And the winner is...

Not this guy!!! Actually, it was me, but I crippled J's stack by cracking is AA with a far inferior hand. At that point I made a deal with him... If I win I'd post his picture again. The tournament was a big success. We had 19 players with a total of 60 buy-ins, re-buys, and add-ons!! That's right our biggest prize pool to date. As usual a cash game ensued and Alex was a big winner. Again, I'm a little late on the post, but better late than never (I am a terrible blogger). I made a deal with Lynn, no more big poker nights until she leaves. So the next game won't be until 14 or 15 Sep. I'll post details very soon, I am considering playing a bounty freeze-out... let me know if that sounds interesting!

All day Poker-- Tournaments and Cash games

Sorry for the late notice on this, I've been on leave and feeling extremely lazy! Tomorrow the cards will be in the air and chips will be moving! Starting at 11 AM I will open my doors and begin hosting satellite tournaments. The satellite winner will receive 3 tokens for the big tournament at 7 PM. Each token is worth 1 buy-in, rebuy, or add-on. You may play and win multiple satellites and use/sell/trade any or all of your buy-in tokens.

The re-buy tournament starting at 7 will run like my normal rebuy tournament. And, of course, cash game to follow as soon as enough people are interested and a table becomes available.

J Wins a big one!

I realize that this post is extremely late, but my internet connection has been down since mid April. Italy is great, but Telecom Italia blows!

Anyway, a big, belated congratulations to J! He took down a big win besting 16 players in the last tournament. The next tourney is TBD as I will be on vacation for the next month.

Will Sonny Repeat???? Find out this Thurs

All,

This Thursday I will host a re-buy tournament beginning at 7 PM. Email me for details/directions. The question remains... will Sonny repeat??? Word on the street is he may not be able to play, but if he does rest-assured he will attempt to defend his crown. Remember that Friday is a down-day, and we all ready have a good number of people confirmed.

Also, as soon as 5 players are ready and available we will have a cash game. The cash game will be a modified dealer's choice (options: NL Hold 'em, PL Omaha, PL Omaha Hi-Lo, PL Razz, PL 7-card).

BYOB and Food/snacks.

Hope to see you there!!!!!

Back to Back!

For the second tournament in a row Sonny D. vanquished all opponents and took another big pay-out. Not only did Sonny finish first for the second tourney in a row, Keyon finished runner-up for the second time in a row! The tournament had 12 players and featured 25 re-buys or add-ons and ran about 4 hours. Sonny and Keyon headed into heads-up play nearly equal and fought over first for nearly 45 minutes.



Another congrats to Sonny, he was also the big cash game winner (in large part because of my money ;) ) All, thanks to all for showing up, see you next time!!!

Tourney and cash game this Saturday!!!!

All,

This Saturday I will host a re-buy tournament beginning at 6 PM. Email me for details/directions.

Also, as soon as 5 players are ready and available we will have a cash game. The cash game will be a modified dealer's choice (options: NL Hold 'em, PL Omaha, PL Omaha Hi-Lo, PL Razz, PL 7-card).

BYOB and Food/snacks.

Hope to see you there!!!!!

Congrats Sonny D!!!!!

Well, the tournament has come and gone, and over-all it turned out great! At its height we had over 30 players and ran 12 different satellites. The main event ran for nearly four hours and made four people a little happier. However, the happiest was Sonny D. He took down all that stood in his way and at the end was the last man standing. He was rewarded by taking home 50% of the total prize pool!! Congratulations Sonny, you are the winner of the Inaugural (hopefully 1st annual) La Casa Nostra Tournament!!! Your trophy (silver card guard) has been ordered and should arrive within the next month. Once it arrives I will post a picture before giving it to him.

Also, I would like to thank Mike for coming down and helping with the tourney!!! I'm sure I could have done it without you, but I wouldn't want to. Of course Mike and Carrie being here also caused the nearly week delay in posting the results... as you might expect every night was a late night as we stayed up drinking and swapping stories. Mike, now that you and Carrie know where we live I really hope you guys decide to come more often!

Thanks to everyone who participated and helped make this tournament a memorable one!!!

La Casa Nostra Inaugural Tournament

The time has come, are you ready?? The "La Casa Nostra" (translated: Our House) Inaugural Tournament will be this Saturday, March 3, 2007. This will be an all day event with the "doors" opening at 10 AM. We will have single table satellites all day, starting as soon as they fill up. The main event will begin at 7:30 PM. Satellites will be fast and furious, while the Main Event will be slow and steady. Below are the blind schedules and payouts.

Satellite Blind Schedule: 10 players
Starting chip count 1,000
SMALL BIG ANTE TIME
25 25 - 10 hands
25 50 - 10 hands
50 100 - 10 hands
100 200 - 10 hands
200 400 - 10 hands
400 800 25 10 hands
800 1600 50 10 hands
1600 3200 100 10 hands
Payout: 1st Entry to Main Event

Main Event Blind Schedule: 20 players max
Starting chip count 3,000

SMALL BIG ANTE TIME

5 10 - 20 minutes
10 15 - 20 minutes
15 20 - 20 minutes
BREAK RACE OFF RED
25 50 - 15 minutes
50 100 - 15 minutes
75 150 - 15 minutes
100 200 - 15 minutes
BREAK
200 400 25 15 minutes
300 600 25 15 minutes
400 800 50 15 minutes
500 1000 50 15 minutes
BREAK RACE OFF GREEN
1000 2000 100 15 minutes
2000 4000 200 15 minutes
4000 8000 300 15 minutes
5000 10000 400 15 minutes
Payout: 1st 50% + trophy; 2nd 25%; 3rd 15%; 4th 10%

We will be using TDA rules, I will be the Tournament Director and Mike will be the other "floor" person. Any discrepancy that I am involved with he will resolve and visa-versa. A note about the "trophy", it is a 1-troy ounce silver card guard. It will have the winner’s name and the winning hand. Since it will be customized it will not be available on the night of the tournament—it will take about two weeks to arrive.

I will have beer on tap. I will also have "grill-it-yourself" burgers, brats, sausage and hotdogs along with chips. If you want something else, or would like to bring something for the group please feel free to bring it. Feel free to bring family.

Cash game will follow the main event (it will likely begin before the main event closes out). Cash game stakes and game will be decided by consensus (however, no wild card games are allowed). If a second cash game starts the higher stakes game will be played on the main table. Email me if you have questions or need directions to the house!!

Good day, but still not happy...

Today I played my 2nd tournament here in Biloxi... I won 2.3K, but I'm not happy. I finished second and was one bad beat from a 5K pay-day. I was heads up each of us about even with a little over 100K in chips each. I caught AKs flopped an inside straight draw and a flush draw. He pushed. I was sure he got a piece of the flop but felt my A and K were clean outs, plus my flush (royal possible), and my inside straight for a total of 17. If I had all 17 I was the favorite so I called. Sure enough he was sitting on J-T and had paired his tens. He had the J of spades so it turns out I had 16 outs--still the favorite. The turn was sweet--a J. Sadly he caught one of his four outs on the river when the Jack filled him up. I was left with a measly 5K in chips. I made a valiant effort, I doubled up twice, but the third time was the charm and I busted out.

This week I lost 600 in a 2/5 NL game (My opponent was All-in for 400 on the flop--J,8,5 w/ 2 clubs. I called with my AA, he had T-T with a club... runner runner clubs), so all in all I am up almost 5K. I'm taking tomorrow off for the Superbowl, then will probably play cash games until next weekend... stay tuned.

Good Start in Biloxi...

This is not my first time to Biloxi, but it is my first time playing poker at the Gulf Coast casinos. After an arduous trans-Atlantic trip I decided to take my first shot at the Casinos. After reading some posts on 2 + 2 I choose the Beau Rivage as my first casino. I gave myself a 300 "allowance" for the week and went with the intentions of playing the $100 tournament (that I read about on the BB). However, when I got there they were running bigger tournaments to compete with the IPs tournaments (IP Classic). The buy-in was $300 + 40. I was ready to play a tournament so I figured I might as well blow my load and take a shot at the $15K guaranteed payout. With good play and some luck I was able to win the tourney-- well kind of. The game was supposed to pay 9, but we all agreed to give 10th place their money back. When it got to 8 a chop, based on chip count, was proposed. I was the chip leader at the time and we all agreed. I took in $3200. I was sitting at 51K in chips with 2 shorts stacks (under 6K), 2 others sitting at about 25-30K and the rest somewhere in between. The deal proposed probably wasn't the best deal for me--but I accepted it for 2 big reasons. First, I was wiped out. 30 hours of travel yesterday and 7 hours of grinding it out had me looking forward to getting back to the room and crash (after posting). Second, first place paid a little over 6K... but, if you win over 5K you must fill out a tax form and give uncle sam his "share". Realistically I would have finished no worse than 6th (of course I thought I'd win). The chop would have put my pay out a little higher than the 3rd place spot. With these two factors I went along--with factor one being the more important factor. Possibly a mistake... I probably should have waited it out a few minutes to see what happened to the two guys on life support--it could have made me a bit more--but I was happy to walk a way with 10 times my investment.

Three very interesting hands I want to talk about. The first hand was significant, and it crippled me in a big way. I was BB and was dealt 88. Starting chip count 4K, Single blind of 25 chips. Four guys limped in and I raised to 200 and got one caller. Since I didn't get re-raised I felt comfortable that I had the best starting hand, but I still wanted a favorable flop--and boy did I get it! Flop fell J-9-8 rainbow. Of course I was a little worried about a Q-T but didn't think it was likely. I noticed that the guy was watching me when the flop rolled out so I guessed that he felt confident on his ability to read people. I intentionally overbet the pot... throwing in 700. Then I put on a little acting job. I stared dead at him and held my breath. I noticed he read my "bluff" tells and made the call... I was expecting that he would raise after carefully watching me. However he only called... I was putting him on A-9 or T-J. The turn brought another 9. Obviously I was thrilled!!! I felt the best course of action was to put out an intentionally mediocre bet of 1.4K and gave the same stare down/breath holding hoping he would go over the top. He watched me and was thinking hard, now I was convinced he had A-9 and was hoping he was also on a flush draw. Unfortunately (I thought at the time) he only called. The river was devistating. Another J, one of the 3 cards I feared. I new I was screwed and checked. He bet a scared 700. I had 1700 and considered pushing on the now bluff. It was to early to know if he'd lay it down so I didn't. I was also too stubborn to pass (probably a mistake), I called... sure enough, he filled up his A-9 on the river. I was feeling pretty down, but before the first break I clawed back to 2900 and was feeling a lot better. I played well and soon got back in healthy chip-count zone.

The next hand I want to talk about was my "lucky" hand. I have heard it said that you have to get lucky in a big tournament to win, and this was no exception. Blinds were 300/600 and a 25 or 50 ante. I was small blind with K-J of diamonds. Everyone folded to the button, one of the big stacks and a guy who had regularly been stealing blinds, he raised to 1800. I called and was left with around 3500. The BB also called and he was left with about 4500. The flop came J-7-3 all unsuited but no diamond. I pushed All-in (a move which I believe was correct). The BB thought for about 30 seconds and called, button folded. I said to the BB "you have an ace kicker don't you". He said yes and flipped of the A-J off. I stood up and was gathering my stuff... then a King fell on the river. Of course I was ecstatic, but I felt somewhat bad (since I am usually on the other end of that luck). I said "you had the best hand, I got lucky". The guy was steaming! At first he just nodded, but about 5 minutes later he called me a donkey. I chuckled and said that he could call it what he wanted but I still had almost all of his chips. He later came up and said he was sorry--he was just upset. I told him "that's too bad, I'd rather have you steaming". With my suck out I was in a lot more comfortable position and could relax a bit.

The next important hand came with 11 players left. I was on the button and the extremely aggressive, fairly loose Asian guy raised the pot. He and I were real close in chip count, I had him by a couple hundred chips (2 or 4 I can't remember). I was the chip leader at the table (6 person) and was holding AJ off. Blinds were something like 600/1200 with a 100 ante. As I said he raised from middle position and made it 3500 to go. I re-raised to 7K and he called. Flop came A-Q-8 rainbow. He was first to act and shoved all his chips in, around 20K. I had seem him play a lot of A-rag and knew that was a strong possibility. I felt AK or AQ was EXTREMELY unlikely, but I did fear A8 or a set of 8s. It was definitely a huge over bet, and we were on the bubble so I decided the non-paired A rag was more likely. I called and was relieved to see A3 suited. The turn was no help for him and killed his flush draw. The river was a blank and I was in great position and sailed into the money.

All in all, I was surprised at what I saw here. I expected generally poor play, but the game was much better than I expected. Of course there were a few bad players, but all in all it was a quality field. I don't know if it was normal for this area or not. A bunch of guys were stopping by Biloxi on their way back, or in conjunction with a trip to Tunica for the WSOP and WTP circuits and were not locals. We'll see next weekend!

Building my Poker Table: Day after 3++

The main portion for today was to finish the rail. I thought stapling the rail would be a pain, but I had no idea how labor intensive this portion of the project would be. HOLY CRAP, the rail is a lot of work and a major pain!! I bought a Craftsman staple gun and it was definitely up to task... but the stapling wasn't the hard part--it was the vinyl pulling and the foam compressing that was the hard work. This was, by far, the most strenous portion of the project so far (not the hardest from a skill standpoint, but definitely the most work). The first picture for today is a picture of the rail with the foam glued down. The foam was cut in 6 pieces, so I was worried about the seam. To remedy this I placed a very thin black piece of foam over top of the thick foam (not pictured). It must have worked because you can not feel the seam in the final product. The next few pics are attaching the vinyl to the rail. I used Whisper vinyl (its pleather like) and I HIGHLY recemend springing the extra bucks on this vinyl. After completing the rail I couldn't help myself and had to lay the felt on top and place the cup holders to get an idea of how the final product would look... and I took a picture (and played a few hands too!). The last picture is the first coat of stain on the rail. Hopefully, if the bigger felt comes in, I will have it finished in time for Thursday nights game!!!

Building my Poker Table: Day 3++

Well, I haven't posted pictures in a while, but we have been working on the table a little. However, we ran into a few snags. First problem, holiday season and free time was limited. On the days I was able to work on the table the shop was closed! The next problem we ran into was creating the holes for the cup holders. I purchased a large hole bit for the drill that would have worked perfect, but the hole was a shade to big. I wanted a very tight fit for the cup holders, and the hole bit produced a fit that was just too loose. Next we tried using a jigsaw. This worked, but the hole was ugly (in retrospect it would have been fine, and I wasted too much time trying to get "nice" holes), if we had a blade with more TPI the jigsaw would have been fine. Finally we settled on a plunge router to get the job done. The plunge router worked fine, but it was a major pain. For the base we borrowed a roto-zip. I didn't think that the tiny bit would cut through 3/4" plywood, but it did! Plus it had a circle jig that made the process really easy. Bottom-line, I recommend picking up a roto-zip for a project like this. After cutting the holes we drilled the holes in the table-top and base to sink the t-nut and bolt the base to the top. Then we brought the project to my house to "upholster" the table. Here we ran into another problem. The suited felt I ordered was too small (width wise). New felt has been ordered and is on the way. Today we will pad the rail and start staining the racetrack. If the felt gets here by Wed then we can finish the table and hold a cash game on Thurs (then I'm off to Mississippi for a month). Below are pictures of the race track, base and playing surface.