'Fish Out of Water' RC4 Report
This is my detailed trip report of Royal Cup IV. First of all, thanks to pokerdro, Pinhead and the other captains for organizing. Thanks to Mirmir, QTJen, STR82ACE, etc. for helping out a lot on game day. It was the friendliest, most fun and smoothest Royal Cup yet, and the least likely to have post-event flame wars. With the blinds uncapped for the SNGs, the tables all started and finished at a reasonable time. The last match ended by 11 PM, so players could drive home at a reasonable hour.
beanie42, 2Bullets, DrLarry and PokerQueenie were among the players that looked very different since the last Royal Cup - all for the better. No wonder DrTyore kept trying to take off his pants!
Cards flew after 11 AM. Some of the Milton Rocks employed the Phil Hellmuth strategy of showing up late (they thought RC4 started at noon). All teams again managed to have eight players show up with a few last-minute replacements.
After the first event of Omaha/Stud, Ching Hill set the RC4 single-event record with 81 points. Our newly named "Fish Out of Water" team was second with 74 points, with Team Guelph in third place at 66 points.
Ching also won the Limit event with 68 points, increasing its lead with 149 points. Guelph and Fish Out of Water remained in second and third, with 132 and 123 points respectively.
Fish Out of Water won the No Limit event with 79 points. Congratulations to waltsfriend, DataMn and pokerJAH for winning their tables. Unfortunately for us, Ching kept pace and had a 24-point lead heading into the the final event, with 226 points. We had 202 points, and the Milton Rocks moved into third place with 185 points.
The most feared team heading into RC4, Team Waterloo, won 7 out of 8 heads up matches, but fell just three points short of making it to the money. Guelph had one more heads up victory than Milton and won third place by a single point with 216 points.
STR82ACE, the captain of Ching Hill, and I had agreed that we would select ourselves for the heads up match. Just like in Royal Cup III, the final three heads up matches would determine the championship. Ching had lost five of their heads up matches so far, so Fish Out of Water could catch up but only if ALL three matches turned in our favour.
It was again an epic heads-up battle of captain versus captain, mano el mano. It was like an old Western movie, with a lot of intense stare-downs between AJ with his John Wayne hat and me and my Casino Brantford cap. We weren't looking at the cards, we were staring at each other, ready to pounce on any mistakes. Who would be the one to go for the kill and say, "I'm all in!"?
It was a long heads-up battle and I managed to win a couple of all-in confrontations near the end to take it down. Our team actually had more points in RC4 than when we won Royal Cup II, but we fell just four points short of first place, still 26 points more than third place. Ching Hill wins the RC4 championship, with 246 points.
Congratulations to STR82ACE, ElElliott, BigChrisEl, derksen (MVP), TheBusDriver, Easy, Justin and Garry. Congratulations also to my team members, who all scored over 20 points each for a great team effort.
- waltsfriend: one of the MVP contenders with 43 points.
- Terra: wasn't able to get any of my messages until after I had 8 players, but thanks for enthusiastically replacing muffinnuts, the only player in RC history to win all three SNGs (but went MIA). Terra was a poker terror with 41 points.
- DataMn: won NLHE and had 31 points after the first three events.
- pokerJAH: won NLHE and went heads-up in Omaha against a wheelchair-bound haddon.
- Kristy_Sea: our Heads Up ringer who won the critical match against the third place team to ensure a top 2 finish.
- kidpokerversion2: the best "Number One" a captain can have.
- Haydn: Royal Cup III MVP.
Hope to see my teammates again at Royal Cup V. As the only team to always make it to the money, we will be going for a fourth consecutive money win.
beanie42, 2Bullets, DrLarry and PokerQueenie were among the players that looked very different since the last Royal Cup - all for the better. No wonder DrTyore kept trying to take off his pants!
Cards flew after 11 AM. Some of the Milton Rocks employed the Phil Hellmuth strategy of showing up late
(they thought RC4 started at noon). All teams again managed to have eight players show up with a few last-minute replacements.After the first event of Omaha/Stud, Ching Hill set the RC4 single-event record with 81 points. Our newly named "Fish Out of Water" team was second with 74 points, with Team Guelph in third place at 66 points.
Ching also won the Limit event with 68 points, increasing its lead with 149 points. Guelph and Fish Out of Water remained in second and third, with 132 and 123 points respectively.
Fish Out of Water won the No Limit event with 79 points. Congratulations to waltsfriend, DataMn and pokerJAH for winning their tables. Unfortunately for us, Ching kept pace and had a 24-point lead heading into the the final event, with 226 points. We had 202 points, and the Milton Rocks moved into third place with 185 points.
The most feared team heading into RC4, Team Waterloo, won 7 out of 8 heads up matches, but fell just three points short of making it to the money. Guelph had one more heads up victory than Milton and won third place by a single point with 216 points.
STR82ACE, the captain of Ching Hill, and I had agreed that we would select ourselves for the heads up match. Just like in Royal Cup III, the final three heads up matches would determine the championship. Ching had lost five of their heads up matches so far, so Fish Out of Water could catch up but only if ALL three matches turned in our favour.
It was again an epic heads-up battle of captain versus captain, mano el mano. It was like an old Western movie, with a lot of intense stare-downs between AJ with his John Wayne hat and me and my Casino Brantford cap. We weren't looking at the cards, we were staring at each other, ready to pounce on any mistakes. Who would be the one to go for the kill and say, "I'm all in!"?
It was a long heads-up battle and I managed to win a couple of all-in confrontations near the end to take it down. Our team actually had more points in RC4 than when we won Royal Cup II, but we fell just four points short of first place, still 26 points more than third place. Ching Hill wins the RC4 championship, with 246 points.
Congratulations to STR82ACE, ElElliott, BigChrisEl, derksen (MVP), TheBusDriver, Easy, Justin and Garry. Congratulations also to my team members, who all scored over 20 points each for a great team effort.
- waltsfriend: one of the MVP contenders with 43 points.
- Terra: wasn't able to get any of my messages until after I had 8 players, but thanks for enthusiastically replacing muffinnuts, the only player in RC history to win all three SNGs (but went MIA). Terra was a poker terror with 41 points.
- DataMn: won NLHE and had 31 points after the first three events.
- pokerJAH: won NLHE and went heads-up in Omaha against a wheelchair-bound haddon.
- Kristy_Sea: our Heads Up ringer who won the critical match against the third place team to ensure a top 2 finish.
- kidpokerversion2: the best "Number One" a captain can have.
- Haydn: Royal Cup III MVP.
Hope to see my teammates again at Royal Cup V. As the only team to always make it to the money, we will be going for a fourth consecutive money win.
Comments
I didn't realize The Hill scored a record in the first event. Damn, we're good
I couldn't get over the New Beanie look...he was like 10yrs younger. And honestly, it was abit distracting in our Stud game. Felt like I was taken advantage of a minor.
It was great to see everyone again. Alot of familiar faces that I don't get to see all that often and it was great to be able to get together to have some fun and great competition. Even Mark contained himself somewhat...he only tried to drop his pants in front of me twice! A third time could have dangerous for him.
You know, it should be mentioned that Jeremy once again won the NL Captain's Table for a third straight time. Even after getting most of his stack taken early, he battled back like a true champion to take it down. He's unstoppable at this event. Great game Jeremy...your new lucky charm certainly has a positive effect on you.
Our headsup match was great Buddy. If it wasn't for the fact that it wouldn't make a difference in the outcome, I'm sure we would have had a great game. But honestly, it was getting late, the audience was getting abit impatient, and I wanted to celebrate with my teammates on a great performance. Next time we go headsup, it will be of the same high caliber as when we started.
I can't praise the organizers enough. They did a fantastic job again. Like others have mentioned, there was very little if anything to complain about (except maybe the lack of cards for headsup battles). We had a great time and couldn't stop praising the event on the ride home.
As promised, I'm going to try to write up something for publication. Can't promise they'll print it, but if it does see the light of a print house, I'll be sure to flag everyone here to get a copy.
Great day, everyone. Like I said, I can't think of a single thing anyone should have a complaint about.
Well...maybe Mark offering a strip tease to no music. That could have been nasty.
You're more than welcome to join us anytime JAH. Just keep the yawning to a minimum, okay?
yah, I was really bagged on Saturday. I'm glad I went for a drive up to the U of W campus after busting out of limit early. All those college girls must have woke me up a little as I came back to put a nice dent in Ching's armor. Although, it wasn't enough in the end. Who plays poker in the day time anyways?