Retro Report: Bristol Street Classic V

Zithal

As the Bristol Street's rolled along, the reports became longer and longer as more people wanted to contribute to the storytelling aspect of the evening. For some reason I don't recall, we started this event with 15 people (8 on one table), but still collapsed the final table at 7 players. I'd guess that this actually put the notion in my head that it was possible to run tables of eight, but it wasn't something I'd do for a few more tournaments yet.

The class of Bristol Street V contained only one person; two-time Bristol Street Classic Champion, "Big Daddy" Paul W.

Paul actually played a bigger part in the tournament than he realized. Looking back on this tournament now, it contained a ruling that has huge historical significance, not so much by the effect that it had on this tournament, but more on how this ruling would event a future event, Jour de Poker 3. It's especially funny to see the complete lack of controversy and how the ruling was handled kinda matter-of-factly.

In BSC IV I used a blind schedule for 500 chips which was a little too aggressive and I smoothed it out for this one, and was actually quite pleased on how it turned out.

Bristol Street V also coined the Phrase "The Bristol St. Curse" which, as you'll see, continued with event #5!

With this event, I also played around with the notion of sending out a Preview of the players, before the actual event began. It was a fun tradition, but I quickly ran out of jokes, so it didn't last long. I'll include it here for fun anyways...

Bristol Street Classic V - Preview!

In one week, the top poker players in a 2 mile radius will collectively assemble at the Bristol St. Nightclub and Casnio to take part in the Bristol St. Classic V No-Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament.

A record 15 people will each lay down $10 in hopes of claiming the title of "Champion" and a share in a prize pot worth tens of dollars! All four former Bristol Street Classic champions will be competing. We've not yet had a former champion repeat... will this be the tournament it happens?

Our competitors, in no real particular order are...

1. "Easy" Amanda C. - Defending champion of Bristol St. IV, Amada did, in fact, purchase a pink skirt with her winnings from the tournament. After finishing in 1st and 5th in back to back tournaments, will she repeat as a top finisher?
2. Rob "The Knave of Hearts" LeGood - Champion of Bristol Street I, Rob has not made the final table in two successive tournaments. Will this losing streak come to end, or will he sink even furthur?
3. Erin "The River" Moffat - After an impressive first outing, Erin quickly drowned in Bristol Street IV. In her third tournament appearance, Erin's looking to once again finish in the money.
4. "The Incredible Hulk" Dave Baxter - The real question here is does he like the nickname I've given him, or doesn't he? Will Dave be able to three-out his way to victory?? (--not that I'm bitter, of course - Rob)
5. Dave "Brava" Selberg - Champion of Bristol Street III, and all around swell dude. After his initial first place finish, Dave succumbed to what's becomming the Bristol St. Champion curse... finishing low after you win! Will me bounce back at Bristol St. V?
6. Anthony "Quickfingers" Runstedler - Making his second appearance at the Bristol St. Casino, Anthony hopes not to lose his money as fast as he's currently losing his skittles.
7. "Slippery Pete" Aultman - Still best known for his Straight Flush over Full Hose bad beat story, "Slippery Pete" improved his standing with a Final Table appearance at Bristol Street IV. Will the forward momentum catapult him into the money this time?
8. Matt "Kelso" Lantz - Amazing everyone with his complete lack of knowledge for the rules or one of the best con jobs seen in the Bristol Street Tournaments, "Kelso" will be back going All-In on what will, he hopes, be good hands!
9. Chris "Zorro" Taylor - Tieing for first place (...at busting out) at Bristol St. IV, "Zorro" is looking to improve at his second tournament appearance. More importantly, I think, he secretly hoping for a better nickname than the one I gave him.
10. Chris "Corpse" Klein - Ever since claiming the title of Bristol Street II Champion, Chris has put in a few less than steller perforamances. Chris hopes and prays that he's not seated beside the wildcard style of playing of "Kelso"
11. "Handsome" Rob Card - Returning to the Bristol Street Tournament circuit after missing III and IV, Rob Card is one of only a few players that can still claim he's always finished in the money. Will the "Handsome" one continue the trend or bust our early?
12. Tye "8-Ball" Zinger - Fresh off a successful Pool tournament in Las Vegas, "8-Ball" returns to his fifth appearance in the Bristol Street Tournaments.
13. Paul "??" Woodard - The only newcomer this time to the Bristol Street Tournaments, Paul's really hoping for a nicknames that's not too gay.
14. "The Princess" Lisa Hagen - Appearing in both Bristol Street I and II, Lisa makes her triumpant return to tournament play after a freak accedient rendering her a parapalegic forced her to pull out of Bristol Street IV. Lisa's feeling much better now.
15. Jonathan "(fold like) Oragami" Clayman - Best known for folding a Full House during the practice hands of Bristol Street IV, Jonthan hopes to add the words "Call" and "Raise" to his vocabulary and improve his last place finish at the last tournament.

As happens, the rules bend and change to help make the world a better place, and this tournament is no different. The blind schedues are being adjusted to offer a slower climb during the first couple hours. As of this writing, no other rules are changing. Details about the blinds change is listed below.

If you find out that you cannot make it, please let me know ASAP so that we can fill the vacancy.

See you next Wednesday!!

Rob
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OLD: (Bristol Street IV)

5-10 -> 10-15 -> 15-30
25-50* -> 50-75 -> 50-100
100-150* -> 100-200 -> 150-300
200-400** -> 300-600 -> 400->800

*chip race off
**tournament ended here

NEW: (Bristol Street V)

5-10 -> 10-15 -> 10-20
15-30 -> 20-40 -> 25-50*
50-100 -> 75-150 -> 100-200*
200-400 -> 300-600 -> 400->800

With this new schedule, the blinds go up gradually in the first two hours, then increase more in the third to get to where they were in the fourth. This allows people a little more time to gain position on good plays in the first two hours to prepare for a steeper climb in the third. With this schedule we'd also only have two chip race-offs.
=================

Zithal

In fact, the report was so big, I had to split it into multiple posts!!

Bristol Street Classic V - RESULTS!!!

Fiften people paid $10 to each get 500 chips and a chance to walkaway with part of a prize purse worth eventually $210. The field was tough, the action fast, but only one person would walk away with the title of "Bristol Street V Champion"

Seated at table one was : "The Knave of Hearts" Rob LeGood, Amanda "Easy" C., "Slippery Pete" Aultman, "The Incredible Hulk" David Baxter, Tye "8-Ball" Zinger, and Jonanthan "Oragami" Clayman, Dave "Brava" Selberg,

Table two looked like : Paul Woodard, "The Princess" Lisa Hagen, Chris "Corpse" Klein, Erin "The River" Moffat, Anthony "Quickfingers" Runstedler, Chris "Zorro" Taylor, "Kelso" Lantz, and "Handsome" Rob C.,

Round 1-3 Blinds: 5-10. 10-15, 10-20

Off to a quick start, our previous Champion, "Easy" Amanda C., was determined not to follow the Bristol St. Curse. It's appears that once a champion wins an event, his future standing are much, much worse. For the moment, "Easy" had little to worry about as "The Knave of Hearts" was the first to bust out early due to over aggressive playing. In all, during the first hour, 6 players rebought into the tournament including a hesitant "Handsome" Rob Card.

The big story of the first three levels was with our defending champion, "Easy". Despite guarantees that she would break the curse, Amanda with 4 minutes left in the second blind level. Choosing not to re-buy into the tournament, "Easy" became the 15th place finisher. This caused a table imbalance (8 on table 2, 6 on table 1), and so Chris "Zorro" Taylor was in position to be moved over to Table 1.

I may be getting this wrong, but before "Zorro" moved to table 1, the follow hand busted him out before he rebought... From "The Corpse"

"and also this hand, which I might be misremembering a
little:

I turned up my deal and it revealed pocket Jacks. This made me pretty
happy, but I don't remember if I raised the bet before the flop-- it's
probable in this case that I didn't. About half the table saw the flop,
which was J-Q-? (maybe a K). While somewhat worried about the possible
straight and the two higher cards on the table, I still had trips off the
flop. I bet cautiously though, and at least a couple followed me to the
turn.

The turn was another J. I was looking at four of a kind. But the pot was
pretty small, I didn't want people to fold out of this one. So again, a
fairly cautious bet. Only the other Chris called me on this one.

The river? A second queen. Before I had time to contemplate this (pocket
queens on Chris? No way, he would have had the high full house before the
river and acted on it. Of course, I had 4 Js on the turn and I
*didn't*...) Chris called confidently and quickly "All in". Well, no
point messing about, I saw him and looked at his queens full of jacks.

So I turned up the jack. And a few seconds later, I turned up the other
jack. I can still hear him muttering "4 jacks... I can't believe he had 4
jacks..."

We turn to the "Knave" for some other interesting first hour action.

"This was after I rebought, so busting out here would eliminated me from the tournament. I was dealt AKo and ended up with a short stack (about 150 chips) all in with "8-Ball" who turned up a low pair, the pair was a slim favorite in this match-up and the flop came up blanks. The turn, likewise showed nothing to help either player, meaning that if I didn't catch an A or a K on the river, I was out of the tournament. The A appeared on 5th street, and gleefully I remained in the tournament."

From "The Corpse"...

"I came out guns a'blazing during the first hour, able to make good the
hands I was strong in and duck out cheap from the hands that didn't go my
way. By break I had the chip lead by way of a big pot grab from Kelso
(revenge is sweet)"

The sleeper story of the tournament was also beginning to unfold, Paul Woodard, the only new player to enter this tournament, seemed to be aquiring a, ever growing chip stack.

At the end of the first hour, and after re-buying was complete our standings looked like the following.

Chris "Corpse" Klein (1275)
Tye "8-Ball" Zinger (1130)
Paul Woodard (1100)
"The Hulk" Dave Baxter (1060)
Erin "The River" Moffat (865)
"The Knave" Rob LeGood (770)
Dave "Brava" Selberg (735)
"Kelso" Lantz (680)
Anthony "Quickfingers" Runstedler (640)
"The Princess" Lisa Hagen (525)
"Slippery Pete" Aultman (515)
Chris "Zorro" Taylor (415)
Jonathan "Oragami" Clayman (295)
"Easy" Amanda C. - 15th place

Rounds 4-5 Blinds (15-30, 20-40)

Round 4 saw the players jockying for position as players attempted to pick up pots and bust the smaller players out. Paul's stack was continually growing on table two, while "The Hulk" on table 1 was acting as captain, and a growing chip lead over the rest of the table.

Half-way through Round 5 saw our next elimination, though not by conventional means. From "The Knave"

"Roughly half-way through Round 5, Paul's cell phone goes off, he spends 5, minutes on the phone, and mentioned that his son, Robert wasn't feeling well and had to bow out of the tournament. With this never happening before we consulted the rules and discovered that if a player must leave the table for more than 20 minutes his chip stack must be divided evenly among all players at that table. This was especially unfortunate for Paul who, at the time of his departure, had gathered 1,680 chip -- a very healthy lead. Each player at table two got an additional 280 chips and Paul, had to bow out in 14th place."

Two minutes later, "Oragami" could not completely out last his short stack going into the second hour and was eliminated in 13th place. Still, with the small stack he was able to last for almost 35 minutes so this showing was a definate improvement over his first tournament! This evened the tables up at 6 players a piece.

Two minutes after that, "Zorro"'s chip stack could not survive either and he took 12th position. This mark two tournaments in a row where "Zorro" and "Oragami" have been eliminated within minutes of each other. These two back to back eliminations left 5 players at table 1, 6 players at table 2.

Round 6 Blinds (25-50)

Play was tighter at this level and the tables only saw one elimination during this level. We turn to "Handsome" Rob Card who caught a big break, and the lead in chips with the following hand...

"First off was the hand that really started it off for me. I can't remember
what I had exactly, it was an ace and a ten, I think, it's only the Ace
that's important. the cards were really going my way as they came up, but
betting wasn't really heavy and I had an ace, so I stayed in. after the
river I was planning to fold, all I had was an ace high, until someone
mentioned that there was a possible flush opportunity with four spades
showing. I decided to check my cards. I picked them up, looked, ace of
spades, and put them down. Now being the dense person that I am it hadn't
really sunk in. so I picked the cards up again, Ace of Spades ... ACE OF
SPADES, I really had to slowly spell it out for myself because I didn't
really believe I had it. This was the winning hand!
So when Kelso went all in (210) and Anthony called him, I raised to 420 -
with my only four black chips. Anthony called (he had the Queen of spades -
that's just tough luck). I showed my cards to grunts all around, the total
pot was worth over 1000, and that was the start of my huge chip stack."

So, the commentary, (was it from Anthony?) cost "Quickfingers" a nice sized pot!! With "Kelso" eliminated in 11th postion, there were now 10 players left, 5 on each table heading into the 3rd hour. Our chip position looked like...

"Handsome Rob" (2525)
"The Hulk" (1600)
"8-Ball" (1550)
"Quickfingers" (1100)
"Slippery Pete" (1100)
"The River" (900)
"The Princess" (600)
"The Knave" (475)
"The Corpse" (450)
"Brava" (200)

Level 7 (50-100)

At the beginning of the third hour, the blinds changed gear and the action increased. "Brava" seemed to be in the worst of it, with barely one trip around the table left, while "The Corpse" and "The Knave" were in equally poor position. "Handsome" Rob Card seemed to be in a league of his own. Three elimination were left until the final table formed.

"The River" was the first to go down, 10 minutes into Level 7. With no good stories to tell, "The River" had an evening of mediocre cards, and eventually washed away in 10th place, leaving 4 people on Table 2.

"The Princess" roughly 2 minutes later also bowed out, complaining bittlerly of being bored of the game. *wink* *wink*. The exit of the Princess in 9th place, created, once again an uneven table and this time, "The Knave" was in position to move over to table 2, with about 700-800 in chips.

With eight people remaining, it would only take one more elimination before the final table formed. A quick look around the room revealed an interesting bit of trivia. The Champions of Bristol Street I -> IV were still alive.

The final elimination came with roughly 5 minutes left in the 7th level. We turn to the Corpse for the action...

"A series of hands went by and I increased my chip stack through aggressive
play. Some of the time I had the cards, some of the time I was marginal,
but most of the time I never had to show. I was back in contention, and
Anthony (the biggest threat to my immediate left) had fallen behind when
the Knave joined us at the table with a fairly small stack. Handsome Rob
was sitting handsomely on a very large stack of chips and he was my main
target.

With about one thousand chips to my name, my "opportunity" came up. Just
Handsome and me in a hand where I had 4-10 suited and the flop was cheap.
Blinds were 50/100.

We checked back and forth until the river came up, so we were looking at
A-3-5-7-6. Making my straight on the river, I bet aggressively. Rob
called, and then raised.

HERE was the mistake. Because the river completed the 5-6-7 all I could
see was the 3-4-5-6-7 straight, and I wouldnt' buy that Rob had 4-8. Not
once did I stop to think what the nut hand was. It never crossed my mind,
I convinced myself I had Rob where I wanted him to get close to parity in
chip count. I'd called 4 or 5 all-ins by this point successfully, working
very hard to get back in contention, and had lost my fear.

So imagine my surprise and disappointment when I saw wha the nut straight
really was: Rob shows his 8-9 and all I can say is... "Nice." Running the
logic in my head afterwards, and knowing Rob to be one of the tightest
players at the table (you reading this, Handsome?) who won't throw money
in on a marginal hand (I pushed him off a biggish pot earlier with an all
in) I should have walked away from my straight, or at the very least
called him.

So, it's pretty fair to say that the aggressive style I was playing got me
a lot of success, but it cost me big a couple of times-- the final mistake
was really avoidable."

The final table formed and a look at the chip count produced the following numbers...

"Handsome Rob" (4950)
"8-Ball" (1750)
"The Knave" (1125)
"Slippery Pete" (1000)
"Brava" (700)
"Quickfingers" (575)
"The Hulk" (400)

I had left the table for a couple minutes and it appeared that "The Hulk" gave away all his money, while "Brava" scrapped by and managed to work his way into the final table.

With only a few mintues to go in this level, Brava lost his stack and finsihed in 7th place

Level 8 (75-150)

"The Knave"'s stack finally began growing, while others attempted to stay a float. Through most of this level it appeared that "Slippery", "The Hulk" and "Quickfingers" would go at any minute with the blinds where they were. Action was tense and finally "Quickfingers" succumbed to his chipstack and exited the tournament in 6th place.

One player would be eliminated next, while the other four would be "in the money"

The round continued with "The Knave" eating into 8-Ball's stack as the River was *not* the friend of Tye tonight. "Slippery Pete", meanwhile starting strongly growing a small chip stack, putting him in definate contention. At the end of this level we raced off to the 100 count chips and took a quick tally.

"The Knave" (3800)
"Handsome Rob" (3400)
"Slippery Pete" (2000)
"8-Ball" (800)
"The Hulk" (500)

Level 9 (100-200)

The last level of the third hour was barely underway when "The Hulk" could no longer hang on to his couple of chips and exited the tournament in 5th place, just out of the money. "8-Ball" hung on for a while longer but eventually dropping out in 4th position, picking up $20.

"The Knave" had mounted a great comeback and it looked as if we were on course to see a repeat of the showdown at Bristol St. One. but "The Knave" saw his chip lead slowly slip away due to bad plays and poor calls.

Level 10 (200-400)

Halfway through the next round we turn to the Knave...

"I looked over at Pete and noticed that he had enough chips to cover maybe two big blinds. My first thought was to Blind him to death and showdown with Rob, but my own chip stack had dropped and I wanted to be in good position with Rob if I made it to the final two. I got into a hand where I convived myself that "Handsome" Rob was bluffing and played an ill-advised all-in call which cost me the tournament. A very bad play on my part which caused me my exit."

"The Knave" was eliminated in 3rd place, taking home $32.

With "The Knave" gone, "Handsome Rob" was up with a massive chip lead over "Slippery Pete". Pete played extremely well, surving a few all-in calls and began to inch his way closer to the top. As the time ran out on the Level 10, "Slippery Pete" made a final, bold all-in call which was matched by the "Handsome" one. Rob's card remained strong and he won the pot, The title of "Champion - Bristol Street Classic V" and a prize of $105. Slippery Pete claimed second place, finishing with $53.

"Slippery Pete", was happy with his win, moving in three tournaments from last to second, but just missing first and a chance to play in an upcoming Tournament of Champions.

"Handsome" Rob Card, meanwhile has, with this win, pulled off an impressive feat. Three tournaments played in. Three times finishing "in the money" Can he make it a fourth, or will the "Curse of Bristol St." claim another victim? Stayed tuned for upcoming announcements about Bristol Street VI as well as a reminder email about this Saturday's "Jour de Poker"!!