SD.net Texas Hold'm Tournament Thread (Q3 Tournament Winner: RAMMY! Week 13 Champ: Yardboy) - This thread provided with sandwiches, cold beer, and generous OTs!

Summary from last week's event :

Week 13: (by YardBoy) Finally got a win in this little thing of ours, after weeks of mid-field finishes. I guess the hand that put me up a bit and set me on the path to victory was the hand that busted Arj. At 50/100 I was the big blind with 84 and no raise. Flop came 2c4c3d and, trying to buy one cheaply, I bet out 200. Tripp called to my left and short-stacked Arj went all-in for 328 more. Getting between 3- and 4-to-1 on my call but with barely more than sand in my hands, I was taken back to a few tournaments ago when some of us ganged up on Rammy for not making an "auto-call"... I mentally flipped a coin and made the call. Arj's QJ of clubs caught a flush with the turn 3c but the river came a two-outer 4 and I took it down. That seemed to set the mood for the next half hour, as hand after hand brought the best flopped-sets and overpairs you could ask for, only to take the most severe river beatings you could imagine.

At 75/150 I picked up a nice pot off Iconian, who bet 450 on the flop into my set of 9's - no call from him on my 600-chip raise. Three hands later I tangled with Marnols - I bet out 300 when my paired K had her paired J on the flop, she min-raised my min-bet with two-pair on the turn, I called and hit trips on the river. Ten or so hands later I busted Tripp's QJ with a K9c, 9 on the flop and 9 on the turn. A couple more aggressively-bet decent hands had me leading the field of 6 with 1/3 of the chips in play. Should have been easy to ride it out for a while, unless you do something stupid like mis-clicking a 1172-chip pre-flop call with 52 offsuit while your kid cries in your ear about monsters in his room. These things happen - we must persevere and see our way through life's little speed bumps.

MaxStPolish (Vino) went on a tear - he busted Iconian a few hands after my misstep - Iconian was priced in at the turn after Vino caught trips. Marnols went out to Max's set of T's, and Shill dropped to his set of 7's. His luck ran out eventually, though. At 200/400 I raised to 1200 with TJh, he called with 54h. Qd8h2h on the flop gave us both flush draws, I bet out another 1200 and he called. The turn 7c saw us check-check and I bet out another 1200 when the river brought the Tc. I felt very confident that I had the best hand and clicked "check/call any" while he contemplated moving all-in... he did and away he went.

This left me almost 2-to-1 against Mav. On the very next hand my J4 had his J3 DOMINATED and I should have won it right there, but the board pair of 5's counterfeited us to a split pot. We circled the ring for about 13 more hands, trading chips with neither really getting the best of the other, and then he just got plain unlucky. Moving all-in with his J7 on a flop of J64, he ran head-first into my lucky J6c and it was all over.

Current Sponsored Prizes: top 13 players score prizes!

Quarterly prizes:
Free license to Holdem Indicator (courtesy http://www.holdemindicator.com/)
Baseball cap from PokerStars (link [pokerstars.com]) - 2 being offered as prizes
T-Shirt from PokerStars (M, L, XL, XXL) (link [pokerstars.com]) - 2 being offered as prizes each quarter
Shwamee.com Giftpack (~$40 retail value) from Yardboy (link [Shwamee.com])
OTs that'll make your head spin from Jennz
$10 iTunes GC (from Tripp and http://www.prt.net)
$25 Gift card to Walmart, Target, or Amazon (from CCJ)
Norwood 2.1 Computer speakers linky [amazon.com](from Willboy)
"New Orleans Voodoo Bark" candy - mouth-watering OTs from Goatroper
Dirty little OTs from Dizzy Devil

Special Prizes:
Novembergulf.com AMEX giftcard for year-end winner from Vec (link [Novembergulf.com])

The "Over 50 Club". Players participating in over 50 events are awarded their choice of PokerStars Baseball cap or T-Shirt. Current members include Rammy, MavTech, Schly and most recently Tripp.

Total Points in 2007 Q3 Tournament:
660.6 Xoch (Rammy)
633.3 Shill Player
612.8 Iconian
582.6 RL007
526.9 trippwwf
522.3 Jinzo (CCJ)
515.6 Mavtech
449.9 bbrunick
418.6 MaxStPolish (Vino)
411.2 GiantPeach (Yardboy)
411.1 marnols
363.1 Janeey
342.2 Shoagie
253.7 Homefrrie
242.2 Jexxx
239.0 vec516
238.5 RandomGirl
234.3 Shur1k3n
227.8 goatroper605
224.1 arjunsr
218.9 sevillada_07
200.2 former attn whore
188.4 Pestogil
185.0 Big John (Willboy)
172.4 wuzzy69
169.9 Dean_siu
166.9 SirNutsAlot1
102.0 ahnil8er
96.8 BoccaBadBoy
77.1 Billb321
71.2 Chessmany3k
57.0 OwensII
45.4 Mchat
44.9 knlmwq
42.5 Geaux Time
28.5 Bogey419
27.6 redjen910
26.0 Yotafan
25.9 Clownfishboy
24.5 LuckyDoug70 (Stealth)
23.8 Malfx

Tournament Format:

- Tuesdays, 9pm on PokerStars.com, $5+0.50 entry fee each week
- Open to all Loungers and they can invite guests (on approval)
- Additional SlickDealers are welcome to apply to participate, PM to apply - I'd prefer newcomers from HotDeals to have 50 posts to apply or provide me OTs in exchange for the password
- Weekly password is selected from previous week's winner (if password not selected by Friday night, winner gives up right of selection)
- Winners of each event are expected to write event summary (or forfeit points for that event)
- Points accumulate with each game played, champion crowned each quarter
- Seeking additional sponsors for the event - ie participants welcome to supply promotional items from their business or even regifted Christmas gifts. Please PM me if you'd like to supply something.
- Championship event (end of 2007) will match all quarterly/annual winners in a higher stakes game (open for discussion)

Previous Week Writeups:
Week 12: (by Vino) Well, I did say after my 1st place finish in week 10 and my last place finish in week 11, I was due for either 10th or 1st. I enjoyed the latter There are actually two summaries to write, so I'll keep them brief and write them both.

From my POV- It was seriously the easiest tournament I ever played (understanding Rammy was not in the tournament). While I do credit myself on many levels. First off never going to showdown with less than a 48% chance to win (typically in pre-flop all in's by others) and generally not going to showdown otherwise without the nuts/or premium hands, except in the latter leg of the final table when I had people covered 15+ times over, was blinded, which accounted for 1/3rd-ish of the other person's all in call. Then I did go in as a dog a couple times, but with proper value to take someone out. That's when I will credit "PS magic" for handling the final touch for me. I wish I grabbed the stats from that game, I may have flirted with 50-75 pots taken without showdown. When I got my muscles, I flexed them good and hard. But relatively wisely too. Once I took mav out with my JK vs his JA on the 10 Q A flop. (I believe blinds were 200/400 and he made it 1,200 to go, which I called. I had about 10k in chips and said WTF....it was good) I pretty much siphoned the rest of the field out as it was down to four and bubble time, pretty much reserving my win at that point.

From the field--Man, WTF. PS must have seriously just "picked" vino's account to win!!!!! I have no clue how "good" or not he was playing, but it seemed that at any showdown, pre-flop all in, or critical point in the tourney, he would get the card he needed.....even after the stupid site teases me with top pair or two overpairs made on the flop. I mean seriously, is he blowing the programmer at PS? Gawd!!!!!

In the end I do contend that I played a very, very good tournament. Just about every move I made was correct when done (in poker standards), sans perhaps my JK call to Mav's JA, but a flop's a flop. And knowing my relatively loose calling, especially with a huge chip stack, a 10 Q A flop is deadly for a guy that just makes top pair with a gutshot. The cards were just flowing for me though, and that made the journey a lot easier.


Week 11: (from Iconian) Ok, well this week i started with few decent hands, i think i got JJ on hand #5, i raised 5x and anil reraised me, usually play is push, but since it was JJ, i could never show my face here again if i lost it. I fold it and he showed QQ. For the next hour it was pretty quiet at our table but i did manage to see shuriken OWN jexx's AA with 85(jexx raised the minimum........) (flop ws 335, and jexx pushed, shur called and turn/river were 5's (welcome to PS). At one point i was down to 500 chips then after i doubled up, i got AA on flop, rammie, the bullie that he is, raised heavily into me and i owned his KJ(thanx).As soon as 2nd break was over, i got AK suited and pushed with 2.8k shur called with tt and i flopped 2 pair. GG . There were plenty of exciting hands most notable ccj owning rammie with 54 i think(she had 200 chips left and elected to check preflop and checked til river when she got straight hehe). The final 3 of us (with tripp and marnols) had a nice hand. I was bb and had qt h, tripp checked, marney raised minimum and we both called, flop came to 8jq, i pushed, tripp folded(i dunno how as they both flopped had AK), marney called and that was the end of her. Headsup was boring with me not getting ANYTHING til tripp had 2:1 chip lead on me. Last 2hands werethe game: i had 62, floped 6 xx with 2 clubs, i kept betting 1200 and tripp had club draw he never hit. we had about even chips (i was slightly ahead). Next hand i got 99, raised 3x, he called i flopped a set (i think i checked), he pushed and i called.

Week 10: (by Vino) It was a cloudy evening. The birds chirped with a sense of crimson abundence in the air. Wait, wrong writeup........

Anyways, things started off slow, I built up a couple hundred chips, but pretty much laid low. Then I got the itch against RL. He made a pot bet after flopping top pair, I had a gutshot str8 with an A as well. I called loosely. The turn provided a 3rd spade matching my A. He pot bet again. Still the underdog, but with another 9 nut outs, in addition to the 7 probable outs, I couldn't call the flop like a douche and not make this call. Naturally the poker gods bestowed the nut straight on the river and after a small bet, I went over the top, and received a recluctant call from RL who's top pair was bettered to a Q high flush.
After that double up, I coasted for the next 40 minutes, hitting break right around the 3K mark I made after that hand.
The a lot of poker was played. Nothing overly notable in my memory. That is until we got to 5 people remaining. CCJ was the low stack, but within 15 minutes of being down to 5, everyone was pretty even fluctuating around the 5K chip mark. Blinds were up to 200/400 (25 or 50 ante), so there was a lot of dancing going on. I was actually down to about 3500-4000 chips and in 5/5 place when I got dealt pocket K's on blind. Schly made it 1600 to go, and marnols cold called him. I then made my push all-in, which was folded by both (Schly pocket 10s, Marnols A X) I was thrilled to get the boost back into hte 7K range without seeing a card.

The dance continued. After the 2nd break, CCJ and Schly were starting to fall off the pace a bit with horrid cards. Schly made his move as first to act with A8 suited and pushed all in. My AA call was assured after everyone folded and the A's held. Shortly after CCJ pushed all in with 1,500 chips and was called across the board. I knew I called my 3/8 off suit in the small blind for a reason as the 8 hit the river to give me 2 pair, and the win. (note, once schly went out, the tourney wrapped up in about 7 minutes or so)

The new guy, in a new hand raised me like 3x BB, and I called with 79 suited. Made top pair 9's. We both checked (dumb play by me, i know). A Q hit the turn, giving me a flush draw and 2nd pair. I bet 2K, he made it 6K, I called, hit my flush, saw he had the Q, and gave me a silly chip lead over marnols. After a frivolous 27 off raise that stole a blind, I got dealt QQ. After a 6 10 J board, marnols called my all in with 65, no love was found, and the QQ took it down.

Week 9: (by MavTech) The Ultimate Suck Out Queen takes the pot!

It ended up being that no one.....I mean no one could stop bbrunick and her never-ending luck. Rammy started the trend by getting her all-in after the flop with a commanding AJ vs. her QJ holding only to double her up with a Q on the river. BigJohn led the way most of the night. He held a commanding lead in chips for the whole final table from what I remember. For me, I started out with the hands I have been getting the past couple months on Poker Stars. I was constantly forced to play with nothing higher than A5. I finally got lucky when I was dealt pocket 4s. I hit my set on the flop. But, 2 of the cards were diamonds. So, I did fear the possible flush. The turn was a 7 of diamonds. So, now the flush is more likely. I don't want her to see the river. So, I raise, Janeey re-raises, I push all in. She calls. Crap! She has her flush. But, the board doubles up on the river to give me a boat. This was my chance to finally win. I then took out Shill who didn't seem into it at that time. I was the chip leader for a very brief time. But.......I then ran into bbrunick. I raise to $1200 or so, she pushes all in with A5. I call with AK. A K and a 5 hit the flop. But, another 5 hits the turn to give her the win. I think this was the beginning of the ass-raping she put on me, BigJohn, and sevillada. That was some of the worst luck I think I have seen. She was hitting river wins left and right. It just didn't seem right. Drama! I tell you it's rigged for Drama!! The game was soon over after I went out. She went heads up with BigJohn. I think she won with AQ against Aj or something like that. But, someone else would have to clear that up for me since I closed River Stars as soon as I lost.....on the river no doubt.

Week 8: (by Rammy) Ladies ... if a man politely asks you for a beer, take the lesson from Janeey and get him a damn beer. Twice Janeey turned down this simple request and the poker Gods eagerly sought their revenge! She did come in the money but was sent packing to the kitchen by Iconian following a frigid run on a cold deck ... 11 hands folded around times by the 3 of us. Even though I showed up late, I did get a chance to enjoy watching Tripp milk Vec with his namesake twice (with trips) but his luck ran out when Vec left the tournament. Mav's ranting hurt his chances and went out in 5th with AQ vs. my 7s (I hit a 3rd one on the turn). Similarly, Schly was on tilt but had angered the poker Gods. His A-10s lost to my Q-4o for a grand suckout and Schly bubbled out Poker Gods very kind to me, providing me Ks twice in the BB which I showed twice after no callers and this mojo may have scared folks. I was only in 8 showdowns (winning 6) in 299 hands and when Iconian pushed his QJ into my KQ, I gladly called. We both hit the flop, but my top pair held. Yahtzee!

Week 7: Unconfirmed reports note that Tripp enjoys the company of the clergy and sheep.

Week 6: (by Iconian) The night started young, chessmany3k and big john went out early (what else is new lol(just kidding ladies)). Then we proceeded to lose adshover (no clue how he lost, but chances are he pushed with 27 OS), and Rammy who walked with his QQ into Yardboy's AA's. After we called Rammy a fish and few other choice names that i cannot repeat on this family board, the things calmed a little. Rl007 tried to survive first 150 hands by pushing at least 10 times. I doubled up on dean, and remained steady until my awesome bluff on yardboy(seeing u fakeout a few farkers, made me wanna try it for the first time in my life lol). This is where things changed. RL007 started hitting pockets and within 10-20 hands went from low stack to cheap leader. Max/shill/knl all went out by losing some uninteresting hands (it should be noted, that there were 3 major hands where people pushed preflop and major underdog's won(shill's AT versus pestogil's AJ, flopping ten on flop but AJ winning with straight, shill's AJ versus pestogil's KK and flopped set of kings, and losing to straight, and pestogil and me with AJ's split pot). In the end all 3 kinda split equally and shill/i gained a little bit on chips and pestogil went out(he lost like 300-400 chips each time and went under a 1k so had to push). I forgot how GP(yardboy) went out (gp/yb was short and pushed with QJs to third place finisher who had KQ), but i took out sevilla with 44 versus kq preflop (flopped a set), and then it was just rl007 and me. We passed chips for 10-20 hands and when i got TT i raised 2k to 2400 (i had 8k left, he had 22k+ and blinds were 600/1200). He put me all in and i called. He had KQ and caught queen on the river; show over, i went to bed sucking on my thumb and cried myself to sleep like a little girl.


Week 5: Great night for catching cards as Rammy doubled up early with AK against Shoagie's pocket Jacks (c'mon, you know better!) then again knocking out Goatroper's little boat with one that required a larger dock and crippled CCJ on her bad bluff. However, Rammy's chip lead was chipped away until he was the small stack at the table and thus came the hand of the night. SirNuts, GiantPeach, and Rammy were at the final table and a little desperate perhaps, Rammy pushed with 26o and SirNuts called with AQ (the nerve!). Both the turn and the river were 6s

Head to head featured Rammy & SirNuts trading blows but facing a 5 to 1 chip deficit, Rammy needed PokerStars to come through and boy did it. Pushing ~5k with a pair of 2s, SirNuts called with J9 and the flop was a very favorable 8-10-J giving SirNuts top pair, 4 to a flush, and straight draw. The 2 on the turn and blank on the river nixed that hand and Rammy doubled up. Final hand was was last gasp effort of two tired poker players. Flop was AQ9, Rammy push with his Q, SirNuts thought he smelled a fish and called with his bottom pair of 9s and Rammy took home the win.

Week 4: (by Homefrrie) I started off really slow.. not hitting any flops. I waited, got bounced around to a few tables (thanks PS), and eventually got a string of luck together. With me being a solo limper, Mav raised with pocket Kings, I called with 7/10o. The flop came 7,5,7 and sadly for Mav, his third never came and he was out. A few hands later, I had pocket K's and Anhil called my preflop raise from his BB with 4/5 off. With the flop coming 2,3,5... Ahil could't get away from it. By the end of the hand, I took about 5,000 of his 7,000 chips and my stack grew larger

I played pretty slow at the final table and let others knock each other out. It finally came down to myself, Rammy and Arj. I bought a few pots and ran into a few hands, and eventually had about 2/3 of the chips. Arj survived crazy odds on 2 hands after the flop (linky), but luck ran out and eventually ran into a dominating hand with a low stack and was gone.

It was pretty back and forth with Rammy and me for a while, until I our stacks were just about even. Once that happened, the dealer basically hooked it up, and Rammy folded a lot of his small blinds after getting 5/9, 6/9, 3/9 constantly. He tried to make a move with 5/7 suited, but ran into my 8/8 preflop. That was all she wrote.

Big shout out to CrazyCatJade who spotted me and provided OTs. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her, and God. Big shout to the man upstairs

Week 3: (by Rammy) In a night of frush's and quads, it came down to one BS artist playing pot odds against another. RL007's big raise pre-flop with J3o gave him pot odds to cover Rammy's push of A5o and single 3 on the flop was all that was required to end a marathon session of ~40 hands played head to head. Congrats RLeach

The night started omniously enough with Iconian losing with bottom set to CCJ's top set then continued with no less than 3 different folks registering quads (was the a 4th at that other table Shoagie?) Speaking of Shoagie, how about losing for the 3rd week in a row to runner runner frush draw? The final four was Mavtech, RL007, Rammy, and CCJ who tried valiantly to send links to nekkid pics to the guys but we just weren't biting on the button.

Week 2: (by Rammy & Schly) This week's event marked the largest event to date with 25 participants and the largest pot to date - largely due to the rare $10 entry fee. Timmmmy was feeling generous and donated $5 to regulars to make up the difference. Final table involved some fast-paced action and a TON of bad beats and a few misplays. Here are some notes from late in the tournament:

Xoch (Rammy) won several hands with a 3 kicker, for example surviving an all in with Q3os to AQ suited when the flop comes K3K. Random Girl after getting hurt by Xochs suckout the previous hand, goes out of the game with A9os to a 25os that caught a rivered 5 by Jinzo who in turn gets knocked out by Janeey with A8os who was holding K9os and rivered a K.

MChat goes out in style, losing with 2 pair, Ks & Qs to Schly (AQo) and Janeey (AKo) who both land straights.

Iconian (AKo) had a chance to knock out our hero Xoch (75o) but the straight hit . Iconian's bad karma continued and his misery ended when he and Xoch were both all in and ALMOST even late in the game and Xoch pulls out a 3 outer, winning with AJs vs. the ruskie's AQ. Yahtzee! Xoch did warn Iconian that he should pony up some kind of prize for the prize pool...

Perhaps the hand of the tournament was Geaux's AA vs. Xoch AK all-in preflop ... the runner-runner K K was something to behold. Postflop Xoch was a 99.7 to 0.3 dog

Schly makes final table by knocking out Dean_siu with Shills QJ to his AKos all in gambit. Shill flopped a Q and that was it for the hand. Later, Schly takes out Geaux with my K10 suited to his A6os when I turned a K. Schly was easily big stack at the table and enterred head-to-head against Xoch up 4-1 in chip stack. Xoch evened it up and after they agreed to chop the pot, Xoch went on to take the win.

Week 1 (by RL007): This week didn't start out very well for me. I was down to 400 chips very early. We had a lot of pair over pair fights tonight. I know of 88 vs 99, QQ vs KK, and KK vs AA(this would be the one where I knocked out iconians). The final table was REALLY tight until the blinds got to 200/400. After that people dropped quick until the final 4 where Jinzo and Wuzzy were fighting it out to get in the money. Finally Wuzzy just got too low and adshover and I called his all in and I believe my monster that was K6 ended up taking him out. Jinzo didn't stand much of a chance with the stacks that adshover and I had so she was dispensed with rather quickly. Adshover and I ended up all in with me holding A9c and he had A8os. I believe the board came 22A34 so my 9 kicker played and ads was down to the felt. A9 a couple of hands later and it was over. What a way to start the new quarter!



2007 Q2 Results:

https://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=14128&t=460743 Winner: Trippwwf

2007 Q1 Results:

https://slickdeals.net/forums/showpost.php?p=6117383&postcount=439 Winner: Iconian

2006 Results:

https://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?sduid=14128&t=408541 Winner: Vec

How Points are Awarded:

This spreadsheet uses the PokerStars TLB ranking formula. I've modified it to give points to every player that plays each week, not just the top 15%. That rewards participation more than average finish. It therefore encourages folks to show up every week and have a good time.

The formula used to determine the total points awarded to a player for any given tournament is:

Points = 10 * [sqrt(n)/sqrt(k)] * [1+log(b+0.25)]

Where:
n is the number of entrants
k is the place of finish (k=1 for the first-place finisher, and so on)
b is the buy-in amount in dollars (excluding PS administrative fee).