Ragged Aces Poker Group

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.

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!

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:

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

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

~ Clark

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:

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.

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

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

See you on the 31^st!

~ Clark