OK, so I’ll do my best to recap the action, or at least the highlights.
We originally had 20 players signed up, but ended up with only 17 showing up. This made for three tables – two of six, and one of five. Random draw put me at a table with a bunch of players I had never played with before, with the exception of Mamalou. Cherie was our table’s dealer, and she did a pretty good job – at least for the brief period I was sitting down.
Yup. I was the first one eliminated. I was knocked out in 20 minutes, before we even had our first blind increase. Oh, the humiliation.
How did it happen, you ask? Well, my first mistake was playing far too aggressively at a table with players I didn’t know. The smart move would have been to play somewhat tight for the first few hands and feel everyone out, but no – I had a pretty aggressive first hand that paid off, so I kept with it. Until two hands later when Partytom’s mother took over half of my stack in one hand. Ouch.
Finally, I was down to 25% of my original stack. On the button, I got K-Q offsuit. Only two players called the blind, so I figured this was a chance to pick up a couple more chips and went all in on the raise.
They both called it. Fuck.
Flop comes up blank for me. The two callers (Tom’s mom and Mamalou) check.
Turn card. Another blank. Check’s all around.
Finally, the river. Jack. Tom’s mom checks. Lou raises a grand. Tom’s mom folds.
Showdown – I’ve got king high. Lou has…
A PAIR OF FUCKING JACKS.
Yup. He spiked me on the river and took me out. That hurt.
Game progressed from them onward with no real excitement for a while; players getting eliminated here and there, but pretty standard play.
Finally, we collapse down to the final seven players at one table. This is good drama, because only the top six players get paid out. So the first player removed from the final table gets nothing.
Backstreet goes all-in against Brent, and he makes his hand on the river. This makes him double-up, and keeps him in the game. But two hands later, he goes all-in against Rak, who does it to him. Yup. Backstreet lived by the river, and he died by it as well.
As the final table progressed, Tosh kept getting more and more sleepy, and just wanted to go home. Problem is, he kept winning. He would throw out monster bets on crap cards, just to lose…and he’d get called and end up winning. Eventually he was the chip leader.
Finally, it comes down to Partytom and Tosh. It’s about 2:30 AM and they are pretty equal on chip counts. Poor Tosh just wants to go home, but Tom won’t agree to an even split of 1st and 2nd place.
“I want to be the champion”, Tom demands. He suggests that he and Tosh play one final hand – the winner takes first place, the loser takes second. Tosh won’t do it.
Finally, Tosh agrees to forfeit to Tom, accepting 2nd place. As we are about to pay him out, Lou walks in and convinces Tosh to not forfeit, but to play one final hand.
This hand will be playing face up, and it’s just who gets the better cards. Everyone’s watching.
Jen deals 10 – 8 offsuit to Tosh, and 10 – 5 offsuit to Tom. Flop comes 10 – K – 10.
Yup. They both flopped a set. But currently Tosh has the higher kicker.
Turn card comes blank.
And the river…
…is a king.
A mother fucking king.
Yup. They both have tens full of kings. It’s a tie. They split it. Everyone laughs and cheers and is completely dumbfounded.
All in all, a good night of poker. As usual things ran pretty smoothly. I was a little concerned that Tom’s parents were weirded out by sitting at a table with a large gay man shouting out “put yo’ titties on the glass!” over and over, but I figured that was Tom’s fault for bringing them. At least Tosh didn’t tell any girls he wanted to lick their pussy.
Next time, I am going to be a force to be reckoned with, I swear!