The night started out a little unusual. First off, one of the hosts was nowhere to be found to greet the incoming players nor was he there to help sign people in and collect the buy ins. Instead, Bill B. had to assist Anita G. in doing this and his work was greatly appreciated says Anita G.. As for the other host, Nick G., an unconfirmed report has him in the upstairs bathroom taking a shower while simultaneously puking after a day at the Big Chill. Nick G. neither confirmed nor denied this account, but regardless he made it downstairs right as the cards were flying.
The tournament was a T20K structure with unlimited full rebuys and it played accordingly totaling 20 original buyins for a full house and 22 rebuys. Rewards go out to Nick G. and Brian N. for the most rebuys, both at 4 before the completion of the third blind level. A second award goes out to our top two finishers without using a single rebuy, Jason Tr. and Jim H..
The green table which included Nick G. and Brian N. as expected had the most rebuys at 15. The pace started out fast with certain people overplaying second pair or refusing to go away with a gut shot straight draw. First to leave the tournament was Mike T. after only 1 rebuy at the oval table. Next in line was Angie S. once again at the oval table refusing to be enticed by the optional cheap rebuy. Bill B. who started out strong at the square table managed to find himself out in 18th after a bad beat and left in the usual anger fashion also refusing to rebuy. The gentleman out 17th was one who rarely shows his face anymore, but after a fun night at the Big Chill and not a horrible run at cards may return for the next event; Eric J. rebought once at the oval table. Chris S. was out 16th opting for only a single rebuy once again at the oval table. As you can see, the oval table had more players leaving simply because of the lack of rebuys. Around this mark the square table had 13 rebuys. Newcomer, Brian N, showed he was great for the game leaving in 15th with 4 rebuys at the square table. Nick G. continually begged him to rebuy so his wife would excuse him after he rebought again and again. Brian N. maxed out at 4 therefore Nick G. was also held at 4. Keith K. followed his spouse in refusing to rebuy and finishing 14th at the oval table. One of the tournament directors, Eric W., also refused to rebuy and finished 13th after being moved to the oval table. Anita G. finished the tournament in 12 opting for only the single rebuy. Big talker, Matt P., who was quoted as saying, "this is my kind of tournament", finished a meekly 11th place with no rebuys, possibly because of the late stage of the tournament, but regardless he did not back up his pretournament talk. Jason Ta. finished at the final table bubble with only a single rebuy.
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The final table was formed and as one could guess the rebuys were still an option but becoming less viable because of the blind levels approaching 1K-2K. It was at this point in the tournament, Nick G. was back to being sober and playing great cards. Please note, Nick G., is also writing the blog. John M. was the tables' first victim who previously rebought once. Lolly O. was next out in 8th after rebuying twice a long time ago at this point.
Now to the action, Erik M. made a preflop raise to $40K only for Nick G. to make a strangely excellent reraise of $85K. The trap was set and blinded by the great play Erik M. announced all in for approximately $200K in chips. Nick G. uncharacteristically quickly announces call. Erik M. flipped over pocket Jacks only for Nick G. to flip over pocket Aces. The Aces held up and Nick G. was chip leader after previously rebuying 4 times and possibly starting the tournament half in the bag. It was obvious he had sobered up now and the only problem was he left Erik. M. with just over 10K in chips. Erik M. was able to run those 10K in chips back to over 60K in chips before finishing in 7th after a bad beat from Jason Tr. with pocket 6's finding its third to pocket 9's of Erik M.. Pat M. who played a solid tournament was previously a victim of a bad beat from Erik M. and just holding on to his remaining chips before being knocked out in 6th. The top 5 played very conservatively exchanging chips and not wanting to be the money bubble boy. There were multiple times Nick G., Jim S., Jim. O, and Jim. H were all in and on the brinks of elimination, but managed to find a way out. Nick G.'s chips were dwindling from the one time chip leader and were in one of those situations previously stated with Jim O., but managed to pull a victory out with his A-Q holding up against Jim O.'s K-J. A few hands later Jim O. went up against Nick G. again and again were in an inferior position with his A-Q vs. Nick G.'s A-K. A queen on the river devastated Nick G. putting an end to his up, down and puking night in 5th.
The top four also played it out to the bitter end exchanging blows and possibly because everyone was calling each other Jim, but it was Jim H. out in fourth. A congratulatory note should be made to Jim H. who managed to cash in his 3rd consecutive league tournament. Congratulations Jim H.! Jim O. was next out in 3rd and also had a respectable 3 rebuys. May the rebuys be well represented! Jim S. finished 2nd on the night with 2 rebuys. A congratulatory note should also be made to Jim S.. Jim S. has only played in 5 tournaments with 2 first place victories and now this 2nd place finish has him in the 3rd spot on the leader board. He is also the top money maker this season. Imagine if he played in all 8 tournaments. Great job Jim S.!
And now to Jason Tr. (pictured above because I couldn't get the blog to post it here [Editor's Note: picture moved to its traditional location below]) who outlasted the Jim's and also managed to play some solid cards, expressing many times throughout the night that he was ready to go home because he had to work the next day. As fate would have it, he played for 1st place just after 3AM when the blind levels were maxed out at 10K-20K and his A-9 beat out Jim S.'s K-6 (also pictured above because I couldn't get the blog to post it here [Editor's Note: also moved below... Cut and paste, Nick, its a pretty pedestrian concept. ;) ]). Congratulations to Jason Tr. for taking 1st place and also taking over 1st place overall in the leader board ousting Nick G. from the top spot. It is now a tight race with 3 events left between the top 3 on the leader board, Jason Tr. (41.86 pts), Nick G. (40.13 pts), Jim S. (39.80 pts) and the remaining top 8 for the Championship. Thanks to all for playing.
~ Nick G.
