Re: Pokerati at the Tables (2)
Texas hold\’em, water chickens, and TBR

They probably don\’t want me writing about it … but I gotta say thanks to the good folks of [town deleted], Texas, who hosted what is probably pretty close to the bitchin\’est tourney in the Lone Star State. It was a $300 buy-in with 279 players … held on a ranch about 142 miles from the middle of nowhere. 10,000 starting chips and a peaceful blind structure. Armed security provided by the local Sheriff\’s Department.

People came in from Dallas, Austin, New Mexico, and numerous towns with four-figure populations in between. Tasty barbecue, fresh iced tea, a busted piss trough … good clean wholesome country poker fun. Gonz Theory holds, as TBR owned this thing … taking 2nd place (about $12k) after losing to some reportedly amazing double-suckout. Congrats, dude … seriously. You rock.

Fawcett also played well … coasting throughout the tourney with a way-healthy stack … and then admirably hanging on for dear life after losing most of it as he got near the money. Text from Fawcett about his finish: \”30th paying 30 ship it.\” Karridy finished 39th after a semi-bad beat that woulda put him near the chip lead had it been a different river.


SnG Steve and Sang made it about halfway through the field, I went out in 214th place, and Como (my pick for last-longest) went out even way before that. In his defense, he got taken down by quads. But still … It\’s not surprising I guess, that the three guys who had the biggest problem waking up for a faraway 9 am tourney had the worst results.

A few other interesting observations:

• In a nearly 300-player field, Sang was the only Asian. I don\’t think I\’ve ever seen that in any poker event or any poker venue ever. When I pointed this out to him at the table, the man with mutton-chops on his left said, \”Yep, welcome to Bubbaville.\”
• In Bubbaville, they call pocket deuces \”water chickens.\” Get it — ducks? Awesome …
• TBR is a boring tournament player to watch because he plays very few hands. It\’s like he\’s capable of enduring a cold run by just folding and folding for hours.
• TBR is a boring player to watch because his movements at the table are practically robotic.
• When he does play hands, he often takes the pot without a showdown. Again … BOOORRR-ing.
• When he does show down, he usually only reveals big cards. So uncreative … even if he was able to overcome his incredibly tight table image to get opponents to put all their chips in the pot when he has a monster.
• He obviously just got really lucky.
• The gold-plated horseshoes made for awesome dealer buttons.