1/25/2009

Jake survived many all ins throughout the final table.  The most painful one was losing with KK vs. AQ all in before the flop to Chad.  AQ was the hand of the night as Jake later doubled up with it vs. Mark’s 99.  Huge swings were seen with stacks being traded back and forth as the blinds escalated.  With the average stack about 24k, Jake was down to 3000 chips at one point after losing a big race.  After doubling up and picking up a couple more pots, he picked up AA and doubled again!

Chad finally took a stand with QJ in a blind vs. blind confrontation and Jake called his all in with Q8 for the pot odds.  It was a brutal suck-out though, as not just one 8 came, but all 3 of the remaining 8s in the deck hit the board to give Jake quads and knock out Chad.

Three handed, Jake moved in with 55 having Mark covered who called with AT.  The 5s held up, knocking Mark out and putting Mike and Jake heads up.  Jake started the duel with about 95k to Mike’s 45k chips.  The heads up battle lasted about 45 minutes with Mike chipping away from the get go.  Jake was down to about 38k when the pendulum started swinging the other way and Jake re-gained the chip lead after several non-showdown pots.

After raising on the button, Mike re-raised all in.  Jake made the call with As6s vs. Mike’s 8h7h.  Ace high held up for the win after Jake dodged Mike’s straight and pair draws.

The leaderboard shifted only slightly with this tournament- Mark moved back into second place pushing Jonkey back to third.  Chad held on to the bubble spot in 4th and biggest move up the leaderboard of course was Jake who is now in 5th place and in position to make a run for the title.

Next up is a Rebuy tournament on Sunday February 15th - check for the Evite.  The website is almost finished - we'll send an announcement when it is ready.

The final table ended like this:

1.     Jake

2.     Mike P.

3.     Mark A.

4.     Chad

5.     Steve

6.     Brandon

7.     Bob

8.     Manny

9.     Jonkey

10.  Todd

1/18/2009

Event #12  was won by Jonkey who came from behind after being all-in to Manny "the chip re-distributor" when his 66 ran into Manny's AA- only to catch a miracle 6 on the river.  This tournament was notable for the fact that 4times at the final table there were all-ins where both players had the same hand.  We also had a couple of classic "all-in", "call"-- "oh fuck!" moments with pairs running into bigger pairs.  One was between Mark and John:  With the blinds at 600/1200 John made it $3600 to go from under the gun - Mark went over the top all-in (with about $13000).  John insta-called.  Mark shows QQ, John shows AA, and then the board proceeds to beat them both with a straight.  Jonkey got even about 2 hours later when he called Mark's all-in with KK to Mark's 44-- this time with no drama.

2nd place went to Bob who never seemed to catch a break during a heads-up match that started with them about even in chips.

 The Event #12 final table:

1.     John

2.     Bob

3.     Mike P.

4.     Mark A.

5.     Brady

6.     Chad

7.     Todd

8.     Tom E.

9.     Mike S.

10.  Steve

The overall leader board got rearranged a bit.  Mike P. held on to 1st place and Jonkey moved into second with his win.  Mark A. dropped down to 3rd and Chad now resides in the 4th place bubble spot. 

Out next event is this Sunday, January 25th at 3PM.  This will be another $10,000 chip freeze-out tournament.  Look for the Evite coming separately.

 Also- for those of you paying attention out there, the playoff picture is starting to shape up.  Remember - the top 12 players after our top three are determined will qualify for our playoff tournament to award more $1500 WSOP seats.  The starting stack for this event will be determined by your finish plus any bonus chips that are accumulated during the year. 

News Prior to Site Rebuild

Event # 11 Results:

jug·ger·naut

Pronunciation:  \ˈjə-gər-nät\

Function:      noun

Etymology: Hindi Jagannāth, literally, lord of the world, title of Vishnu

Definition:   A massive, relentless, inexorable force, or object that crushes whatever is in its path

Has anyone ever wondered what a tournament would be like if Cal just kept catching?  Well, now we know.  He becomes a poker juggernaut!  Last Sunday we held our 2nd major tournament of the season and Cal simply ran over the field.  In fact there were a couple of players, Chad especially, that Cal ran over then backed up and ran over again.  We had 20 players in this event and by the time we combined to one table Cal had an almost insurmountable stack. The only other player with a reasonable amount of chips was Chad who Cal, bucking conventional wisdom, decided to attack without mercy.  In fact, Cal even lost a huge pot (about $60,000) to Chad when he folded to Chad's all in bet after the flop.  Chad tabled a set of kings and Cal tossed his cards into the muck.  That hand gave Chad the chip lead temporarily as Cal went back to mowing through everyone else's stacks. 

Then, with eight players left, the hand of the year came up.  With the blinds at $1000/$2000 and a $200 ante Chad made it $10,000 to go from middle position.  Everyone folded to Cal who called without hesitation.  The blinds folded and the two nemeses saw a flop of AXX with two clubs.  Chad bets $20,000 into the $24,600 pot.  Cal thinks for only a moment and then shoves his $87,000 chip stack into the middle over the top of Chad.  Chad, who now looks like he just bit into a moldy lemon, thinks for a bit and then announces "call" with an air of resignation.  There's now almost $200,000 chips in the middle (out of only $250,000 total!) and Chad shows AK while Cal shows the JQ of clubs.  A club hits the turn, Chad is knocked down to about $8k in chips and Cal now has four times as many chips as the rest of the table combined.

Chad hung on for 4th place while Mike P. (third) and Linn (2nd) made valiant attempts to stop Cal.  By then, though, they looked like little boys with slingshots trying to slay a dragon.

The final table ended like this:

1.     Cal

2.     Linn

3.     Mike P.

4.     Chad

5.     Paul H.

6.     Todd

7.     John K.

8.     Ron P.

9.     Mark A.

10.  Felix

All ten players received points and the top 5 received bonus playoff chips as well.  There were no major changes on the leader board though Mike P. did extend his lead somewhat and Chad gained a little ground on second place. So right now we still have Mike P. with the overall lead with 410 points, followed by Mark A. with 345 and Chad is in 3rd with 320.  Jonkey still sits in the bubble spot with 294 points.

We are now into the 2nd half of the season and while Mike has a nice lead there are many players who can catch him with just a couple of good results.  Remember too that everyone gets bonus points and chips toward the playoffs with every entry.

The next tournament, Event #12, is going to be Sunday, January 18th at 3:00PM. This will be a $10,000 chip Freeze-out.

Event # 10 Results: Our second short-handed event, was won by Brady-- who took down a big pot early when Paul H. couldn't catch on a straight flush draw-- and then never looked back.  Steve L. got second place but by the time it was heads-up Brady had about a 10 to 1 advantage and it was over fast.  Jake got third place when his A/5 got beat by Brady's mighty 9/3.  With blinds of 1k/2k Brady made it $5000 from the SB and Jake, the BB, calls with A/5.  The flop comes 9/2/5 rainbow.  Brady bets out $6000; Jake pushes; Brady calls; the nines hold up and Jake was still seen at ocean's 4 days later muttering, "9/3..... I got beat by 9/3....".

Other fun hands that all the players enjoyed were Brady knocking Mark out with A/10 to Mark's A/Q; and Todd losing All-In with A/K to A/Q.  Then there was the heartbreak of the night when Chad's QQQKK got karushed by Noel's KKKK!!  Brutal.

Final table results:

1.            Brady

2.            Steve

3.            Jake

4.            Brandon

5.            Noel

6.            Mike P.

Attached is the full leaderboard so that you can all check the point standings and all the results.  The Schedule, Format , Stake and other info is in there as well.  We do have a volunteer who is going to revive the website for us so -- thank you Steve!!  Once that is all updated and revised we'll let everyone know.

Next up on the Schedule is our 2nd Major of the year as well as our next feast!!  Event # 11 will be held on Sunday, January 4th at 3:00PM.  This tournament will feature a $12,500 starting stack and 30 minute rounds.  Bonus playoff chips go to the top 5 finishers.  We will also have this event catered - details on the dinner will be out later.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone and see you all next year!

Jonkey

Event # 9 Results: Congratulations to Mark A (as in Ace-4) who won this week's event and for being our first multiple winner of season.  With his win Mark moved up to 2nd place overall right behind Mike P.  Chad, who got 2nd place this week moved into second place on the leader board, bumping Jonkey down to the coveted bubble position of 4th place.

This was our second rebuy tournament of the season and it was just as exciting as the first one, especially for Mike P. who blew away the field with 7 rebuys!!  It should be noted that Mike lost with set under set, two straights and a bottom boat.  I don't remember what the beat was that knocked him out of the tourney but it was pretty bad.  I will say this - Mike took his beating like a real poker player!!  Overall, with 18 players, we had 40 rebuys and 17 add-ons for a very nice take for the Syndicate prize pool.

The final table:

Next up: Sunday, December 14th is a Short-Handed Tournament.  At this event there will be no more than 6 players at the table at any time.  The buy-in is $100 with the usual 25 minute blinds.

Event #8 Results:  We had yet another first time winner at this event--  Gil L.  That's 8 different winners in 8 events!  Gil was a micro-short stack (less than one big blind left) at the final table and just kept on going until we bested Tom (Daisy) E. for his first Syndicate win.

The final table went like this:   

The top of the Leaderboard reads:   1) Mike P.; 2) John K.; 3) Paul H.; 4) Mark A.

And now a blurb from our resident geezer and early-onset Alzheimer's patient Mark A.:

Last night us birthday boys (Paul H. and I) sharing the same date but not even close to the same year…..had the pleasure to sit next to each other and proceed to see shit hands for  pretty much the whole night. However, being the fighters that we are, we grinded it out pretty deep despite the lack of any cards worth the toilet paper they were printed on.

Which brings me to Paul’s shit….

I am pretty sure he crapped his pants on more than one occasion. Seriously. The guy had gas that could supply our country with natural fuel for the next several centuries. Now I think I understand why he felt compelled to get rid of it right there at our table of esteemed gentlemen….He was just not a happy guy…. He was complaining slightly more all night than I was about how bad his hands were. And then there was the comment made no less than 23 times….that he “had played 7 tournaments and never had pocket aces”. We discussed the math and both knew it to be about 1 in 220 hands. Now I have not played at the same table with Paul that many times but I did some quick math and realized that maybe he had not quite played this many total hands in the 6 previous tournaments???

Well we were both pretty much short stacked most of the tournament and were the two short stacks when it came down to the final six. On this particular hand everyone folds to me on the button. I look down at Js10s and push. Paul in the small blind hems and haw’s, then lets out another blinding cloud of goose gizzards and decides to push his small, but slightly bigger than mine, stack all in. Big blind decides he can’t handle the stench any longer, folds and runs to the bathroom to vomit. At least he didn’t vomit on the table!

Needless to say….Paul turns over AA. Jack hits the flop. Gut-shot draw for me on the turn. Aces hold up on the river and I’m gone. Talk about a stinker….but congrats to Paul. It was actually a really fun final table.

There was one incredible hand that played out that allowed the winner to go from a short stack pot committed hand to survive and go and win the tournament but I’ll leave that up to John’s summary*.

Thanks for a great birthday weekend guys.

Mark

*Editors note: in the interests of peace and harmony (and because I don't totally remember the play since I was over at the other table just killing the 1/2 cash game) I am not going to pull the scab off of that wound.  If anyone wants to find out about the play in question I recommend that you ask Tom S. what happened.  And then duck!!

Event #7 Results:  Congratulations to Ron P. who knocked out the 2nd, 3rd and 4th place finishers to claim his first Syndicate victory ever.  With several regular players in Vegas for the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza we had a smaller than usual turnout of 11 players.  However, the low numbers didn't dampen the fun of playing on a Saturday night for the first time this year.  As promised, the Tequila bottle made an early appearance and  A LIVELY cash game was still going when this reporter left at midnight.

As for the tournament - pretty much it was Jonkey gobbling up chips for the first 2/3's of the night.  He hit some big hands early and used his stack to control the table, until with 8 players left he had about 1/3 of the chips in play.  He couldn't hang on though as the short and medium stacks started shoving from every direction once the blinds got to 800/1600.  By the time they were four handed with John, Brandon, Chad and Ron-- everyone was about even.  Ron then knocked John out when his K/Q connected on a Q high board and he caught Jonkey bluffing with A/J after the flop.  This left Ron and Brandon about even and Chad with a micro-stack.  Then came the hand-o-the-night!!  Chad was in the small blind with about 1/2 of his chips committed when Brandon raised-- Chad agonized for a moment and tossed his remaining chips in and then Ron called.  So we see a flop of 10c/Qc/8d and obviously Ron and Brandon were going to check it down to get rid of Chad--right? Nope, not this time!!  Ron did a short Hollywood and pushed all-in and then Brandon though for almost a full second before calling.  Chad, looking like a dog with a horse turd in his mouth, proudly flipped over his 7c/2c (flush draw), followed by Ron's J/9 (flopped straight) and Brandon's Q/10 (top 2 pair).  What a cooler!!  The ace of clubs hit on the turn giving Chad the main pot and the river failed to pair the board.  So Brandon got knocked out in third and Chad was left about a 1 to 50 underdog to Ron.  Chad made one final charge but never could get any traction against Ron's stack.

The final table:

On the overall leaderboard:  Mike P. still has control of first place with 315 points but John closed the gap and is still in 2nd with 251 points.  Mark A. kept 3rd place with 180 points and Chad bumped Chris out of the 4th place bubble spot with 180 total points.  Still-- with 7 winners in 7 events-- anyone can move way up in the standings with only one big finish.

Event #6 Results:  Our first Major of the season was won by an old friend of the Syndicate, Dave Dilday.  Dave hadn't played since event #13 of our second season yet he came out and proved a couple of things: first, that with six different winners in six events it just takes one good finish to move way up in the standings (Dave is now in 10th); and second, that anyone can win a Syndicate tournament!!  Just kidding Dave (not really).  Actually, Dave played a solid and patient game, steadily accumulating chips until with five players left he became the chip leader and never relinquished the lead.  By the time he knocked John K. out in third and went heads up with Mike P. he had about 80% of all the chips in play. 

The other final table finishers were: Linn H. (4th), Paul H. (5th), Mike L. (6th), Brandon C. (7th in his first Syndicate event!), Steve L. (8th), Tom E. (9th) and Jake T. (10th).  In addition to cash and points our top five finishers received bonus chips that will be added to their stack if they qualify for our season ending playoff tournament.  Dave received 600, Mike 400, John 300, Linn 200 and Paul 100.  These chips along with the 50 bonus playoff chips every entrant receives each event can be tracked in the left column of our leaderboard page.

The Final Table:

On the leaderboard Mike P., with his third place finish this week, extended his overall lead and now has 310 points.  John K. moved into second place with 206 and Mark A. got bumped down to third with 187.  Chris G is now in the 4th place bubble spot with a bunch of players bunched up behind him.

Event #5 Results:  We had another successful tournament this past Sunday with an impressive turnout of 21 players again.  That's an average of 23.4 per event!  Plus, this was our first ever short-handed tournament which proved to be an interesting and fun format as well as providing all of us with great experience in an important aspect of the game.

After losing a couple of players early everyone dug in and hung around for awhile.  At the three hour mark we still had 16 players left and after five hours we still had 13.  At that point the combination of growing blinds and only 3, 4 or 5 players at a table caused players to start falling rapidly.  There were a lot of "but I just had the big blind" comments from around the room!!  After losing only 9 players in the first 5 hours we lost 8 during hour 6, starting with Bob C. who went out in 12th place when he called an all-in bet with about 8,000 in chips from the small blind.  The table had folded to Bob who completed the blind; then from the big-blind Mark A., after a relatively short (for Mark) delay of about 20 seconds, shoved his 9,000 chips into the middle.  Bob snap called with K,Q and Mark proudly tabled his mighty 7,2 (suited of course!).  Bob took the beat like a pro when a 7 showed in the window followed by another one right behind it.  Mark then rode those chips to a 4th place finish when 7 turned out to not be his lucky number when he called John's all-in raise with A,K-- John showed a pair of 7's which held up.  

Other final table finishers were Linn, who came in 6th and Paul H., who came in 5th.  Once Mark was knocked out in 4th, it left Julie (making her 3rd final table in 3 appearances), Paul R. and John K.-- each with about 70,000 in chips.  With the blinds only at 1500/3000 there was still a chance to play real poker and not just have a shove-fest. They traded pots for about an hour with no big confrontations when John won a big pot from Paul and then knocked Julie out in successive hands, leaving John with about a 4 to 1 chip advantage going into heads-up.  Paul, looking to double up quick, had to have been pleased to look down and find A,K on the first hand-- he shipped it in of course.  John looked at one card ( a king) and made the call.  His other card was a 4 and when two more 4's followed on the flop it was over and John had his first win since April of 2006.  When asked afterwards what made the difference, John replied, "I really felt like I played the best poker of my life tonight.  I mean really, it takes A LOT of skill to flop 3 flushes (and get paid big each time) and win two big hands with two outers*!".  He then left to get a cold Singha before he said anything really stupid.    (*The first of these two-outers happened when John raised Iain all-in with Q,Q.  Iain almost beat John into the pot with a set of Jacks, but instead of losing most of his stack, John caught the miracle Q on the river.  The second two-outer came when he put Julie all-in with a pair of Jacks against Julie's pair of 9's.   Julie hit a 9 on the turn but the Jack hit the river to send Julie out in 3rd place and set up the one head's up hand.)

The Final Table:

On our overall leaderboard: Mike P. is still out in front with 225 points followed by Mark A. with 182 and Chris G. with 162.  John K. moved into the 4th place bubble position with his win.  Because we have had 5 winners in 5 events, this season is still wide open-- all it takes is one good finish to move way up in the standings.   

Next up: Event #6 (Sunday, October 26th) will be our first MAJOR of the season.  This freeze-out event will feature a 12,500 chip starting stack and 30 minute blinds.  The buy-in is $100.  At this event, in addition to the normal cash and points, the top five finishers will receive bonus playoff chips to use should they qualify for the end of the season playoff tournament:  5th place will get 100 in chips;  4th place= 200 chips;  3rd place= 300 chips;  2nd place= 400 chips;  1st place= 600 chips.  You can keep track of these bonus playoff chips as well as the participation playoff chips you earn for each event entered on the leaderboard section of the website.

Event #4 Results:  Event #4 was won by Marc M. in his first Syndicate event ever.  Marc won after an epic 1 hour 20 minute heads up battle against Paul H.  Both players came back from very short stacks well into the tournament to outlast a very strong final table that included both of our previous WSOP winners: Jake T, who went out in 3rd, and Chris G, who was knocked out in 4th.  By the end Marc and Paul were playing with the blinds at 5000/10000 and almost 200,000 chips on the table.  Our other final table players were, in order from 5th to 10th: Chad M, Mike P, Brady G, Mark A, Julie F, and Ed P. 

The Final Table:

This first rebuy event of the season was definitely a success as it gave everyone a chance to compete in a different format, have a lot of fun, and earn that night's winners and the Syndicate a little extra dough!  We had 21 players with a total of 46 rebuys and 21 add-ons to bring the night's take up to $2,650.  $1,325 was paid to our winners, including 1st place of $530, and $1,325 went into our end of the year prize pool.  We now have $4,925 saved this season-- which is almost $1,000 more than we had through 4 events last year.

As you can see on the updated leader-board, Mike P. held on to first place overall while Chris G. moved up to second and Mark A. took over third place.  So far this season is turning out to be very competitive with a different winner each event.  All it takes is one good result to move way up in the standings and that, along with all the different ways to earn WSOP seats,, should make this a very exciting season.

Next up: Event #5 (Sunday, October 19th) will be our first short-handed tournament.  The buy-in is $100 for a 10,000 chip freeze-out and throughout the tournament there will be no more than 6 players per table.

Event #3 Results:  We had another great turnout last night with 25 participants, including another 3 new players.  That's 17 new players so far this season!  So far we've had 75 total entries by 42 players and now have $3650 in The Syndicate account.  At our current pace we'll have over $27,000 to award in WSOP seats and expenses.  Having so many seats to award is obviously great for individual players since more people will be able to win their way into the WSOP, but it's also great for the Syndicate as a whole since we will have so many opportunities for a big cash to split up after the season.  Who knows- if we can keep building like this we might be able to award 2 seats to the main event next season!

As for last night-- first, I want to thank everyone for showing up early so that we could get started on time.  With this many players that is a huge help.  Next, congratulations to Mark Antis, our de facto leader, for first place as he bested Mike P. in a relatively brief heads-up match.  With a big chip advantage Mark warned Mike that he was planning on playing very aggressively so Mike better be prepared.  Mike obviously took heed of that warning and proceeded to go all-in about 5 times in the first 8 hands.  Of course he did it one too many times when his K-9 ran into Mark's A-Q.  Mike was drawing dead by the river but with second place last night is now in first place overall with 195 points.  Mark, with his victory, is now in second place with 122 points, and Keith Clarke (notably absent last night) got bumped down to third place with 110 points.  You can check out the rest of the final table and the points/cash awarded below.  Also- all results, the leader-board, the schedule and everything else should be updated on the website by the middle of the week.

The Final Table:

Our next tournament (Event #4) will be in two weeks on Sunday, October 5th at 3PM.  Event #4 will be a REBUY tournament.  The buy-in is $50 for a $2000 chip starting stack. Rebuys are $25 for another $2000 in chips.  You can rebuy anytime you are at or below your starting stack until the end of the fourth round.  That means you can choose to take a rebuy at the start of the tournament if you wish.  At the end of the 4th level, after we take care of any last rebuys, anyone left in the tournament may purchase one add-on regardless of their stack size.  The add-on is $25 for $3000 in chips.  When play resumes in the 5th level it becomes a normal tournament-- when you're out, you're out.  The blind structure is the same as our previous events- 25 minutes long starting at 25/50.

Event #2 Results:  We had a great turnout for Event #2 of the season last night with 20 players.  That's 50 entries already this year (last year after 2 events we only had 37).  We had 3 new players to go along with the 11 new members we had in week 1.  Several of our regulars have been MIA due to travel and scheduling conflicts so once they start showing up things should pick up even more.  So far we have $2450 in the bank toward our end of the year awards and have paid out the same amount in prize money.

Congratulations to Mike P. for winning last night.  He is now tied with Keith C. for the overall Syndicate lead with 110 points each.  At the end of the tournament, Mike, who had a 2 to 1 chip advantage over Chris G., made it a quick skirmish when he got pocket kings and pocket queens in the first 3 hands of heads-up play.  Chris, who is now tied for 3rd overall, made it to the final two, in part, by doubling up through Victor (3rd place last night) for a $100,000 chip pot.  With the tournament down to 5 players Chris shoved with 88 and got a brave (?!?) call by Victor with the ever powerful A6.  For those of you keeping score at home you already know that this is Chris's  favorite hand to get called by! (For those of you that are not in the know yet-- Chris got brutalized twice in this year's Main Event within an hour by that hand.  Once when he had KK and the other time he had AK!)

The Final Table:

Event #1 Results:  We had a great turnout of 30 players for our first event of the season.  This is the most players we've had since the first season 4 years ago!  Along with many of the regulars from last year (and before) we had A LOT of new players join us for the first time.  This combination of old and new players will only make the Syndicate stronger for not only will we have a chance to award more, and better, prizes but the increased competition will make the events more exciting and give us all an opportunity to gain more experience and become better players.

Congratulations to Keith Clarke for winning the first place award of $555.00 and 100 points.  Keith proved the old adage that to win in poker you need to play well and run well.  Keith has been a strong player for some time but he certainly ran well last Sunday!!  Brent Garduno came back from a very short stack to claim second place and 80 points while Brady Gluathier  held on to claim 3rd place and 60 points.

The final table: