TOURNAMENT UPDATES
April 24, 2015
Season XI – Event 16: Before I get to all the season ending news let’s report on the results of last night’s tournament. At about the mid-way point it looked like Debbie might cruise to her second win of the season and sneak into the playoffs after she won a MASSIVE pot when she 5-bet shoved over Erica with both of them sitting behind 90k-100k stacks. Erica called the shove and showed KK while Debbie turned over AK. An Ace came on the board and Erica was Whamboozled! Debbie couldn’t hang on though as she eventually faded and went out in 4thplace. Paul R. then went out in 3rd to pad his championship point total. That left Bill and Mark to go for the win. We didn’t have to wait long though as the players wrapped it up after about 4 hands when they both woke up with HUGE starting hands and ended up getting it all in. At the 5k/10k level Bill made it 25k and Mark called. The flop came J53ddd. Bill shoved, Mark called, and it was over just like that as Bill showed his 67o and Mark displayed the mighty 47dd! Congratulations to Bill on his best Syndicate finish to date and his fourth final table appearance of the season. This win was Mark’s first since he had back to back wins back in season 8 – his first season with us. In 5th place, to round out our money winners, was the Spork.
April 2, 2015
Season XI – Event 15: And the winner of the penultimate tournament of Season 11 was Jamie Hickerson. This was Jamie’s first victory in four syndicate campaigns. Congratulations Jamie! In 2nd place with by far his best result of the season (to put it diplomatically!) was Gary Busquet. The good news for Gary B is that this puts him within striking distance of the playoffs. In 3rd place was the other Gary, Fessia that is. This was Fessia’s best result of the season and it puts him within reach of the guaranteed seats. In 4th place was Jill “get a fire extinguisher because she’s on fire” Hickerson! This is Jill’s fifth final table in the second half of the season and fourth in the last five events. In 5th place was the aforementioned handy utensil, moving him up from the playoff pack to a tie with Jill for the bottom two guaranteed seats.
March 12, 2015
Season XI – Event 14: Our winner this week, for her second career Syndicate victory, was Jill. She was helped early on when, with 23 players remaining and about 22 big blinds, she got all in with QQ vs Jonkey and Rick’s AK. She appeared to be invincible from that point until she met Paul H for the head’s up match. Jill started out with a chip advantage but after about 30 minutes was down by about 150k chips. At that point Paul open raised from the button and Jill shoved. Paul called showing KJ and Jill turned over AK, which held. After that the action went on for about another 30 minutes as Paul tried to claw his way back. Jill defended her stack well and at the 65 minute mark they got it all in again. Jill turned over AK again and Paul was dominated again, this time showing an A9 that received no help as the board ran out. In 3rd place, with his best Syndi finish ever, was Bill Lindsey followed by Mark Ross in 4th place to round out our money winners.
February 27, 2015
Season XI – Event 13: This was a re-entry event and featured this season’s third two-time winner. Craig took it down in one hand heads-up when David Benjamin, who was openly aggrieved by Craig repeatedly re-raising him at the final table, called Craig’s final re-raise all in. David tabled Ad8h and Craig showed the mighty AKs, which held to give him all the chips and his second win since Event 5.
David had held a commanding chip lead through the first half of the final table until this happened five-handed: Paul R. open shoved with KT for 55K and David, with a 250K stack, made the call with 66. Fortune smiled upon Craig as he looked down at two red aces and shoved for 150K. David made the call but AA held to knock Paul out and give Craig the chip lead, which he held to the end. (Though Craig undoubtedly would like to think he played skillfully through the event, his JJ suck-out against Jonkey’s QQ and his QJ suck-out against Jacob’s KK put the lie to that notion.
Other notable final table appearances included George W. who went out with KK just as he did last event. Dana kept his main event hopes alive with yet another final table (his seventh of the season). Jonkey, who had spent pretty much the entire tournament in perpetual stack rebuilding mode, exited in eighth place. Then there was Camille, aka Gail’s mom, who artfully bobbed and weaved and punched her way to a seventh place finish in her second Syndicate event ever.
But the biggest subplot of the night focused on one Paul “The Revenant” Rosenthal who was down to a single 500 chip ante when the tournament was 11-handed. With no choice but to put his ante in the next hand, he sextupled up with top pair. He shoved again the following hand with AJ and quintupled up after cracking AQ. A third shove and triple up put him back in the game and propelled him to a fifth place finish and, more importantly, to the top of the leaderboard with three events left to play!
Craig’s win was enough to put him firmly in second place on the leaderboard and that, combined with Paul R’s fifth place finish, was enough to knock the formerly unassailable Matty B to third and Dana K to bubbley-boy status.
February 6, 2015
Season XI – Event 12: Paul R. has now continued his streak of always winning at least two events in a season, if he wins any. Back in Season V, Paul won event’s 5 and 16; then in season IX he won event’s 18 and 20; and now he has won back to back victories this season. This time Paul took out Craig with a perfectly timed pair of pocket Kings. This was Craig’s best result since his win back in week 5 and moves him up to 4th place overall. In 3rd place, with her second final table in a row and best finish of the season, was Jill. Keith came in 4th place, followed by Tom Czzz in 5th.
January 31, 2015
Season XI – Event 11: Our winner this week was Paul R. This was Paul’s first win since he won event #s 18 and 20 in Season 9, and it was his fifth victory in his Syndicate career. In second place was Stan Diego, followed by Paul H., Michael Kahn and Rob D.
January 16, 2015
Season XI – Event 10: For the first confirmed miracle of the new year (this is world-wide – we checked) – Farid won the tournament! After digging into the archives it was discovered that these were Farid’s first points since Event 12 of Season 9 – that’s November 16, 2013!! This was our 9 ½ fingered friend’s first victory since Event 16 of Season 8 and his fourth career Syndicate win. It was especially sweet since, with 30 players remaining, Farid had just 5100 chips left when he won a pot and declared “I’m going to win this thing!” In 2nd place was Chad for his second runner up finish in the last three tourneys. In 3rd place, surprising himself with his first points of the season, was Jimmy X. Matt B, with his sixth final table appearance in ten events, came in 4th place. Spork and Matt H came in 5th and 6th respectively to round out our money winners.
January 3, 2015
Season XI – Event 9: We have our first two-time winner this season (and amazingly his name isn’t Dana!) as Matt B. went from being the short stack for most of the final table to having all the chips at the end of the night. With four players remaining, Matt had eight big blinds and Spork, who was sporting a mega-stack, called. Matt shows 55 and Spork tables 66, but a 5 on the river keeps him alive. Then at 3-handed, but now with a much bigger stack, Matt got all-in again against Paul “I with my name was Khalil” Hopkins. This time Matt has ATs vs Paul’s QQ. An Ace on the turn knocks Paul down and the P-man is KO’d the very next hand when he gets it all-in with AK vs. Spork’s A9 and a9 comes on the flop. That left Matt and Spork as the final two players. The tournament ended when the players got all-in with Matt holding A9hh and Spork showing 55. The board ran out Kh7c2h 9d Xh and the nut-flush for the night’s hero. George came in 4th place and Gonzalo finished in 5th.
December 6, 2015
Season XI – Event 8: There are a lot of things that make The Syndicate a great poker group and one of them is our high percentage of women players compared to the poker world at large. At last summer’s main event only 4% of the field were women, while the Colossus only had 6.4%. At our most recent event 8 out of our 47 players were women, making up 17% of the field. Oh, and they kicked ass as 7 of those 8 players made the top 12 and received points while 5 made the final table!
In just her second Syndicate event one of our newest players, Debbie Lee, earned her first victory and moved all the way to 20th place on the leaderboard. Congratulations Debbie! In 2nd place, with his third final table in his last 4 entries was Chad. Erica came in 3rd place for her best finish of the season while Lena came in 4th for her first points of the season. In 5th place was MC, marking his 4thtop-8 finish. Wendi and Gail, in 6th and 9th place also had their best finishes of the season with Wendi now appearing at two final tables in a row.
November 21, 2015
Season XI – Event 7: We had yet another sellout this past weekend – our fifth out of 7 events. In fact we’ve only had 8 open seats all season. I know most of the idiots who started this thing back in 2006 [the first season only had 10 events – all in 2006] and I doubt it occurred to them that this would still be going – much less pulling in 50 players per event. Way to go Syndicate!
So here we are in Event 7 of Season 11 and we find out that miracles really do happen – Monte Hanson won a Syndicate event!! I have no idea what happened or how it happened (since I was too busy losing all the money [that I won from Farid] to Jon Towers at the cash table) but apparently he started heads-up action with a huge chip advantage and took out season #7 champion Keith Morgan to earn his first Syndicate victory. Congratulations Monte!! In 3rd place, with his second top-6 finish in a row was Jacob. In 4th place was a new player in his first Syndicate event, Chris Onderdonk. Don B. and Gary F. came in 5th and 6th place respectively to round out our money winners.
November 14, 2015
Season XI – Event 6: We had another tournament on Saturday. For those keeping score at home it was our 193rdregular season tournament and we just seem to keep chugging along! This was our first Saturday event in some time and it was a lot of fun and included a lively cash game until about 1am.
Our champion this week, in his first tournament back since event 10 of last season, was David Benjamin. David came in third place overall and earned a Main Event seat back in Season 8. In second place, after an eventful heads up match, was Howard “I’m Just Happy to Last Until Dinner” Everett. Right behind him was our newest player, Gonzalo. Jonkey came in 4th place; Paul R. in 5th (his third of the year!); and Jon Towers placed 6th.
November 1, 2015
Season XI – Event 5: Well, anyone who made the final table probably figured out that their commissioner was out of commission the day after the tournament. He tried to get the wrap-up out anyway but really never stood a chance. Enough about that though – let’s see what happened in the tournament!
This report was turned in by our field reporter and ultimate victor: Little Craigy Combs:
Craig’s path to his second Syndicate win (and first since Season IX – Event 12) started fairly early in the fifth level when, faced with a dwindling stack, he five-bet shoved holding QQ from the button into Alan’s KK. A queen on the flop held to give Craig an above-average chip stack, which he built even higher on his way to the final table with the help of three flopped nut flushes! Yet before hitting the final table he would manage to donk off nearly 80% of his chips when he called Larry’s post-flop shove holding AQ on a 58Q board. Larry held 55. (Sheepishly explaining his call he said, “Well, it was Larry”, which Larry genuinely accepted as a compliment.) However, Craig’s final table bid was rescued when he tripled back up to average stack holdingAA against shoves by Wayne’s 8d9d and Steve L’s KdQc.
Gridlock then set in at the final table as the short stacks doubled up repeatedly when faced with elimination. Even with the blinds maxed at
7000/15000 nobody was willing to go down without a fight. Finally the inevitable cracks appeared and swallowed the players one-by-one until it was Chad, Patsy and Craig left. Chad’s third place dealer duty was mercifully short when Craig and Patsy’s1:00am heads-up lasted just one hand. Patsy shoved when she flopped a pair of aces and was snap-called by Craig holding KT on an TKA board. The turn was another Kgiving Craig the boat and the river was a meaningless 3d to seal the victory.
Patsy’s 2nd place finish was her best result since coming in 2nd in event 6 in season 9. After Chad in 3rd place was Tom E. and Larry in 4th and 5th place to round out our money winners.
October 18, 2015
Season XI – Event 4: Here’s the checklist for keeping the Syndicate’s commissioner motivated and to get the results out in a timely fashion:
- Let Jonkey win a tournament
Yep, that’s all it takes! Quick wrap-up this time as your dedicated commissioner is off to a concert tonight (My Morning Jacket at SDSU). Jonkey took down his first tournament since event #2 of last season. He bested Matt B. in a very short heads-up duel as he held a 6-1 chip advantage going into 2-handed play. It was over on the third hand when Matt open-shoved from the button with K5ss and Jonkey called with JTo. A river jack sealed the victory for Jonkey. In third place, with his best finish ever, was Matt Hopkins. Right behind, with his fourth final table in as many events, was Dana. Mark Ross and (Jonkey’s pet) Rob D. came in 5th and 6th respectively to round out our money winners.
October 4, 2015
Season XI – Event 3: Matt B. made a huge hand early in the tournament and rode it all the way to his first victory since event 19 of season 9. The hand: there was 3-way action in a raised pot and Matt B, Bob W, and Jon Towers saw a flop of JdTd2h. Matt, in the bb, checked and Jon led out for 800. Dr. Bob raised it to 2700 and Matt flats when it gets back to him. Now Jon shoves his 18k stack and Bob goes into the tank for a looooong time before finally folding. Matt makes the call and tables the KQdd while Jon shows 22 (Bob folded JT). The turn was the Ad, giving Matt a royal flush and a HUGE pot at that point in the tourney.
Our second place finisher, MC, had his own huge hand later at the final table. It went like this: with 5 players left, Anders raised from UTG, Paul R. called from the button and MC came along from the BB. The 3 players see a flopA53rb. MC, with the smallest of the three stacks, open-shoves; Anders re-shoves; and Paul insta-calls both of them. The players show A6, AK and A5 respectively, but the poker gods were smiling on MC’s beard on this night as the board ran out 4-7 to give MC the straight and a massive pot.
Craig, who was clearly missed by the idiots at the cash table who kept saying “hey, where’s Craig?”, snuck into 3rdplace. He was followed by Anders in 4th place for his best Syndicate finish to date. Paul R. and Alan took 5th and 6thplace to round out our money winners.
September 19, 2015
Season XI – Event 2: Good news/bad news – oh never mind, I’m skipping straight to the good news! There are still two seats WSOP Main Event seats available this season in The Syndicate! Yes folks, this is Dana’s aquarium and we’re just swimming in it! We’ve had two events so far this season and Dana now has 2nd and 1st place finishes. This week’s runner up was Steve P. for his best finish since winning event 7 of last season. Next up were a couple of returning players who are trying to get back into the main draw: Spork and Rick Hausman in 3rd and 4threspectively. They were followed by Paul R., Bill Lindsey and Mark Ross.
August 30, 2015
Season XI – Event 1: We had a great start to our new season with a sell-out field of 50 players, a return to Tom & Gail’s, new tables, and a sweet payday for all our vested players from last Season. I can tell you that, as Commissioner, there’s nothing much more fun than handing out envelopes of cash after a successful summer at the WSOP!!
As for the first event’s results – Howard “Miley” Everett came in like a wrecking ball and basically knocked his competitors down one by one – and sometimes in two’s! Really, it’s too bad for Miley that this wasn’t a bounty tournament as he must have rolled over half of the players. By the time we were down to 8 players he had the field covered! The last player to have his heart broken was Dana who was dispatched quickly in 2nd place. Before that, George clawed his way to 3rd place; Erica got burned in 4th; and Heath was wrecked in 5th.
San Diego Syndicate 