My tenth EMBARGO. “Funny quote goes here.”

Okay kids, we are still in a pandemic. This will be pretty short. I took no notes.

Thursday, February 4th.

EMBARGO 2021 is all online this year.

We are playing on Cliff “Deadhead” Mathews’ mb2 site. Thank goodness for Cliff!

Limit Hold’em Shootout tournament.

6 players per table. You have to win your table to advance.

I’m terrible at this format.

My table came down to Patti and Bex. Patti won after a good battle.

Oh, during Zoom chat, Dan recommends the TV show called “The Wilds.” I watch 3 episodes before falling asleep.

Friday, February 5th.

Wake up at 6:00 a.m. and watch 2 more episodes of “The Wilds.” Only 5 more to go.

Shootout finals in the morning. Ellis Starks wins it. Dean adds to his collection of 2nd place plaques. Shari in 3rd.

The World Chowaha Championship.

Each player gets two cards and must play two from the hand and three cards from the boards. Boards?

3 flops, 2 turns, one river. Final boards look like this:

F1 F1 F1
             T1
F2 F2 F2          R
             T2
F3 F3 F3

Turn 1 can be used with the top or middle flop. Turn 2 can be used with the bottom or middle flop. River can be used with any flop.

Easy game.

I get some nice cards, but the boards won’t cooperate.

JJ. A, K and Q on the flops. No jacks.
AcKc Flops are all 2-9 with only one club.

Asya builds a monstrous stack. Busting player after player.

Scott Samarel wins it.
Asya hangs on for 2nd.
Mecklin takes 3rd.

Mixed Single Draw tournament.

We are playing 5-draw high, A-5 lowball and 2-7 lowball.
All single draw. Early games are limit, then some pot limit, then no-limit.

I’ve been playing these draw games for 50 years.

I’m the chip leader at our table when I get dealt a pay straight JT987.

I raise, Asya re-raises, I 4-bet, I think she 5-bets?
I stand pat. I’m hoping she will draw 2 to trips. No! She is pat also. I’m hoping it’s a smaller straight or that she thinks we are playing lowball.
I check and call. Flush. Luckily this hand was fairly early and I only lose half of my chips.

Later in lowball, I raise with a pat 8. Other player 3-bets. I call.
They draw two cards?? Bet, I call. They have trips!
The person thought we were still playing draw high.

This happened at least twice.

I cruise to the final table with one of the top stacks.

Grizz goes out in 3rd.
It’s down to Joe “ChipRider” Long and me.

Oh, I’m on a Zoom call with the beer bust guys from work.
I start to narrate the game at the final table. They are actually into it.

Joe is up about 5-1 in chips.

We have an epic battle.

I gain some ground, but then lose a pat J to a 2-card draw to a 10.

Gain more ground. Only down 4-3.
Big pot develops in 2-7. I make an 8 and jam! Hoping Joe calls with a 9 or 10.
He calls with a 76542! Arrgghhh. He wins the tournament right there.

Congrats to Joe! He really played great. I was very happy with my play.

I win the ADB last-longer, so I will be up $40 or so for EMBARGO.

Watch episodes 6 and 7 of “The Wilds.” Wow, things are getting interesting.

Saturday, February 6th.

3:30 a.m., finish episode 10. Yay.

Musical Chairs No-Limit Hold’em tournament.

The Musical Chairs part is that we will go from tables of 9 to 8 to 7, etc.

The Zoom call is a lot of fun and I’m drinking Captain Morgan and Coke Zero Sugar. And I’m on about 4 or 5 hours of sleep. And I didn’t eat much. Not a good combination.

I’m doing pretty well in this one. About halfway through and I have a good stack.

Then I go completely cold. 80,000, 70,000, 60,000. Fold, fold, fold, fold, fold.
50,000, 40,000, 30,000. Fold, fold, fold.
At around 23,000 (I think) I finally pick up a little bit of a hand.

66 and I go all-in. Someone calls with ATo and knocks me out of the tournament.

I remember complaining pretty bitterly about this. Something like “AT is not ahead of anything I’m jamming with.” I’m sure I sounded like Phil Hellmuth, but probably more whiny.

I hope I wasn’t too nasty with my remarks.

I think I came in 23rd of 75.

Scott Lewis wins it, Ron Grossberg 2nd, David Low 3rd.

Somewhere around here I get a call from Kevin Un.
He owes me $20 from the TB/GB game.
He’s in Las Vegas and offers to make a Super Bowl bet for me.
Gotta ride the GOAT. $20 money-line on Tom Brady, the Refs and Tampa Bay to pay $49.

MASK tournament.
Murder, Action Razzdugi, Stud and Korean. Don’t even ask.

I was looking forward to this tournament as I really like the game called Murder.

I slept through the whole thing. 56 entries. I finished in 28th place. Ha!

JR won, Eric Schneller 2nd, Oliver 3rd.

Thanks to Deadhead for hosting EMBARGO on his mb2 site.

Thanks to the organizers for another great rec.gambling event. Here’s hoping our next RG event is live and in Las Vegas.