Gracious sakes

I am a gracious host. It would be in bad form for one to win a tournament one hosts. The problem is my poker skills are so immense it is sometimes difficult to throw a match without making it blatantly obvious. To remedy that, I often handicap myself. I might not sleep for three days before a tourney. I might eat questionable shellfish chased with oven drippings. Most often, I just tell the dealer to give me one card. Well, Sunday I sneakily allotted myself one-half the chips of everyone else. Cunning, I am. Bad Blood and Gamecock came over along with eleven other of my friends and acquaintances and we had us a little NL tournament. Not wanting to make it too obvious, I waited until Tall Paul knocked himself out first with the dreaded TPTK before making my move into the reckless one some call . . . Tim? Raise, re-raise, bingo, bango and I am out second in my own house. Ya’ll don’t know Tim so there is no need to try to justify my play. Suffice it to say I thought I was good before the flop (I was), thought I was bad after the flop of AQQ (I was), but had so little money I bet out anyway on the off chance he was holding KJ or a smaller pp (both of which were a reasonable assumption based on his pre-flop play). We started out with 1000 in chips and what I thought, and still think, was a reasonable blind structure to get us done in five hours. I think we finished in just over three. By the time I ran into Tim’s Acrap, I was short-stacked without really playing a hand. It really felt as though I had started with half the chips of everyone else and I actually checked my pockets to make sure I had not slipped any in while playing with them. Next time, we all get 1500 in chips. Me too.

Blood and Gamecock acquitted themselves well in a new environment and I look forward to many more hands with those two. Gamecock hit the bubble and bounced into the side game where it appears he made his money back and then some. Blood finished in the single digits and also got his money back. Tim won the whole thing, The Jacket came in second, The Professor (don’t let people who teach number theory play in your games) came in third in the most amazing fashion as he sat with about 100 in chips for over an hour waiting for others to fall, and Fathead brought home fourth.

Anyone up for one in July?