One Ball, Two Titles

KCL had 13 players, a bump up from the last two events. Despite placing second in deuce-to-seven triple draw, JD was first out in the single-draw variety. That also meant he couldn’t add to his season-leading kill total. Candy made her second early exit in a row, costing her the season lead in points. Of course, it’s possible that after Tim stormed out of five-card draw she just decided that home was too unbearable to keep showing up her husband. Get off the shnod Candy!


After Alex lost three close hands in a row, he was next out. Bearded Mike got Phil all-in with a slight chip margin and a 3567 vs. his 2346. After turning over a queen he was tossing the chips to Phil when Frenchie revealed his eight-outer – a king, and took his leave. After Sean’s rough-ten fell to a T8, the final table was set with seven.


Shelley looked to be in jeopardy but pulled a number-five against a rough-8 to double up. Still, she fell before Hank, who went out to Bearded Mike’s 9 and set up the bubble. Bak pulled a 97 but was bounced when he found himself up against Tim’s 87. He was not happy. After some back-and-forth Bearded Mike eventually got his third kill of the night by taking out Jim.

And then he blew a 35k chip lead with 72k in play. After being whittled down to 10k we went AI UTG with 234xx and ran into a luckbag’s pat 9. Tim and Dave battled until with a 1k chip lead Tim put Dave’s pat-8 all-in, and drew three cards to the second-nuts. Just kidding, I have no idea how it ended, but we know this: Tim has twice as many titles as he has balls, and the season point lead with 88 points. Congratulations Tim!

For all the two-balled (and no-balled) players without two titles, the next event is Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Hank’s house.

Blicka blicka.

Timmy - Stud for a Day

Jim had the chance to an unprecedented three-peat in Stud as a two-time reigning Champion, but he went out on the bubble and gave me a rare kill. Season-leader Candy made a rare early exit and was first out. Hank had a rare miss of the cash table, and joined Sean on the X-Box.

I made it to my first cash by outlasting a huge field of seven others. Baklava and I got all my chips in with me holding JQK of hearts, and the unluckiest stud player ever caught a third 10 on fifth to put me drawing to two outs or runner-runner.

Baklava was out next leaving Phil head-up with Tim. Tim was coming off a win in the on-like GPL after taking down Jason’s A6 flopped two-pair with a 74 that spiked trips on the river. Seriously. You can’t fade that, and he won.

After coming into the game with only one kill, I added three in a limit event – of course. Tim pulled a Hank, claiming only the last kill of the night. Candy’s early exit means JD maintains the lead in kills on the year.

The tournament page is updated (in the original post the TP software's site was down and not taking updates). Candy maintains the lead but it narrowed quite a bit, and she leads Tim by only six points. Hank is now third with 62. The next two spots needed no updating because they are held by people with only three events each: JD at 55 and Alex at 52. Lee and I are tied at 44 and Bak has 41. Sean is just outside of the Top 8 at 40, but his attendance at future events is in doubt anyway...

There’s something that feels inevitable about Hank and Five-Card Draw. He plays it more on-line than anyone else in the GPT, and it’s a game that places a premium on reading hands and situations. Starting with 11, we got down to the “final table” at seven. Phil went out relatively quickly, and then the game ground for over an hour before losing another player. After that Tim bubbled to set the four-way stage of Cash Money Playas.

Candy eliminated the next two players (and scored three of the last four kills missing only Tim) building a huge chip stack, and Hank and Candy settled in for a long head-up battle. The drama was too much to Tim to take, and he didn’t wait around for the end this time. Candy began head-up with a chip lead, but Hank whittled it down over time. When they were nearly even in chips they worked out a chop for the cash, and continued playing for points. Hank finally won, scoring his only kill of the day and his first of the year.

Hank now has cashed is every event except Hold’em, and Candy has cashed in two events including the Hold’em win. For the season Candy maintains a Hank-esque lead over the field with 72 points, with Hank and JD neck-and-neck at 56 and 55 points respectively. There currently are two players in the Top Eight who only have two events: Lee and Sean.

JD remains the leader for the Kill Trophy despite missing the year’s biggest even, Hold’em. JD’s 10 kills have Alex notched, whose nine kills also comes from only three events. Candy’s eight kills ranks third.

The new TOC-rake method of 8% of all buyins/rebuys/add-ons has been quite a success. The pot currently is $117 after only four events. By way of comparison, last year’s total pot was $185. Even ignoring Hold’em, that’s a pace that will translate into a bigger prize than Season 1, when we played 21 events (there are 15 this season).

Just Desserts – JD Follows Second-Place With a Win

In week two JD showed up for triple-draw almost on a dare, and ran over the table. He eventually ran into a more experienced tripled-draw player in Bak and came up just short, finishing second. Omaha is a game with which he’s more familiar, and this time he didn’t run out of gas. Hank cashed once again while getting tanked, his nemesis Tim still finished higher at third, and GPT rookie Alex finished second and collected another six kills to take the lead for the year. JD collected five pelts on the way to the title.

Gracie sent me some great pics so this post has more than normal, and she's nominated as the Official Photographer of the GPT. This tourney so the most live cash game ever following a GPT event with GPT regulars playing with players from Sean’s game.