| ~My Wild Week-End~
My Wild Week-End
By NanaBanana
Friday the 13th brought a close to TenPercenter's (Greg Cagle’s) 3 month run of weekly home games. While his wife and children have been in Russia for a nice long visit, he has been getting his poker fix by hosting weekly Texas Hold 'em tournaments at his home. Sometimes there were as many as 34 players there, and sometimes as few as 7-17 players. This past Friday night saw 17 players - and it was a wild night of poker. The regular tournament started a little late - around 8:15 or so and ended at around 12:00 or 12:30 am. Most everyone left as they were knocked out, but a few hung around for the usual cash games. I wound up being ousted from the tournament in 7th place, and hung around and decided to spend the night, as it was too late to make the 45 minute drive home.
After the first few tournaments of this run, Ten figured the players were getting tired of his usual servings of chips and dips. (as a bachelor, he was a bit limited in creativity in the kitchen). So, he asked me and his sister for suggestions of what he could serve that would be a tad more interesting. Shuggs08 generously offered to "cater" the snacks. After that, each Friday she provided a varied assortment of delicious, freshly prepared foods. They were different each week, so as to not be boring. Over the last few weeks, we've enjoyed Meatballs in Cheese Sauce, Barbequed Meatballs, Taco Rolls with different fillings, Quesadillas, Sausage Balls, Pigs-in-a-Blanket, Cocktail Sausages, Hot Pizza Dip with Sourdough Bread wedges, Pecan Pie Squares, Brownies, Assorted cookies, Salami Roll-Ups etc. This week - she made Black and White Cupcakes with little flags that had poker tops of either a club, heart, spade or diamond. Very cute and very good! Most weeks, Shuggs08 participated in the tournaments, but on the nights that she had special hot foods to tend to in the kitchen - she sat out. The players really enjoyed all of the tasty offerings at breaks in the games. A mighty fine job she did! Thanks Shuggs08!
Buy-in for the weekly tournaments was $25.00, which bought $10,000 in chips. The chips used were Paulson "Pharaoh’s Club." Starting stack was 20 $25 greens, 20 $100 blacks, 5 $500 purples, and 5 $1000 oranges. An ABC Gifts and Awards Bounty was added to each stack. At buy-in, each player received their own pre-sorted "bag of chips" from a huge chip bowl. When more people started showing up, Ten added in some NCV Pharaoh’s, then some $1k Chipco octagons and rounds, $5k Chipco rounds from the Egyptians set. We sometimes had to break into the Sidepot Protégé’s in order to fill in. Luckily all the sets shared the same color scheme.
Of the initial $25.00 buy-in - $3.00 was for a bounty chip and $2.00 for charity - for the local Parris Reed foundation. An add-on was offered - $10.00 for another $10,000 (2 $5,000 Chipco Egyptian Plaques). Some players bought in just once, some did re-buys.....and some did several rebuys! My best finish was 2nd place one week, which paid me $195.00. That night, I had amassed around $150,000 or more in chips and was the chip leader for awhile - but alas, it didn't last. You guys all know how that is! The biggest money night brought in over $1,000.00 into the tournament kitty. That night was very late and the top 6 finishers chopped six ways ["Blasphemy!" adds TenPercenter]
Anyway, getting back to my "wild week-end" - after Friday's tourney ended - I wound up playing cash games with Ten and four other players. Ten pulled out his Pharaoh’s 25¢-$5 chips for the cash games. Tonight’s game was "25¢/50¢ NLHE." We played from around 12:30 am until 10:00 Saturday morning - straight, no breaks! I had bought in twice, and after going out the second time, said "Okay, that's it for me - I'll just be the dealer!" So, I dealt for awhile - until Nathan started ribbing Ten, saying "Greg, look at your Mom - she's just itching to play!" (I must have had that gleam in my eye, ha ha!) So Greg, tosses me two $5.00 chips from his stack, and I'm back in the game. I was soon out twice more - but kept getting "charity chips" tossed over for another two rounds. After that, my luck changed and I started building a larger chip stack from the third $10 donation. I can't believe I played poker for almost 10 hours straight!! By 7:00 AM, things were getting crazy - lots of chips being tossed around the table, and rolling here and there. People doing (and learning) chip tricks etc. during play - a few yawns around the table. Lots of silliness. Some discussions on play. And still no one wanted to stop playing! At one point - after folding a hand while the rest of us continued - Greg put his head in his hands and took a two minute "power nap"! We snapped him out of it, and he continued the play - completely refreshed, he said. One player suggested playing "Pineapple" (one of his favorite games), so we played one round of that and then went back to Hold-em, much to that player’s disappointment. I understand that these same players had played "Pineapple" last Friday night until around 9:30 Saturday morning also! Do you know this game? Have you played it? Finally around 10am Saturday, two of the players were tapped out. The remaining three decided to give it up and cash in. Nathan - the chip leader, cashed in $300.00 from his original $20 buy-in. Greg cashed in $170 from his $20 (including his $30.00 I gave back). I cashed in $85.00 after paying back my $30 stake. No one else at the table cashed anything (although one still had over $200 profit from the main tournament).
We had two ChipTalk members who attended some of the tournaments - Brett & Ryan. I may have missed meeting Brett, as I made it to most all of the games except for maybe two, I think. Ryan (CT member) - if you're reading this - it was a pleasure meeting you, and having the opportunity to play some poker with you. It was a lot of fun! Thanks to both of you for coming to Ten's tournaments! And thanks to everyone for the donations to the food collection jar!
So.....after playing until 10:00 am Saturday morning - I had been up, without sleep for a total of 26 hours. By then - I was starting to get a little tired. I still did not sleep until 10:30 Saturday night, then I just crashed. At that point - I had been up for 38 hours. We watched the movies "1408" and "Vacancy" Saturday evening and then I retired and slept for nine hours.
Sunday: It was time to start breaking down tables, gathering up all the chairs and side tables and putting them away. Considerable time was spent just sorting and putting away all of the poker chips and poker essentials. There had been thousands of chips in play - including denoms and non-denoms Pharaohs, Egyptians, Beauties, Protégés and Plaques. There were bounty chips and card protectors all over (you can imagine all the choices folks have at Ten’s house). Copag cards, KEM cards, and various Pharaoh’s Club dealer buttons. And amazingly, after sorting over 3,500 chips, not a single chip was missing from over 13 weeks of tournaments and cash games! Outstanding!!
It was time to get the house back in order and cleaned for the arrival of Ten's wife and children. They will arrive home on Monday night. And while the Poker Tournaments have been interesting and fun - it will be very nice to have them home again!
At the end of the Tournaments, Ten had proudly collected a total of around $580.00 for Parris Reed.
Thanks to all of you for listening to my ramblin' little story about my "wild week-end"!!
__________________ R.I.P., Tomb1 CC>CC Member #R-7380 
'Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in
the rain."
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