Ragged Aces Poker Group

Game 12 Won by "Bad Beat" John

Clark Musser — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:52:00 GMT

Game #12 was a wild night with 17 players showing up at Peter and Sue’s place in Duval. Nine players were playing with the Ragged Aces for the first time and a couple might actually become regular players. Play ran the gambit from the experienced, tough-to-play new comers, to the very in-experience tough-to-read (because he really had no clue what he had) guy that called all the way down and sucked out with Q3o twice on the river. One thing is for sure, you can expect the unexpected when we hold tournaments at Peter’s place J.

“Bad Beat” John built a huge chip stack during the first half of the game before he ran into the backstop of Colleen who had a tendency to call down a draw and catch the right cards. He lost most of it in a couple of big hands and had to grind his way back into contention on the final table. He ended up turning the ship around, knocking Colleen out on the bubble and winning the tournament heads up against “Mc”Garrett. New-comer couple, Keith and Pam rounded out the cash-outs in 3^rd and 4^th making Keith the newest Rookie Ragged Ace (placed in the top 3 in a tournament). This was John’s first chip, and win of the year.

Speaking of the Roster of Aces, the Mike “Bellagio” run of four top 2 finishes (in the last four games he played), advanced him to become the fourth Triple Ace (2^nd on the active list) with the third most chips earned of all “Aces” (one behind Abi). Darin “Monkey Boy” became the fifth Triple Ace when he took second in his last game and passed Christine to sit third on the list. I owe both of you guys an Ace magnet!

Other movement on the roster includes “Bad Beat” John moving to within one chip of becoming a Double Ace (along with “Dead Hand” Joe, and Terry) along with Mike Z. and Brian T. becoming Journeyman (2 chips) Aces.

I have posted the updated standings to www.raggedaces.com. John L. jumped up two places to get into the top 5 while he grabbed another bounty and extended his lead a little on “Bellagio” and Clark. The big moves in the standings were “Bad Beat” moving up 5 places and “Wino” Sue moving up 3 places to get both into the top 10. “Dead Hand” moved up 7 spots to take 11^th. The other big move was made by Andrew, jumping 13 players to reach the top 20. Keith and Pam (new players) just cracked the top 35 with their top 4 finishes and I expect they will rise quickly if they continue to play with us.

Missing in Action: Looking through the list Ragged Aces players, I’ve notices a few that have gone missing since the summer, this season (or longer).

· Terry G. Lee (9 top 3 finishes), 0 games this season, last played June 20^th 2009 (14 tournaments ago)

· Casey Cady (2 top 3 finishes), 0 games this season, last played January 31^st 2009 (24 tournaments ago)

· Tyler “WalMart” (8 top 3 finishes, 2009 Champion), 1 game this season, last played September 19^th 2009 (7 tournaments ago)

· Rob Rook (5 top 3 finishes), 1 game this season, last played online October 28^th 2009 (4 tournaments ago), live November 15^th 2008 (29 tournaments ago)

· Scott Armstrong (4 top 3 finishes), 1 game this season, last played August 15^th 2009 (10 tournaments ago)

· “Anecdote” Allan (3 top 3 finishes), 2 games this season, last played September 19^th 2009 (7 tournaments ago)

· Bondy Sugarman (1 top 3 finish), 1 game this season, last played September 19^th 2009 (7 tournaments ago)

· Kevin & Max “Kings” Williams (1 top 3 finish), 3 & 2 games this season, last played September 19^th 2009 (7 tournaments ago)

· Erwin Jansen (2 top 3 finishes), 1 game this season, last played September 19^th 2009 (7 tournaments ago)

· Andre “Quiet Giant” King (7 top 3 finishes), 2 games this season, last played September 19^th 2009 (7 tournaments ago)

· Other players that could be semi-regular that we haven’t seen this season include: Harold, Adam C., Jeff B., Tom O., and Pat

Come on back guys/gals, we miss playing with you...

Our next game is only 2 days away, this Saturday, December 19^th at my place “the Hangar”, 6pm. This is a great opportunity to blow off some steam after fighting the crowds shopping at the mall all day J. Please let me know if you plan to make the game and/or need directions.

And don’t forget to set aside NEW YEARS DAY!!! This is our big HORSE tournament, starts at Noon with 1hr blinds…bring your favorite food and drink to share, watch the games on the big screen, play to win the bobble horse trophy!

5th Season

July 18, 6pm - Won by: Jordan S., Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
August 1, 6pm - Won by: Jon L., West Seattle "Rich's Place" ($20)
August 15, 6pm - Won by: John F., Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
August 26, 8pm - Won by: Diana, Full Tilt "Online" ($22)
September 5, 6pm - Won by: Aaron N. (BIG ACE RING), Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20 min / $100 max buy-in)
September 19, 6pm - Won by: John L., Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
October 3, 6pm - Won by: Garrett (Team Poker), Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
October 17, 6pm - Won by: Mike B., Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
October 28, 8pm - Won by: Clark, Full Tilt "Online" ($22)
November 7, 6pm - Won by: Mike Z., Issaquah "John L.'s Place" ($20)
November 28, 6pm – Won by: Mike B., Issaquah "John L.'s Place" ($20)
December 5, 6pm – Won by: John C., Duval "Peter & Sue's Place" ($20)
December 19, 6pm - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
January 1, Noon - New Years Day HORSE, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
January 16, 6pm - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
January 30, 2:30pm - HEADS-UP, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
February 6, 6pm - TBD ($20)
February 20, 6pm - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
March 6, 6pm - TBD ($20)
March 20, 6pm - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
April 3, 6pm - RAWSOP BIG ACE, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($100 with rebuys)
April 17, 6pm - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
May 1, 6pm - TBD ($20)
May 15, 6pm - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
May 26, 8pm - Full Tilt "Online" ($22)
June 5, 6pm - BIG ACE, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($50 with rebuys)
June 19, 6pm - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" ($20)
July 10, Noon - 2010 CHAMPIONSHIP, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" (invite only $20 entry)

Johnny Fabs Wins His First Black Chip

Clark Musser — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:58:00 GMT

On his fourth try getting to the final three of a Ragged Aces tournament, John broke through and grabbed first place. Congratulations on beating last year's champ, Jordan, heads up!

Austin made third place in his first tournament in a long time, and his friend, new player, Sam Winninghoff took 4th. Clark rounded out the cashes in 5th place.

20 players joined us on for the 3rd game of the season and I have updated all of the statistics on the standings and roster of aces pages.

Good luck to all in our Full Tilt tournament on Wednesday, Aug. 26, and our Big Ace Ring Tournament on Sept. 5th.

Jon L. Wins Tournament #2

Clark Musser — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:05:00 GMT

Jon Leland added his name to the roster of aces in his third game with the Ragged Aces (first game in the 2010 season). He beat a field of 7 and the big stack generated by Peter "the Black Hole" to come out on top and jump into 7th place for the season. Garrett rounded out the chip winners placing third and becoming the 19th ace in our history. He moved up to 16th place on the active aces roster. Jon also racked up three bounties and is now in 3rd place behind Jordan and Christine.

I have posted all of the photos I took at the tournament to the flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/raggedaces/sets/72157621922202730/.

I have updated the Roster of Aces and the Standings pages. The next tournament will be held at my place on August 15th. Hope to see you all there!

2010 Season Game #1

Clark Musser — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:26:00 GMT

Jordan continues his streak of good poker as he comes back from a short stack to win the first game of the Ragged Aces 5th season. We had 13 players at the game including two first time players (Jordan's brother, Jason and his dad, Jim). Jordan ended up beating Christine heads-up with Max taking third and Clark rounding out the cash winners in 4th. Jordan has also taken the lead in the bounty hunter race with an impressive 6 bounties in the first game (half the field).

I need to post the chips for the roster of aces and new 2010 pages for the standings this weekend.

Rich M. is going to host the 2nd tournament of the year, August 1st at his place in West Seattle. He has room for 16 players so let me know if you want to play.

Congratulations to Jordan, Christine, and Max for a very well played tournament #1!

Championship Recap

Clark Musser — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 14:16:00 GMT

The championship game this year was a huge success. We had 26 players confirmed playing and 25 showed up! This was a record turn-out for our championship and I thank all of you for participating and spending the day playing poker.

The game started a little after 1pm and we played 6 blind levels until we reached the BBQ dinner break at 4pm. At that time the three dead stacks (John F., Garrett, and Scott) were gone and four other players (Diep, Harold, Joe C., and Peter) had busted leaving us with 21 active players after the break. Everyone stayed for the BBQ and we were joined by Andre’s and Allan’s families. We had a ton of fantastic food, great conversation, and it was just a lot of fun to hang out for some time with everyone away from the tables. Thanks to Tyler for manning the Weber and everyone for chipping in and preparing and/or bringing food.

After we re-set the tables, play started again at 6pm. Three tables remained with Mike B., Tyler, and John C. holding the top positions. Clark, Darin, and Jordan rounded out the top 6. Soon we had our first casualty when Sue S. busted out in 21^st followed by three players on the Hearts table: Andrew, Allan, and Adam C. The plan was to combine tables at 16 but Nick busted followed by Rob R. before the hand was out and we combined at 15 players.

With two tables left, we still hadn’t seen a huge “best hand” (Jeff flopped quad A’s early on in the tournament but everyone folded to his bet on the flop and so he didn’t get credit for the best hand). Jordan owned it with a full house Jack’s over Ten’s. However, once we combined to two tables, John C. grabbed the best hand lead with Queen’s over Eight’s. But it didn’t last long as Mike B. beat his house with Ace’s full of Five’s. This hand would hold up as the best of the night and Mike took home the Full Tilt Jersey (you have to wear it next game so we can get a picture – I forgot to take one).

The final table was set for 10 players so we had to play until 6 busted. The first to go out was Garth, busted by Darin, then three players went out on the Hearts table: John L., Jeff B., and Bondy. Andre was shifted to the Hearts table to balance things and it didn’t take much longer to have the final table bubble burst when Christine was busted by Mike B. The two table rounds went fairly quickly and the tournament was almost two hours ahead of schedule when we got down to the final 10.

The final table started with Tyler as the dealer (43,600), Mike B. in the SB (40,800), John C. in the BB (24,400), Darin UTG (23,600), Clark (18,400), Rich (11,600), Mike M. (11,400), Rob B. (8,000), Andre (6,000), and Jordan in CO (3,500)

Rich M. was the first to go out when he moved all in with a Set of Ace’s and a Ten kicker against Mike B.’s Set of Ace’s and a Seven kicker. Rich could only loose if one of the remaining seven’s hit, and it did, taking him out of the tournament, but winning him a nice Full Tilt Poker Hat (we’ll get a picture with him and the hat next game he plays).

Clark was the next out when he moved all-in on the flop after raising pre-flop and Tyler made a big call for 1/3 of his chips. Clark was followed by Andre, Darin, and Mike M. on the bubble. Jordan ground his way from a very short all-in stack to the money in 5^th place, followed by Rob B. Once down to the final three, Tyler, Mike and John made a deal for the money splitting it evenly and playing for the last $100 and the trophy. John was first to bust, followed by a long heads-up battle that ended up going Tyler’s way for the victory.

I have created a RaggedAces flickr account and posted all of the photo’s there (thanks to Peter for taking so many great photos during the game): http://www.flickr.com/photos/raggedaces/

The following is the championship bustout table:

Player	Start of Day Table/Seed/Chips			Top 21 Table/Seed/Chips			Sweet 16 Table/Seed/Chips			Final Table Seed/Chips		Final Position
Tyler Lambro	Clubs	4	9,170	Hearts	2	20,400	Hearts	2	34,400	1	43,600	1
Mike Brewer	Hearts	2	9,390	Spades	1	22,200	Spades	1	36,300	2	40,800	2
John de Carvalho	Spades	6	8,620	Diamonds	3	19,900	Spades	3	22,800	3	24,400	3
Rob Brautigam	Spades	18	6,460	Hearts	8	9,200	Spades	9	8,200	8	8,000	4
Jordan Stefnik *	Spades	1	9,560	Spades	6	11,600	Spades	6	15,600	10	3,500	5
Mike Murakami	Clubs	23	5,470	Diamonds	9	8,100	Hearts	8	10,300	7	11,400	6
Darin Velin	Hearts	7	8,260	Hearts	5	12,200	Spades	5	15,700	4	23,600	7
Andre King	Diamonds	9	8,000	Spades	13	5,800	Spades	10	5,300	9	6,000	8
Clark Musser *	Diamonds	3	9,050	Diamonds	4	18,400	Hearts	7	11,000	5	18,400	9
Rich Millard	Diamonds	8	8,060	Diamonds	15	5,300	Hearts	4	16,300	6	11,600	10
Christine Musser	Clubs	5	8,750	Diamonds	10	7,900	Spades	12	4,200			11
Bondy Sugarman	Clubs	27	4,930	Spades	12	6,400	Hearts	11	4,800			12
Jeff Brown	Clubs	39	4,460	Diamonds	16	4,700	Hearts	13	3,100			13
John Lee	Hearts	51	4,020	Spades	18	4,300	Hearts	14	2,100			14
Garth Shippen	Diamonds	15	6,780	Hearts	20	2,900	Spades	15	1,200			15
Rob Rook	Diamonds	40	4,750	Spades	7	10,200						16
Nick Andal **	Hearts	24	5,530	Diamonds	21	1,500						17
Adam Conder	Spades	32	4,280	Hearts	17	4,400						18
Allan Rousselle	Diamonds	19	6,540	Hearts	14	5,700						19
Andrew Svensk	Spades	25	5,500	Hearts	11	6,600						20
Sue Svensk	Hearts	12	7,580	Spades	19	3,600						21
Peter Svensk	Hearts	20	5,880									22
Joe Curtin	Hearts	14	7,040									23
Harold Goldsberry	Diamonds	28	4,840									24
Diep Shippen	Spades	21	5,430									25
Garrett DeCerce	Clubs	10	7,910									26
Scott Armstrong	Spades	11	7,970									27
John Fabello	Clubs	16	6,720									28

Thanks to all of you for making the 2009 season so much fun! I expect there will be more players that play more games in 2010 so the competition will be even greater! J

Big Ace - Jordan Stefnik

Clark Musser — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:12:00 GMT

23 down and 1 to go before the Championship on July 11^th. Jordan hit a miracle 2 out 8 on the river to double up against Clark’s pocket QQ and then ground his way to the cash before pulling a huge upset and toppling Garrett heads-up to take the final Big Ace magnet of the year. That 2 outer pretty much decided the player of the year as without it, Clark would have taken the lead by 1 point (if he still finished in 3^rd in that alternate timeline) and the PoY race would still be alive between the top 5 players. With the miracle 2-outer, Jordan has a virtual lock with only Clark having a mathematical chance at taking it away. Congratulations to Jordan on a hard fought tournament, Big Ace title, Double Ace milestone, and season.

With their top 3 finishes, Garrett (Elite) and Clark (6x Ace) moved within one chip of their Ace milestones and have a shot at improving in the final game. Other players on the verge of Ace milestones include: Darin “Monkey Boy”, Rich “the Revealer”, Christine “the Cockroach”, Terry G. Lee, Scott A., “Steamroller” Garth, and Andrew. I have updated the website to reflect the current standings: http://tfcia.com/raggedaces/pages/2009Standings.aspx and the lifetime chip count: http://tfcia.com/raggedaces/pages/rosterofaces.aspx

Mike B. improved his season standing to 3rd place to move up to the Ace of Diamonds, dropping Christine down to the Ace of Clubs. Darin leapfrogged Rich M. to move up to 6th place (King of Hearts) while “Bad Beat” John improved to a King of Clubs (8th), “Mc”Garrett to the Queen of Spades (9th), and Andre “the Quiet Giant” dropped to the Queen of Hearts (10th). Brian T. and “Black Hole” Peter both improved over Rob B., “Johnny Fabs”, and “Anecdote” Allan to become 10’s (16th & 17th).

We are less than 4 ½ weeks away from the championship tournament with one tournament to play (last chance to gain chips for the championship). For those in the hunt for Player of the Year, Bounty Hunter, and Most Improved, this is your last shot at overtaking those above you in the standings. For everyone else, this is your last chance to improve your place (card), grab some chips (points), and pass those that don’t make the final game.

Tournament #24 is 11 days away, on June 20^th, in the Hangar (my place), costs $20 to enter, and starts at 6:30pm.

Championship Game on July 11^th

At this point the top 30 players are in the safe to invite zone as there is little chance you will be overtaken in the standings. The following are the officially invited players, please let me know for sure if you plan to attend the championship game on July 11^th (underlined are confirmed playing, italic not playing): Jordan, Clark, Mike B., Christine, Tyler, Darin, Rich M., John D., Garrett, Andre, Sue S., Scott A., Garth, Joe C., Diana, Brian T., Peter, Rob B., John F., Allan, Diep, Andrew, Erwin, Bondy, Mike M., Terry, Harold, Nick, Marvin, and Kevin W.

Garth, Rob B., John F., Diep, Erwin, Bondy, Mike M., Terry, Harold, Nick, Marvin, and Kevin W., please let me know ASAP if you will make the championship. I will invite alternates after the final game for those that have not confirmed they can make it by then.

I plan to invite 4 tables of 7, 28 players total for the championship which means Casey and Don would also get an invite if the season were over today. Adam C., Lan, John M., Brian B., Max, Jeff B., Tom O., Pat W., Steve S., John L., Aaron N., Paul H. all need at least one more game to move up in the standings to increase the chance of garnering an invite to the big game.

What makes playing the championship worth it? Even though the players at the bottom of the 28 start with less chips, there is extra juice in the purse for the championship. We have $500 in added reasons for one, plus a Full Tilt jersey that will be awarded to the best hand of the night, and a Full Tilt hat to the worst beat. A trophy and bragging rights for the champion. With 28 players buying in for $20, the total purse will be $1,060. Not a bad return on investment for $20 and you get to hang out with everyone the whole day and eat BBQ…lots of fun.

I hope that you all have July 11^th set aside for the invite only championship BBQ tournament. The championship is an all-day event that starts at noon, cards fly at 1pm, and we’ll have a BBQ dinner break at about 4pm.

The Trophy Race

There is only one game left to decide the season.

The Player of the Year Award is virtually locked for Jordan. Clark has the only mathematical shot at overtaking him with the space in the hangar (no more than 30 players) and the final game will have to be a big one to do it. At least 22 players need to show up and Clark has to beat 21 of them. Jordan has to go out in the first 9. It’s a pretty steep hill to climb…stupid 8.

Twelve players have reached the 10 game plateau (the most ever) and will replace their worst game if their next game has better points (only score partial or 0 points per game going forward). Those players, points, and number of players that must bust before them for game #24 to count are in the following table:

10 Game Players	Lowest Point Game	Bust Players to Count
Jordan	18	9
Clark	22	11
Mike B.	19	9
Christine “the Cockroach”	16	8
Tyler “Wal-Mart”	12	6
Darin “Monkey Boy”	14	7
Rich “the Revealer”	6	3
John “Bad Beat”	6	3
Garrett “McGarrett”	6	3
Andre “Quiet Giant”	16	8
Sue S.	12	6
Peter “Black Hole”	4	2

Mike B. failed to knock anyone out in the Big Ace tournament but Darin was only able to grab one bounty while Jordan took down 2. This puts Darin and Jordan in a tie for second place, 295 points behind Mike. If the final game is a big one (22 players or more), each bounty will be worth 100 points (or more). Mike needs to keep Darin and Jordan from gaining three more bounties than him while also holding off Tyler (5 bounties behind) and Mike M. (6 bounties behind). In fact, in a big game, Joe C. or Garrett could take down 8 bounties and the trophy. The Bounty Hunter competition could get real interesting, but Mike has it in his grasp, and we’ll need a big game to make it interesting.

With the large field of players this year, I’ve decided to expand the MIP (Most Improved Player) candidates at the championship to include the top 5 improved players of the year. This award is the only one voted on by the players but the nominees are gleaned from the statistics they generate year over year to determine who has improved the most over the last year. With his showing in the Big Ace, Mike improved on his statistics lead, improving to a 4.10 rating, Garth is still in 2^nd with a 3.82, while Jordan improved his numbers with the win to a 3.71. Garrett is in 4^th place having shown a huge improvement over last year at 2.12, and Rich M. rounds out the most improved top 5 at 1.99 (though since he won’t make the last game, he’ll probably drop 3 spots in the standings and out of the competition). Christine, Andre and Sue S. continue to have positive improvement numbers and could move into the top 5 with a big final game.

Ragged Aces Online Tournaments

A number of us now play on Full Tilt or are about to sign up on Full Tilt. With the new season, I will create a couple of online tournaments that those that have online accounts can play. If you want to start a Full Tilt online account, let me know what email you’d like to use (probably not a work address) and I can send you an invite (you get an extra $25 if you earn enough player points). I will post more information about his after the June 20^th game.

2009 Schedule (all Saturday games)

http://tfcia.com/raggedaces/content/TournamentSchedule.aspx

June 20 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($20)
July 11 - CHAMPIONSHIP, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 1:00 start (invite only $20 entry)

~ Clark

Mike M. Murders the Competition in Tournament #19

Clark Musser — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:30:00 GMT

How quickly things can change in one tournament, for the player going from life support to the win (Mike M. “is for Murder”), the player that skipped the biggest game in Ragged Aces history when leading the Player of the Year (PoY) race (Tyler “WalMart”) to find himself in 4^th place 10 behind the leader, and the player that was in 7^th place on the bounty list 530 behind the leader jumping into a 120 point lead (Darin “Monkey Boy”).

Congratulations to Mike M. for his first win of the year, beating 25 other players (including a run of 6 bounties in a row) and Terry heads-up in tournament #19. Darin placed 3^rd with Garth in 4^th, and Jordan rounding out the cashes in 5^th.

The Trophy Race

There are five games left including a Ragged Aces World Series of Poker (RAWSOP) $100 tournament at Brian’s on May 2^nd (more below), a Hold’em $20 tournament in the Hangar on May 16^th, a Omaha High $20 tournament at Scott’s place on May 30^th, a Big Ace Hold’em $50/rebuy tournament in the Hangar on June 6^th, and the final Hold’em $20 tournament in the Hangar on June 20^th before the Championship on July 11^th.

The top 4 spots on the leader board saw 1^st and 4^th place swap places and the spread between them shrink to 10 points. Christine “Cockroach” is only 1 point behind the leader (Jordan), with Clark only 3 behind Christine and Tyler “WalMart” 6 back of Clark. Darin “Monkey Boy” jumped 4 spots by picking up 42 points to move into the 5^th spot (55 points behind the leader) while Mike dropped one place as he held steady at 241 points, now one point behind Darin. “Bad Beat” John, “Mc” Garrett, “Steamroller” Garth, “Dead Hand” Joe, Brian, Rob B., Mike M. “is for Murder”, and Terry G. Lee all had significant movement up the leader boards to get into (or stay in) the top 25. “Bad Beat” John cracked the top 10 at #10, while Scott A. dropped out of the top 10 to #12. With only 5 games to play, this race is going to continue to heat up, especially when there are two “extra point” games on May 2^nd and June 6^th. Another big showing by Darin, Mike B., or Rich “the Revealer” could catapult them into the leaders pack, and two big games by anyone in the top 10 could get them into the lead pack or put this season away if they are already there.

Ten players have reached the 10 game plateau and will replace their worst game if their next game has better points (only score partial or 0 points per game going forward). Those players, points, and number of players that must bust before them for the game to count are in the following table:

10 Game Players	Lowest Point Game	Bust Players to Count
Jordan	16	8
Christine “the Cockroach”	16	8
Clark	18	9
Tyler “Wal-Mart”	12	6
Darin “Monkey Boy”	8	4
Mike B.	12	6
Sue S.	10	5
Andre “Quiet Giant”	8	4
Garrett “McGarrett”	2	1
Peter “Black Hole”	2	1

The bounty hunter competition has a new leader as Darin took 5 bounties in tournament #19 and pushed past Mike B. to take over the top spot. Tyler, Jordan, and now Mike M. who captured 8 huge bounties round out the top 5. No more than 4 bounties separate the top spot from 5^th place, can Darin hold onto his lead by grabbing a few insurance bounties in over the last 5 games?

The MIP (Most Improved Player) list continues to fluctuate with each tournament. This award is voted on by the players at the championship but the nominees are gleaned from the statistics they generate year over year to determine who has improved the most over the last year. Rich M. has dropped out of the top 3 for the first time this year as Jordan, Garth, and Mike B. improve their stats, but this one is really close. Jordan leads with a 4.49 rating, Garth is in 2^nd with a 4.45, Mike B., holds on in the top 3 at 3.61, while Rich M. slipped to 4^th with a 3.19. Christine, Sue S., and Andre continue to have improvement numbers and Terry G. Lee is in the mix if she plays at least one more game.

Who Wants a Shot at Playing for a Bracelet in the WSOP?

This year, the WSOP is holding a 4 day $1,000 buy-in event (the lowest buy-in ever – they are calling it their Stimulus buy-in) which starts on May 30^th. As we were playing the cash game (we actually had 10 players in the game at one point) into the wee hours on Saturday, I remembered to bring it up and I think we had at least 6 players that were interested. Jordan also brought up the fact that he might be able to get his brother to play and as his buy-in donate the flight and hotel (maybe). I also did a quick Expedia search and came up with a flight/hotel package at the MGM for 5 nights (May 29 – June 3) for $695 (we may be able to find something cheaper if needed). This means we need 10 players at $100 if Jordan can get the free package, or 17 players if we need to pay for it ourselves. Winner goes to the WSOP to play for a bracelet and their share of an estimated $3 million dollar purse, the rest of the players get a percentage of whatever the winner wins in the WSOP.

Winner gets a trip to Vegas, plays in the WSOP, keeps the bracelet if they win, keeps 52% (50% in the donated flight/hotel option) of whatever cash they win in the $1,000 tournament.

16 other players (in the 17 player option above) get 3% of whatever cash the winner wins in the $1,000 WSOP tournament

10 other players (in the donated flight/hotel option) get 5% of whatever cash the winner wins in the $1,000 WSOP tournament

Let’s just assume for a moment that 3,000 people buy-in to the tournament

That’s $3,000,000 total

The casino scrapes off 10% leaving $2,700,000

Let’s just say our winner takes it down and gets paid the top prize of 15%: $405,000

In our 17 player game they keep the bracelet and $210,600

The other 16 players get $12,150

In our 11 player game they keep the bracelet and $202,500

The other 16 players get $20,250

Not bad for a $100 investment. Now, realistically, we probably make $0, but we all double our money if our player cashes maybe a 30% chance.

The Quiet Giant Wins Tournament #17

Clark Musser — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:03:00 GMT

17 tournaments are in the books, only 7 remain before we play the championship in July. Plenty of opportunity for anyone to jump in, rack up points and earn a top seed in the championship. Play well, and you may win the Player of the Year award. But this year’s window of opportunity is closing fast as we move into the final quarter of competition.

Congratulations to Andre for his first win of the year, beating Brian heads-up in tournament #17. Erwin placed 3^rd with Mike rounding out the cashes in 4^th. Brian and Erwin are two of the new players this year that we continue to see climbing the rankings each month. We were unable to try out the Team Poker concept at the last tournament but we’ll try again before the end of the season.

Ring Tournaments and Cash Games

I do have some news on the “Ring Tournament” point structure as we had a small ad-hoc cash game form last weekend. Taking the results of that cash game and applying the Ring Tournament point structure (if we were counting it – which we aren’t), the six players would have earned points of 29, 21, 14, 8, 6, 6 which is comparable to the points earned in an average tournament. Here is the Ring Tournament point structure:

1. buy-in is minimum of $20 but anyone can re-buy or buy-in for more. .25/.50 blinds no ante (in some cases we could play .10/.20 blinds)

2. Everyone earns points equal to their final $ minus total buy-in $ (0 minimum) up to the first 10 points then earns 1 additional point per $5 after that (fractions rounded up)

3. Players earn 2 points per hour played during the tournament

Ex:

I buy-in for $20 and lose it all, re-buy for another $20 and lose $5 more before the end of a 6 hour night.

I end the night with $15 - $40 = -$25 which is rounded up to 0 points plus 2 points per hour played = 12 points

Ex2:

I buy-in for $50 and triple my money over a 6 hour period to $150.

I end the night with $150 - 50 = $100 which equals 10 + 90/5 = 28 points plus 2 points per hour played = 40 points

Btw, if you would be interested in getting contacted whenever we have a cash game forming, send me an email along with your phone number (I don’t have a lot of your numbers) and I’ll add you to the list of people to call when we’re trying to get together and play poker. Much of the time, these are last minute things, like John or Mike calling me on my way home on a Friday night saying “you want to get a poker game going tonight?”.

The Trophy Race

We’re in the home stretch as ¾ of the season has been concluded. The top 4 spots didn’t see a lot of movement in the last tournament though it did see Christine pull into sole ownership of the top spot by 2 points over Clark with Tyler 12 back, and Jordan only 24 behind. Mike jumped up two spots to get into the PoY race at #5 with a 51 point deficit to make up in the last 7 games. Rich M., Sue S., Darin, Scott, and Andre round out the top 10. Scott is in the most interesting spot (at #9), with only 5 games played, he will gain full points for his next 5 games and is only 86 points behind 1^st place. It will be interesting to see if the players above him on the board can fight off his certain surge at the end of the season. With 7 games to play, I wouldn’t count any of the players out, and looking at Garth (#15, 6 games), Brian (#19, 4 games), and Erwin’s (#22, 3 games) climb over the last few games, they will be trying to crack the top 10 before long, and may break into the top 5 before the season is over.

Seven players have reached the 10 game plateau and will replace their worst game if their next game has better points (only score partial or 0 points per game going forward). Those players, points, and number of players that must bust before them for the game to count are in the following table:

10 Game Players	Lowest Point Game	Bust Players to Count
Christine “the Cockroach”	10	6
Clark	12	7
Tyler “Wal-Mart”	8	5
Jordan	12	7
Mike B.	6	4
Sue S.	8	5
Darin “Monkey Boy”	4	3

The bounty hunter competition has a new leader as Mike B. took 3 bounties in tournament #17 and pushed past Jordan and Tyler to take over the top spot. He now leads by 40 points over Jordan (less than one bounty in most tournaments) and will need to fight back the other hunters over the next 7 games if he wants to take home his second bounty mug. Joe and John F. round out the top 5, but as we all know, this one won’t be decided until the final game.

The MIP (Most Improved Player) list had quite the shake-up over the last two tournaments. This award is voted on by the players at the championship but the nominees are gleaned from the statistics they generate year over year to determine who has improved the most over the last year. Rich M. still holds the statistical lead for players that qualify (must have played at least 4 games each in the last season and this season) with a 4.25 rating with Garth right behind him at 3.79 and Mike B. jumping into the top 3 with his last game at 3.38. Jordan, Christine, Sue S., Andre, and Garrett have good improvement numbers as well and could surge into the top three over the next 7 games.

Who Is In This Saturday?

So who is playing on Saturday (April 4^th)? This tournament will be a little different than most, since I scheduled it on Christine’s birthday, she got to choose the format. So we will be playing Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo for a $20 buy-in. There will be re-buys for the first 3 blind levels, anyone who has a stack that dips to 2,000 chips or below may re-buy for an additional 3,000 chips for $20. No limit to re-buys. At the conclusion of the first 3 levels there will be an add-on option of $20 for 3,000 chips. The winner of the tournament will earn a Big Ace magnet and the top three places will earn Big Ace chips in the Roster of Aces.

14 Players have committed to playing already, we just need another 10 and we’ll have a full house to sing happy birthday as we knock Christine out of the tournament J. Playing: Christine “Cockroach”, Clark, Tyler “Wal-Mart”, Jordan, Mike B., Sue S., Darin “Monkey Boy”, John “Bad Beat”, Garth “Steamroller”, Joe “Dead Hand”, Diep “Black Widow”, Peter “Black Hole”, Nick “Miss Manners”, and Terry G. Lee

Regulars I need to hear from: Scott, Andre “Quiet Giant”, “Mc”Garrett, John F., Diana “Ms Piggy”, Allan “Anecdote”, Andrew, Erwin, Harold, Casey, Adam C., Jeff B., Rob B., Steve S., Paul H., and Craig T.

Erwin Wins His First Tournament

Clark Musser — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:46:00 GMT

Congratulations to Erwin for his first win as a Ragged Ace. He defeated Mike heads-up in tournament #15 on February 21^st to earn his first black chip. Rich “the Revealer” went out third to move into 3^rd place on the Roster of Aces only 3 chips behind “Action” Abi and one chip away from becoming only the 3^rd Triple Ace. Christine (now in 4^th on the roster) is also only one chip away from becoming a Triple Ace. Mike’s green chip moved him into the top 10 on the roster for the first time going from 11^th all-time to 8^th with 8 chips. Another top three showing would move him past Blake and “Dead Hand” Joe into 6^th on the roster.

We have 9 games left until the championship! The end-of-year trophy races are heating up and this is going to be the closest competition for every category since the start of the Ragged Aces. There are a number of players that have been showing serious year over year improvement in the statistics (Most Improved Player Award) with Rich “the Revealer” leading the pack followed by Garth “Steamroller”, Mike, Sue S., Jordan, Andre “the Quiet Giant”, and Christine “the Cockroach”. Diana and Garrett have also improved over last year but they will need to win a few chips before the end of the year to get into contention.

Bounty hunting has been all over the place this year with Jordan currently leading by a slim 65 points over Tyler (this is one bounty in a 13 player game). Mike, Joe, and John F. round out the top 5 and are all within a 4 bounty night of taking the lead away. Nobody is out of the bounty race with 9 games left so this is a mug just waiting for someone to get hot. Who will it be this year? My guess is it will be a player that participates in a majority of the 9 remaining games.

Finally, the Player of the Year race is getting very interesting. Clark still leads the pack with 253 points but his lowest scoring game is 12 points which means to gain any more ground he can’t go out as one of the first 7 players in a tournament. Tyler “WalMart” and Christine “the Cockroach” are both at 243 points with 8 point low games which means they gain points by going out higher than the first 5 players and have a 4 point buffer over Clark if playing in the same game. Jordan has just reached 10 games so he can now improve on his 217 points by improving over a last place 2 point finish earlier in the year which means as long as he doesn’t go out last, he is gaining almost full points for his next tournament and will make a lot of headway against the three players above him. Rich “the Revealer” is in 5^th place with 195 points but has only played in 7 games, he has three more games where he gains full points so he should close the 58 points fairly quickly to compete for the top spot. Sue S., Mike, and Darin “Monkey Boy” round out the players that are closest to 10 games and will close the gaps in the next few tournaments. I’m fully expecting this one to come down to a few points in the final game of the season.

"Dead Hand" Joe wins the CF Celebrity Tourney Seat

Clark Musser — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 16:51:00 GMT

First off, I’d like to congratulate “Dead Hand” Joe on his third win of the season! He beat a field of 22 and Mike in heads-up to earn a seat to play at Quest Field in the CF Celebrity Charity Tournament on Feb 7^th (Mike and I have seats as well). Joe is moving up the Roster of Aces (career win list) and is now in 6^th place behind “Monkey Boy” Darin lifetime. The CF Foundation benefited as well with $230 going to the charity from our tournament matched by Mike to make is a $460 donation, a nice win for them as well since they normally sell the tickets for $300. Thanks to all that played in the tournament as the money went to a good cause and goes toward finding a cure for people like Mike’s son Cole.

With Joe, Mike, and Jordan taking down the top three places in tournament #13, the roster of Aces has had quite a bit of movement. The 22 player tournament caused a lot of changes on the season rankings as well. I have updated the current standings but I thought I’d call out the big moves. Clark and “WalMart” Tyler have swapped the top spot. Tyler busted 3^rd and Clark made it to 7^th so this was a big shift as they both have more than 10 games. Tyler replaced a 4 point game with a 6 point game improving by 2 points. Clark replaced a 2 point game with a 32 point game improving by 30. There is now 19 points between the top two spots, but I expect that will shift dramatically over the last 11 games of the season. Clark must have better than an 8 point game for it to count while Tyler needs better than a 6. Other big moves included Mike bouncing up 3 spots to join the top 5, “Quiet Giant” Andre and Joe jumping up 7 and 8 spots to join the top 10, and John F. and Darin cracking the top 15. “Cockroach” Christine reached 10 games and will replace a 4 point game with her next tournament. Jordan has one more tournament to reach 10 games before he begins to improve his showings.

The bounty hunter race has a new leader as well. Jordan took down 6 players in a 22 player tournament gaining 660 points and overtaking Tyler for the lead. This race is a crap shoot right to the end and the top ten will continue to shift with each game, take a look at the trends page to see the current standings. The Heads-Up tournament will be a good place for people to get bounties.

So now we are less than a week away from the first annual Heads-up tournament! I have put together brackets that can handle 16, 20 or 24 players. Ultimately, I’d like to hit those numbers exactly but we can have “bye” games if we don’t make it. I will need to set up everything the night before, so please let me know if you plan to play by 5pm on Friday. This tournament is going to be special with its own trophy and higher value points in the season standings. For a 24 player tournament the payouts will be: $180/120/80/30/30 ($20 buy-in). A 20 player tournament will have payouts of: $160/100/50/30/30. And a 16 player tournament will have a payout of: $120/70/50/30/30. Points for busting out will be earned based on the band you bust. Thus, in a 24 player tournament, after the 2^nd round, 6 players will bust at the same time. They will all count as if they busted in 19^th place (12 points), the next round will count as 13^th place (24 points), the next as 8^th place (34 points), then 6^th place (38 points), 4^th place (in the money, 42 points), 3^rd (special roster chip & 44 points), 2^nd (special roster chip & 46 points), and Heads-Up Champ (trophy, special roster chip, & 48 points). Of course, smaller tournaments have lower point scores.

So who is playing? Currently I have 13 confirmed players for the Heads-up Championship game on the 31st:

Clark, Tyler “WalMart”, Christine “Cockroach”, Jordan, Sue S., John F., Darin “Monkey Boy”, Andrew, Diana “Ms. Piggy”, Peter “Black Hole”, Terry, Adam Conder (new player), Casey Cady (new player)

I have 14 players that have shown interest but need to confirm that they will (or won’t) be playing as soon as they can so I can fill up the brackets:

Rich M. “Revealer”, Andre “Quiet Giant”, Scott A., Garrett “McGarrett”, Garth “Steamroller”, Allan “Anecdote”, John “Bad Beat”, Diep “Black Widow”, Nick “Miss Manners”, Jeff B., Rob, Harold, Lan Ong (new player), Donna Krell (new player)

As soon as I have enough players confirmed I will put together the lowest bracket (16) and send it out. As we get more players I will fill in the 20 and 24 (if we get there) and send those out. If you are planning on playing the 31^st, let me know ASAP, so I can prepare for this unique tournament format. Players will be seeded by their current season records, roster of aces ranking, past season records, and then by random order. I plan to fill the 24 seats with the first 24 people that commit to playing!

Ragged Aces Calendar

I have 4 calendars left that have gone unclaimed. Please let me know if you would like one of the 2009 Ragged Aces Calendars I got at a discount (normal cost is $25). It is $20 per calendar and I worked on getting some interesting quotes and pictures into it from last season.

Team Poker

I am contemplating running one of the open date tournaments (if we don’t get another host) as a Team Poker game. If you would be interested in managing one of the 4 teams, let me know…take a look at the website in the discussion forums for how this works.

Let me know as soon as you can if you plan to play any of the games on our schedule or if you’d like to host the game on May 2 or May 30.

2009 Schedule (all Saturday games)

http://tfcia.com/raggedaces/content/TournamentSchedule.aspx

January 31 - HEADS-UP Tournament, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 3:00 start ($20)
February 21 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($20)
March 7 - Sammamish, at Andre’s Place 6:30 start ($20)
March 21 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($20)
April 4 - RAWSOP Tournament, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($ TBD)
April 18 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($20)
May 2 - Open date, host TBD 6:30 start ($20)
May 16 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($20)
May 30 – Open date, host TBD 6:30 start ($20)
June 6 - BIG ACE Tournament, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($50)
June 20 - Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 6:30 start ($20)
July 11 - CHAMPIONSHIP, Redmond Ridge "The Hangar" 1:00 start (invite only $20 entry)

See you on the 31^st!

~ Clark