The night of the living dead or… Hell hath frozen over!

    The night started as any other. Players were showing up late, or right as the cards are to be dealt, so once again 5:00 meant 5:30… if we were lucky. Everything else was right on track as well. Plenty of aromas from bacon and brown sugar filled the air at Little Hill casino as the players were arriving. Everyone was jovial and ready to play a great game of poker. Who knew at this point what an extraordinary night this would be?

            When we finally had enough players in attendance to begin. The seats were chosen, then the seats were taken, and without much further ado, the cards started swirling around the tables like two tornados had touched down. And like most S.B.P.T. tournaments, one of the two tables started very cautiously while the other table played with reckless abandon, such was true at February’s Fight For The Title!

Table-one, Meaty’s table, was loading up on chips due to big all-ins. I said Meaty’s table because he was pretty much the sole reason for table-ones increased chip supply. In fact due to his re-buy frenzy, he was the first to earn a souvenir chip for having spent over $100 in re-buys alone. Table-two chose the methodical approach decided to save the all-ins for the do-or-die portion of the tournament.

When the break-time buzzer sounded, we all enjoyed fried chicken with corn bread and salad. Those of you who haven’t had Scooters Cold-Decked Cranberry Salad, your really missing out. It is always a hit whenever served at Little Hill. You can find the recipe on the S.B.P.T. Cookbook link here on the website. After everyone’s stomachs were stretched with greasy chicken and cornbread, we got down to business!

Just to prove the fact that Slicks Picks are for fun and should never be thought of as a gauge of players actual skill and or chance of winning, the player that I picked to have the best chance of winning promptly exited first, and the player that I picked to have the second best chance… well he wasn’t far behind, exiting in second. There was an interesting turn of events that I’ll reveal closer to the end of this page.

The night was proving to be quite eventful as players on the brink of elimination, somehow found life and would battle on for many rounds until short again, then miraculously suck-out on the turn or river to stay alive for yet another good while. What was so amazing is that these players were able to make the best of what they were given. A great example was Turtle who hung around after catching a five on the river to stay alive, and stay alive, and stay alive, until three other players reached their demise before him. But our best example is our tournament champion who was on a five outer at the river very early in the tournament. His jack hit, doubled him up and allowed him to take down his first and well deserved Tournament Champion Title.

Once down to a final table, Big Slick was dominating with almost half the chips in play. Because of that, there were many players without many chips and forced to put they’re remaining chips at risk. The first to do this was Spongie. He would soon find directions to the losers lounge when his King high wouldn’t hold up. Marshal was next although he found a way to stick around for a while after tripling up shortly before bowing out. That would leave Turtle to take fourth place and make the money after being on life-support for so long.

That just leaves three… and one player who has yet to be mentioned was Popeye who cracked aces early on to make the best of his suck-out and finish in third for an astounding start to 2008. In two tournaments, he has earned 26 points, but this wasn’t his night, it belonged to someone else.

With Popeye bowing out in third and securing a headhunter award for Slick, it looked as if the March tournament would be played at Little Hill (maybe that’s why everyone left right before Popeye hit the rail). So with just two players left, (and especially who they were, El Guapo against Big Slick) it should have been a joyous occasion with many spectators, but sadly there was just El Guapo with about 3 mil, Big Slick with about 5 mil, and Popeye with a deck of cards.

Poker is all about not making mistakes, and Slick would pretty much seal his demise by making a huge one early into heads-up play, doubling El Guapo up and giving away the chip lead, and most of his chips. I (Slick) found it wasn’t as easy to blow the conservative El Guapo off a hand as it had been in the past, and for that I paid the ultimate price… second place, giving El Guapo his first and well-deserved Tournament Champion title.

Sincere Congratulations on a well played tournament and your tournament victory. Now that you’re a champion how are you going to celebrate?

Getting back to the interesting turn of events… of the players that attended,  the player that Slicks Picks had given the second worst chance of winning took second, and the player that Slicks Picks had given the worst chance is our Tournament Champion!

Congrats Big Man!

Slick