Moses Wins Final Table!

More to come tonight.

The Trophy Has Arrived

And you're going to have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Final Table Chip Stacks

At $250K, here's what it looks like.

Plains Moses: 1635 pts > 13.3% > $33,300
SpaceJam: 1610 pts > 13.1% > $32,800
WhoDogg: 1440 pts > 11.7 > $29,300
Marneus: 1340 pts > 10.9% > $27,300
Giggity: 1310 pts > 10.6% > $26,500
Jack Chaser: 1270 pts > 10.4% > $26,000
Hirp: 1245 pts > 10.1% > $25,300
Bronco: 1230 pts > 10% > $25,000
Porqchop: 1185 pts > 9.6% > $24,000

Total Points: 12,265
Chips in Play: $250K (rounded $50s up to the next $100)

There it is... all you can eat!

Play-In Game: Pulled Porq

Porqchop won the season 3 play-in game last night, becoming the first ever wildcard ("party crasher") player for the Final Table.

All-in, there were only nine players for the play-in game (a disappointing showing). The night definitely had a Final Table feel with players trading chips in small amounts early, setting the stage for the bigger blinds later in the evening.

The night ended with complete suck-out by Porqchop. Bboth players were all-in pre-flop with MoeCephus looking to double up on pocket Kings, and Porqchop looking to draw-out with pocket 6s. Things would have been back to even in terms of chip stacks, had Porqchop not pulled a Devil 6 on the River.

Marneus, PlainsMoses and Hirp all showed for some side action, but the grinding nature of the feature event never provided another player for the kiddie table. Top three at the play-in event were:

1. Porqhcop - $110 + seat at the Final Table
2. MoeCephus - $50
3. Holy Mohly - $20

Porqchop will host the Final Table. Details to come.

Play in

Any details on the play in? Or have I missed that e-mail?

The Eager Eight

The Final Table qualifiers are listed below. Feel free to kick them in the gonads the next time you see them.

Unfortunately, it's the play-in game for the rest of us. Feel free to take some solace in knowing that these eight players will have to wait a month to find out which play-in scrub will be embarrassing them at the championship game.

The players: Plains Moses, SpaceJam, WhoDogg, Marneus, Giggity, Jack Chaser, Hirp and Bronco

Oh yeah, one more thing... "Go Bearcats!"

OST 10: The Tenth Commandment

A commanding performance, indeed. Plains Moses parted the sea of grinders at OST 10 , likely solidifying his position (and prize) as the season 3's points leader, and potentially taking the chip lead at the Final Table.

Porqchop failed to pull-off a coup when his pre-flop all-in with A-Q was called by McDaddy with 7-8 suited. Needless to say, much sucking ensued. PChop needed a third place finish to bump Hirp from the Final Table, but finished in fourth. The final hand of the night came down to McDaddy ($98K) and Moses ($102K) all-in pre-flop with two dry Aces. In the end, the weaker kicker prevailed as Moses' 7 played with the board over McDaddy's 5.

OST 10 top four:
1) Plains Moses - $220
2) McDaddy - $110
3) The Face - $50
4) Porqchop - $20

Official results noting who's set for the Final Table and who's relegated to the play-in game should be available sometime today. The play-in game will be held on the third Tuesday in November, which looks to be the 20th. Skrawg or Porqchop will host.

My Disappointment

On the eve of the biggest game of the season, there's absolutely no chatter out there. If none of you want this that bad, then why don't you just give it to me? I'm planning on taking it myself, regardless. Bitches.

Mr. & Mrs. WormBoy Take The South

Big news coming out of Savanah this morning, WormBoy's wife (previously referred to at The Chophouse as Pageant Queen, but heretofore referred to as Captainess Cook) took the Grand Prize in Southern Living's 2007 Cook-Off. If you can't read the numbers on the check, that's $100,000!

Here's a recap, in WormBoy's own words:

Mrs. WormBoy (my edit) won the Southern Living Contest tonight. She can hardly believe it, but she smoked the competition with her ice cream dessert. I got some funny looks trying to stuff the big check in my pants. Anyway, I am sure she will fill you all in on the contest when we get back. PS Guess I shouldn't of complained so much about cleaning up after her cooking episodes in the kitchen......

Congrats to the entire clan. I'm looking forward to dining at the Chateau de Croissant when you get it openend!

Hats Off To GunButt

Everyone's favorite league gunslinger (GunButt), now has a couple of hats to go with those fancy Colt sidearms. Check out this article in the Kansas City Star for more details.

Either of these would make one Hell of a card guard!

OST 9: Non-League Winner

Just finding out tonight that we had our first non-league (though he's certainly regular player) winner of the season. Holy shit.

Benz pulled out a major victory in one of the most crucial OSTs of the season. Shutting many a bubble player out of some serious bonus points, and shielding the points leaders from any players that may have potentially shot up from the rear.

Cashing in:
1. Benz - $220
2. Dakota Skye - $110
3. SpaceJam - $50
4. Plains Moses - $20

Two games left. The potential for much shuffling still pending.

Giggity's Game

Rumor has it that Holy Mohly and Devil Down did the Beats proud at Giggity's big mid-year tournament. I'm not sure how much they won, but they took 2nd and 3rd (respectively) in a 30-man/$50 buy-in game.

Congrats to both!

OST 8: The Bitch Is Back

Hirp made a nice move into the top 8 last night by winning-out at OST 8, but it's still anyone's game.

WhoDogg's the only one who's got a lock on a Final Table seat with 1210 points (including two "0" drops), but the next seven players are separated by a range of points from only 1070 to 955.

Show up. Pony up. And you could win a trip to the Final Table.

Last night's top four:

Hirp - $220
Dakota Sky - $110
WhoDogg - $50
Jack Chaser - $20

Career Winnings Update

Bad Beats Open

Finally getting a chance to post the results from the Bad Beats open. All-in-all, 12 players total showed up. The players included a mix of league players, their brothers, neighbors, wives and girlfriends. As I'm sure is the case with most events they engage in together, Hirp couldn't outlast his girlfriend, Coco.

Top three for the night:

1. IT Terry - $140
2. Porqhop - $70
3. Coco - $30

I'm not done lobbying for bonus points to be awarded for this event!

OST 7: Can't Be Broken

Bronco's busted out of his pen, and it's not looking like anyone will be putting him up soon. Winning two OSTs in a row puts him in solid position for the Final Table.

Places/payouts for OST 7 below:

1) Bronco - $220
2) Giggity - $110
3) WhoDogg - $50
4) Plains Moses $20

It's time to form a posse, bring back the bounty, and put this bad bitch down. Hope to see you all next month.

"Beam Me Out" Scotty

Scotty Nguyen busted out of the Word Series of Poker this morning. He finished in 11th place.

Friday night roadie

Hit Ameristar (and left after surveying the games) and then Harrah's on Friday. While I wanted to get into the 1/2 NL I ended up on a 3/6 due to the wait time for the 1/2 at Harrah's.

Ameristar looked brutal...two tables of 1/2 and the games did not look good (a few old fat guys, a few 30 somethings with ipods, etc....not one kid). Harrah's was much better, but I didn't want to wait an eternity so I started at a 3/6 table that was too good to leave. I ended up a few bucks ahead but it would have been much more if an unsuited 2/9 hadn't hit diamond/diamond to run down my pocket kings on the river (and yes, that was calling raises the entire way). Of course, that kind of play was why I was up in the first place, so I can't complain. Another oddity, I have never seen so many calls or checks when different players had the nuts (I saw it three times in the night by two three different players).

OST 6: Results

Recap from Skrawg:

Bronco beat McDaddy heads-up for the title.

My take is the poker Gods favored Bronco last night -- not bad beats
against McDaddy, just back luck.

I think he went all in with a decent sized chip lead with pocket 10's
against pocket jacks and lost. Then, still with a chip stack big enough
to do some damage, went all in with A-J and ran up against A-Q and lost
that one.

Recap from Porqchop:

Granted I likely couldn't have been run out of the game earlier in the evening, but I ended up going out after pushing all-in with pocket 6s (blinds were at $3/$6k) for about $30K, McDaddy called with A-K of hearts. He was chip leader with a little over $100K at the time.

Looking good on the flop when another 6 hits to make my set, and K comes to make a pair for McDaddy (so Aces and Kings alone are now no good as they float a boat for me). So it's only running Aces, Kings or hearts that can send me packing. And you guessed it, hearts it is... we don't call it "Bad Beats" poker for nothing boys.

Top Four:

1.) Bronco: $220
2.) McDaddy: $110
3.) Flops: $50
4.) Porqchop: $20

OST 7 will be played on July 17. Location TBD. If you didn't get your league entry fee to Marneus at this event, please do so before OST 7... or you're out!

OST 5: Late Results

I suck. I should have reported on this last month. Perhaps I was bitter that Marneus pulled another one out of his keester.

At any rate, here are last month's winners (hope none of them attend our next event):

1.) Marneus - $230
2.) Plains Moses - $120
3.) Jack Chaser - $50
4.) Vistor - $20

See everyone on Tuesday.

New structure?

Was curious about changing up thoughts for changing up the OST blinds for next year to the following:

50-100
100-200
200-400
300-600
400-800
500-1,000
600-1,200
1,000-2,000
1,500-3,000
2,000-4,000
3,000-6,000
4,000-8,000
5,000-10,000

Worst case scenario is we hit the 6 1/2 hour mark, which would end it around 1:30ish. Thoughts?

Phuck Poker

Porqchop and I made a quick run to Argosy for a little $3-6 action, but calling a quick deposit would be more accurate. Maybe it's just me, but when there's a player at the table that I see every time I'm there, I just expect him to be a better player than the guy who routinely hit runner runner to win huge pots.

And maybe this makes me an asshole, or maybe it's just one of the many thoughts that makes me an asshole, but playing someone with Parkinsons just isn't fair. Not that I can ever get a read on a player anyway, but sitting across from someone that's moving like Muhammad Ali and I couldn't help but think each tremble meant something more than "I'm playing A10 off suite and calling everything when all I have is a back door straight draw"

I hate poker.

OST 4: Bring Out The Giggity

In what seemed like a ridiculously quiet game for 22 Bad Beaters, only Giggity stepped up to the role of highwayman, demanding emphatically that everyone "Gimme me your chips!" Eventually, all complied.

The Devil took one on the chin early when his hidden Cowboys fell to Marneus' cleverly disguised pocket Rockets, ending a string of top tier finishes the likes of which we'll likely never see again (I for one say, "good riddance!"). Other than that, I don't recall any particularly surly hands. If you have a story to share, use the Comments button below

At the end of the night the wieners were:

1. Giggity > $230
2. Flushed > $120
3. Drifter > $60
4. MoeCephus > $20

OST 5 is on deck for May 15. The location is TBD, but we're looking at possibly moving this game back to Dakota Sky's house to keep the peace in Skrawg's domain. Look for an eVite later on this week to confirm.

Updated Career Money Leaderboard

OST 3: Moses Lays Down The Law

He may not have parted the Red Sea, but our very own Plains Moses did a nifty job of manipulating the Rivers in finding his first OST victory of the season.

Ironically, I found the following little quote related to Moses on Wikipedia , and it seemed oh so approapriate:

"Some medieval Jewish scholars had suggested that Moses' actual name was the Egyptian translation of "to draw out", and that it was translated into Hebrew, either by the Bible, or by Moses himself later in his lifetime."

You're freaking kidding me. We play once a month against a guy who by name, is the Biblical definition of a suck out (no offense to ye of Hebrew faith). We're in trouble.

Rounding out the top four were:

1. Plains Moses > $260
2. Jack Chaser > $130
3. Roop (Devil's guest) > $60
4. Holy Mohly > $30

We've been averaging a pretty good turn-out this season, and placing in the bonus points with the numbers we're pulling can make a huge difference to anyone's season. If things haven't hit for you yet, stick with it. We've got a lot of poker yet to play!

Career Winnings

Rules Update

Please see below for an important point of clarification related to all OSTs moving forward, beginning with tonight's game.

If you have to leave a tournament for ANYTHING: your house is on fire, you got a mad case of the squirts, it's a full moon and you were about to "wolf out" or your mistress has called with an opening in her schedule; with no plans of returning - you will be automatically placed out of the tournament at that time, and your chips will be taken out of play.

This rule will not apply if you need to run out to the car or grab a smoke, but please make your intentions clear, and try not to miss a blind. If you leave with the intention of coming back but do not return within 30 minutes, you will be placed out at that point of the tournament.

I'm anticipating that there will likely be some subjective measures around this, but wanted to make the spirit of the rule clear and known. If you leave for good, you're out. If you need to step out, be back (very) soon.

Heretofore, this clause in the rules will be referred to as the "BlindDogg" rule, in honor of WhoDogg (who forced its inception).

Seating Update

Skrawg's blown-up the seating assignment construct, and will be seating folks as they arrive this evening. We thought it would save time to determine seating in advance, but it seems like it's created more confusion than anything.

Good luck (unless you're in a pot with Porq), and we'll see you all tonight.

Seating: OST 3

Skrawg may need to do some re-configuring, as we may have to go to four tables. It's now looking like we should be able to accomodate all players.

If you haven't RSVP'd... get off your ass and do so.

Table 1: The Flop
Ron Mexico (Button), Devil Down, Holy Mohly, Jack Chaser, The Face, Skrawg's guest (John), Devil guest (Kajal), Plains Moses

Table 2: The Turn
Worm Boy (Button), Drifter, The 69ers, Flushed, Tayjack, Skrawg, Marneus, Devil guest 2 (Victor)

Table 3: The River
MoeCephus (Button), Flops, WhoDogg, GunButt, SpaceJam, McDaddy, Hirp, Devil guest 3 (Rupe), Porqchop

Asses To Elbows

If you haven't already done so, please RSVP for OST 3. We're looking at possibly having 30+ show-up this month, and want to ensure we have enough seats. Don't even think about eating shrimp at lunch on Tuesday!

I'm thinking about a trip to the casino Friday after work, anyone interested?


-Hirp

OST 2: The Man Comes Around (again...)

An interesting night of poker last night, and one that will require we revisit (and clarify) a couple of rules moving forward. 23 players were there in total, but it was Marneus ("The Man") that returned to form from his better performances of last season, outlasting the entire field.

Lots of verbal jabbing and a vibrant cash game were eclipsed by the sudden and mysterious exit of WhoDogg (who we all hope is okay - anyone have an update on his status?). The Dogg exited early due to an emergency, and ended up picking up roughly five spots overall as his still-healthy stack stuck it out through at least two levels of blinds before he was finally put out in sixth place (much to Hirp's chagrin). We're revisiting how we will handle these situations moving forward, but last night, we let his chips play through the blinds.

The following players finished in the double-bonus round (money and extra points):

1. Marneus $250
2. Holy Mohly $150
3. SpaceJam $60
4. Porqchop $20

We'll look to secure a location for our next event on Tuesday, March 20 sometime this week. If you have any anecdotal comments to share regarding last night's game (Hirp, Face...), feel free to do so via the Comments section below.

Nasty

OK, something tasty for all to enjoy:

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/columns/story?columnist=bluff_magazine&id=2750550

OST 2: Seating

Mind the man to your left...

Table 1 > The Flop:
Ron Mexico (button), Jack Chaser, MoeCephus, Drifter, GunButt, WhoDogg, McDaddy, Tayjack, The Gov

Table 2 > The Turn:
Plains Moses, Flops, Dakota Skye, Porqchop, Spacejam, Hirp, Skrawg, Bronco

Table 3 > The River:
Devil Down, The Face, 69ers, Marneus, Diamond Dave, Holy Mohly, Flushed, Worm Boy

Back Is Chap

Good news. Chappy, a fan favorite from season one, has decided that his travel schedule has eased enough that he will be able to rejoin the league for this season.

This brings our total number of players to 27, but we're still confident that we can fit everyone into an OST if it turns out that everyone is availble to play.

Welcome back Chap.

Friday, Feb. 9 non-OST

Hey,

Let me know if there is any interest in a non-OST I ran into for this Friday. Likely 2 games, I am "controlling" the structure. 50 in buy-ins (20 first, 30 2nd game) with the 1st game designed to run 2-2 1/2 hours and the 2nd desigend for approximately 3 hours. 20 minute blinds, competition pretty soft with 8-10 players. Let me know.

Non-OST: PorqFest

The winners of tonight's game:

Skrawg: $140 (third win in a row!)
Marneus: $70
Porqchop: $30

Crazy side action in the cash game, but I'm not sure who pulled down the most. Likely MoeCephus.

Double Decker

Effective for OST 2, we will be introducing an experimental functional element to our monthly OSTs by utilizing two decks (one red, one blue) at a time for each table.

Those of you familiar with this process will likely attest to the fact that you can easily play half as many hands again as you can with only one deck rolling at a table. This should help to speed up the game in lieu of our decision to maintain the current blind structure.

If we receive more negative feedback than positive after no less than two OSTs, we will fall back to using only one deck per table (negative feedback can be provided at any time by posting a new entry to this site or by leaving a Comment under a related article).

Now, shuffle up, shut up, and deal.

Blind Faith

There have been some questions come through following last week's game related to our current blind structure. More specifically, the questions have been related to the 30 minute duration between blind change levels, and whether or not that increment of time is too long.

From what I've gathered, OST 1 went long into the night. The game wrapped around 2:00 a.m. to be precise. While any game finishing this late on a "school night" is less than desirable from both a player and host perspective, it is also somewhat of an anomaly within the context of our last 10 or so games. Since instituting the current blind structure, I can recall only one game that has gone as far as or past a 1:00 a.m. finish time.

While the 30 minute blind duration is something we will continue to monitor for effectiveness moving forward and alter as necessary, there are no immediate plans to either compress the blind schedule or alter our starting chip allocations. If we begin running into a situation where OSTs are tending to run past a desirable finishing time, we will adjust the blinds or starting chip allocations in a prudent, considered fashion. We will do everything possible to maintain a consistent gaming model throughout the season to ensure there are few variables across OSTs.

Look for more details at this site moving forward. And feel free to use the Comments section below to share any related thoughts you have on this subject.

The Hand Of Hands

OST 1: Man On Fire

New season, same winner. Skrawg's starting out the new year in the same fashion he ended the last.

The top four jack-o's... I mean finishers from Tuesday night were:

1. Skrawg - $230
2. WhoDogg - $120
3. MoeCephus - $50
4. The Face - $20

I wasn't there for the finish, but heard the game went laaaaate. Sounds like we're gonna have one grinder of a season.

Buckle up boys!

You Dont Know Jack

A few of us played in a small tournament last weekend at a surprise birthday party for Marneus (happy birthday old turd), and Jack Chaser kicked some serious tail.

It seems when Chaser has a cocktail during play, it amps his game up a notch. Thank God we play on Tuesday nights!

That makes two strong finishes for him in his last two starts. Could he be the one to watch this season?

Jack Chaser - $100
The Gov - $40
Marneus' Dad - $20

Rumor has it that Chaser and Skrawg both cleaned-up in the cash game as well.

Seating and Such: OST 1

Seating for OST 1 at Skrawg’s place is noted below. At this point, it looks like we’ll have 22 players for our first event of the season.

As a reminder, don’t forget to bring $20 for your buy-in to OST 1, and another $25 for 2007 league membership (Marneus will be collecting/holding league fees until the end of the season).

I will have the updated rules document posted later on this evening.

Table 1 – The Flop:
Dakota Skye (button), Devil Down, The Gov, Swag, Flops, MoeCephus, Skrawg, Chappy

Table 2 – The Turn:
The Face (button), Hirp, Holy Mohly, Gun Butt, SpaceJam, McDaddy, Marneus

Table 3 – The River:
Worm Boy (button), WhoDogg, Flush, Drifter, 69ers, Plains Moses, Porqchop

Exceeding Expectations

Well... we shot for expanding the league to 24 players, and we ended up with 26. Looks like we'll have to re-do our payout charts for this year!

Outside of JMan, we didn't lose a single player from last season, and ended up adding six new players in total. As he's provisioned for the upper-end of our potential participation numbers for any given event, we'll likely be having many a game at Skrawg's place this year.

At this point, we're looking at keeping the same starting chip stack of $10,000 for individual events. This means that for an OST including every league player, there could be $260,000 in play. As such, we may look at upping the starting total from the Final Table at the end of the year from $200K t0 $250K (to align with an average night's money in play equivalent).

Blinds will stay the same this year as will individual OST buy-ins ($20). We'll look at moving to $25 or $30 next year.

See you all on the 23rd!

Almost There...

As of tonight, we have 23 confirmed players for the league next year, and I have no doubt that we'll fill that 24th seat quickly.

I'm almost finished with the rules updates, but there shouldn't be anything significantly different from what I listed in the league invitation you've all accepted.

As a reminder, there is no game scheduled for Tuesday, January 9th. The eVite I sent in the beginning of January was to gather league membership only.

Our first game will be scheduled for Tuesday, January 23rd at our standard 7:00 p.m. start time.

Look For Your League Invitation

Check your email for an eVite invitation to the 2007 Season. I've captured the high-level details of some proposed rule and play enhancements below.

We will start league play in January (the first game will actually be on the fourth Tuesday, January 23) playing 10 official OSTs through October.

In November, we will hold a special qualifying game for all league members not qualifying for the Final Table after the first 10 games (with the "drop 2" rule in effect) - the winner of this game will be awarded the 9th and final seat at the Final Table.

We plan to tweak the points system to award bonus points to the 4th place player in league games consisting of more than 20 players (similar to the payout schedule).

We will expand league membership to 24 players.

We will provide the regular season points champion (based on "drop 2") with some additional monetary compensation (approximately $100).

The league entry fee will remain $25, with individual OST buy-ins at $20 each (a couple players have proposed that we "up" the inidividual OST entry fee to $30/event - thoughts?)

Anyone who has not replied in the affirmative by Tuesay, January 9th may be replace by an alternate player.