It was an interesting night of poker which started off with us reducing the expected 14 down to 10 because of a number of no-shows. The majority of the 9 players present wanted to combine to a single table but in an interesting switch, one lone voice talked everyone into playing two tables of 5 (John was expected to be late). No sooner had we sat down to begin playing, John arrived. And a few minutes later, Adam and Ally arrived unexpectedly. We got the two newcomers added to each of the tables and play proceeded.
At the Aces table sat Nick, Christine, Darin "Monkey Boy", Peter "Black Hole", Andre "Quiet Giant", and Ally while at the Suits table we had Clark, Joe, John "Bad Beat", Sue, Aaron N., and Adam. This game turned ugly pretty fast as Adam and Sue were both knocked out in the first blind level from the Aces table as Clark and Aaron built up their stacks. Darin moved over to the Aces and was the next person knocked out of the game a few blind levels later. Down to nine, play continued for quite some time before controversy broke out between John and Aaron. Aaron asked John for a chip count three hands in a row when John raised. The first two hands, John obliged and gave him the count before Aaron folded. The third time, Aaron folded again and John made it known that he was getting a little miffed at the move. Joe jumped in to defend Aaron and a bit of a argument ensued. It was quite intense for a bit and it took players coming over from the other table and a bit of time to cool the tempers. Quite exciting. Joe admitted after he got more clarity on the argument (he originally though John was upset at being asked to show his cards) that he though Aaron was out of line as well.
It wasn't long after the spat at the Aces table that Andre was bounced from the tournament and we combined to the final eight players: Christine (first deal), Joe, Nick, Peter "Black Hole", Clark, John "Bad Beat", Ally, and Aaron.
Aaron started the table as the chip leader and he continued to build his stack as Christine, Nick, John, and Ally were felted and we were down to the final four. Prior to Ally going out, Adam was dealing for the table and we had the second controversy of the night. With Clark in the big blind, John folded, Ally called, and Aaron folded. Joe looks down to find only one card and calls out miss-deal. Checking the muck there are five cards. Aaron picks out one of his cards but John can't remember what he was dealt so we had to call Joe's hand dead (we assumed that one of his cards was accidentally swept by Adam as he picked up Aaron's cards). 
Joe was insensed and argued that he never received the card. After a bit of arguing, we stuck with the dead hand ruling and continued to play. Ally won the hand. Joe was busted in fourth place and collected $20 breaking even for the evening. At this point Nick called him over from the suits table to play in a cash game with a nick name that has stuck. "Dead Hand" Joe and we got the perfect picture to go with the moniker.
Down to three, Aaron had a 3:1 chip lead over Clark and Peter. It didn't take long before Peter was pushed to the rail and it was down to a heads up battle between Aaron and Clark. Everying was stacked in Aarons direction except the cards as Clark took control of the table and pushed the action against Aaron until they were virtually even in chips. A couple of big hands shifted everything over to Clark's side but a few chips and then Aaron pushed all in against Clark's pocket bullets. Aaron doubled through the bullets setting the stage for the final hand where he pushed in with his K3 against Clark's wired 8's. The 8's held up and the tournament was over.
This was Clark's 3rd win of the season and his 6th top three finish. For Peter "Black Hole" it was his 2nd top three finish of the season. And for Aaron it was his 3rd moving him up to 19th on the Roster of Aces board joining five other current "Veteran" players. Joe's fourth place finish was just shy of making him the 11th Ace on the roster.
As for the 2008 season, the player of the year leader board continues to be hot as the top ten shifts with each game. Nick continues to hold the lead but Clark closed the gap by 10 points which means there is only a 2 place difference (4 points) at one tournament between them. Joe has made a resurgence jumping up two spots to take 3rd and is only 12 points behind Nick! With five games left on the schedule (including the RABA this Saturday), the PoY trophy is still up for grabs by any of the players in the top 15 (Nick, Clark, Joe, Christine, Abi, Darin, John, Peter, Sue, Rich M., Allan, Jordan, Susan G., Diana, and Mike) if they get hot at the end of the season.
The PoY trophy is within easy reach of anyone within the top 10 as there are only 78 points difference between first and 10th place at the moment. That gap could be closed by making the top 5 in each of the last 5 games. The top 6 players have a point spread of 28 points which can be made up by placing 3 seats ahead of the leader in the last 5 tournaments or improving upon your prior games by an average of three seats a tournament. Worst games (by points) for players with 10 or more games counted this year (this would be the game replaced if you did better in the next game):
- Nick - 10 (need 5 players to bust out before you)
- Clark - 14 (need 7 players to bust out before you)
- Joe - 12 (need 6 players to bust out before you)
- Christine - 12 (need 6 players to bust out before you)
- Abi - 8 (need 4 players to bust out before you)
- Darin - 6 (need 3 players to bust out before you)
- Peter - 4 (need 2 players to bust out before you)
- Sue S. - 4 (need 2 players to bust out before you)
Take a look at the standings and map out your path to victory in the last 5 games: http://tfcia.com/raggedaces/pages/2008Standings.aspx
And the PoY isn’t the only trophy on the line. If you participate in the last 5 games of the season, you’ll improve your chances to take down some bounties and take home the Bounty Hunter of the Year Award. We started this competition last year and discovered that this race isn’t over until the very last person busts out of the last tournament of the year (Mike won last year by only one bounty with it still up in the air when it was three handed at the final table of the final tournament in 2007). Currently John holds the lead by 5 points (not even one bounty). This competition can change rapidly, but you’ve got to play in a few tournaments and knock out some players. We count all the bounty games for each player so even if you have 0 bounties now, and you play in the last 5 games knocking out 3 players per game on average (15 bounties), you would have a very good shot of winning the BHoY Award depending on the number of players in each tournament. For more information on the end of year awards go here: http://tfcia.com/raggedaces/content/RAAwards.aspx
Finally, there is one last thing to play for (other than the satisfaction of playing for the tournament itself), and that is the Most Improved Player (MIP) award. Currently we have 6 players that have a real shot at placing in the top 3 (we vote for the most improved player at the championship tournament based on the top three finishers). Susan G. continues to hold the lead followed by Nick, Peter, Joe and Diep. Brad could be considered if he plays in 3 of the last 5 games. If each of them continue to play well or even better then they have to this point, they will continue to make a case for most improved player. As we saw last year, it is really the end of the season that makes the big impression, so now is the time to play hard and not sit back on your laurels.