MPT 2008 #3 - Showdown at Showboat's House of Blues (4/27/2008)

(originally posted 7/8/2008, by Harv29, with a few minor edits)

The participants:

Feature Table (aka the action/loud/drunk table)

• Baccarat King
• Bigfus
• Janek13
• Amazon
• civicmon
• "E"
• Betdponies

Satellite Mattress (aka the passive mattress/quiet table)

• Dave
• Rowanv
• Mrs. Betdponies
• Rowanb
• Harv29
• Neil

The Results:

1. Amazon ($150)
2. "E" ($90)
3. Rowanb ($55)
4. Mrs. Betdponies ($35)
5. Harv29
6. civicmon
7. Dave
8. Bigfus
9. Betdponies
10. Neil
11. Janek13
12. Rowanv
13. Baccarat King

First I'd like to again thank our gracious host, Baccarat King for providing his wonderful suite (and a special thanks to his wife for putting up with us!). Thanks again to all of the participants, without you, there is no tournament.

Unfortunately since it was such a large field (13 players), I do not have a lot of hand history information. From what I do know the group was divided at random by the computer onto two tables (another MPT first!).

With heavy road traffic for the holiday, the tournament was delayed so we did not start until around 4, but did not take long for the action to begin. The mattress began with a group of MPT veterans, who had all played against each other before and relatively little alcohol, but things were hot and heavy on the table, as we heard much hooting and hollaring from our perch in the "bedroom". In fact, after only 24 minutes (4:27), we lost our host, Baccarat King, knocked out by "E".

Another 17 minutes later (4:44) we lost our current champion, Rowanv, who went all-in on the turn with top pair against Dave, who rivered three of a kind to eliminated the defending champ (in much the same manner she had crippled her brother, the previous defending champ, in Event #2). Rowanv had come back from a crippling loss to Neil a few hands earlier after calling his all-in bet and losing to his A-Q top pair. Dave collected a $5 bounty for beating a past champion.

Shortly after that (4:53) we lost Janek13, who was busted out by civicmon, and then the cycle of table then mattress eliminations continued when we lost Neil on the mattress at 5:26, who was busted out by Rowanb after raising preflop with AJ and calling Rowanb's all-in, then finding himself dominated by A-K, which held up to oust the MPT rookie.

During much of the first hour we could hear talk from the Feature Table about how many times Amazon survived on the river while moving her chips in as an underdog against the more experienced players. She was down to 35 chips at one point and needed to double up numerous times to work her way back into contention. From the sounds of things from the mattress, Betdponies was Amazon's most frequent victim, so it seemed fitting that she would eliminate Betdponies at 5:28 to make the final table of 8:

• Bigfus
• Dave
• civicmon
• Harv29
• Mrs. Betdponies
• Rowanb
• Amazon
• "E"

Then Amazon continued her bust out streak (by that I mean eliminated players, apparently the "real" bust out occured much later), by eliminating Bigfus at 5:39 and then Dave 5:48.

At 6:17 we lost civicmon, busted out by Rowanb. I arrived at the table as the short stack, doubled up once, but finally was eliminated by "E" at 6:27 and out on the bubble for the second time in three events this season.

Amazon continued her bust out parade, eliminating Mrs. Betdponies at 6:32 who finished 4th cashing for $35, her third MPT cash and second at the Showboat.

After relatively passive three-handed play and with increasing blinds, Rowanb moved all-in preflop w/Q-10s while first to act and Amazon, who despite being anxious for a cigarette break made a good call with A-7o and eliminated Rowanb at 7:16. Rowanb's 3rd place finish and second cash of the year (for $55) put him atop the season points standings.

We are now heads up with Amazon and "E" with Amazon holding around a 3-1 chip advantage. "E" offers a chop to Amazon who wants to accept it because she is missing out on precious gambling time and now really "needs" a cigarette, but from the urging of the crowd declines the offer. The chip lead changes a few times and then Amazon wants to accept the chop but "E" says it is too late. The chip stack swings again and finally at 7:38, "E" is busted out by Amazon to become the "House of Blues" M.P.T. Champion!!!

"E" took $90 for second place and Amazon took $150.

Here is the current Sealy Player of the Year point standings:

• Rowanb 26
• Amazon 22
• Harv29 21
• Bigfus 19
• Mrs. Betdponies 19
• Rowanv 16
• "E" 14
• civicmon 9
• Dave 8
• Betdponies 6
• TSS777 4
• Neil 4
• Just Jason 3
• Janek13 3
• DJ Chuck Chillout 1
• Baccarat King 1

Amazon with the win in a large field and 6 eliminations scores big, with rowanb taking 13 points (11 for 3rd and 2 eliminations) to take sole control of first place.

There are players who are loose-aggressive, loose-passive, tight-passive and tight-aggressive, but I believe Amazon brought a new type, drunk-aggressive. Those of us who were on the mattress only heard rumours about her play, but apparently she was a river queen, taking quite a few wins on the river. We heard she was all-in early for $35 and came all the way back to win. With her big. . . stack of chips and drunk-aggressive style ("I just want to go gamble and smoke a cigarette, I'm all-in" was her battle cry), she caused many of her opponents to fold. We'll definitely be seeing more of her, er, if you haven't already, at the M.P.T. Tournament of Champions in December.

Other player's comments are welcomed.

The current list of qualifiers for the ToC:

• Rowanb
• Bigfus
• Rowanv
• Harv29
• Amazon
• "E"
• Mrs. Betdponies
• Betdponies (defending champion)

We look forward to seeing you at the next event, tentatively scheduled for 8/9/8 (note the date change) at the MSS. We've moved the date so we can really get our gamble on for 8/8/8.