Ragged Aces Poker Group

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:

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