Cracking Aces in Foster City

It was a dark and stormy day when 21 hearty poker degenerates braved the elements to battle it out in Foster City this past weekend.  Cards were shuffled and dealt, chips were wagered. Big hands held up, unless the were blown up by suited connectors. Bad bluffs and good calls came and went.  Aces were cracked again and again. It was poker. The game progressed quickly and without much incident, and by about 4PM we found ourselves down to our final table.

The final table found nine of our best battling it out — Troy, Geoffrey, Bharad, Amo, Ricky, Haisam, Gilbert, Dennis and Gerry.  

With levels at $200-$400, the first notable play of the final table found Bharad raise under the gun, with Troy calling from the small blind.  After a flop of 9h-3h-10c Troy shipped it all in, and Bharad went into the tank, thinking out loud, “Straight draw? Heart draw? Jack-Queen of hearts?”  After a minute or two, Bharad finally called and turned over Aces. Troy turned over 6h-7h, for a flush and inside straight draw. Sure enough, the turn saw the 8d complete Troy’s straight draw, Brahad’s aces were cracked and his stack was crippled .  He lasted about another round, but ultimately Brahad finished in 9th place.

The next significant play found Geoffrey doubling up after going all in for $3400 with KQ against Ricky’s 8-8.   A king on the flop insured that Geoffrey’s tournament would continue.

Shortly after, with levels at $300-$600, Dennis found himself all-in, his AQ off-suit up against Geoffrey’s AK suited.  An ace hit the flop, but Geoffrey’s king kicker insured him the win and an additional $4.3K in chips, and Dennis was out in 8th place.

Next out in 7th place was Amo when his AJ came up against Ricky’s QQ and did not improve.

The battle against the bubble found Gerry go all in with pocket 10s, only to run into the Aces of Haisam (I think).  The tens did not improve, and Gerry found himself out in 6th place as the bubble boy. Bummer.

All this action found us with a tough final five players in the points – Geoffrey, Troy, Gilbert, Ricky and Haisam.

Geoffrey once again doubled up his stack when his 99 held up Troy’s AQ.

Troy was next to double-up when he shoved about $10.8K with A-3 suited, only to be called by Haisam with A-10 off suit.  The ace on the flop gave both players a nice pair, but Haisam’s kicker was sure to knock Troy out when the river did what the river does — the river 3 giving Troy two pair, doubling him up, and allowing him to play on.

As action churned on, levels reached $500-$1000, and Gilbert found himself on the button with a short stack.  When action folded to him, he made a move with 6-7 suited, going all in, only to be called by Troy with 77. While he ultimately ended up with an inside straight draw and a chance to win, Gilbert’s hand did not improve and he finished in 5th place, earning five points.

Levels reached $600-$1200 when Ricky and Haisam went to battle.  Ricky raised to $3K, Haisam raised to about $8K, Ricky went all-in, and Haisam called.  Ricky turned over Aces, Haisam showed 99. And of course, Ricky’s tournament on the line, Aces in hand, we all know what happens here — a 9 hits the flop, giving Haisam trip 9s, and sending Ricky’s Aces to the rail.  Aces cracked again. Ricky played well and finished in 4th place with 9 points.

Down to 3 players — Haisam, Troy and Geoffrey — the tournament had the potential to drag on late into the night, were it not for one fortuitous hand that ended them all.  Haisam had been leading with a pretty massive chip stack, Troy was in 2nd with about $25K in chips, and Geoffrey trailed with about $20K. First to act, Troy looked down to see pocket 8s, and of course goes all-in.  Geoffrey, in the small blinds looks down and what does he see, but pocket Aces staring back at him, and goes all-in as well. And finally, Haisam in the big blind looks down and finds himself with pocket 9s, and calls too.  88 vs 99 vs AA, two players all in. So here we go again, a player with pocket Aces, tournament on the line… you know how this ends. The flop is 9-J-K, tripping up Haisam’s 9s for the big lead, turn is a 4, and river is a 10.  Haisam cracks Geoffrey’s pocket Aces on the last play of the tournament, knocks out two players, and wins the tournament. In 3rd place Geoffrey earned 19 points, Troy finished in 2nd with with 30 points, and Haisam took home all the chips in a big win worth 42 points.  Great job, Haisam!!!

A short aside…

The Boxed Card Ruling.

As a first time tournament director for Piranha, my one wish was that it  be a super smooth tournament requiring no input from me, no need for me to make any difficult decisions.  For the most part, I got my wish. The tournament was smooth, Piranha players know how to deal, play and govern the game.  Great. But one issue did come up, what I’ve now come to know as the “boxed card.”

This is what happened.  At a nearly full table, cards were shuffled, cut, and all players received their two down cards.  At this point it became known that the second card in the remaining deck was face up and would be exposed once the first card was properly burned.  The tournament director was called, and the situation was explained to me. My initial ruling was sort of a casual home-tournament common-sense let’s-keep the-game-going type of ruling — the card that was face up could become the burn card since it was already exposed, and the first card and two following could become the flop.  Some players seemed ok with that, but there was a discussion, and it was suggested that a more proper ruling would be to maintain the first card as the proper burn card, and then to reshuffle the exposed card back into the remaining deck, and from that deal the flop, turn and river. This would help maintain the original integrity of the deck, with the original burn card remaining as the burn card, and the remainder of the deck still available for remaining play.  This made some sense to me, and in my preparation to TD this tournament I had reviewed many rules and read numerous instances of reshuffling cards back into the deck for unusual circumstances. So that was how I ruled, the burn card remained the burn card, the face up card was reshuffled back into the remaining deck, and the hand played out.

But I wasn’t sure if the ruling was correct, so I made note of it and researched it when I got home.  And so I have come to believe that neither option I was considering was correct. The proper ruling regarding this “boxed card” situation would have been to burn the original burn card, throw the exposed card into the muck, with the next three cards becoming the flop.    

A “boxed card,” as explained on page 20 of the WSOP rules is “a card found face up in the deck after shuffle. A boxed card is to be treated as a blank piece of paper, shown to all participants then placed in to the muck.”  I found numerous references on the internet to backup this explanation, and believe this should have been the correct ruling. If anybody disagrees, feel free to comment.

Most of the rules are well-known, but some are a bit more illusive, so I this was a learning experience for me.

The end.