S
4th ($0 / 2pts): Staci P
Low Stakes / 7 Players / 1 Table / 100a Endtime

Okay let's be perfectly honest, when you are hitting Trips almost every fourth hand it's not so hard to win. Even better is hitting Quads against a completely disbelieving Staci P. One interesting fact that to note is that NONE of these started with me holding a pocket pair. I always hit them with only one card in the hole and the rest on the board. Wild.

But there was a seeming balance to everyone's frustrations of playing against a biased Lady Luck. This was the pleasure of ever so rare sighting of Keith N; though in retrospect his intentions were so obviously malicious. He claimed that his visit to our table was the first time he had played anywhere in months, but we all suspect the truth now.

No one wins our tourney (last year) without being a great and practiced player. It should have been soooooo apparent that he's a shark who only lost this week because he was playing soft. And was doing so just for the purpose of scouting us for this year's tourney. We should have immediately realized the subterfuge when he "led out" by spouting out his concerns for how well Martin G was able to read him at the tourney. "Thank god someone else took you out. 'cause you were definitely my nemesis!" Yeah, right!?

That's also probably why the table was only seven players. Surely many of our more shrewd players saw Keith's name on this week's list and knew better than give him any insights into their play. The rest of us clearly were oblivious.

If only I had figured out what was going on at the time! No way would I have tried to win!!

Week 42

1st ($55 / 10pts): David B
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Ray F
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Randy R
4th ($0 / 2pts): Aaron W
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 1230 Endtime

Week 41

1st ($130 / 13pts): Seamus R
2nd ($70/ 9pts): Randy R
3rd ($0 / 5pts): Julie B
4th ($0 / 3pts): Ed L
Low Stakes / 7 Players / 1 Table / 11:00 Endtime

Week 40

1st ($60/ 10pts): Ray F
2nd ($10 / 7pts): Seamus R
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ken N
4th ($0 / 2pts): Adam J
Low Stakes / 9 Players / 1 Table / 1130p Endtime

Week 39 Results

1st ($50 / 10pts): Adam "Godzilla" J
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Martin "Mothra" G
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Randy "General Ying" R
4th ($0 / 2pts): Ray "Chancellor Yang" F
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 1145 Endtime

Week 38 - Revenge of the Longhair

1st ($65 / 10pts): Randall "Cock" Ryan
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Julie "Cockette" Bates
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ray "Fuck You All" Flowers
4th ($0 / 2pts): Mick "Bag of Dicks" McNulty
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 12:30 Endtime

Things I like most about McJo's (in no particular order)--

1) All players make it a point to be civil towards one another

2) The willingness of participants to help others out if they make a mistake

3) How far people go out of their way to avoid offending anyone at the table

4) Conversation at the table is always something that you would be proud of if your mother was seated.

These and other things make for a fun, festive atmosphere, where any person can feel free to walk in and utter "Shit the dick of Jesus" without fear of reprisal, rebuttal, or anyone looking askance. And if someone tells you to suck a bag of dicks because you called a pre-flop raise with J-4 off-suit to eventually take the hand, they're really telling you how fabulous of a player you are in their own special way.

On to the card game.

Martin unusually flamed out first. Wow, bad day, dude.

Lee went all-in 17 times, losing twice.

Paul played his normal tight game, which earned him a pat on the back and a 7th place finish.

Stan tightened his game up a great deal: I think he played exactly 4 hands. Unfortunately, the last one was pocket 9s vs. Adam's pocket Js. The flop helped naught.

I don't remember exactly how the rest of the night played out, other than Julie really tightened up her game, but when she played a hand she pushed hard. She did re-buy early when Ray & myself got the rare half-kill when we split the pot (we each had A-9 in the hole), but came roaring back with her newly minted stack to kill a number of the remaining combatants and finish 2nd place. Oh, and she brought wine and fresh-baked bread, so really she was the winner.

That being said, I did take my cash & 10 points. So to all of you I say: eat your mother's turd with a fork.

God bless America.

1st ($65 / 10pts): Brad P
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Ray F
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Randy R
4th ($0 / 2pts): Martin G
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 130a Endtime

This was my first win at McJo's poker. It didn't look like it was going to go my way early in the evening as it seemed I was doomed to get hole cards like 94o, J30, etc. I also had the distinction of Adam and Ray sitting directly on my left, so it seemed like there was a raise on every hand.

There were some interesting hands early on, in particular a hand where I folded top pair after the flop. I held Q9, and the flop was something like 962. Staci led out with 5,000 and Randy raised to 10,000. I was compelled to fold my hand, and at the time I couldn't believe I was folding top pair with a very decent kicker. The turn and river brought a 10 and a J. Staci bet a sizable portion of her stack and Randy called. Staci showed a K9 and Randy showed a A9. I would have been out-kicked twice with my Q. I spent most of the rest of the evening guffawing about that hand.

I managed to linger until it got down to three players: Ray, Randy, and me. Randy had been knocking out folks left and right, and had a nice stack. Ray had also accumulated chips. I had about 20,000 left, and could only hope Ray or Randy would knock each other out. Which happened when Randy went all-in with a pair of aces and four to a flush. Ray had flopped a set of tens. Ray now had most of the chips and it appeared I would be bludgeoned like a baby harp seal.

There were several pivotal hands in the heads up game. On one, I went all-in with K9o and Ray called with AQs. My hand improved with each street and I ended up with a full house and some chips to play with but still way behind. Later, Ray raised with AQ and I went all-in pre-flop with pockets threes. The board did not help Ray, and I think at that point I took the chip lead. Ray also got unlucky; he went all-in with AJs and I called with A5s. The board paired our aces and also had a pair of tens with an Q as the kicker. So we ended up splitting a pot, which if Ray had won it would had made us about even in chips.

Fortunately, my best hand of the night was the last hand. Ray went all-in with Ax (a four, I believe), and I called with pockets jacks. I have to say my hand quality improved immeasurably once it got to heads-up, but that may just be perception. I flopped a set of jacks, but if I remember correctly, the turn gave Ray both a straight draw and a flush draw. The river brought the case jack and I won the game with quads. I think that was my only kill on the night as well.

Everyone played really well and it ended up being a good night, so I apologize to Adam and the poker gods for bitching about my hands earlier in the evening. I thank those who stuck around to deal and bear witness to my quads.

Week 33 - TEMP

1st ($120 / 13pts): Ray F
2nd ($60/ 9pts): Carol S
3rd ($0 / 5pts): Randy R
4th ($0 / 3pts): Eric H
High Stakes / 6 Players / 1 Table / 1115p Endtime

Week 32

1st ($55 / 10pts): Adam J
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Paul S
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ken N
4th ($0 / 2pts): Randy R
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 1215 Endtime

notes to follow...

Week 31 - TEMP

1st ($65 / 10pts): Mick M
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Ray F
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Randy R
4th ($0 / 2pts): Ken N
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 100a Endtime

TEMP

Week 29 TEMP

1st ($55 / 10pts): Ray F
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Seamus R
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Martin G
4th ($0 / 2pts): Aaron W
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 115 Endtime

TEMP

Week 28

1st ($160 / 13pts): Eric "the One the Matters" H

2nd ($80/ 9pts): Adam "all that Hard Work..." J
3rd ($0 / 5pts): Ray "Tenacious F"
4th ($0 / 3pts): Martin "My Work here is Done" G
Low Stakes / 9 Players / 1 Table / 1230 Endtime

I believe that this is my first mcjo's victory with the following two interesting stats:
1. my first victory with only one kill
2. my first victory that didn't include a large or game changing/saving suckout

two rarities that I wish I could attribute to pure skill, but which are probably due primarily to the whims of the gods of chance...

it was a fun a well played game all around

eric

Week 27 - TEMP

1st ($60 / 10pts): Mick M
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Derek M
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Aaron W
4th ($0 / 2pts): Adam J
Low Stakes / 9 Players / 1 Table / 1245 Endtime

Week 26

1st ($ / 10pts): Mick Satan's Nemesis McNulty
2nd ($0/ 7pts): Satan
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Paul "I'm hungry" S
4th ($0 / 2pts): Lee "cookie pusher" Nichols
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 11:59 Endtime

The devil went down to "Georgian"- he was lookin for a soul to steal…

When Devon came into the living room tonight, I introduced myself with "Hi, I'm Mick and I will be taking your money tonight." No, shit!

Crazy play ensued in the first two rounds with a lot of rebuys happening early in the game. The new guy, Devon, was making lots of strange calls, and seemed to be ready to go out at almost any moment. He kept going all in, but somehow just wouldn't die. By the third round, it became clear, there was something going on with Devon- he seemed to be winning more than his fair share of hands and his stack was growing. Martin went out first which always makes me happy.

Overall play was lively with lots of banter around the table suckouts galore. Even two pair was beating hands as long as it was in the hands of Devon. We finally just started referring to him as devil instead of devon- which I turned into satan because it sounded more classy. Satan seemed to be toying with us, he deep sighed before he called us, and then continued to strip us mercilessly of our chips.

We were down to six people two medium stacks (Paul and I), one huge satanic stack (devon) and three pitiful stacks, lee, laura, and either Aaron or Ken (can't remember-sorry guys). At some point Paul actually came at me over the top with a 12,000 bet, and I ripped him a new one- he should be eating the little snacks first before he goes for the main course of me! So I took a shit ton of his money with my AQ, but allowed him to live and now I was a huge stack.

We learned many things about Paul last night, first, he should not go on long bike rides before poker, second, he is not faking about being allergic to cats, and finally, he needs to eat more than once a day. Lee's goal for the entire night was to evidently make it to 4th, because he was so excited when he did. It's good to have attainable goals Lee (wouldn't want to set them too high). Satan continued to in ridiculous hands, but there were small chinks in the armor beginning to show. Got down the just Satan and I, and it was the most boring, heads up ever, but ultimately, I took Satan down.

Damn You All

Fine....

Stats are up-to-date.

All I have to say is scroll down and see how lame weeks 18 - 23 look!

...and yes, I know week 22 is on me... :p

Week 25

1st ($120 / 13pts): Adam "I Object" J
2nd ($60/ 9pts): Mick "Over Ruled" M
3rd ($0 / 5pts): Martin "Bi Polar" G
4th ($0 / 3pts): Derek "Super Tight Ten" M
High Stakes / 7 Players / 1 Table / 1215 Endtime

The game was fairly even keeled, and without too many crazy beats. That is except what I would qualify as less of a bad beat and more like a brutal beat. Derek M, a new addition to the rotation, and a fairly novice player got all his chips in having paired the Ace of his AQ. Ironically we had warned him earlier in the evening that if one played long enough you would see every conceivable hand all the way to the Royal Flush, every conceivable suck-out (either for or against you), and all sorts of hands where one is doomed by the cut of the cards. So of course in this hand Derek M had what was an inescapable hand for even the best players, only run into Martin G's Big Slick. Out Derek M went, but despite this he had played very well and finished fourth. And seemingly being a glutton for punishment asked to be added to the regular invite list.

Speaking of Martin G, he of course played his all too familiar style. By mid game he had built a dominating stack. He was then able to speculate with any two cards, and push people out of pots with ridiculous bets. Generally there are no middle ground results for his "5K" Galway onslaught. Either he has an early flame-out, or he steamrolls the table. Now to his credit the big wins actually come for him more often than for many of our more conservative players. But on this night he suffered the former outcome and played the role of his other nickname "ATM" - load him up and then start making withdrawals.

Another notable event was a rare waving of the rules. Aaron W yet again showed us that for him no culture existed before his entry into the world. The iPod shuffled its way to a track from Bauhaus (http://www.bauhausmusik.com/) and he had no idea who they were as a band or what it was as an architectural movement. So out came the web-enabled phones. I of course asked for them to be put away (as is a major house rule), but I was immediately overruled by the Mc of McJos. Over several hands to follow Mick lead readings from Wikipedia and general discussions of both iterations of these cultural movements.

Remarkably both Mick and I fought our way through later rounds with stacks that fell below the 10x Big Blind levels to make it to heads-up. I even took a bad beat to drop me to about 6K with the blinds at 1000/2000. But a few All-Ins later - one of which was a desperate push with 95os which went up against AK and managed to hit a nine - I clawed my way back to a middle chips standing. From there I built up to the win when I figured had no real chance unless I played super aggressive and made some big withdrawals from the "ATM."

It all ended with Mick sure that my big bet was a bluff when we flopped rags. Thinking that I was playing a weak Ace she went All-In with her Anna Kournikova, only to find I had two-paired my measly 82.

Week 24 - No Game

Had a "quorum," lost the "quorum."

Amongst other reasons do to the arrival of Simon D-H!!

How can I concentrate with 1080P in the room?

1st ($55 / 10pts): Aaron "Is he Fu**ing with me? Surely he's Fu**ing with me" W
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Eric "I've got pocket 3's" H
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Paul "Runner Runner Quads" S
4th ($0 / 2pts): Adam "Delivery High" J
Low Stakes / 9 Players / 1 Table / 1:15am Endtime

1080P. It has nothing to do with skateboarding. It has everything to do with 2,073,600 pristine pixels being refreshed every 8.3 milliseconds, perfectly distracting Adam, Paul, & Eric just enough to allow me to take the bracelet for the evening.

The were two instances of quads tonight. One by Martin, one by Paul. Paul's being runner runner quads to beat an over pair. Neither being dramatic game changers.

The most interesting hand of the evening (in my opinion), came between Eric and I that likely ultimately could have decided the night in favor of Eric. We were 3 handed, button on Paul, my small blind, Eric's big blind. Paul Folds, I complete with Qs9s, Eric Checks. Flop is 9c5c3s. I check, Eric bets. I raise. Eric states emphatically, "I don't believe you have crap. I have pocket 3's. I call. I mean I'm all-in." Eric's erroneous call takes us to the turn. The turn is 10h. I would have been pretty sure I was ahead at this point, had Eric not announced his apparent trips in his hand. The pot was significantly large at this point. I assumed that Eric knew that a pair of 3's and pocket 3's were entirely different hands. This was my error, which would ultimately turn out in my favor. I'm not sure if he's F*cking with me or not, so I check . Eric checks. River is 2 or something. I check, still giving Eric credit that he knows the difference between Pocket 3's and a pair of 3's., Eric bets. I have to fold thinking Eric has Trips. Eric shows' two pair, 3-10 from the turn and takes down the pot.

The night ended uncerimoniously with my middle pair beating Eric's bottom pair.

I was of course fortunate enough to have my back to Adam's new toy the entire night. It should be noted that Adam, Paul, and Eric all had clear views of this icon of manliness. I'm quite confident that this contributed to my good fortune. I'm hoping next week that his new table lamp will arrive: Here

Week 23

1st ($55 / 10pts): Aaron W
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Eric H
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Paul S
4th ($0 / 2pts): Adam J
Low Stakes / 9 Players / 1 Table / 115 Endtime

Week 22

1st ($70 / 10pts): Adam J
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Ray F
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Randy R
4th ($0 / 2pts): Mick M
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 1245 Endtime

Week 21

1st ($70 / 10pts): Mick M
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Martin G
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Paul S
4th ($0 / 2pts): Eric H
Low Stakes / 9 Players / 1 Table / 1200 Endtime

Week 20

1st ($160 / 13pts): Ray F
2nd ($80/ 9pts): Adam J
3rd ($0 / 5pts): Seamus R
4th ($0 / 3pts): Daniel O
Low Stakes / 7 Players / 1 Table / 1230a Endtime

Week 19 Results - Two Table Tourney

1st ($50 / 16pts): Laura B
2nd ($30/ 12pts): Margaret B
3rd ($10 / 8pts): Randy R
4th ($5 / 4pts): Ken N
Low Stakes / 14 Players / 2 Table / 145a Endtime

Week 18

1st ($45 / 10pts): Harry J
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Mick M
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Paul S
4th ($0 / 2pts): Seamus R
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 1200 Endtime

Week 17

1st ($50 / 10pts): Seamus R
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Aaron W
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Eric H
4th ($0 / 2pts): Adam J
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 11:30 'ish

Adam had a good start and was ahead for a good part of the game. Thanks to Randy I also had a good start and hung in at the top the whole night. I had a low two pair that I should have folded because I knew Randy had made his straight, but I didn't...hit the full house and thats how my luck went all night. I won with Big Slick hitting a King on the river to beat Aaron's middle pair.

Week 16

1st ($60 / 10pts): Eric H
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Ken N
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Mick M
4th ($0 / 2pts): Aaron W
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 1215a Endtime

TEMP-TEMP-TEMP

Week 15

1st ($165/ 13pts): Dan O.
2nd ($85/ 9pts): Adam J.
3rd ($0 / 5pts): Stan K.
4th ($0 / 3pts): Lee N.
High Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 12:30 Endtime

My Triumphant Return - After almost a year long hiatus I'm baaacckkk!!! Game was fairly uneventful unless you count Eric flinging chips violently at Mick after a nasty little suck out. Tight play started the evening and then Martin started feeling his oats as usual. No major hands of note unless you count the 3 on the board quad 8's I showed to Phil beating his full house. I got lucky with the cards after being patient through most of round 4 and when Adam and I went heads up they just kept coming.

week 14 - TGibin Prep - No Game

week 13

1st ($ / 10pts): Mick "The Dom" McNulty
2nd ($0/ 7pts): Adam "The Submissive" Joseph
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ray "I could do this better than Mick" Flowers
4th ($0 / 2pts): Aaron "I'm tired of dealing" W
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 11:30pm Endtime

I will not play your game- I will play my way damnit.
The early part of the game did not seem to interesting to me- frankly, I was getting such cold cards that I didn't expect to be the one writing this, so I didn't pay much attention. And then there were two hands that changed my night... one of them, I took a gamble and drew to the flush against Paul- bye bye Paul, I had a feeling, and no, we are not even- hehe. Then, on another hand I took a pretty major chunk out of my husband Adam- and that was the beginning of his bloodletting for his big stack. He continued to pass out chips all around the table for a solid 15 minutes.
Somehow we get down to 4 of us and I let Adam, Aaron and Ray duke it out, while I bide my time waiting for the right moment. Long story short, we get to heads up with me versus Adam. Adam has the chip lead, but as he likes to say, "we were basically even". Adam begins to play big stack, big dick poker, with huge raises pre-flop (what a surprise). My cards were colder than they had been all night long, and I began a new career as a "folder". I just kept repeating in my head, "I will not play your game, dicknose, I will play my game". And just like in bedrooms all across the country, the seeming submissive is the one with the real power. I just let Adam try to "big dick" me all over the table while I just fold and smile. Ray and Aaron are whining like little bitches that I keep folding and this game is going to go on forever, blah, blah, blah. They even threaten to start dealing the cards slower to force me into playing hands. I push when I feel like it, and manage to take and lose the chip lead a few times over the course of the next round. "I will not play your game dicknose, I will play mine. I will play my game and my game alone. Turns out Adams safe word was "straight" and my safe word was "boat" and that was the end of the night. That's right the submissive turns out to be dominant after all. Bend over bitches- this riding crop has your name all over it.

Week 12 - Tight Play Marathon

1st ($75 / 10pts): Adam "Robin Hood" J
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Lee "the Lion" N
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Paul "Achilles Heel" S
4th ($0 / 2pts): Randy "Arch Nemesis" Ryan
Low Stakes / 10+1 Players / 1 Table / 200a Endtime

Hey whadda ya' know we had a Quads tonight, but honestly that's not all that unusual - at least at our table recently! I don't even know how to calculate it, but the chances of seeing five Quads over three weeks must be insanely high. Heck the basic odds of hitting while holding a pocket pair is 407:1, so who knows what the chance of this many occurrences is?! Anyway this time it was Aaron W's turn with pocket 10's. And to Ray F's dismay it was to crack his Bullets.

As can be seen by the pay-outs we had multiple rebuys. This also led to Laura B being enticed to stop playing with our recently rescued kitten Raki, and exercise the Vulture rule for a seat. Unfortunately Eric H cursed her by pointing out that almost no one has ever won after doing so. In fact if I recall it correctly, with Eric H being the originator and player to most commonly Vulture, he had often gone out just a few hands after sitting down. Laura B didn't fair much better.

The game it self had rather tight play. I had a good run of cards early, but I wasn't the only one. Both Ray F and our newest player Paul S also took down some major pots and a few kills to build substantial stacks. In fact even with my jumping out to an early lead, by mid-game Paul S was probably 50% again as wealthy. By the time we got to the last four players he probably had as many chips as all the other players at the table combined.

If you note the end time of 2a you will be surprised to know that we were still four players until about 130a - talk about tight play. My cards had gotten ridiculously mediocre, and when I did have good hands it only seemed to mark me as the Robin Hood of the table. Paul S and I stayed relatively clear of each other. But several times over I made the right call with pocket pairs or big hands against both Lee N and Randy R only double them up while hacking away at my stack. So for all my efforts I ended up down to about 22K with 1.5/3 blinds.

I wasn't the only one who got low. Both Lee N and Randy R were down to the felt at least once, but through superb play (and Paul S & my help) they built back up each time. Paul S on the other hand just seemed to slowly and steadily bleed. The fact that his cat allergies began to hit him hard probably didn't help either.

There was one play that I made that I am definitely proud of. In the face of a raise and a re-raise I laid down AT. I would have been crushed, but my mantra of "tight, smart play. tight, smart play...." saved my ass.

When Lee N and I finally got to heads up we started with me having an almost 3:1 chip lead. But his solid aggressive play, and my trepidation built up by the beat downs he had given me had him with the lead within several minutes. Ultimately I changed my mantra to "aggression wins, aggression wins..." and was able to build back to a huge lead and then catch him in a bad spot with my AQs verses his K9h. Neither hit, and my high card held on for the win.

Week 11 -- Grace of The Card Goddess

1st ($120 /13 pts): Randall "Bestowed" Ryan
2nd ($60/9 pts): Adam "False Sense of Security" Joseph
3rd ($0 /5 pts): Mick "Sharpie Tat" McNulty
4th ($0 /3pts): Eric "I'm Not Dead Yet" Hepburn
High Stakes / 6 Players / 1 Table / 12:05am Endtime

We all know there's luck in poker, and even if you play everything correctly it takes some measure of luck to win a tourney. More importantly, when you get lucky is even more critical. I had horrible luck through most of the night, but muddled through to the end, and when it counted the Card Goddess smiled.

We moved to Wednesday so as not to interfere with Election Day. Maybe it was the date change or maybe because it was Big Money night or a combination of the two, but we only had 6 players. 'Tis been a long time since that happened. So we'll be done early, right?

3 rebuys: Eric, Aaron & myself, and all the money went to Adam & Ray, who were both super stacky early and stayed that way. The rest of us poor slobs all fought the felt. First Aaron bit the dust, leaving Eric, Mick & me each well under a buy-in, while Adam & Ray were sitting with roughly $60K & $50K respectively.

Mick, soon after regaling the table with a semi-recount of being deflowered with the biggest...uh...attached organic implement....ever: "Well, we know how this will turn out. These two guys (Adam & Ray) won't go up against each other and they'll bleed out the rest of us." Ray & Adam bump fists, hug, do shots, and generally acknowledge that the evening and the cash shall be theirs. Until...

Adam has big slick, Ray has King-10. The flop comes down K-10-x. Ray, holding 2 pair, bets hard. Adam calls. The turn is an A, giving Adam the higher 2 pair. He bets hard, Ray goes all-in, Adam calls. The turn is inconsequential and Ray is left with 1.5K (all in red chips, for those playing at home). He goes all-in 2 hands later and is summarily bounced from the game, leaving Adam with Super Stack vs. 3 pygmy stacks.

Back to the luck portion of things, it seemed every time I had great cards pre-flop the worst possible boards would hit. My hunches were wrong, my reads on other players were either off or they made me think they were off. And Eric...Eric was a special case. If I had A-Q he had A-K. K-9 when he had K-10. I called his pre-flop all-in with A-K to watch his pair of Js hold. The only consolation was that as much as he wounded me he was never in a position to kill me. And somehow I kept hanging around.

Finally, I caught Eric with a bit of retribution: I had A-Q while he had A-J. Nothing significant hit the board and he finished 4th.

Mick, as she re-draws her fading Henna Halloween tattoos with a Sharpie: "Eric, you know you need to deal me good cards, because if it's just these two guys, they're going to go at it all night." Wow...thanks for the vote of confidence, especially since Adam had 2/3 of the chips at the table and I was 2:1 over Mick with whatever the balance was. And it was right then that The Card Goddess decided to smile on me. Maybe she's really Mick, because for the first time in the night, I had an actual run of decent cards. Roughly 50% of my hands from this point out were playable hands: A-x (with x being something other than sub-6), high suited connectors, mid-pairs, and a couple of high pairs (Qs, As). And just as this was happening, Adam was apparently getting lots of 8-2, 6-3, low pairs (when I'd push with what were probably better cards), and amazingly my stack got to around $50K while his dwindled to the low $60K range. Mick fought & was up & down, but never much more than a buy-in.

Finally, I got pocket 8s. Mick got pocket As, Adam 7-5. Mick slow-played her As to increase the pot. We both take the bait and go to the flop, which comes 7c-6s-5c. Mick goes all in with roughly $11K. Adam, having 2-paired the flop, goes all-in to run me out. However, I've got a pair higher than the board, an open-ended straight draw, and (just to throw in all 'outs') 3 cards to a club flush. After deliberation I call. Adam is obviously ahead at this point. The turn is an A, and now Mick has tripped her Aces and is about to triple up, while Adam is one card from putting me out. The river is...a 9. I hit the straight, take out Mick and leave Adam with $6K. Adam goes all-in blind twice. I fold on the first hand, but the 2nd one I have A-J and call. The flop comes A-A-x, the turn is a J, and I've hit a full house just to rub it in.

Maybe it's all just a cosmic reward for a Midwestern centrist veering into the Democratic camp. Go Barack. And just remember: Indiana voted for you.

Week 10 Results

1st ($65 / 10pts): Mick M
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Adam J
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ray F
4th ($0 / 2pts): Ed L
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 1230 Endtime

If there were any themes tonight- it was quads and jacks.
I am sure someone will disagree with me, but I have never seen as many quads at our table in one night in the history of our game!
Here is the break down of quads
Ed- jacks, nines
Adam- nines (hit on the river to suck out Ed)
Ray- kings (thank god my straight didn’t come on the river!)

And as for the jacks- you didn’t even need a pair of them in the hole, even jack/deuce would turn into something. The one time I personally passed on the jack/deuce bet from Adam’s 12k bet- the board came deuce, deuce, jack (so I would have had a boat)! Never question the poker gods when they decide a particular card is hot!

Eric went out first, but stayed to deal until his birthday brownies were out of the oven. (happy birthday Eric!) Then Martin went out followed closely by Aaron. Down to the final four with Mick, Ray, Ed, and Adam- Ed had the chip lead and Mick was the small stack, but not by a huge margin- according to Adam “ we were all even by his account”, though I can tell you that I felt small. Ed’s fortune changed very quickly and he was out fourth. Ray came in third, which left Mick and Adam to engage in foreplay (I mean duke it out) at the poker table. Heads up went pretty much like you would expect with two aggressive players with moderate swings back and forth. Finally, there was an “all in” and a call, only to reveal we both had Ace/nine in the hole with a nine on the flop. Unfortunately for Adam, Mick’s A9 was suited and the flush came. Can you say huge swing? With only 11K to Mick’s 200K, Adam just started going all in pre-flop- Mick doubled him up once just calling for the fun of it, and I just started folding until a decent hand came along. Then poof! It was all over and Mick had $65 to blow on beads! I would like to thank the academy and all of you who re-bought tonight!

Week 9 - Rain Delayed Game

1st ($55 / 10pts): Adam J
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Randy R
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ken N
4th ($0 / 2pts): Martin G
Low Stakes / 8 Players / 1 Table / 1a Endtime

This tourney was played as a make-up game. So that means that by the time we actually got around to playing it several weeks later I could hardly remember what had happened.....

Heh - Makes no sense right? Well whatever. We did play the game on a Fri and then - before I found time to do the recap - we played the next regular game on the following Tue. Thus without any astounding suckouts, notably bawdy discussions (Mick wasn't there), or otherwise copious notes, I don’t have much to re-tell you my friends! So let's take a wack at just typing for a bit shall we?

It was frankly sad to see how poorly several of the other top players performed that night. Ray F, Eric H, and Mick M all played so passive and poorly that they never had any chance of winning. It was almost as though they weren't there - which they weren't.

Martin G, Ken N, and Randy R all played amazing poker. And kinda like Phil Helmuth says, "If there was no luck in poker, they would have all won!"

I played as poorly as ever, but sucked out almost every hand I was in. So I beat out Randy R for the big payout when my 72os double Quad'ed to torpedo his Bullets over Kowboys Full House.

1st ($ / 10pts): Ray "The Straight" Flowers
2nd ($0/ 7pts): Randy "Gerbilman" Ryan
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Brad "I Wait in The Weeds...And I POUNCE" ?
4th ($0 / 2pts): Mick "Buttball" McNulty
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 1:20 am

We've all been there. You sit...and you wait...9 and 2, fold....Q and 7, fold...over and over again - damn this game! Damn these cards!!

This was the other sort of night for me, exemplified by the first four hands which were all pairs, two of which hit, followed by either very strong starting hands or crazy shit that hits: "hope someone caught that King on the board, because my 4 3 just two-paired...oh, good they did."
Finally my propensity for playing and chasing straights, which I've been trying to control, paid off!!! I have no idea how many times I won the pot (sometimes a very significant pot) with a straight, but it happened enough that the table began to expect it. I also quaded a pair of eights early, but failed to really make them pay. Later in the evening Laura showed me how it's done, and got paid off nicely for her quad (also 8's).

Nearly everyone missed the 2+ hours of heads up between Ray and Randy, except those poor bastards who went out 3rd and 4th, of course (Mick and Brad). The heads up started with me at a significant disadvantage after some sketchy pushes when we were 3 up. I had around 30k, and RRyan had around 200k. Should be over soon, right? muwahahahahaha

The heads-up actually swung back and forth once I built a playable stack, and both of us were down under 50k at least twice before staging our improbable comebacks. The game finally ended in the 10th round (about 1:20 AM) when Randy caught his Q on the flop, and I caught both my 2 and my 3, which managed to hold up.

Significant events (per Randy Ryan):

-Randall had a shitload of kills (6 maybe?)
-6s were hot on the board all night.
-trips were no good for 3/4 of the night. Several people went out when their trips were cracked.
-Mick went out when I called her J-9 pre-flop all-in with Q-10 suited and caught 2 10s on the board.
-Brad went out when I called his J-10 pre-flop all-in with Q-10 suited. (Hmmm...) Nothing was caught, so the Q held up.

also per R2, and infinitely postable:

INSIGNIFICANT EVENTS, aka Stupid Conversation Points

-Aaron fought the notion he was a frat boy
-Mick could obviously make global fraternity assumptions based on UK's outmoded southern-genteel Greek society. SIDE NOTE: My dad went to grad school at UK. He was a TKE. Which is spurious, but interesting in a doesn't-have-any-bearing sort of way.
-AC/DC is amazingly not in Mick's top 10 bands of all time. Or even top 100.
-When Laura is the aggressor, she's no fun to sleep with. (Lee Nichols)
-It rained.
-Ken picked up a prostitute in his cop car on the way home. Purely for research reasons, I'm sure.
-Stacy P. was home naked while Brad P. was playing cards. Or something like that.

Week 6 Results 9-30-08

1st ($ 60/ 10pts): Eric "rawhide" Hepburn
2nd ($10/ 7pts): Ed "i got yer dealer, right here" Liu
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Ken "still second" Neafcy
4th ($0 / 2pts): Adam "paying for all the first place season finishes" Joseph
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 12:45am Endtime

What can I say, after some early poking with a sharp stick (some comment about how he was going to make a great dealer) relative-newcomer-to-the-table Ed, buckled down and made it to heads-up, where he played a solid game. unfortunately for him, the same poker gods that held Mr. Hepburn winless last season, had apparently decreed that he is 'rollin-rollin-rollin-like-rawhide-unstoppable'... so, despite a few big swings and near misses, Ed was eventually steamrolled when his middle-pair-all-in was called by a drawing hand that didn't make the flush or the straight, but did manage to hit a bigger pair on the river... look, they're the poker gods, they aren't under any obligation to make sense, at least not to the likes of us mere mortals.

Ken maintained a consistent level of play for a third place finish tonight, holding steady at second place in the league standings. Adam J. suffered the zero-sum-game consequences of the grace the poker gods have bestowed on yours truly, personally I feel for him, really, I do...
nuff said...
e

Week 5 Results 9/23/08

1st ($ / 10pts): Ken N
2nd ($0/ 7pts): Ray F
3rd ($0 / 4pts): Jen "your men are already dead" N
4th ($0 / 2pts): Randy R
Low Stakes / 10 Players / 1 Table / 1a Endtime

No pink balls this week .. those pink balls shriveled up quicker than the Bush bailout proposal … The air instead was filled with testosterone, sweddy balls, and a heavy smell of musk as an all male heads-up match ..

This weeks game featured very solid play and almost no suckouts and the standings were pretty much determined by those who caught cards and those who didn't. Eric hovered in vulture mode for the first couple of rounds and looked like he was going to make it in when Mick went all-in small stack (after already rebuying) just at the end of round 2. However, just when Eric was about to start picking at her carcass (and kicking it to the curb to take her seat), Laura rushed to her rescue and forced out all the remaining callers (3 or 4 of them) on a draw. Mick took the hand when Laura didnt hit her flush and Eric went home sad, lonely, and with out that taste of Mick in his mouth.

Ray was small stack for a good portion of the night before hitting a nice run to make it to heads up. I was catching cards at the right time as evidenced on the last hand where I gambled four card flush after the flop (Ray went all) and caught it.

I have to give kudos to Mrs. Neafcy making it to third place for the first time.

McJo's Poker League Chronicles

Current Statistics

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Week 28 - Rich Stack, Poor Stack, No Stack

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Week 27: Please Play With Us. Please.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Week 26 - What's that smell, Harry? Oh...it's your cards.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Week 25 - Heidi Goes Marching In

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Week 24

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Week 23 - Ray's It Up

Saturday, January 09, 2010

WEEK 20 - Mike Takes Offense

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Week 18 - Dallas Sends a Surrogate

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Week 17 - Heidi Ho

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Week 15

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Week 14 - The Battle Of Cullen

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Week 12 - Battle of South Waco

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Indigo "the Kid" McJo arrives!!!

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Week 10, 2009 - Not so epic

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Week 9, 2009b - Epic

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Week 8, 2009b

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

Week 7, 2009b

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Week 6, 2009b

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Week 5, 2009b

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Week 4, 2009b

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Week 3, 2009b - finally...

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Week 2 - 2009b: Just some good old boys...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Week 1 - McJo's 2009b Season

Saturday, August 15, 2009

SupaTourney Leaders Board & Graph

SupaTourney VII - Results

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Week 48

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Week 47 - Long awaited return

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Week 46 - Neafcy On Call

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Week 46 - Rivers of Hell

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Week 45 - Beat the Meatles

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Week 44

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Week 43

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Week 42

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Week 41

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Week 40

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Week 39 Results

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Week 38 - Revenge of the Longhair

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Week 33 - TEMP

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Week 32