So, we had another poker tournament at “the Drake” this Friday. I was quite excited since this would be the premiere of my custom Cthulhu chips, which had just arrived on Thursday. Here’s a shot of my new chips (which, like all the images in this post, is a link to a larger image):
<Insert your own “gambling with your very soul” joke here. Follow with your own “I don’t gamble; I play poker” joke.>
For a change, I got a pass to spend the night in town, so I could have more than two beers over the evening since I didn’t have to drive home at the end of the night. Indeed I could stay and “party” after the tournament ended–I ended up crashing at “the Drake” (which is apparently casino, speakeasy, and flophouse) just as the sun was coming up. I should note that this is the first time in at least four years that I’ve been out all night drinking, at least in Halifax.
Anyway, about the tournament: we had a record turnout, necessitating a two-table situation for a the first couple of hours, and we also had a record tournament pot.
As usual we had a lot of fun with the game, awarding some special prizes to people along the way. The first person out, in this case Mike Ward (a.k.a. “Pogey”) had to undergo a number of humiliations, including wearing the special DUNCE cap all night (which he got to keep), and “licking Drake’s balls”. You can see one of the aforementioned balls, a gigantic jaw-breaker, in the shot. Also in the shot is Ward’s bonus prize–a set of card trick instructions, on the theory that since he won’t be making money with the cards he might as well learn to do something.
Ward, ironically, got the last laugh, since he bought back in and ended up tying for the 3rd place slot (i.e. in the money). Indeed, we broke the tie by cutting for the third place slice, and Ward cut to an ace, so while he did wear the DUNCE hat all night, he ended up with a slice of the pot.
Of course, along with the booby prizes for first person out, comes the small “sharpshooter award” for the first person to take someone out. In this case, that was Matthew Merrick–a new player at our tournament, which spawned a number of “bringing in the ringer” comments that turned out to be pretty funny at the end of the night–who knocked Ward out. Here you can see Matt holding the sharpshooter prize, a classic cap gun and a set of ammunition.
(As an aside, we are actually kind of lucky that the SWAT team didn’t get called down on us, since later in the evening there was some shooting of innocent people walking by four stories below, and then a very… um… empassioned series of games of “Di Di Mau”–which, for those who haven’t seen Deer Hunter, is kind of like Russian Roulette, but a lot louder. An digression within an aside: “Di Di Mau” is Vietnamese for “to go quickly”.)
Somehow Phil managed to talk Drake into giving up the headband which he then proceeded to rock all night. However, apparently the Drake used up all the mojo in the headband at the last tournament, since it didn’t do Phil any good. (You may recall that both Drake & Phil were in the money at the last tournament.) Apparently Japanese characters work better for Drake than the Inukitut characters he was sporting this time.
After enough people had been busted out of the tournament, the two tables were able to merge. So, while the winners went on to play at the “big kids table” there was a pick-up cash game that started among the losers at the “loser’s table.” Starting on the pink couch (Drake’s apartment is special) we have Carsten (no nickname… yet–and not technically a loser, since he came after the tournament was under way), then Neil (a.k.a. “Carhumper”), Bob (a.k.a. “Mayo”), Drake, and Mike #3. (Disclosure: I was playing at this game too.)
In the shot, Neil is entertaining us with one of his stirring renditions of an 80s tune. I have a video from later in the night of Neil showing us his special dance version of “She Drive Me Crazy”, but the link to that will only be circulated to a small group of people. I think I love that guy. Thanks to him I had a Chimay Rouge for breakfast on Saturday, which I think is almost the definition of Breakfast of Champions.
Here we can see the final six, heads down and serious about getting into the top three (“the money”). At the top of the clock, dealing the game because he busted out pretty early, is “J-bot”. Going clockwise we have Ward (still in the game!), Phil, The Silent Assassin, the back of Cal’s head (I think I might want to nickname him “The Pusher”, since he feeds one of my habits), Milkshake, and ‘Sharpshooter’ Merrick. Look at those fine chips in play on that table.
The final six lost Phil, and then Milkshake, leaving just four, and then Cal and Ward both went out on the same hand, leaving just Mirco (“The Silent Assassin”) and our Sharpshooter. Things got intense in the head-to-head action, but in the end Merrick won out, and got to take the new trophy for its inaugural spin.
Despite the obvious fact that the cup was not actually water-tight, Merrick went after it gamely, washing his win down with some champage. He was a pretty gracious winner, so we managed to keep the “bringing in a ringer” comments to a minimum. Hopefully we’ll see him again at a future tournament so we can all have another shot at him.
I’m told that the table I wasn’t at had a situation where two players were Kings full, and a third smacked them down with a 4 of. I wish I had seen that.
After the tournament, the party continued, as I said until sun-up.
In the morning, this is what the kitchen looked like:
(Even though Drake wasn’t in the money this time, he should have enough in empties to make up for his costs!)
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