Even Raid couldn't kill him!

After the turmoil of last month, I had no choice but to take a wait and see approach to which I was pleasantly surprised. Arriving early as usual, I was greeted very warmly by the reigning champion and another new player who were hard at work setting up what was to be a delightful and exciting tournament. This is the first time that I had played at this location and I was particularly looking forward to having all the extra space to maneuver in between tables (something that is desperately lacking at Little Hill), and it didn’t disappoint. There was ample room for the S.B.P.T., and for much bigger tournaments than our dog and pony show.

After the players arrived, many late I might add, we got down to business, and it was an all out onslaught at table 1 (which had mostly all of the new players and some S.B.P.T. veterans) and a fairly conservative table 2 (with all S.B.P.T. veterans except one).  Table 1 seemingly couldn’t play a hand without an all-in during the first hour, and our reigning champion was the recipient of everyone’s chips as he either flopped the nuts or hit the cards he needed to win the hands. So at hours end, our prize pool was greatly increased and so was Joes chip stack, to the point of having about half the chips in play for the whole tournament.

When the buzzer sounded and it was time for dinner, we all enjoyed plenty of turkey and roast beef sandwiches with all the fixin’s along with plenty of Macaroni salad, potato salad, and homemade baked beans (which were delicious I might add) to go with a cooler full of assorted beverages. Everyone chowed down in a hurry so we were back at the tables long before break time was over, and able to make up for some of the time we lost due to late players.

If you were at table one, and you weren’t Joe, you had a major uphill battle ahead of you. And it showed as we kept sending players from table 2 over to fill the gaps left by exiting players from table 1. We had action on table 2 but not to nearly the extent of the other table.  Cha Cha, Billy, and Jim (not Slick) would exit table 1 before we lost a player at table 2. We lost more players on table 2 due to seat changes than kills! When the two tables combined to one, it was again, the reigning champion with the huge chip lead and the tournament to lose!

There was some earlier rumblings of what was to come when El Guapo (newly named La Cuca Racha) was all-in in a hand that and looking to be knocked out early to the nut straight, when the board went runner-runner to give the Guap a boat. Some gripes were made when El Guapo’s hand was called for him, because he didn’t realize that he had won the hand and almost mucked his cards, but I’ll state this publically, the cards speak for themselves! Had he not turned them over and mucked them, then he is “S” out of luck, but because he was all-in and the cards were turned over (just like at your local club when the dealer reads the hand), the best hand wins. Just because most of the table didn’t see the “boat” and wanted to award the player with “Broadway” as the player with the winning hand, that doesn’t make it so. But that would start the string of comeback hands that would eventually earn El Guapo a new nickname and a shot at another title!

At the final table, it was 6 players against 1… not in a collusion sense, but because the combined total of chips among those six didn’t equal the total of the reigning champion. He had free will at the table as everyone was just desperately trying to keep their head above water. But as the night continued, the chips started to spread around the table, as everyone found their one personal ATM. For “E”, it was Slick, as she doubled up time and time again through me. For El Guapo, it was “E”, Popeye, and Joe who in large part doubled and tripled him up at key moments when it looked the bleakest. Popeye used Joe a time or two… well, you get the picture. The real story was El Guapo. At numerous times, he was down to essentially one round of blinds, and in fact hadn’t been over his starting stack until late into the final table, but kept doubling and tripling up at everyone’s expense until the table got smaller, and smaller, and players continued to bow out and there was just two left, the reigning champion and one of the S.B.P.T.’s most veteran players. With the headhunter still on the line, and everything else that goes along with being an S.B.P.T. tournament champion it was sure to be an exciting battle.

After the pictures were taken to document the occasion, the cards were in the air. El Guapo was about a five to one underdog when heads up play began but after some good bets, and another big double up when his 9/10 suited beat Joes J/Q off suit, El Gaupo was finally in the chip lead for the first time in the tournament… in fact he was now the dominant stack. That prompted Joe to push all-in right away with Q/10, and surprisingly he was insta-called by El Guapo’s Q/5. But La Cuca Racha was named that for a reason… you can’t kill him. When the flop showed a five, it was all but over for the reigning champion, and El Guapo’s conservative play earned him his second title, and us a trip back to the Casa.

I can’t explain fully the extent of his comeback; just suffice to say… it was probably the longest struggle to stay in an S.B.P.T. tournament by any player in S.B.P.T. history, and for it to pay off in the end was great to see! Congrats big man, you deserve it!

P.S. Because of his string of suck outs, I had to write this F’in front page again, making this by far the longest string of front pages that I have ever had to write. On top of that, I had to pay him $5. When will the agony end? Feel free to an answer to that question in Poker Talk!

Slick