Poker Tournaments Structure - PokerEagles.com

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Hi guys,
I've been tasked with hosting a poker game for our annual holiday party for everyone at my office. No one has a poker account so everyone will create one on stars. New accounts start with 35K chips. What are your thoughts on the best way to do this? I'd like the game to last 60-90 minutes.
Basically, my options are:

1. Tournament: only con here is that once someone is out they kind of have to sit around and wait. I guess this is fine.

-Smallest tourney on stars home game is 20K chips so that's what I'd have to make it. Meaning I can't do a rebuy because everyone will only have 35K chips. What kind of tournament structure would you recommend for a 60-90 minute game with 13 people? Turbo I guess? Any other structures I should consider? What about starting stack sizes?

1. Play money cash game. The con here is that not everyone can play together since max table size is 9 people. Same is true for tourney but at least at some point everyone remaining will sit on one table.

In both cases, the prizes will be given out by firm to the winner (in cash whoever has most/2nd most chips or 1st/2nd place in tourney).
Any insight would be appreciated on cash vs tourney and on tourney structure.

I wanna host this thing at the rec center hall sometime in the spring or summer in order to do something cool and make some money.
I'm not yet sure what the game would be exactly. It would have to be something that 2 people or 2 teams can play against each other. Ideas include:

• Hungry Hungry Hippos: 4v4 HHH game with each team having their own board. The first team to clear all the marbles off their board wins.
• Trouble: Either 1v1 games of Trouble with each player controlling 2 colors, or 2v2 games of Trouble with each player controlling their own color.
• Pool: either 8 Ball or 9 Ball pool using a cheap tabletop pool set.
• Bingo: either standard bingo or blackout.
• Poker: 1v1 Texas Hold Em, each player is given 10 white chips to start. Coin toss to determine who's dealer first, after that the loser deals next. Game ends when one player loses all their chips or after 5 rounds the player with most chips is winner.
• Chess
• Checkers

What do you think would be the best choice of game?
I plan to structure the tournament in a single elimination bracket format, where after the each round the winning players move on, while the losing players are eliminated, until there's only one player left.
Tournament would require 2 fees for players to participate: * Entry fee: this goes into the prize pot. * Venue fee: this goes into renting out the rec center hall, buying the game equipment, and pocketing the leftovers as a profit.
1v1 tournaments would have both fees at $5, while team tournaments would have both fees at $10.
Prizes would be distributed this way:

• 60% of the prize pot goes to first place
• 30% of the prize pot goes to second place
• 10% of the prize pot goes to third place

I wanna host this thing at the rec center hall sometime in the spring or summer in order to do something cool and make some money.
I'm not yet sure what the game would be exactly. It would have to be something that 2 people or 2 teams can play against each other. Ideas include:

• Hungry Hungry Hippos: 4v4 HHH game with each team having their own board. The first team to clear all the marbles off their board wins.
• Trouble: Either 1v1 games of Trouble with each player controlling 2 colors, or 2v2 games of Trouble with each player controlling their own color.
• Pool: either 8 Ball or 9 Ball pool using a cheap tabletop pool set.
• Bingo: either standard bingo or blackout.
• Poker: 1v1 Texas Hold Em, each player is given 10 white chips to start. Coin toss to determine who's dealer first, after that the loser deals next. Game ends when one player loses all their chips or after 5 rounds the player with most chips is winner.
• Chess
• Checkers

What do you think would be the best choice of game?
I plan to structure the tournament in a single elimination bracket format, where after the each round the winning players move on, while the losing players are eliminated, until there's only one player left.
Tournament would require 2 fees for players to participate:

• Entry fee: this goes into the prize pot.
• Venue fee: this goes into renting out the rec center hall, buying the game equipment, and pocketing the leftovers as a profit.

1v1 tournaments would have both fees at $5, while team tournaments would have both fees at $10.
Prizes would be distributed this way:

• 60% of the prize pot goes to first place
• 30% of the prize pot goes to second place
• 10% of the prize pot goes to third place

I work on a free poker site in my spare time, and a lot of my users like playing on their phone for short bursts. Right now I offer cash games (drop in) filled with bots to ensure you can play right away, single table SNGs (again supplemented by bots) and a nightly MTT.
None of these formats work great for a drop in 5 to 10 minute phone session. Cash games “work”, but they’re boring and you’re paying a blind when you sit in, and probably timing out when you leave minutes later disrupting the game. 9 man SNGs last about 1.25 hours with their reasonable blind structure. MTT obviously is out.
There are short stack hyper tourneys, but I’m sure there is something better. Zoom seems reasonable, but at the end of the day you’re still folding a bunch of hands. Something progressive perhaps? 6 handed, everyone buys in, lose 5 hands in any way (or run out of chips) and you’re out? What about jumping into randomly constructed situations halfway through, like getting every hand with a small pot and the flop is already shown? Maybe heads up tournaments are faster, and you can get some kind of bonus for streaking? Perhaps playing a set of 6-7 hands from 2 decks shuffled together until the cards are gone would give the feel of a larger structure to essentially a cash game.

Did this based on a recent interest in the Poker Night series and I feel like Brand New Animal's setting and theme aesthetic fits with Poker well.
So how do you rate this?
Concept: The situation Michiru is in is gonna be a nod to how the episode structure does in her show (She walks off her apartment to do something, gets into an unusual situation by specific circumstances step-by-step to which she has to either solve or get out of, followed by Shirou looking out when she doesn't notice him there. This time being a poker deal that she is forced to because Mari screwed up and made her to, which leads to following into the Inventory partially due to how the disconnect of Tanuki Years and Human Years came into play with her aloud to be in Poker, much to some of the players confusion)
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Playstyle: Honest, with a slice of Tricky despite not being used to Poker before
Animations (Not all but they are time-consuming to write about):
Uses her Hare Ears to listen to some weird noise she heard before reverting them to pay attention to the game.
Draws onto the air with her claws from her fingers
Getting the Pot: Michiru uses her stretch ability to take the whole pot from a distance
Checking the Cards: Sniffs at the cards after using her Wolf Senses
Call: Dribbles the chips like a basketball before throwing them like a hoop shot onto the middle of the table.
Fold: Lowers her head while slanting her eyes as she slowly fold the cards in
Anticipating the next card: Slowly nibbles the lucky charm that was introduced in Episode 6
Tightens herself too much to the point where she sprouts wings, with feathers flying off of her.
Her irises begin to form to ones similar to Hawk Eyes as she stares at the cards
Hides herself in fear as she camouflages herself before peeking onto the cards, only showing part of her face out of the camouflage
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Defeat Quotes:"Welp, looks like I'm going to sell all of those Water-Purifiers along with my phone bill... Again.... Crap."
"Yeeeeahhhh, Shirou is definitely not gonna like this one bit...."
"Y'know, if it was anyone else I know of in this poker night, I would've done a dare and a half for this thing to fly off..... but that is not the case...."
'Great, now I need to do this all over again and then some to get Mari's crap done, why can't she do it all herself again?!"
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"*Sigh* How many times do I need to- wait a minute!"
"Tanuki, let's go. We need to talk.", Shirou says
*Shirou drags Michiru off of the table*
"No wait! I have some things I need to do, I'm quite still busy! Don't drag me out like thiiiiissss!"
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"Life...... You love nobody do you?"
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Drink: A Glass of Water, with a side of Protein powder
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Table Effect:
The Inventory would be redone to look like the Rooftop of her apartment she lives in but at nighttime, while having the Bar and 2nd floor parts be intact. The "Outside" part would have neon lights of pink and blue around the buildings as they show ads of products and companies off the distance.
If the Players wins the tournament, the Player would either:

• Be threated by that one Crime Boss from Episode 5 to not win again or else the Player would get beaten the snot out of him

or

• Mari comes in to give the Player a special item in exchange for the cash, to which the Player does. Michiru is rightfully confused to this and says "Wait! Why did you bring me into this then?!" to which Mari responds by saying that it was to make the payment easier, causing Michiru to frustrate herself while Mari leaves with the cash.

Michiru would in this case, wear her red dress based on one of the marketing images for her show.
The Eliminations would be specific things depending on the opponent who was defeated, for a few examples:
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• Sam: Would get hijacked by men in black suits into a big black van, followed by Max running after them with his Luger out shouting "HERE I COME SAM! I'LL SAVE YOU!"

​

• Max (Sure he's banned according to Poker Night 2 but ehh):

"There he is! Witness the all-mighty Bronze Lagomorph!"
"Uhhhh the Bonzo-what now?"
"Wait! I thought the Ginoru Cult was partly disbanded!"
"I'm pretty sure that's not it Tanuki.", Sam says
*Members proceed to pick up Max like a wave, then walk out of the Inventory*
"Looks like we are on the case once again!", Sam says before taking out his Big Kill as he runs out of the Inventory (If Sam is not chosen or is already out)
​

• The Heavy

The Killer Animals would come out of nowhere to taunt the Heavy after they find out he did something about the Bears weapons giving them an advantage, to which Heavy responds by taking out his minigun and saying
"You, me. Outside, tonight.", before they all walk out
​

• Ash

Melissa comes to the roof to berate Ash over making a mess at the Inventory with his oil leakage, making Ash walk off in annoyance.
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Jacks: Alan
Ace: The Silver Wolf (Since Aces represent a more spiritual meaning in comparison to other cards) or the Nazuna variant at times.
Queen: Barbara Rose
King: Shirou
Joker: Mari
​
Bounty Item: Two samples of the Race-transformation, which one turning the user into a beastman. and the other turning them into normal if they change their mind. People around the table are a bit rightfully concerned over that considering it's seems like a illegally stolen product.
"Miss Kagemori, would you please place your bounty?"
"Wait? What? Bounty?"
"It's for the Bounty Challenge Opportunity for the Player to complete on."
"Oh.... Heheh... This seems a bit risky, but okaaaayyy."
*Pomf*
"Ehhhhh, what are those.... samples exactly?"
"One turns you into an anthomorphic being while the other reverts it. Thought that since you guys bounties seem "Out of this world" I thought this would suffice.... I guess."
"Well, the Inventory IS a hidden spot AND DNA manipulating items are acceptable at the Inventory as well, so I guess it'll be up for the player to decide once he gets it!"
Opponent: "Are you sure about that? Seems like it'll only give your friends more trouble about this....."
"Don't worry to much, I obtained it from something not from my world. It's kind of weird but it'll be okay."
"Right.... Right......"
​
Michiru Specific Eliminations:
Sam & Max: Max begins to play with her tail, upsetting her as she tries to swipe him off of it before he then bits it by accident, making her scream and run around with Max still on her tail before going out of the Inventory. She is seen coming back with a bandage wrapped around her tail along with a cone.
Venture Bros: Gets teleported on the boxes that are hanging around the inventory, to which she is reminded of that one time in Episode 2 about the Cable Cage.
Borderlands: Steve comes out of the open. Similar to Sam, Steve tries order her to leave but the tapping on her shoulder surprises her enough to poof her tail, bouncing Steve onto a wall before falling onto the Moxxi's Neon sign, electrocuting him before finally falling onto the ground. She doesn't notice this until she looks behind her, slowly walking out of the table in a "Oh..... Oops...." way.
Portal: She lands onto the ground from the portal with her Tail Ability, bouncing up and down before landing on a table
Army of Darkness:
"YEAH NO! I'M GETTING OUT OF HERE!"
She is the only one that actually tries to do something about it, as she starts running out of the table, looking for any viable exit with her powers from her cheetah to her arms. When that doesn't work she tries to fend it off. She seems to actually defeat it before the book catches her at the very last second she let's her guard down in relief. Max picks the book up and says along the lines:
"Huh, no wonder Girl Power is quite the crutch sometimes."
GLADOS nicknames:
"Kagemori Michiru"
"Tanuki Thief" (She'll sometimes say "Hey!" after that)
"Miss. Michiru"
"Shapeshifter"
"Organic Hybrid"
Conversations (Only 2 so far though):
"So Michiru, is this "Animacity" any different to the fancy yet crime ridden New York City that we are used to? My buddy Max had taken some interest since you came here.", Sam says
" "Some Interest"? More like excited like a awe-strucked teenager!", Max shouts
"I mean.... I don't know much about New York since I'm from Japan, but from what I've gathered, it's more or less the same, but even more dangerous with the whole Beastman thing involved. They can have all the attributes of animals while having the bone flexibility of humans, meaning they're more potent."
"Sounds like some nice butter in a slime-ridden corn basket, were do we go at to find this city?"
"Wellllll, it is in Japan and they'll believe you are a Beastmen due to you being a dog and your friend being a bunny. Be warned though, Beastmen can also turn into humans and mostly use that form, so some would find you...... off-putting."
"I don't mind, we are already used to reactions like that."
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"Uhh Kagemori, considering how young you are technically speaking, how many times have you been to..... near-death situations?", Ash says
"Honestly..... Quite a plenty. Gosh where do I start? There's all the Beastmen hunters, gangs chasing me into an alleyway to gut me, getting kidnapped by an organized criminal organization due to being near the Bosses daughter, almost was exported to a different country along with literal children, falling out of a tall building that would almost kill me for sure, beaten mercilessly at one point when I was on a trip to the city, being gagged by a Cult, being sent into a gambling-ringed baseball game where they kill each other for sport.... among other things...."
"Jesus...."
"Sounds like that's a bit what happens in our daily lives now I think about it.", Sam says
"But I guess that's fine, I'm already used to stuff like this to the point where I feel like it's a bit disconnected to my reality."
"And this is all because you are a hybrid Beastmen?"
"That and because Animacity is really dangerous, just like..... well New York according to Sam."
"God, sometimes I wonder what would happen if the crap I've been though happened at a younger age....", Ash concludes
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View Poll

Hey, y'all, thanks for any help!
I'm hosting a poker tournament tomorrow, and there will be at least 6 people there.
The buy in is 10 dollars with one rebuy.
What would be a good chip count and blind structure for a tournament of 6-8 people to last 3 hours or less?
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Thanks very much.

It's going to be a long one! Grab your wine, your crisps/chips. Strap your seat belts, get a comfortable seat and a crazy individual at wedding Drama approaching. Enjoy.... (THIS IS NOT A FICTIONAL STORY, IT REALLY HAPPEND)
A little bit of context.My husband (let's call him Bill) and I have been together for 9 years and a bit but married for 7 months. I am a Hindu as faith and my other half does not believe in anything really, but he wanted a Hindu wedding and I have always dreamt of getting married in a White Dress. My wedding was 5 days long. On a Wednesday we had the registry wedding. (in the eyes of the law we are married!) Thursday te girls have a henna party, and the boys had a poker night were my husband dominated. Friday was the Turmeric day and the day that we moved to my wedding venue. Saturday we have two wedding ceremony, the Hindu one at 11 and the Humanist at 6 (which gets postponed to 7 on the day - courtesy of my husband). Sunday a Polish BBQ, (because my father is Polish) and games (mostly 8 hours of Grass Volleyball since that's my sport).My husband has a friend. I do not want to disclose their name, but I have known them with 2 different names.
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This person is in transition and becoming a woman. I have known this person as a guy and a woman. As a guy (let's call him Jim), he was very OTT about my husband. I feel like I have to give some example. Bill and I were at University in different countries let alone different cities. So I went to visit for a weekend, and we watched the conjuring. Jim and Bill were living in the same house while they were at uni. Bill's best friend (Tim) who ended up being the best man at the wedding was also there. Tim was sat on a sofa alone and Bill was sat between Jim and Myself. I am always cold, and it was particularly cold that night. So I went to Bill's room and got the duvet. Bill gets some covers and soon after I am completely uncovered and Jim is under the covers. I started to pull it back. He throws an actual fit and says that he doesn't have time for my selfish way. He goes and get his duvet and now sits next to Tim and doesn't share any covers with him.
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Jim kept staring at me from his seat. I knew that he didn't like me much.Fast forward a couple of years, I am at a tournament of a sport, and Jim is there too. He talked with me while Bill is off playing his game. Jim wanted me to be the bigger person and leave Bill because I am curvy and cannot keep up with Bill's extensive sporty regime. Jim tries to match me up with this 40-year-old shaggy guy (let's call him Gerry). Gerry is super nice, I am in the early twenties at this point. I am completely put out by this. I tell Bill and Bill says that its just Jim has a different kind of sense of humour. It continues like this for a couple of years. Bill and I finished university we move in together and Jim comes up to where we live and they on camping trips for the weekend where they do loads of hiking and so on. I am happy that Bill is happy. I am not a big fan of camping. I don't like being cold and wet and so on...Bill proposes we decide to get married. While Jim is going through his transition to becoming Jane, she starts to call Bill at night because she is struggling. All good still, I do not have any problem.
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I did not think that Bill was so close to Jim/Jane that he had to be there in the middle night. Anyways Bill was able to help her at a difficult time and I was all for him helping someone in need. Decided on the groomsmen and bridesmaids, Bill offers for Jane to be my bridesmaid. I did not need that. I have 3 sisters, Bill has 1 sister and I have a best friend, this party is already bigger than what I wanted it to be. We argue and finally decide not to, but Bill just casually mentions that Jane would not be comfortable anyways. I am like, "Meh!".
On another note, I made all my invites, so different people got invited to different days depending on their importance. Bill wants Jane to be invited to everything from Thursday to Sunday. The henna party was going to be my hen party basically, I just wanted some people, but it became quite big and out of hand. I had told everyone that they would get henna applied on one hand each. Jane arrived, she was wearing a 3 piece Indian suit (Trousers, tunic and scarf) which she looked good in.
My mother was in a Saree. My mother-in-law was in jeans. It was a mix of colours. But I specifically told everyone no dark colours, no pinks or red (bridal colours) - my Indian wedding outfit was pink and it was the colour for the bridal party for the Hindu ceremony. I wanted vibrant and even pastel colours. Jane didn't get the memo. (It's still fine). She got henna applied on both hands, my eldest sister didn't get the change to get henna applied! My sister was fine she said it was okay. We said we will let it go. it's fine. My mother served food to everyone, but Jane refused to take anything she offered. Jane would only take things were being offered my second oldest sister. Okay, that's fine too. Jane made it all about her.
Bill who was having the poker night somewhere else, called, and so I left the room I was in to go and talk to him and when I was gone, Jane had basically taken my seat and suddenly it was all about Jane. "Oh, I went and got my suit fitted because my quite curvy in certain places." Believe me, am a silent observer.
I don't say much and I want people to happy so I was genuinely was happy that she was managing okay. She was one of the first to leave, so I walked her out of the door, where she asked me if there was a chance that she would get to see Bill. My mum said that he is not here, quite nice. (My mother is an angel and is the best mother on the planet), and there is not an ounce of animosity in her voice even though she feels like Jane has been quite rude to her and ignored her the entire time.
On Friday, Jane refused to talk to me, my sisters (in exception of the second oldest), my mum and my aunt. Still fine. On Saturday, she did not do much at the Hindu main wedding event. She just turned up in a black and dark green suit, like I didn't want anyone to do so, but what the hell, its fine, she doesn't know much about the customs and whatnot. I move on... After the Hindu wedding, in the photo of the entire group, you can see her glaring at me. (Giving me the evils, and now I have them as evidence in my wedding album too - :) oh the joys!)
There was a big gap between the Hindu ceremony and the Humanist wedding. We had allowed for this time for people to mingle, get changed and just have fun on this beautiful summer day. Everyone was aware that they were supposed to get changed. Friends of the family who came from 6000 only for the day knew that they needed to change. But it's fine its some peoples had their choice. I am not going to be angry about that. The following part of the story has been told to me by various parties, after the wedding. In the period where people were getting changed and so on, Jane tried to find Bill and even ask Bill's little sister when the Registry wedding was going to take place. When my SIL said 'Oh they already got the legal stuff on Wednesday'.
​
She got upset and went to the kitchen. One of my other mates, who was the videographer (Nikki) for the wedding then resume in telling me about the outburst in the kitchen. Jane cried very loudly asking everyone she could find in the room about if they knew where Bill was. Nikki told me that Bill had come in for a drink in the kitchen and Jane started talking to Bill to just get him to listen to her. Bill asked her if she was okay, to which she said, yes she is it's just a bit overwhelming and needed to talk to him. Bill said that he had to go get ready and suggested that she did the same and the Venue manager started asking Bill about other jobs that needed to be completed before the second ceremony. And the venue manager and Bill walked off and she was left in the kitchen where Nikki continued to stuff her face and saw her go down to the basement/lower floors. (Tim and Emse are practising their respective speeches downstairs | more on this later).
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My cousins and groomsmen of my husband were late. My cousins had gone back to the hotel and fallen asleep in 5 hours that was between the 2 ceremonies. So the second ceremony got even more delayed. I was happy that I got to wear my white dress. Anyways the ceremony got delayed by another half an hour or so, and when I got the front of the Aisle everything seemed perfect. It was great. I knew that there were midges floating about and some people are more popular to the midges than others. I noticed that someone was covered in a black scarf, it was just at first glance, and I honestly did not know who the person was and she was halfway through the guests.
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Our celebrant was a close friend. And we had organised and written the structure of the ceremony as a group (me, Bill and the Celebrant friend - Esme). And we did not have a segment of 'speak now or forever hold your silence' moment. But there were loads of stories and everyone cried. [EVERYONE] But someone was wailing from the area of where the lady in the black scarf was. (So we (Bill and i) thought someone must have really been hit with the amount of love radiating from our two families - all of this will make sense towards the end.)
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After we were married in the humanist Ceremony we walked back down the Aisle and where our wedding party met up, we had a group hug and we had a football huddle, where we jumped up and down. I noticed someone running away from us at that moment. And Bill's little sister who had more of a visual of who it was, decided to run after the person in question. A few minutes later, Bill's sister comes back from a car, now in tears, and Bill goes and comforts her, and eventually I walk up to them just to make sure she was okay. (She was a bridesmaid and we are close). Bill's little sister calms down, looks at me, and says to her brother, 'I am okay, it is just sad, that's all'. I am really confused at this point. Lil sister walks off and joins the remainder of the wedding party.
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And Bill looks at me and says, 'Your theory is true', to which I respond "which one?". He avoids talking about it for a little bit, but I guess it was bugging him too so he just stopped me and told me that I had previously told him about Jane (when she was still Jim) had feelings for Bill. Bill convinced me that Jim was just competitive and was just his character and Jane had confided in Bill's little sister that since Bill is now married to that everything was going to change, Bill will view her differently, she had hopes and thought things may go differently. I dont know the exact words but basically she loved him deeply and doesn't want to lose him. He will not be able to be there for her and so on... All of this hit me like a wall. But I was determined to push it aside for at least a couple of hours, and guess what? It just ended up as me giving the Oscar deserving performance of my life. I personally did not see Jane again that night, but people said that she was still around.
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Sunday morning was great. Bill, Tim and Bill's sister had prepared a surprise for me. Tim sang a song that is very special to Bill and I, while he played the guitar and Bill played the piano. Bill's sister sang with Tim, and soon enough representative of both family was singing songs together. After the singing, everyone was prepared to start with whatever they had planned for the day. My Polish family with the BBQ, my older sisters with their packing, my older Sister-in-law with the kids and so on... I see Bill's little sister and my sister-in-law in the kitchen and they were speaking quite quietly, and when they see me, they stopped talking then motioned for me to come closer. Bill's little sister and the sister-in-law asked me about what was going on with Jane, and my sister (twin but still older) came into the kitchen at the same time. I looked at all three of them and just told them to let it be, and I would explain some other time. My twin would have just ripped Jane's head off, so I do not want drama. But obviously people were now whispering and Jane had become the focus conversations.
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Low and behold, it is 12 30, and guess who decides to turn up in butt shorts? Things got super uncomfortable. She refused to be anywhere around me but everywhere around Esme and/or Bill. When we started to play Volleyball, we had 4 captains and 4 teams (Bill, two uncles and i were captains). This lead to Bill picking Jane all the time we played. I played on the same team as her once when one of Bill's players went to the loo. This resulted in us colliding a few times, she attempted at taking every single of my balls.
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Around 5 PM, my older sisters needed to leave for the airport. My dad was ready to go drop them. So other sister and I ran to them to say our goodbyes and so on. Jane had walked behind me, and she was right up close, and I am a super jumpy person, so instinctively I jump and said, sorry you scared me, man. (Now anyone who knows me and my wanna be Londoner accent, knows that the way I talk) Oh my god, I felt so bad, I didn't realise that she was going to feel so bad. But she ended up walking off, suddenly not needing to say goodbye to anyone any more. My sisters left and we were all sad.
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Some of the people continued to play volleyball and soon enough it was the highlight of the night. Everyone had left in terms of friends of the family (even my uncles, aunts and cousins had left). We just wanted to have some time just my family and Bills family. But Jane stayed. Bill and I were shattered, the past 5 days had been hectic and even though we were now married, we spend most of the 5 days either in front of our families and friends or kept apart. (I am all about respect for different cultures but the whole keep the bride and groom separate thing bugged both of us.) We just wanted to sit down and chill, we decided to get the families down for a game of Randomize. Bill's little brother (Trey) and his girlfriend (Hariette) was sat in the lounge at the venue.
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Bill and I sat opposite them with the coffee table in between us. Jane went and sat on the edge of the sofa by Hariette. Bill and I started to talk about getting some music, and I reluctantly got up and walked to my laptop to plug it to the speakers, which was about 2 meters away from where I was sat. As soon as I got the speakers, Jane ran (in her stupid high hells, clip-clopping away) to my seat. I put the playlist that Trey had created for us, and as soon the music came on, Jane literally ran back to Harriette, where her bag was, grabbed it and then clip-clopped back to my seat. And then put this song that apparently meant something to Bill and her on her phone. Harriette just kept looking backwards and forwards at Jane and myself, the boys were oblivious.
I was really trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, but she was not being genuine. I was slightly upset at this point, I just went to the kitchen and grabbed a drink and I was almost unresponsive. I felt numb, the past couple of days had been hectic, and with Jane being literally all over Bill, it was pushing me over the edge. About 15 minutes later, Bill decided to come to look for me, at this point I had moved back to the bridal suite. He finds me and I told him what was bothering me, he told me that it was okay and Jane was probably just in the moment and didn't realise what she was doing. In order to cheer me up, Bill grabs my wedding dress and gets it on, and started parading around in it, it was great fun, and soon he had grabbed my hand and off we went to amuse the family. Everyone came to the hallway, and Bill pretended to be the bride and full-on enjoy about 10 minutes of the dress. Jane was not impressed,
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I guess in that moment she felt like she was being made fun of, so I just quietly hinted at Bill that maybe it was not appropriate. Bill just looked at Jane and she looked a bit flustered. So Bill just went back upstairs and took the dress off. I had gone back to the lounge, other siblings and parents and a few members of my family who were staying with us came to the lounge, and I got myself a seat and we looked at photos of Bill and I together for what had been nearly a decade.
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When Bill returned, he just went to ask Jane if she was okay, whoever was sat next to Jane then moved and Will just fitted right next to her again. Jane then took her legs up and decided to sit crosslegged, with one of her legs resting on Bills thighs. There were 4 people on the sofa, so it was quite tight. My mother at this point walked out, she had enough with Jane's casual hand touching Bill's arms and so on. I just was a little bit shock, I was just like, what the hell? It was cold, so I just asked, if people wanted tea, and some asked Jane if she needed to cover herself because everyone else was cold, no she had on her leather jacket but her legs weren't cold. My mother-in-law and her husband decided that they were gonna take the orders for hot drinks and for me to relax. (My mother-in-law was a bit ticked off too).
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Soon after they left, so did I. I felt a bit crappy in all honesty, and when I got to the hallway, my MIL saw me and just gave me an empathetic smile, she met me halfway and said 'sometimes, all they need is a little guidance' and hugged me. Bill once more came looking for me, I was halfway up the stairs when he caught up with me, I was clearly upset and couldn't hold back anymore. I just explained the case of my mother walking off, his mum not wanting to be in the setting because she had promised me that no drama will be enacted by their family and she was taking the high road but she still was protecting me.
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Bill dragged me down the steps, at this point, my big bearlike father had made himself very comfortable by Jane side, my other two polish Uncles were ready to jump in and throw her out at any minute and my godmother decided to check up on me (she was sent by my mum). So I sat down again, Bill sat down on my side and his mother returned not bringing Jane's drink.
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My mother-in-law sat next to his son and my godmother on the other side of me on the arm of the sofa and they asked for stories from some of our photos. Jane stopped playing the game of Randomise which Bill and I didn't attempt at playing, but the youngsters, my dad and uncles kept on going at. Jane tried to join in, our conversations, but my Dad was the barrier between her and the group looking at the photos.
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It was close to 11 30 and people had started to move upstairs and get ready for bed, so Jane took the clue to leave (finally). Bill was by the door and my godmother was still cuddling on the sofa with me. Jane came to say bye to me (she would not acknowledge my godmother's presence at all). I said something along the line of "It was nice that you've been able to spend the weekend with us, thank you for coming!" to which she said "YEAH RIGHT!". I was taken back. (I still kick myself for trying to be nice). My godmother had started to pipe up and Bill started walking back to us, and suddenly Jane's face went from WITCH to Innocent Deer in headlights. I got up and said "Oh Bill, Jane was just leaving, would you just walk her to the door please" and smiled at Jane fakely. Jane started to walk off, and Bill was shocked at my behaviour.
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My godmother said that she needed to excuse herself to go check on my mother and my grandparents. I tell Bill to just get Jane out and I can finally start my life with my man. But NO!!! Bill walks her to her car, and they are there for 10 minutes. I am not fussed, she will be gone soon and none of this will matter... Bill comes back in and says "sorry that took so long, she just wanted to know when our solo camping trip was going to be?". To which I say "what do you mean by solo?". he says "Yeah, you know how we used to go camping, when Jane was Jim and when there was no confirmation that she was in love with you so on..." It was like a bomb exploded. We argued at great lengths, to the point where Bill fainted with exhaustion and I had to carry him to the loo when he needs to relieve himself. He fainted twice that night because firstly, it had been 5 hectic days and he chose to play a total of 8 hours of grass volleyball. I did not sleep, which was nothing new and to top it all off the argument about his friend being in love with him and needing a solo camping trip...
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My wedding was just a big fuss over this person, and it did not stop there. In the following weeks after the wedding, I had multiple people asking about Bill's cousin or my friend that got very emotional, a few of them thought that Jane was in moaning. At first, it didn't make sense, but the person who was in the black scarf and wailing was Jane. Nikki met me for a catch-up and told me her encounter with her crying experience. Esme who I meet on a regular basis informed me that the crying continued while Tim and herself rehearsed their speeches and Jane said it was because she had not taken her medication and that causes a hormonal imbalance and that 5 hours wasn't enough for her to back in town (which takes 20 mins), get ready and come back. (i didn't take 5 hours to get ready for any of the ceremony, hell I didn't even take 4 and I have hair that is 1 meter long).
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And if you know that you need medication instantaneously, I am not very familiar with the process she is going through but wouldn't you keep some handy, like in the car? Another friend of mine mentioned that Jane came back to the reception, and tried to drown her sorrows away. Bill's speech was amazing, Tim's speech was amazing, my twin's speech was amazing and I gave a massive tribute to my mother which made everyone cried, but when I stood up to say a few words, Jane called it quits and left.
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Bill spoke to Tim and since they are close friends of Jane, Tim decided to confront Jane about. Jane just explained that she knows that I do not like her and that she fears for her relationship with Bill because she cannot rely on him anymore. Being married jeopardises their friendships because I am in the middle and that her feelings were simply friendly and that she is still interested in girls, but randomly also mentioned that she was so happy that guys were approaching her for her number.
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Its been several months since the wedding now. We didn't go on a Honeymoon straight away, we chose to wait a couple of months. When we get back from the holiday I get a message from Jane asking me for photos. I am sorry, am I somehow indebted to this person for some reason unknown to mankind? Bill told me to ignore it.
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Jane becomes the conversation topic which causes immediate friction. We ended up not being able to talk about her AT ALL. To the point where 6 months ago she sends Bill a message asking what's going on... with hopes and plans to meet up... Bill does not know what to say, so as per usual his indecisive self just keeps pushing everything away, which leads to Jane sending me a message. It results in a big fight, Bill decides to send her a message saying what the issues are, which she replies to saying: I would apologise but am not sorry.
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The latest news that I know of her is that she has joint a volleyball team. (I was a ranked player, I have played club volleyball, university level and tournaments). I used to love eating hot food and she had to prove that she can eat HOTTER food than me. For obvious reasons, I did not state anyone's real names, but Jane's real name is based on Will's favourite Disney princess, who's features are like mine and who Bill used to refer to me as. (there are more examples I can give about her obsession with me but let's stop here).
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Jane tried to stay in touch with Esme, who is less a friend more family and told some bogus version of her story. I also found out that my mother got so upset on Sunday and she had to walk out because she got very emotional, because Jane was acting like she was the one who just got married. Jane has asked me multiple time to leave Bill and that he deserves better. But Bill still sees the male friend that he had but doesn't understand how a person could be two-faced like this and be mean to his wife. So it was not my marriage that came between their friendship, nor was it me, it was just her stupid actions.
What do you think? Did I overreact? What would you have done? What should I do next?

Hey everyone, apologies in advance, this is going to be a LOOOONG first post. In this post I'm going to try to tackle the problems with Hearthstone Esports and what Blizzard can do to have it taken seriously again. This is in response to recent comments by Firebat claiming that there really isn't a competitive Hearthstone scene anymore, and while I'm sure it was a genuine mistake, his actions over the weekend don't really seem to convey that he's taking the GM league very seriously right now. While some of my solutions may be unrealistic (MORE MONEY!!!), I'm really just trying to start a conversation and hoping that someone from Blizzard sees these ideas and they get bounced around a bit up top. Let's get to it!
The problem with GM League
I totally understand why the GM League exists. I have no doubt that viewership numbers are much higher when a major streamer like Dog or Amnesiac is involved than relative unknowns like DocPwn or Hamster. Someone at Blizzard clearly looked at those viewership numbers and thought "Why not have nothing but well-known streamers play each other?" The problem with this line of thinking is you lose what's known in poker as "The Moneymaker Effect".
For those that don't know, "The Moneymaker Effect" is what's thought to have caused a huge explosion in interest in poker popularity in the Mid-2000's. Chris Moneymaker was a Tennessee accountant who, through an online satellite tournament, was able to get in to the World Series of Poker, usually a $10,000 fee, for $80. He then proceeded to knockout well known poker pros Phil Ivey, Dan Harrington, and Sam Farha on his way to winning the 2003 tournament and 2.5 million dollars. Chris Moneymaker suddenly led people to believe that ANYONE can win the WSOP. Entries to the 2004 tournament tripled. Entries to the 2005 tournament doubled again. Poker became mainstream, and although the huge increase in turnout meant that regular pros lost any real chance of taking down the coveted bracelet, what they gained in fame and exposure was worth far more.
So the problem with the GM League is that it loses the "Anyone can win" factor. I can not win the Hearthstone World Championship this year. You can not win the Hearthstone World Championship this year. The only people that are allowed to win the Hearthstone World Championship are those currently in the GM League. While it is possible to win other tournaments and use those to catapult yourself into next year's GM League, the odds of this happening to a complete unknown with a full time job seem astronomical. Part of the fun of Hearthstone is I can sit across the table from a vastly superior player like Zalae and have a chance to win (AND I HAVE...1-0 AGAINST ZALAE! Let's not talk about my record against Ant or Navioot...) This isn't really possible in many other competitive esports games, I have no chance of getting my friends together and taking down a pro team in Overwatch or League of Legends. If I literally can't win or even compete in the Hearthstone World Championship, why am I invested?
Tournament Mode
I firmly believe that Hearthstone Esports will never take a serious step forward without the advent of a real in game tournament mode. While ladder certainly has it's advantages, the fact that tourney mode doesn't exist despite being the most asked for feature in Hearthstone makes it tough to take competitive Hearthstone seriously. My plan would feature two tourney modes, casual and competitive. Theoretically Casual would be fully customizable (Ban any Class! Only Highlander Decks! All Decks must contain Gruul!), but that's not really relevant to this conversation. Competitive Tournament mode would feature 8-man tourneys that would eventually lead to a spot in the Hearthstone Seasonal Qualifiers. It would be a 4 step progression that would look something like this...
Bronze Tourney:
Entry fee: 150 gold, or 1 arena ticket, or 1 Bronze tourney key, or $1.99
Structure: Best 1 of 1 (Players are locked into the deck they choose at the start of the tourney)
Rewards: 1st place: Silver Tourney Key (Value 500 gold)
2nd place: 400 gold
3rd-4th place: Bronze Tourney Key (Value 150 gold)
Silver Tourney:
Entry Fee: 500 gold, or one Silver Tourney Key, or $5.99
Structure: Best 1 of 1 (Players may switch decks between rounds. Players are limited to the 18 decks in their lineup. Players will be given the decklist to what deck their opponent played in the previous round)
Rewards: 1st place: Gold Tourney Key (Value 2000 gold)
2nd place: 1000 gold
3rd-4th place: Silver tourney key (Value 500 gold)
Gold Tourney:
Entry Fee: 2000 gold, or one Gold Tourney Key, or $19.99
Structure: Best 2 of 3 (Players may switch decks between games. Players are limited to the 18 decks in their lineup. After a player wins a game with a deck, that deck may not be used again that round. Players will be given the decklist to what decks their opponent have played so far this tourney)
Rewards: 1st place: Platinum Tourney Key (Value 7500 gold)
2nd place: 4500 gold
3rd-4th place: Gold Tourney Key (Value 2000 gold)
Platinum Tourney:
Entry fee: 7500 gold, or one Platinum Tourney Key, or $69.99
Structure: Best 2 of 3 (Players may switch decks between games. Players are limited to the 18 decks in their lineup. After a player wins a game with a deck, that deck may not be used again that round. Players will be given the decklist to what decks their opponent has played so far this tourney)
Rewards: 1st place: Seasonal Qualifiers chip (Value 30000 gold)
2nd place: 15000 gold
3rd-4th place: Platinum Key
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A Seasonal Qualifiers Chip would obviously get you in to the big Seasonal Qualifier tournament that happens once every 4 months. This is a MASSIVE tournament that will happen over two days and will be a major time commitment. Not everyone that gets one of these chips will be available or actually want to participate in such a massive tourney that takes up an entire two days. So this is a key component of this structure: A Seasonal Qualifier Chip can also be redeemed for EVERY CARD in an expansion of the players choice. Hopefully this will incentivize more Platinum Tourney play, one problem I see in this structure is that players won't continue to play these tourneys after they get their Chip, or people that can't make the Qualifiers the week it's scheduled just won't participate. The massive payoff of a Seasonal Qualifier Chip should hopefully ensure that these tourneys go off regularly.
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The tourney structure also provides a gold and money sink for Blizzard. Let's be real, Blizzard is never going to pick up any of these suggestions if they don't see profit in them, having an additional revenue generator for them might be that profit that is needed. My payout structure on these tourneys is 100 percent, so the value of the rewards given to players in a bronze tourney is 1200 gold, exactly the amount of gold that is necessary to start the tourney (8 x 150). Blizzard may need to make the payout structure a little less forgiving, 90 percent is typical in most poker tournaments. The house does need to make money. Consider my payouts a player friendly suggestion, but I wouldn't be shocked if an actual tourney mode setup by Blizzard isn't quite as generous.
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Seasonal Qualifiers
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So this is where my plan is going to get a bit an ambitious, perhaps overly so. But whatever, it's reddit, let's dream a bit! The Seasonal Qualifiers are when Hearthstone is going to try and basically take over Twitch. This will be, depending on interest, either a 1,024 person, or a 2,048 person double elimination tournament. Let's use the 1,024 person tourney as an example...let's say 200 different people were able to get a Seasonal Qualifiers Chip and want to use it for this tourney. Let's also say we decide to give an invite to the top 300 players on ladder over the season, using the old HTC point system (Importantly, these players would NOT receive a Seasonal Qualifiers Chip, just a Seasonal Qualifiers Invite. You would be potentially losing a lot of whales if your top 300 players got the whole expansion for free every season.) The last 500 or so spots go to influencers. I know, I know, this throws the whole notion of this being a "competitive tourney" sort of out the window. But this is supposed to be an "Anyone Can Win" tourney. Plenty of celebrities buy in to the WSOP every year, and it doesn't taint the eventual champions victory just because Ben Affleck got knocked out on Day 2. So let's see who we can get with this thing, with the caveat being that no appearance fees are going to be paid, but the eventual world champion wins $1,000,000 dollars. That still probably won't be enough to entice top streamers like Ninja or Pokimane to join in the fun, but who else can we get? Obviously, major "non-competitive" Hearthstone streamers would need to be involved, like Kibler or Kripparian. Just in case they aren't willing to give up their whole weekend, Blizzard may need to let them know that participation is mandatory if they want to continue to be featured in fun paid events like next weeks Innvitational. But let's think outside the box a bit. Is that top prize of $1,000,000 and some twitch exposure enough to entice Olivia Munn? Daniel Negreanu? Magnus Carlsen? I think one of the major problems with GM League at the moment is that Blizzard thinks a matchup like RDU vs. Thijs is going to bring in huge viewership numbers. Maybe it will, but those people watching will already be heavily involved in Hearthstone. You want to bring in some huge viewership numbers? How about a Hearthstone grudge match between former couple Danica Patrick and Aaron Rodgers?
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As far as actual structure, it would most likely be 1,024 player, double elimination tournament. Here's what that would like after 7 rounds...
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Round 1: 1,024 players 512 players (1-0) 512 players (0-1)
Round 2: 1,024 players 256 players (2-0) 512 players (1-1) 256 players (0-2) eliminated
Round 3: 768 players 128 players (3-0) 384 players (2-1) 256 players (1-2) eliminated
Round 4: 512 players 64 players (4-0) 256 players (3-1) 192 players (2-2) eliminated
Round 5: 320 players 32 players (5-0) 160 players (4-1) 128 players (3-2) eliminated
Round 6: 192 players 16 players (6-0) 96 players (5-1) 80 players (4-2) eliminated
Round 7: 112 players 8 players (7-0) 56 players (6-1) 48 players (5-2) eliminated
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This would leave us with 64 players that can advance to Seasonal Playoffs. Seasonal Playoffs, Seasonal Championship, and World Championship would proceed as they did before GM League, with Seasonal Playoffs being a 7 round swiss tourney followed by an 8 man single elimination, and Seasonal Championship and World Championship having a group stage followed by 8 man single elimination. Prizes for these tourneys would have to significantly increase to entice players, I would guess $1,000,000 for World Championship and $250,000 for Seasonal Championship. Whether that is ultimately worth it to Blizzard depends on how much they are willing to invest in tourneys, hopefully some of that cost could be recovered by the satellites to get into Seasonal Qualifiers, but it seems unlikely that all of it would. For Hearthstone Esports to be taken seriously, it's going to take an investement from Blizzard. But the potential of completely dominating Twitch on Seasonal Qualifiers day could be worth it. As an aside, if there really is a TON of interest in Seasonal Qualifiers, this is what the 2,048 person tourney would look like...
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Round 1: 2,048 players 1,024 players (1-0) 1,024 players (0-1)
Round 2: 2,048 players 512 players (2-0) 1,024 players (1-1) 512 players (0-2) eliminated
Round 3: 1,536 players 256 players (3-0) 768 players (2-1) 512 players (1-2) eliminated
Round 4: 1,024 players 128 players (4-0) 512 players (3-1) 384 players (2-2) eliminated
Round 5: 640 players 64 players (5-0) 320 players (4-1) 256 players (3-2) eliminated
Round 6: 384 players 32 players (6-0) 192 players (5-1) 160 players (4-2) eliminated
Round 7: 224 players 16 players (7-0) 112 players (6-1) 96 players (5-2) eliminated
Round 8: 128 players 8 players (8-0) 64 players (7-1) 56 players (6-2) eliminated
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This would leave us with 72 players, which is still a manageable amount for Seasonal Playoffs. Anyway, I would love to get some feedback on what you guys think about this plan, and the numerous holes you can poke in it. Thanks for the read guys!

I'm a beginner at advanced poker strategy, still learning about it. Recently I've been playing 7-person hold'em tournaments online with friends. I made the below spreadsheet for myself to figure out a some things pre-game: my opening ranges, and some strategy relating to the blind structure.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vR8bsZCSE7PufDqvGs9O9KMv1xLzE53I2TYslnstNQhTIZshCeSlzkdGHRTVn6DfW-ZTpT72p94ekMz/pubhtml#
Those of you who are more experienced / expert with poker strategy than I am, I would love to hear your thoughts on the parts of my strategy visible in this spreadsheet.
First, a few things that may be helpful for you to know:

• Starting chips are 10K
• When I refer to "shove zone" in the spreadsheet, I mean that if I'm down to 20BB I'll start shoving pre-flop if I have a starting hand in my UTG opening range. (I'm considering lowering my shove zone to something more like 15BB for my next tourney, but I haven't decided yet).
• I'm pretty sure that none of the friends I play with even know what "opening ranges" are and are not familiar with much or any of this terminology. So I'm less inclined to use a mixed strategy, partly for this reason.
• The friends I play with hardly ever raise pre-flop. I'm usually the only one who ever does. Also, they're willing to call quite a lot pre-flop even when they don't have great starting hands, because generally everyone really wants to see the flop. So I find I have to bet quite a lot pre-flop in order to get some people off the hand - hence the min opening bet I set for myself in the spreadsheet while the blinds are low. This is also why I'm allowing myself to limp pretty freely while the blinds are low.
• You will notice that my opening ranges only cover "in position" and "UTG". At the end of the day I'm just playing a pretty low stakes tourney with friends, so I don't want to go to the effort of figuring out opening ranges for every position. If I'm in a different position, I will intuitively go somewhere in between the two poles of "in position" and "UTG", depending on the situation.
• I usually limp when I'm small blind - as stated above, most of the people I play with don't bet pre-flop, so it's pretty safe to do so.
• Please don't use too much poker jargon in your response/critique, or assume I'm familiar with advanced strategy / GTO ideas that aren't covered / accounted for in my spreadsheet. For example, calculating EV is not yet something I've tried my hand at, but I may try learn that later.

Really looking forward to anyone's thoughts / critiques!

A few people asked for my story so I figured I'd share. Writing it out has been good therapy I think.
I first played poker on a camping trip with some friends some 10 years ago when I was 16. We didn't play for money and we used one of those cheapo wallmart sets of chips. None of us had any idea what we were doing. Pretty much every hand was limped family pots and checking down to the river.
A year later my dad's boss invited me to a homegame with his staff. This was the first time I played with someone who knew how to play. It was $10 to play, and my dad's boss won all 3 tournaments he ran that night. For me it was pretty embarassing, folding straights face up because I thought I had a high card. Thinking a straight beats a flush. That kind of thing.
That night I learned that poker was more than just luck, and that good players could make money. So I became determined to learn how to play and how to win.
I started hosting games at my school. I brought my wallmart chip set to school and classmates would play with me on my free periods and during recess. Never for money though.
During this time I started reading some articles about poker strategy online. Or at least that was my intention. After reading some articles about bankroll management and leveling I read an article on continuation betting.
I didn't need to read any more articles because it only took the cbet to make me a BEAST at the school games. Pratically every player in this game was weak-tight and would limp preflop and check/fold any board that they missed. I started to win most sessions just by cbetting 100% of boards.
A couple wins under my belt, combined with my secret weapon (the cbet!), and I knew that I was destined to be a professional.
I started to host real home-games for money (none of us were old enough to play at the casino). Every second Friday we'd play a game with a $5-$10 buy-in (None of us had jobs). It took a few weeks to realise we had to increase the blinds to force the game to end at a reasonable hour, and a few more weeks to figure out a structure that actually made sense.
I tracked all the results of these tournaments over the year, and by the end it was clear that I was the best. I had the largest ROI, the most first places, the most cashes, the most final tables. Every metric that mattered. And it was all thanks to my trusty cbet.
I wanted to go pro. I had no other career aspirations so I stopped paying attention in school and would just day dream about poker. I wanted to play all the time so I signed up to pokerstars under my mum's name because I was still only 17.
Because I had no bankroll on stars I played in the freeroll tournaments every day. The field was usually 9,000 players large, and I played in the 6pm game after school ended but before I went to bed. First place payed $6, so I knew I only needed to win 1 to launch my online poker career.
I quickly learned that 100% cbet was actually not so good against the stations and maniacs that play in freerolls. I had to change the way I played if I wanted to make it to the money.
Eventually, after a few weeks of busting before the first break, I made it to the money and I cashed in at 200th place for 50 cents - which just so happened to be the minimum buy-in for the 1c/2c cash game on stars.
I FINALLY HAD AN ONLINE BANKROLL!
I immediately sat down at a 9-ring cash game and bought in with my prize winnings. It took less than 5 minutes to completely decimate my bankroll. Much to my dismay, the players sitting at the lowest stakes cash game available in the entire country played like poker GODS! What the hell? Every one of my bluffs was called down. Every time I called down a bluff they had it. It was mental, these players were so good. Unlike anyone I had ever played against before.
At this point I knew I'd have to return to my poker studies if I wanted to have any chance at all. So I picked up my very first poker book, "Crushing the Micros", because I was gonna be playing micro stakes of course. One of the early chapters talked about the concept of set-mining and this BLEW. MY. MIND. Needless to say, I didn't feel it was necessary to read the rest of the book.
So, a few weeks later when I cashed my next freeroll tournament and returned to the 1c/2c cash game I completely changed my game. I used a new strategy where I only played pocket pairs preflop against opponents with full stacks. If I missed the flop i'd check/fold, but if I hit my set i'd check raise all in if OOP, otherwise i'd triple barrel pot bet every street if I was IP. It only took a few minutes to win my first stack with a flopped set. So I cashed out of the table and bought in to two tables.
If you've never multi-tabled before, let me tell you, it's the real deal. Twice the hands means twice the speed and that means twice the winnings. It made sense to me that I could scale this as big as possible. Back then, Pokerstars would let you play 24 tables at once - So as soon as my bankroll allowed it I started playing 24 tables at once using my se-mining strategy. The beautiful thing is, it worked!
So, playing 24 tables, only set-mining, I grew my stars bankroll to $1,000. I WAS A POKER GOD and I knew it. I crushed the school games, i crushed the home-game tournaments, and now i was crushing micro-stakes online too.
The day I turned 18 I knew it was time to crush all those fish at the casino. So for my 18th birthday I got my school poker friends (the ones who were 18 anyway) to take a trip to the casino with me.
We each brought $100 with us. 1/2 was too intimidating so the floor offered to open a 1/1 table just for us. Because it was a new table and 1/1 rarely got up, it was just us at the table for most of the night. Luckily for me though, I knew I could crush these guys with my 100% cbet strategy, and throw in a bit of set-mining and my friends stood no chance. I ended up busting every last one of my friends that night yet I only finished $300 up, which didn't make much sense. If I busted them all then shouldn't I be $800 up?
In any case, it didn't matter. I'd just proven to myself I could win at the high stakes casino games. Now I knew beyond a doubt that I could beat any game I played in. Soon I would go pro.
The next year I started uni but because I had no career aspirations besides poker, I'd just stay home and play poker online each day. Sometimes i'd go to class but I'd just play poker on my laptop in class
At some point I picked up holdem manager and imported my hand histories. Over 1 million hands I had a win-rate of 0.5 bb/100 - Yeha I know, I played a shit-load of poker.
It was eye-opening though. I'd played one million hands for pennies, with a win-rate that was hardly even positive. Just imagine if I'd been crushing that whole time instead. If my win rate was 10 bb/100 i'd be up thousands.
So once again, I was determined to get better. I bought books. Lots of books. Like, enough to fill an entire shelf of my bookshelf. And I started reading.
The theory of poker was first. Every time your opponent makes a mistake, you win. Every time you make a mistake, your opponent wins. Yes, got it, basic stuff. What's next?
Professional no limit holdem volume 1. Pot odds, implied odds, stack to pot ratio. This was life-changing stuff. Simple mathemetical concepts I'd never considered before that made so much sense in hindsight. This was it, I didn't need to read any more. Like the cbet and then the set-mine, these concepts were the missing piece I needed to take my game to the next level.
Now I know you're thinking: "Yeah ok, this is great and all but can you get to the part where you lose 200k?". And yes. Yes I can.
So I started skipping uni completely to go to the casino every day. Obviosuly I realised that the rake on 1/1 and 1/2 was fucked, so I started playing 1/3. Even though I was over 1k up online, the buyins for this stake were still HUGE to me and I played pretty scared money. And honestly, I never ended up beating 1/3. I was break-even AT BEST. (I rationalised my results by blaming the high rake. It was unbeatable, you see)
But, I made some friends playing 1/3 at the casino. One guy, Billy, started to invite me to his home game. I LOVED Billy's home game because the rake was lower than the casino's and the buy-in was only $100, which was much more reasonable.
Billy had this rule, where you could buy-in for the max stack on the table. This worked well with my set-mining check-raise all-in strategy so of course I would always buy-in for the max.
One night i'm playing in this game that's been going for 2 days straight and one palyer's got a 2k stack on the table. He's one of the fishier players so I think to myself, why not? And I buy in for my entire roll. 2k.
First hand i get JJ. Flop comes AJ7r. I check, fish bets pot. "Got ya" I think to myself, and I raise all-in.
Snap call. Oh shit. He flips over AA.
I just lost my entire roll that i'd spent the past year grinding for over 1 million+ hands. I'm tilted. Billy asks me if i'm rebuying. That was my entire roll I say.
And then Billy utters the words that you've all been waiting for. "Credit?"
And yeah, basically that's it. I've played in Billy's game ever since. And funnily enough, it turns out I'm not some poker god, i'm just a grade-a egomaniac poker fish. Billy has me for 100k on his books and i've tracked another 100k in losses i've been able to repay. So i'm down 200k over my poker lifetime.
Also, I flunked out of uni. Got married and subsequently divorced due to financial arguments. If you want to know where the money's come from I can assure you it's not my parents or a trust fund or anything like that.
I sell drugs to poker players at Billy's game.

Personally, I think it may be premature to decide payouts until we learn more about how things progress and how the NBA decides to proceed. But I understand some want a result now. I also think awarding the regular season winner the entire 1st place prize would be providing them more than their actual equity, i.e., gives the leader the best possible result/outcome that could occur.
I know there is some overlap between fantasy sports and poker players, but not sure all poker players, much less all fantasy players, are aware of ICM Calculators. There is plenty of information available about them online if you want to dig deeper, but the short of it is that it calculates a person’s equity in the total prize pool at any given time. It is most often used in poker tournaments when the players agree to “chop” the pot before the poker tournament is finished, e.g., to reduce variance of certain outcomes. It’s also been used by online poker sites when there have been computer crashes during online tournaments, etc.
In poker, you enter how many chips each player had at the time of the agreement, crash, etc., along with the earlier agreed upon payout structure. With fantasy, your current lead or deficit against your opponent(s) likely is not as objective as it would be with poker chips aka “stacks.” However, perhaps wins or total season points (among those still with a chance to make the playoffs) may be the closest we can get. Again, realizing no decision will be absolutely perfect, I don't think this option should be overlooked.
For your league’s consideration (if it comes to that):
https://www.icmpoker.com/icmcalculato#

You have viewed poker on TV, perhaps played it on the internet, or even in a casino. Now you are ready to try to host your own poker tournament at home in your own game room or basement. Hosting your own poker tourney is much more personable than playing poker on the internet. The smack talk, the cross table body language, the feel of the cards in your hands, and the sound of the cards being shuffled are all great aspects of playing poker at home. Best of all may be the great feeling you have inside when you take down a huge pot of chips or make a great play and get some praise from your buddies. Of course, a badly run poker tournament at home can be a huge headache. So make sure yours is run right and your players will consistently return to your basement for your future poker tournaments.
To run an effective poker tournament competition at home you need a high quality poker table, some top quality poker cards, clay poker chips, some kind of blinds timer clock, and a strategy. Sure you can host a tourney with some cheap cards and chips, but our objective here is to make it feel like a casino experience so your friends will continue to return and play in the future.
A high quality professional felt poker table makes your poker experience that much better but it will also be one of your biggest cash investments. If you do not have a high quality professional felt poker table and do not have the budget for one you can still host a poker tourney with absolutely no problems.
The most important aspect to keep in mind is the overall experience your poker friends are having. If you decide to perform on a cheap table, it will be more challenging to deal with the chips and to collect cards after each hand. Cards will fly across (and sometimes off) the home-made table. If you cannot swing a pro poker table, consider some other choices such as a felt table topper or just buy some poker felt on the internet and cover your table with it. If you're a handyman, consider building your own quality professional grade poker table; it is not that challenging.
Quality poker playing cards are essential for a successful tourney. If you buy a two-dollar cheap set, they will become filthy, difficult, and get bent edges and have to be thrown out after 1 hour of poker play. It is well worth the investment to spend money on some top quality 100% proven poker cards. They will perform better and last much longer. You can even clean them if they become filthy. You will need at least two decks of cards for each poker table. This allows one poker play to be shuffling while one is dealing which keeps the pace of play moving which is important when you are playing with costly blind levels and timers. You should also get at least one cut card for each table to help avoid the end cards of the deck from being revealed.
Poker chips are absolutely necessary to host a serious tournament. There are wide variety of poker chip options on the web that vary from pennies per chip to dollars per chip in cost. You do not have to have the expensive chips to have an excellent time at your tournament. Chips also come with or without cash values on them. Poker chips with cash values can be very practical, but are not necessary. Chips without cash values can be more versatile as you can allocate any value to them. If you choose to use chips without money values just publish a graph of what each colored chip is valued at. The quantity of chips you need really depends on the number of poker players attending your home poker tournament. Make sure you have enough chips so each poker playing has enough chips to make proper poker wagers. (20-30 chips is an excellent target to aim for) You will also want some bigger denomination chips so you can color up the chips when the blind levels reach a higher value later in the night. There are many choices for electronic blinds timers. You can use a simple egg-timer although this becomes very painful to manage as someone has to totally reset it for each blind change and it can be difficult to see at times. The Poker Genie is a great choice, or there are many programs you can get that will run on a laptop and you can even project your laptop onto your television screen. You could also buy a professional blinds timer and mount it to the wall in your game room if you are frequent player.
Finally, you need a strategy. You should know in advance what your buy in price will be, whether you will allow rebuys, what your cash payouts will be, and what your overall blind structure will be. Your buy in and rebuys should be spelled out clearly to people when you invite them to your tournament. No one wants to show up with $20 in their wallet to find out you are having a $30 buy in game. Payouts need to be made and the payout structure should be conveyed to the players or posted on the wall for them to see. Publishing your rules on the wall or via email will eliminate any late night arguments that may occur. When establishing blind level changes consider how long you want your home poker tournament to last. Blind level structures depend on how many people are playing, the actual buy in, how many chips you are giving out and the value of each chip. Here is an example of an excellent blind level poker structure:
Round 1: 100-200 Round 2: 200-400 Round 3: 300-600 Round 4: 500-1000 Round 5: 700-1400 Round 6: 1000-2000 Round 7: 1500-3000 Round 8: 2000-4000 Round 9: 3000-6000 Round 10: 5000-8000 Round 11: 7000-14,000 Round 12: 10,000-20,000 Round 13: 20,000-40,000
It is also a wise decision to go over all the rules with the poker players beforehand and to announce a moderator to make rulings if necessary as well as a back-up moderator for when the first one is not available or in the middle of making a rule at another table. Take your time to plan your home poker tournament so you will continue to have your friends come back to play more poker tournaments in the future. Good luck and I hope your first home poker tournament is a success.

Previous: Inside Underground NY Poker #4
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Spades — 1.4
One of the many things that fascinates me about poker is the clear distinction between tournament players and cash players. Anyone who’s played enough live poker, both cash and tournaments, knows how different the experiences can be.
In general, tournament players are more social and laid back. They’ll usually talk strategy at the table, engage in table talk, and discuss previous hands more often than cash players will. The game seems to bring more enjoyment to them, as the vibe and overall mood of most tournament tables are usually more positive and uplifting than that of your average cash game.
Personally, I really enjoy dealing mixed game tournaments — something I wouldn’t do until moving to Vegas many years later.
In my opinion, you’re really missing out if the only games you’re familiar with are NLHE and PLO. The mixed game community is almost like a subculture that exists within poker, and the typical mixed game player has usually been playing poker a lot longer than the typical no-limit player. This isn’t always the case, but I find it to be generally true. Don’t get me wrong, though — there is no correlation between a player’s skill level and which games they play.
Being that NLHE is such an interesting and complex game, it usually takes many years until a no-limit player will venture off into other variants of poker.
Jumping back into the present, I was about to play a $75 tournament at Spades for the first time. Andy and I had just walked into the room, which was buzzing with conversation and positive energy. There was a short-handed $1/$2 NL cash game going, but it was about to break, and most of the attention in the room was focused on the tournament.
I noticed that Andy was looking around a little too much, probably trying to spot Matt, considering he owed Andy $2k and was most certainly going to be caught off-guard.
I was expecting to see Gary, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight. In fact, I never once saw him at the club. I would later discover that he was a silent partner in Spades — I don’t know what other responsibilities he had beyond player recruitment. However, it wouldn’t be the last time that I saw him.
Players who had arrived early were already in their designated seats for the tournament, waiting for play to begin. Each table had a dealer seated in the box, protecting the out-of-play stacks that were inside the well, and a suited deck of KEM cards spread face-up across the felt.
Registration was being conducted at the podium, with Vinny checking players in and handing out seating cards. I could see that he was busy doing his job, so I decided to introduce myself to one of the dealers and pick his brain.
This was how I met Chris. He looked to be around Andy’s age, in his early 30’s, although a bit younger. I would eventually get to know him very well during my time at Spades. He was Punjabi — an ethnic group from India — and had dark skin, dark eyes, and hair that was styled into a faux-hawk. He was born and raised in New York, and spoke with a typical Long Island accent.
“What’s up bro, I’m Chris. Welcome to the game.”
“Thanks, so, can you tell me about the tournament? What’s the structure like?”
“Sure, it’s a $75 buy-in with unlimited reentries until the end of the dinner break, which is after level 6. I think we’re ordering Italian tonight. The starting stack is 15k.”
Andy chimes into the conversation — “What do the blinds start at, and how long are the levels?”
“Blinds start at 25/50 and the levels are 20 minutes.”
“Does cash run throughout the tournament?” — I could tell Andy was more interested in playing cash.
“No, we need the tables available for the tournament. Cash starts as soon as the first table breaks.”
“And how much of the tournament buy-in goes towards the prize pool?” — Andy was never shy about talking business.
“$50 goes into the prize pool, $25 goes to the house. The top 10% of the field makes the money, but deals are usually made.”
Andy and I head over to the podium to register. I introduce him to Vinny, they exchange names, and Vinny puts Andy on the text list. We hand over our buy-ins and receive our seatings cards — we drew different tables and wouldn’t be sitting together. Vinny directs us towards our seats.
“Table 1 is over in the room on the left, and Table 5 is in the room on the right. Good luck guys, your stacks are at the table.”
Andy asks me to join him in the smoking room, which is unoccupied, giving us some privacy. He lights up a cigarette.
“Hey buddy, switch seating cards with me, quick.”
“Okay, but why…?” — as we trade cards.
“Matt’s in the box at your table.”
“Hmm… What are you gonna do?”
“Make him a sweat a little bit. The best chance I have of getting paid is to make him come to the conclusion that paying me off will cost him far less than dodging me.”
“I don’t understand, what do you mean?”
“I need to remind him how valuable his reputation is, and that I have the power to destroy it. He’ll pay me when he realizes that dodging me is no longer an option.”
“What if he doesn’t have the money?”
“He probably doesn’t, in fact, that’s what I’m expecting him to say. I’ll work out a payment plan with him, if that’s the case.”
“Don’t make a scene, alright? I wanna get a dealing job here.”
“Don’t worry buddy, this isn’t my first rodeo.”
I leave the smoking room and head over to my newly acquired seat. Most of the table had already arrived. My table draw consisted primarily of players who appeared to be over 40 years old, with the exception of one guy who looked like he was in college. There was only one woman at my table, around my mother’s age, and an elderly gentleman who was very soft-spoken.
I introduce myself to the table and the dealer greets me.
“Hi, can I have your seating card, please?”
“Sure, thanks.” — I toss him the white, plastic seating card and he pushes me a stack of chips in exchange. I count the stack to ensure that it’s correct, and of course, it is. The chips were clay, Monte Carlo tournament chips. They didn’t feel cheap, and I liked how they handled.
I join in on the conversation that’s happening at the table and exchange pleasantries, getting to know my opponents. My table fills up, and it’s just about 3 PM on the dot. A couple of guys are talking about sports, others about the news.
Suddenly, I hear a tap on the plexiglass window and look over to see Vinny signaling the dealers, holding his hand up with 5 fingers stretched wide. The dealer puts the button in Seat 5, then scoops the deck up from the felt and begins to give it a scramble.
“Okay guys, the button is in Seat 5. The starting blinds are 25/50. Good luck, everyone.”
The dealer gives the deck a shuffle and the clock starts. You could see the current time left in the level by looking through the plexiglass window into the main room. They were using software called “The Tournament Director”, and the clock was being displayed on a laptop.
At the time, I had more experience in tournament poker than I did in playing cash games. I regularly played in online tournaments and did quite well. The WSOP coverage was wildly popular, and I had already been hosting tournaments at my house since I was in middle school. I felt a sense of confidence.
The first hand at my table gets dealt, which I fold. Before we even have our first flop, there’s an all-in and a call — pocket 8’s against AK. The eights hold up, and the losing player gets up from the table and walks over to the podium to reenter.
Most of the players were trying to get it in preflop and chip-up as much as they could during the reentry period. I employed a different strategy — instead, I played tight ABC poker, waiting for the right spot to either jam or call off because of the table dynamic. I knew that, eventually, I’d get it in good.
I get dealt pocket Aces in the cutoff. UTG puts in a raise, and a player in middle position 3-bets. Back in 2007, it was very popular to 3-bet more often, but most players wouldn’t 4-bet unless they had Aces, Kings, or AK. There was a popular saying back then — “The 4th bet is always Aces”. It wasn’t necessarily an absolute truth, but you get the point.
Playing ABC poker, I shove with my Aces and get snap-called by the 3-bettor holding pocket Tens. My Aces hold and the double up gets through. I pick up a few value hands throughout the next couple of levels and play them straightforward, winning several pots without having to go to showdown. The only hand I had tabled at this point was the Aces, and I wasn’t opening many hands — I had a tight image.
I win a couple more pots with marginal holdings, taking advantage of my tight image. A couple more levels go by, and the dinner break is approaching. I look down at AJ in early position, put in a raise, and get called by the chip leader at the table — the young guy who looked like he was in college. The flop comes A95 rainbow, I lead out for about 1/3 the pot, and he insta-jams on me.
I had seen this spot so many times while playing online — it was always two pair, as sets would slow play in this spot. It was a move made by players who thought that their tight opponent was incapable of folding a strong Ace on such a dry board. I know that I’m beat, and announce, “I fold”, but make sure to not muck my hand, yet. I wanted to be sure.
“Nice hand. Are pocket Jacks any good?”
“You have Jacks?”
“Yeah, you bluffed me, right?” — I expose one card, the only Jack that I have.
“I did.” — He half-smiles and exposes one card, showing a 9.
“Well played.” — and I throw my hand into the muck.
Now, I was sure.
The tournament goes on break, and I walk back into the main room where a bunch of players are waiting in line for food.
Italian had been brought in — baked ziti, chicken parm, spaghetti & meatballs, salad, and garlic knots were the available options. I get in line and serve myself chicken parm and some salad.
While eating my dinner, I look around the room and can see Andy through one of the plexiglass windows — he’s talking to one of the dealers, who is I presume to be, Matt. It’s just the two of them, and the conversation doesn’t last long. Andy walks out into the main room and joins me for some food.
“I saw that. Is that Matt?”
“Yeah.”
“Is he gonna pay you?”
“Oh yeah. I told him that I’d be here playing cash until the game breaks, and he said that he’ll give me $500 at the end of the night and $500 every week until I’m paid off.”
“Is he really gonna pay you, though?”
“I’m certain he will, I think he realizes the situation that he’s in now. But, I’ll see what happens at the end of the night.”
We talk for a bit longer, right up until the break is about to end, discussing which players we think are strong, and comparing our stacks to the rest of the field.
With a minute left on the break, we both head back to our tables. I take my seat and ask the dealer how many places are being paid.
“How many people are getting paid tonight?”
“I don’t know, yet. Vinny is still calculating the prize pool. It should only be a few more minutes until he announces the payout structure.”
At six full tables, the real poker was about to begin — no more reentries.
In that moment, there was nothing I wanted more than to cash my first real, live tournament. I felt like I had something to prove — I was the youngest person in the field, and I wanted to earn some respect from the other players. However, there was still a long way to go, none of the tables had even broken, yet.
Was I capable of escaping the inevitable cooler situations that show up during the course of a tournament? Could I manage to run good and win my flips? Would I be able to keep it together if I took a tough beat, or stay patient if my stack got short?
​
To be continued…
​
Next: Inside Underground NY Poker #6

Previous: Inside Underground NY Poker #3
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Spades — 1.3In the underground poker world, it’s only a matter of time before you will eventually deal with the police. In one way or another, if you are running either a home game or a commercial club, they will eventually come knocking on — or breaching through — your door.
The cops almost always don’t care about the presence of home games that run once or twice a week, and instead are more interested in appeasing your neighbor who dialed “911” to complain about either the noise or smell of weed coming from your residence. Sometimes the complaint will be about the parking problem caused by your players taking up too much space.
However, if you own a club that is running daily, located in a commercial area, and is most definitely being run as a business, then it’s only a matter of time until you get raided.
You’ll need to preemptively switch locations every 6 months or so, in order to prolong the investigation that is being conducted on your operation. Inevitably, law enforcement will at some point acquire a warrant to search the premises and seize everything you have — all of the cash, TV’s, cards, chips, your credit book, and anything else they can use as evidence against you. The poker tables are usually too much of an inconvenience for them to take, and I’ve witnessed the cops breaking them in half so that they can’t be used again.
As you’ll find out later in my story, I’ve been in my fair share of police raids.
Getting back to the present timeline, I had just left Spades and was being pulled over by a cop on my way home. My Uncle Tommy was a cop in the city, and had told me that if I ever got pulled over, to make sure I turn the lights on inside the car, turn the engine off, put the keys on the dashboard, roll my window all the way down, and place both hands on the steering wheel.
“Good evening. Do you know why I pulled you over?”
“No sir, I don’t. Was I going too fast?”
“Indeed you were. License, registration, and proof of insurance please.”
“Okay. Hold on a second while I find the insurance papers, I’m not sure where they are. I’ve never been pulled over before.” — thinking maybe this guy will take pity on me.
I look through my glovebox compartment, and within about 30 seconds, gather up all of the requested paperwork and hand it over to the police officer. Underneath my license, I slipped in the PBA card that my Uncle Tommy had given me, as he had instructed me to do.
“Who gave you this PBA card? You have a member of the family in law enforcement?”
“Yes, my Uncle. He’s an officer in Manhattan. He said I should give it to the police if I ever got pulled over.”
My Uncle had written, in Sharpie, on the card — stating to “Please call 555-827-3850” with his name and, I think, what was probably his badge number.
“Alright son, where you coming from this time of night? Aren’t you a little young to be out this late?”
“I was at a friend’s house playing poker with the boys. We lost track of time having fun, and now I’m on my way home to get some sleep. I’m really tired.”
“I see. I’ll be right back. Hang tight.”
Damn it. Was I really going to get a ticket? Had my gambit worked? It wasn’t really a big deal, I just didn’t want to pay an expensive, unexpected fine — making my night, essentially, a complete wash. The cop starts walking back to my window.
“Okay son, I’m gonna let you off with a warning. Please be more careful next time you’re driving on the Expressway. Don’t break the speed limit.”
The officer hands me back my paperwork, and I thank him for understanding. I start putting all of the documents back where they belong and the cop drives off.
I pull back onto the Expressway and dial up Andy. I knew he wasn’t sleeping because the weekend evenings were a great time to make money in the underground games. Friday and Saturday nights were when the most fish and recreational players would come down to play.
“Hey Andy, you still playing?”
“Eh, more or less. The game is going to break soon. I’m glad you called, it gave me the perfect reason to get up from the table.”
“I guess that means you’re in the black?”
“Since when does that surprise you? I’ve been playing since 5PM. I’m tired and ready to go, but it would be unwise to rack up when there’s a tilted maniac in a short-handed game. How’d you do? How was the game?”
“It was alright. I broke even. The game was clean and the rake was, in fact, capped at $10. The dealers were skilled and professional, but most of the players were really good. There were a few loose-cannons at the table, but I did what you told me to do and played super tight.”
“Good. I’ll have to come down and check the game out. What are you doing tomorrow… rather, later today?”
“I’m actually going to play in a $75 tournament they’re having at 3PM. I was told anywhere from 50-60 players. You wanna come?”
“Absolutely. I’d like to see this place for myself. $10 rake is unheard of in underground games. I’ll play in games that have really high rake, only because they manage to bring in tons of fish who really drive the action.”
“Yeah, it was nothing like Fox’s place, though. It was kind of like trying to eat meatloaf, after having gotten used to Filet Mignon.”
“Well, you get what you pay for. As long as there’s money to be made, I’m there. Besides, you said there was a new player bonus, right?”
“Yeah, $100 new player bonus. I’ll try and get you the hookup.”
“Awesome buddy, thanks. Can you pick me up from the LIRR train station at 1:15? I think the train comes in at around 1:05 or so. Lunch is on me, we’ll eat and talk some strategy before the tournament, yeah?”
“Sounds good. I’ll be there at 1:15. Call me when your train gets in.”
“Perfect. Get some rest, you’ll need it. I’ll see you later on.”
When I got home, I was starving and needed to eat. My Mother was the absolute nuts — I had told her that I was going to a bar to deal a poker tournament for the night, and she had left me a saran-wrapped plate of dinner on the counter. I nuked it and quickly scarfed it up. I then went right to bed, only to catch no more than 6 hours of sleep.
Later that afternoon, I got up around 12:30 and hopped in the shower, got dressed, and headed towards the train station to pick up Andy. I brought $450 with me, enough for two tournament entries and a buy-in for playing cash. I didn’t even know the details about the tournament, I had forgotten to ask. I had no idea about the structure, starting stack, or if it was even a re-entry tournament or not.
I didn’t really care, one way or the other. I wanted to go back to Spades because I wanted a job there. It was located no more than 20 minutes from where I lived, and I reasoned that it would be a great place to become more educated about the rules of poker. If you want to get a dealing job in an underground game, you usually have to play there regularly at first. That is, unless you have verifiable experience and references from other well-known games.
On my drive over to pick up Andy, I sent Gary a text, letting him know that I was going to be playing in the tournament and that I would be bringing a friend. It didn’t occur to me at the time that I should have been *asking* if bringing a friend would be okay.
“Hey Gary, I’m gonna play the tournament today at 3PM. I’m gonna bring my friend Andy, he’s gonna play in the tournament too and wants to play cash afterwards. Can you give him the new player bonus?”
“Kiddo, who’s your friend? How do you know him?”
“He’s a poker buddy of mine. I met him at a club in Queens last summer. He helped me get better at the game and we became friends.”
“Give me his number, I want to talk to him.” — I wasn’t really sure why he wanted to talk to Andy, I’d never had to go through anything like this at Fox’s, so I was a little puzzled, but obliged anyway.
“Okay, no problem.”
I texted Andy’s phone number back to Gary and sent Andy a text, letting him know that the guy I had met last night was going to give him a call. I didn’t get a response, but about 10 minutes later, my phone rang. It was Andy.
“Hey buddy, my train is about to arrive. You almost here?”
“Yeah, I’ll be there in a few. Did you get a call from Gary?”
“I did. Turns out we know a few of the same people.”
“Okay, well, I asked him about the bonus, but then he said he was going to call you, and I didn’t get a chance to follow up. Did he mention anything?”
“Yeah, everything is good to go. My train just got here, I’ll be waiting by the taxis. See you in a few.”
I pull into the train station parking lot, and Andy gets into the passenger seat of my car.
“Good to see you, buddy. Where can we eat around here?”
“What do you feel like? I know a good sushi place about 5 minutes away with some cheap lunch specials.”
“You know I’m Chinese, not Japanese, right?”
“No sh*t, dude. You feel like Chinese?”
“Never mind, sushi is fine. Let’s go.” — Andy seemed quite annoyed, for some reason. He wasn’t usually like this. I wondered what was bugging him.
We arrive at the sushi joint and head on in for a quick bite. We both ordered the same lunch special, but I asked for a Diet Coke to drink, while Andy ordered a hot green tea with honey.
“Andy, you alright, man? You seem pissed off.”
“F*ck, I am. This is the last thing I need before going to sit down in a game.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, when I spoke to Gary on the phone, we got to talking about other places that I’ve played. It turns out that we know a bunch of the same people. One person, in particular, who will be dealing the tournament today.”
“Okay, and this person is pissing you off, why?”
“The little weasel owes me money. I haven’t seen him in any of the games around Queens for 6 months. I’ve tried to call him more times than I should have to, but the as*hole just keeps dodging me.”
“How much does he owe you?”
“$2,000 if I don’t factor in any interest, which I should, but at this point I’d be happy to just get back what I’m owed.”
“Did you tell Gary?”
“Fu*k, no. Don’t say anything to him, buddy. Keep this between you and me.”
“Okay, but I don’t get it, how do you know this guy will be at the tournament?”
“When I was talking to Gary on the phone, he asked me if I’d be interested in being a prop player. I said maybe, that I wanted to check out the game first. He asked me if I had been a prop anywhere else, and I said yeah, mentioning a few games.”
“I don’t mean to interrupt you, but, what’s a prop player?”
“A prop — a house player. A prop player is someone that the game pays to play in the game.” — I was shocked by what he was telling me. I hadn’t a clue that this type of arrangement existed.
“Really… what do they get paid?”
“It depends, every game is different. Usually it’s an hourly rate or a percentage of the player’s losses. But, anyway, I told Gary about a game that used to be on Bell Blvd. in Queens, one of the games where I was a prop.”
“And then…?”
“Well, the guy that ran the game is the same guy that’s dealing the tournament. When I brought up Bell Blvd, Gary asked me if I knew Matt.”
“And Matt is the one who owes you $2k.”
“Right. I told Gary that I did know Matt, and then he mentioned that Matt was one of his dealers. Like I said, I didn’t bring up the fact that he owes me money.”
“I gotcha. So what are you gonna do?”
“Let me worry about that, buddy. This isn’t the first, and probably won’t be the last time that someone has owed me money and then mysteriously vanished.”
Andy and I finish up our meal. He pays the check, and we hop into my car to head on over to the tournament.
We didn’t talk much during the drive over to Spades. I could tell that he was contemplating the current situation that had arisen, and I didn’t want to disturb his thinking. Besides, I was in my own headspace, a bit intrigued about this whole new side of poker that I had just learned about — the business side of poker. Why was there a need for prop players? What benefit did they bring? Were they necessary? How would someone become a prop?
I had a ton of questions and almost got lost in my own thoughts. Driving became secondary — I was on auto-pilot. Suddenly, we had arrived. The drive to Spades seemed to take only a couple of minutes. I pulled into the back lot and parked my car.
Andy took off his seatbelt and got out of the car to light up a cigarette. I sent Gary a text, letting him know that we were there, and he replied, directing me to come on up.
While waiting for Andy to finish his smoke, I saw several other cars pull into the lot to park. It was packed, although not at all at full vacancy, and some people were still inside their vehicles, waiting to go inside. It was about 2:30 PM, and the tournament was scheduled to start in a half hour. I had planned on arriving a bit early — I wanted to get all of the information about the tournament, and get to know some of the players before it started.
Andy puts out his cigarette on the black, cracked, concrete ground, and flicks the butt towards the street. I lock my car and we head to the glass door with the active security camera mounted at the top.
I was in a state of excitement. I had a pretty good track record when it came to playing small tournaments online, as I usually cashed, and had a good sense of how to navigate a tournament.
I wanted to make a good run today.
To be continued…
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Next: Inside Underground NY Poker #5

Previous: Inside Underground NY Poker #5
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Spades — 1.5Do you know what it feels like to be the last man standing in a live tournament?
Sure, scooping a 600 big blind pot in a cash game will probably give you an adrenaline rush, but the experience isn’t quite the same as outlasting an entire field of players.
I wanted to experience that feeling for myself.
The reentry period in the $75 tournament at Spades had come to a close, and players were beginning to bust. Two tables had now broken, and we were approaching the second break.
Vinny had announced the payout structure a short while ago — 65 players, 22 reentries. The top seven players would get paid, with $2175 up top for first.
I had a healthy stack at this point, but, I needed to reassess my game plan and adopt a new strategy — tight, ABC poker wasn’t going to help me at this point. The blinds and antes were getting expensive, and I needed to start chipping-up if I wanted to make it into the money.
The tournament goes on its second break, and the green chips need to be colored up and raced off.
At this point in time, I had never seen a chip race before. In fact, I didn’t even know what a chip race was, because they don’t occur in online poker. When I had colored up tournament chips in games that I had hosted at my house, I simply rounded up any leftover chips to the next denomination. I wasn’t aware that there was a fair and accountable way to do it.
In case you don’t know, a chip race is a method of removing unneeded chip denominations from play. If a player doesn’t have enough chips (of the unneeded denomination) to equal the value of the next denomination, the remaining leftover chips are raced off.
During the break, I stayed at my table to watch and learn how to do a chip race. The dealer races off the greens, and I look through the plexiglass window into the main room — two cash games were going, and Andy was playing in one of them. There were only a few more minutes left on the break, so I decided to just stay in my seat and wait for play to resume.
With 15 seconds remaining on the break, the dealer begins to scramble the cards. He gives the deck a shuffle, deals out the cards, and the action begins.
I still had a tight image at the table. I hadn’t made any big bluffs, and was never at risk at any point since the reentry period had closed. This was about to change — it was time to switch gears.
I pick up A4ss in the big blind. There’s a raise from early position, and both middle position and the button flat. The small blind comes along as well, and I go into the tank. I look at everyone’s stack size — we’re all sitting on roughly the same amount of chips, give or take a few big blinds.
I look at each one of the players in the hand, asking myself if I think that anyone in particular would call a shove. I think for a bit longer. I’m convinced that everyone in the pot is holding a marginal hand at best, and nobody has a hand strong enough to call an all-in. It seems like everyone wants to see a flop.
Finally, I come to a decision and raise all-in. This was a pretty gutsy move. If I was wrong, I was certainly behind, but if I was right, I could pick up a nice pot with only Ace high.
The early position raiser folds, so does middle position, as well as the button. It’s on the small blind, and she starts thinking out loud about what to do, deliberating between her options. I can see she’s trying to find a call, but hasn’t made up her mind yet.
In my head, I keep shouting, “FOLD! FOLD! FOOOOOOO-LD!”.
I direct my gaze to an imaginary spot on the felt, about where the board would be if the dealer had put out a flop. I hold a blank stare — the color of the felt on the table is red.
She’s still in the tank, and decides to turn her hand face up to try and get a read on me. I quickly glance at her hand, then back to the felt.
She’s showing pocket 5’s. She tries engaging me in table talk.
“Do you want me to call?”
I don’t respond.
“I’ll do whatever you want me to do. Call or fold? It’s up to you.”
I still don’t respond. She goes on for a bit longer, but I’m not paying attention to her anymore. In fact, I can’t even hear what she’s saying. I keep repeating in my head, over and over, “FOOOOOOO-LD!”.
She makes up her mind and chucks her hand into the muck. My entire body relaxes, and I feel the air expel from my lungs. I get the urge to crack a smile, but I resist — I’m pleased with myself for making a play that worked. I keep my composure and drag in the pot.
I pick up a couple value hands throughout the next few levels, another table breaks, and I win a few pots. I’m starting to pick up some momentum.
We’re now at 3 tables — I pick up AT on the button, with the Ace of diamonds. The college guy from earlier is in Middle position and puts in a raise. It folds around to me, and I 3-bet. He makes the call.
The flop comes Q7J, all diamonds. He checks, and I bet a little over 1/3 pot. He calls.
The turn is a black 3. He checks, and I bet again, slightly more than 1/3 pot. He makes the call — there’s no way he doesn’t have a hand here.
The dealer burns a card and puts out the river, 2d.
The complete board is Q7J32 with four diamonds, giving me the nuts. He checks again, and this time I bet 1/2 pot. He looks disgusted with himself.
“Ugh, I f*cked this hand up so badly.”
“I think you played it quite skillfully, and displayed good judgement by not raising at any point post flop.” — I’m trying to goad him into a call, even though I know he’s never going to.
“I know you’re only holding one diamond. I was gonna let you bluff the river and snap you off.”
“Well, now I’m gonna let you fold. Come on, let’s go. I know you’re not calling.”
He mucks.
I table my hand anyway, and turn over AT, with the Ace of hearts?
“You don’t have a diamond? Ace high? Are you kidding me? I folded a f*cking set of sevens and you have Ace god damn high?” — the college guy is visibly agitated.
My jaw drops — I had misread my hand, I really thought that I was holding the Ace of diamonds. Of course, I kept that fact to myself.
“Uh, yeah. That *is* Ace high. Hm, how about that... I guess you did let me bluff the river.”
I was at a bit of a loss for words and didn’t know what else to say — I had never misread my hand before. I was very aware of the fact that I wasn’t capable of playing that hand the way I did, had I known what I really had. I’m sure that I would have given up on the river and checked back. In fact, I probably would have checked back on the turn and never bet the flop in the first place.
Two players get knocked out in the same hand, one of them is the college crybaby. The table breaks, and I receive a new seating card. We’re down to only two tables. I take my new seat and take note of all the stack sizes to see where I stand — I’m right in the middle with about 45 big blinds.
It’s the final level before the last break begins. I’m under the gun and get dealt AKhh. I put in a min-raise and get shoved on by the button, who I have slightly covered, I think. It’s close. I’m not folding, and I decide it’s time to flip. I make the call, but to my surprise, the button tables AQ.
The flop brings a board of 99Q. Good game. Oh well, that’s how it goes sometimes — nothing you can do about it…
…except go runner-runner hearts and hit a backdoor flush!
I’m now sitting on about 80 big blinds and have one of the larger stacks. We’re down to six players at my table, the other one has five. I ask the dealer which one the final table is, and he tells me that the other players will be coming to us, although we’ll be drawing for new seats. It makes no difference anyway, both tables are in the same room and right next to each other.
A player at the other table gets knocked out, and we combine into the final table. We all agree to take a 10 minute break now, and instead play through the one that’s scheduled at the end of the level.
I walk over into the main room to see how Andy is doing in the cash game. He has over $1k in front of him in a $1/$2 game, which sounds like it’s too deep, however, most of the other players have at least $700. The shortest stack isn’t short at all — $400. It was almost 9PM at this point, and both of the cash games were full.
Andy gets up from the table and we walk into the smoking room.
“You made the final table, eh?”
“Yeah, we just got down to ten players. Only seven get paid.”
“How many short stacks are there?”
“Just one, really. Everyone else, including me, has chips. We decided to go on break right after we combined, so we haven’t played a hand yet.”
“Feel the table out before you decide how you wanna play it.”
“I will. I see you’re doing well in the cash game.”
“Oh yeah, it’s playing like a $2/$5 game and everyone is deep. The action is great, the standard open is $15 or $20. I think we might actually just make it a $2/$5 game.”
Clearly, the game was not playing like it was when I had played the night before. It was a tournament night and only 9PM on a Sunday. Most people had work the next day, though, and would begin to leave around 11 - 11:30 PM.
“I’ve gotta get back to the tournament, the break is about to end. When do you think you’ll want to leave? I’ve got class tomorrow morning.” — I had forgotten that Andy said he was going to stay there until the game broke, so that he could try and collect from Matt.
“Don’t worry about it buddy, I’ll call a cab to get back to the train station. I need to see Matt after the game is over, he’s going to pay me with what he makes tonight.”
I get back to my seat in the tournament, and a player at the table proposes a deal. The dealer knocks on the plexiglass window to get Vinny’s attention — he then points to his watch with his index finger, signaling Vinny to pause the clock.
“Anyone object to an even chop? Let’s do it, right now, chop it up ten ways and we can all go home early with some money. I asked Vin on the break — a ten way chop is $435 each.”
I did not object, and nobody at the table seemed to care that there was a shortstack. I was fine with a $435 payday, and I didn’t have much experience playing shorthanded or heads up anyway. It was all but said and done until one player rejected the deal.
“No deal, I want to keep playing for little while longer. Let’s go, start it up.”
I knew exactly why the guy objected. The one shortstack at the table had less than 6 big blinds. I’m pretty sure that he wanted to wait until the shortstack got knocked out.
The dealer once again knocks on the plexiglass window then points to his watch. Vinny starts the clock.
Four hands into the level, and two players get it in — Aces versus Kings. Of course, the guy who rejected the deal is holding the bullets.
However, karma can be a b*tch, and a King comes in on the turn. Nine players remain, and one of them makes a new proposal.
“Anyone object to a nine-way chop?”
“Yeah, screw it. Keep playing.”
I’m not playing any hands at this point. The shortstack is still in the tournament, and I decide that I’m just going sit back for a while and only open 88+ or two broadway cards. Everything else I’m folding. I’ll see what happens when another player bites the dust — I feel like most of the players still want to chop.
About ten minutes later, the shortstack gets it in with KJdd and loses. Eight players left. This time, nobody says anything about chopping — we’re on the bubble.
The blinds go up and I’m down to about 40 big blinds. With the blinds doubling every level, we were now playing bingo all-in poker. If you were to put in a raise, the rest of the table would either fold or shove. Nobody at this table was flatting.
It was only a matter of time until it was a hand over hand situation — I just had to be patient and wait it out.
Two orbits later, pockets Tens gets it in against pocket 9’s and the Tens hold. Seven players remain and we’re now in the money. This time, I’m the one to bring up a chop.
“How do you guys feel about a seven-way chop? What would we get paid on that?”
Someone at the table quickly does the math.
“$621.”
“Anybody object?” — I see a couple of the players compare all of the stacks in play.
“Ship it!”
The dealer knocks on the plexiglass window to get Vinny’s attention and waves him over. Vinny enters the room.
“Seven-way chop? Alright, then. I’ll be back shortly.”
He returns a minute or two later, holding a giant stack of cash.
“Congratulations, guys. $621 to each player. Thanks for playing, please remember to tip your dealers.”
While he’s paying everyone out, the dealer is in the box suiting the decks and racking up the chips. Each player proceeds to put down $60 onto the table, and the dealer thanks them as they leave the room. Vinny hands me my winnings.
“Good job, mo.” — as he counts out my money.
I remove three $20 bills from the small wad and leave it on the table for the dealer. In underground tournaments, 10% of the payout was a standard tip — that’s just how it was.
I’m about to walk over and say goodbye to Andy when my phone vibrates. I take it out of my pocket. It’s a text from Jennifer, my girlfriend.
“Hey babe, are you ignoring me?”
I immediately realized that I hadn’t spoken to her at all over the weekend.
I had a lot on my mind — I had just cashed my first ever live tournament, I was worried that the situation between Andy and Matt would prevent me from getting a dealing job at Spades, and I had a bunch of things to do in school to prepare for college applications.
I send a text back to Jen, explaining that I had been very busy over the weekend working and playing poker. I apologize and ask if I can make it up to her by taking her out to a nice place for dinner. She seems satisfied.
I make my way over to Andy and we say our goodbyes. I tell him that I’ll speak to him tomorrow — I was certainly going to give him a call, it was important that I know how the situation with Matt played out. I didn’t want anything standing in my way of getting a dealing job at Spades.
I leave the club and get into my car to drive home. 20 minutes later, I walk into my house and find my mother waiting for me.
“I have some bad news, son. Your father’s going to be in jail for a while.”
To be continued…
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Next: Inside Underground NY Poker #7

Murderhawk Rampage
After coming up short against Cody at Double or Nothing, Lance Archer and Jake Roberts come out and talk about how their quest for the death of The Elite will not be done just because of one lost, and they are not done with Cody yet, they demand a rematch to be set up for Fyter Fest on June 20th. But he is confronted by Dustin Rhodes, who says that Archer almost sent him into retirement during the TNT Championship tournament, and for what, just so he could lose to his brother at Double or Nothing? Well he isn’t going to just let that slide, he wants some revenge against Archer, besides, if he wanted a rematch with Cody, he’d have to actually earn it first. Jake Roberts says Archer will run through whoever he has to, even Dustin. The two are set up for a match in two weeks time, on the 10th of June edition of Dynamite.
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Come the 10th of June, Lance Archer and Dustin Rhodes have a decent enough match, but it ends with Archer standing tall over Dustin. After the match though he attacks Dustin further, leaving him laying and commentary play up that Dustin may have shown his last gasp when he returned from his last match with Archer, but this time, they have a strong feeling he won’t come back again. Archer and Roberts come out again the following week and once again demand a shot at the TNT Championship at this Saturday's Fyter Fest. So later in the night a No.1 Contenders match is set up pitting Lance Archer against Kip Sabian, Jungle Boy and Christopher Daniels. By the end of that match, Archer seems to have won the match when he puts Daniels away with a Blackout, but Kip Sabian, with the help of Jimmy Havoc pushes Lance out of the ring and steals the victory, ending Lance’s chances for the TNT Championship. (the TNT Championship will be elaborated on later).
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After the match, Kip runs away, but Jimmy just isn’t lucky enough he gets thrown out of the ring by Archer who then turns his attention to Christopher Daniels, who he puts in the E.B.D Claw. Scorpio Sky and Frankie Kazarian run down to help their ally, but Lance slides out of the ring giving the two a death stare. Later after the show is over, SCU calls out Lance Archer for a match with Christopher Daniels at Fyter Fest, which Archer has no problems accepting.
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When we reach Fyter Fest, Lance Archer destroys Daniels easily, showing his dominance, but once again, after the match he tries to attack Daniels again, but he’s ready for Kazarian and Sky, who he throws out of the ring. When he goes to hit Daniels again, this music hits…
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IT’S DUSTIN RHODES… He’s back AGAIN… He walks onto the stage and locks eyes with Archer, before walking down the ring, but from his coat behind his back he pulls out a lead pipe, but Archer has already started making his way to Dustin, too close, not having anticipated the equaliser, Dustin lays into Lance with the pipe, as Archer is trying to get away, for the first time in AEW, he is retreating, eventually managing to get away from the lead pipe shots.
Following Fyter Fest, Dustin carries his trusty lead pipe around with him to keep Lance Archer at bay, but Jake Roberts warns Dustin that “Everybody Dies” at the hands of the Murderhawk. He will be coming to finish what he started with Dustin, and that is sending him into retirement. Dustin replies saying he doesn’t fear Lance Archer and will fight him anytime anywhere. But Roberts says it’s not that easy to get a match with him, he will do what he wants on his own terms.
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The following week, Dustin makes the official challenge, a match with Lance Archer at All Out, September 5th, no pinfalls, no submissions, no count outs, no disqualifications… Only way to win is to make your opponent utter the words “I Quit”... Dustin doesn’t get an immediate response and is left to wait and stir. But the next week, Jake Roberts says that they have been discussing their decision and… Lance Archer covers the microphone with his hand, opting to take the microphone himself. He talks in a deep, ominous and intense tone, saying that at All Out, Dustin Rhodes is making a big mistake by challenging him, but he has one condition before accepting the challenge… “At All Out, when I make you utter the words I Quit, you are done… retired… gone from AEW for good.”
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Dustin comes out the following week, and he says that if he can’t beat Lance Archer at All Out, it proves that he’s lost “IT”, and if he doesn’t have it, then maybe he should retire. So he accepts Lance’s challenge, but if Lance thinks he’s just going to lay down and give up, he’s got another thing coming, because at All Out he is going to fight for his career, he is going to fight for his livelihood, and he is going to fight for honour. All Out will not be the end of Dustin Rhodes if he has anything to say about it…
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Dustin Rhodes vs Lance Archer - I Quit Match, if Dustin Rhodes loses, he retires.
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The Path of Cage
At Double or Nothing, Brian Cage made his debut, looking like an absolute machine, the end of the match saw Cage throw Darby to the outside in a brutal spot before climbing the ladder and pulling down the Poker Chip. After DoN, we find out that Darby will be out of action for a few weeks, and Cage is booked for the main event of Fyter Fest against Jon Moxley for the World Championship.
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When we get to Fyter Fest, Brian Cage once again looks like a beast, and he seems like he is going to win the World Championship in just his second match, but Moxley manages to roll Cage up for a 1… 2… Cage gets out, Moxley pops back up and surprises Cage with a Paradigm Shift, 1… 2… 3… Moxley retained his World Championship after almost losing. Cage is enraged and when he gets back to his feet, Moxley kneeling exhausted, Cage attacks him but before the beatdown can even get underway properly…
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q29HdeRBDL4
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Darby Allin is back and he goes right after Brian Cage, showing no fear, Cage is proving to be a tough competitor to take down for the much smaller Darby Allin. However he uses his speed to stop Cage’s attacks, pulling down the ropes when Cage runs at him which causes Cage to topple to the outside, and Allin nails a Suicide Dive, Cage remains standing though. Allin does another, and another which drops Cage to a knee. His last resort is to climb to the top rope and go for a Coffin Drop which is successful, and he rolls back into the ring, while Cage walks back up the ramp in a fit of rage.
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The next episode of Dynamite, we get an ominous backstage promo from Darby Allin, he talks about how his whole life he’s been smaller than everyone and had to fight that much harder, so he’s used to fighting a guy the size of Brian Cage, but not a guy with the same abilities as Brian Cage. he says that when people call Cage a machine, it is no exaggeration, and when he eventually does step in the ring with Brian Cage, he will have to fight harder than he has ever fought, but he will “Shatter the Machine”
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Later on that episode of Dynamite, it is announced that over the next 2 episodes of Dynamite we will see two Fatal Four Ways, with the winners facing off the following week to determine the No.1 Contender for the AEW World Championship. One of the Fatal Four Ways will include Brian Cage and Darby Allin, which leaves fans hyped to see what will happen there.
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The next week, Taz and Brian Cage cut a promo saying that next week they will destroy Darby Allin and earn Cage’s rightful shot for the World Championship that he was screwed out of last time, Moxley knows he can’t defeat Cage, and at All Out, the Path of Cage will lead right to the World Championship.
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The second Fatal Four Way the following week consists of Darby Allin, Brian Cage, Jimmy Havoc and Colt Cabana. Brian Cage looks like a beast as usual, with Jimmy trying to make this match hardcore, but in the end, Cage nails a Drill Claw to Havoc, with them as the only two at that time. But before he can cover Havoc, Colt runs in and he throws all his weight into Brian and they both tumble over the top rope, meanwhile back in the ring, Darby is on the top rope and hits a picture perfect Coffin Drop and covers Havoc, 1… 2… 3… Darby Allin has won the Fatal Four Way, Cage was inches from breaking up the pinfall after pushing Cabana away and trying to slide into the ring again.
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After the match, Brian Cage snaps, and he attacks Darby Allin in a brutal rampage, he throws Darby through the ropes clean and into the turnbuckle, as Darby tumbles to the ground outside the ring, clutching his back, medical personnel are trying to tend to Darby, but Cage grabs them and he pushes them aside, grabbing Darby and nailing a Buckle Bomb into the guard rail.
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The next week on the July 15th edition of Dynamite, Darby Allin limps his way down to the ring with his back taped up for his No.1 Contender’s match against PAC. The match is short due to the condition Darby is in, and PAC quickly ends the match with a Brutaliser. After the match is over, Taz and Brian Cage walk out onto the stage and watch Darby as he lays in the middle of the ring having lost because of the damage Cage put him through last week.
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Darby Allin takes a few weeks off to recuperate, but eventually, about halfway through August, as All Out looms closer and closer, another segment of Darby Allin is shown on Dynamite, where Darby challenges Brian Cage to a match at All Out, because someone needs to take out the Machine, and he wants to be that guy. Brian Cage of course accepts the match in an interview later in the night. And the match is set, Brian Cage vs Darby Allin at All Out on September 5th.
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Darby Allin vs Brian Cage
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The Inner Circle
The Inner Circle lost in the Stadium Stampede match against Kenny Omega, Hangman Page, The Young Bucks and Matt Hardy. After that match, the focus of AEW turns away from the Inner Circle for a little while until after Fyter Fest, when due to restrictions being lessened slightly, AEW are able to host their Blood & Guts match finally, finally being able to see the end of the feud between The Elite and The Inner Circle. The match starts off with Cody and Chris Jericho, as the match progresses and everyone makes it into the match, it is all out war, eventually coming to an end when Hangman Page pins Sammy Guevara for the 3 count.
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After the match, Jericho leaves Sammy Guevara alone in the ring, with Hager, while Santana & Ortiz help Guevara to the back. The next week, Chris Jericho holds a “State of the Inner Circle”, all 5 men stand in the ring, and Jericho says that last week they lost Blood & Guts… because of Sammy Guevara…
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The crowd gasps as Jericho slowly turns to face Sammy Guevara with a cold stare, Guevara begs Jericho to forgive him, even getting on his knees. After some begging Jericho just stares down at Guevara, eventually he smiles, turning to the crowd and asking “Did you really think one loss would break the Inner Circle?” he laughs to himself as the rest of Inner Circle laugh, he tells Guevara to get up already and they embrace, right when everything seems to be fine, and they begin to celebrate a new beginning for the Inner Circle, Sammy Guevara turns away from Jericho, and when he turns back…
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Judas Effect, Jericho stares down at Guevara’s prone body, as Santana & Ortiz are in awe. Jericho leaves the ring, first telling Santana & Ortiz they have a choice to make, him or Guevara. When Jericho leaves, Hager follows close behind.
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The week after, Jericho once again says that everything that has happened is Sammy Guevara’s fault, he says that The Inner Circle is dead, all because of Guevara. He has come to learn that Santana & Ortiz made their decision and they chose to side with “that twerp Sammy”, after everything he gave them, the only one who is actually grateful is Jake Hager. Without Chris Jericho, none of them would have a career here, none of them would even be acknowledged by these pathetic people who watch this show.
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On the go home show, Chris Jericho comes out for another promo, and as he begins to speak, once again bashing Sammy Guevara and everything he has done for him. He is cut off by Sammy Guevara’s music, Guevara walks out and comes down to the ring, he catches Jericho off guard and while he’s shocked Guevara attacks. The two begin a brawl, Jericho retreats and Sammy demands Jericho face him in a match at All Out this weekend, which Jericho agrees to.
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Chris Jericho vs Sammy Guevara
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AEW Tag Team Championships
At Fyter Fest, Kenny Omega and Hangman Page lose the Tag Team Championships to the Best Friends who earned their shot at the titles during the Double or Nothing Buy In. However they therefore need a new set of challengers, which sees a No.1 Contenders Four Corner Tag Team match being held, which sees the former LAX, Santana & Ortiz, take on Jungle Express, The Dark Order and Hybrid2. Once the match is over, Santana & Ortiz come out with the victory and as the new contenders for the Tag Team Titles, with the match being confirmed for All Out. But in the meantime, all the stuff with The Inner Circle is going on, so the question arises of whether they are and will be distracted come All Out.
Best Friends (c) vs Santana & Ortiz - AEW World Tag Team Championships
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TNT Championship
After Double or Nothing, Cody is the inaugural TNT Champion, and he needs a challenger for Fyter Fest, which is why Kip Sabian, Jungle Boy, Christopher Daniels and Lance Archer who had made his intentions clear, are put in a Four Way No.1 Contender’s match. Kip manages to steal the victory and punch his ticket to Fyter Fest in the biggest match in his career thus far with the help of Jimmy Havoc.
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At Fyter Fest, Cody and Sabian are having a great match, but it seems like Cody is moments from retaining his Championship, only for none other than MJF to make an appearance and distract Cody, which allows Sabian to hit Cody with Deathly Hollows and score the 3 count and the biggest victory in his career, no matter the circumstances. Kip leaves with the TNT Championship in tow with Jimmy Havoc and Penelope Ford by his side.
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Following Fyter Fest, Sabian goes on a string of wins against the likes of Rey Fenix, Scorpio Sky, Angelico and Joey Janela in title defences. But it comes time to find him a challenger for All Out, and so a Gauntlet is held with Jungle Boy starting against Evil Uno, somehow making it through the 4 opponents and earning his spot at the PPV for a title match.
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Over the remaining weeks, Kip Sabian and Jungle Boy go back and forth with Sabian saying Jungle Boy isn’t worthy of fighting for his title, and he will easily retain at All Out.
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Kip Sabian (c) vs Jungle Boy - AEW TNT Championship
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History Always Repeats
After Double or Nothing, Cody having beat Lance Archer for the TNT Championship, the next week on Dynamite, Cody isn’t present, but there is a certain someone who takes issue with Cody’s title win, that being former rival, Maxwell Jacob Friedman. MJF walks down to the ring in a suit, and he cuts a scathing promo, going over his history with Cody, namely the single moment in which he took away Cody’s shot at the World Championship, but also his shot to ever fight for the title ever again. But now, Cody used his backstage power to create a whole new title just so he could win it, and he is shocked that none of the fans are calling Cody out on this blatant corruption and misuse of power.
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Cody doesn’t bother replying and instead focuses on his challenger, Kip Sabian who wins the No.1 Contenders Fatal Four Way. But then during the match at Fyter Fest, MJF distracts Cody and causes him to lose the title, looking smug as Cody stares him down after Sabian runs away with his newly won title to celebrate.
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On Dynamite, MJF comes out and gloats that he has taken away yet another title from Cody, one that he never deserved anyway. But this time he is confronted by Cody, who says that MJF is acting like a boy in a sea of men. There is no room for this pettiness in AEW, and if MJF wants to end this once and for all, then let’s do it at All Out. MJF laughs, he asks Cody why he thinks MJF would accept that offer, he gets nothing out of it. He already beat Cody, he doesn’t need a rematch, he just needed to do what was right for the future of AEW and get that title off of the fake hero that is Cody.
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Cody keeps trying to get a match with MJF, but he has been able to once again get Cody in the palm of his hand, and says that he has demands again, but this time it’s just one, he wants Cody in a match where he can’t make any excuses if he loses again, so Cody suggests a Steel Cage match, but MJF says that’s not good enough for him. Cody goes through a bunch of different stipulations with MJF denying, until Cody finally suggests a 30 minute Iron Man Match. MJF says that’s perfect, because now he can beat Cody multiple times and prove exactly how much better than Cody he truly is…
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Cody vs MJF - 30-Minute Iron Man Match
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AEW Women’s World Championship
After Double or Nothing has come to an end, Hikaru Shida stands as the new AEW Women’s World Champion, and she needs a challenger. As the women of AEW make their statements with their performances, trying to turn heads and earn a shot at the title. There is one woman who had her sights set on the Women’s Championship before the lockdown, and now with some of the travel restrictions being brought down, with important personnel being able to move around, having to quarantine for 2 weeks and be tested upon entry before and after the quarantine. Before Fyter Fest occurs, there is just enough time for the Top Gaijin, Bea Priestley to make her return to AEW in a match against Anna Jay, she dominates and wins in seconds.
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Priestley takes a microphone and says now that she’s back, she has the same goal as before she left, the only difference, now it’s a new target. “Hikaru Shida… I’m coming for you”, on the go home show, Bea Priestley has been awarded a No.1 Contender’s match against Shanna, and she wins that match to earn her shot at Fyter Fest.
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In the title match at Fyter Fest, the two women go back and forth, but Priestley seems to have Shida’s number, being able to counter anything she throws at him, it seems that Shida is in over her head as the Women’s Champion. Priestley sets up the Bea-Trigger with Shida against the ropes and as she throws herself into her opponent, Shida slides out the way and quickly rolls up Bea Priestley, 1… 2… 3… Shida has got the victory, but it’s not as clean as one would expect. Bea Priestley is clearly unhappy about the win and she’s not afraid to show it, storming back up the ramp.
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Because of the controversy behind the Women’s Championship match, Bea Priestley demands another shot at the title, no matter who she has to go through. And she does just that, she gets a string of wins against Riho, Yuka Sakazaki, Big Swole and Kris Statlander before one more match, where if she wins she gets her rematch for All Out, and that is against Nyla Rose.Priestley is once again able to win against Nyla Rose after a tougher battle than the rest and earns her rematch with Hikaru Shida.
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Bea Priestley cuts a promo about how Hikaru Shida fears her, how Hikaru Shida doesn’t know how to beat her and couldn’t even if she tried. She says that Shida is afraid because she knows that at All Out her title reign comes to an end and a new Queen takes the throne. Shida in response just says that she is going to remain the fighting Champion she is and will fight to retain her championship once again, because the title means everything to her, so at All Out, Bea Priestley will have to learn to accept failure, because that is all that will be coming her way.
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Hikaru Shida (c) vs Bea Priestley - AEW Women’s World Championship
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AEW World Championship
Jon Moxley’s reign is proving to be very successful, having won it from Chris Jericho, then beating Jake Hager and Brodie Lee before having arguably his toughest challenge at Fyter Fest, Brian Cage. The match ends with Moxley catching Brian Cage off guard with a roll up and then a Paradigm Shift to pick up the victory. Then with the World Championship needing a new contender, two Fatal Four Ways are held with the winners of each facing off for the right to face Jon Moxley at All Out.
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PAC defeats Kenny Omega, Matt Hardy and Chris Jericho, while Darby Allin defeats Brian Cage, Jimmy Havoc and Colt Cabana. In the eventual singles match, PAC defeated Darby Allin in a brutal short match after Darby Allin was left injured.
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Jon Moxley comments on PAC winning the contendership, but he is cut off by the Death Triangle with PAC walking down the ramp while Fenix and Pentagon go through the crowd and attack Moxley. PAC warns Moxley that at All Out his title reign looms to an end, because PAC is better than Moxley in every way, saying that Moxley is nothing without his past and he doesn’t deserve to be Champion. Lucha Bros. holds Moxley up to his knees by holding his arms out to the side, PAC grabs Moxley’s face as he tries to pull away and attack PAC, but PAC hits a Baseball Slide kick before climbing to the top rope and hitting a Black Arrow.
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Moxley has matches with Pentagon and Fenix in subsequent weeks, managing to pick up the wins but being beat down after each time. Then PAC has a match against Christopher Daniels which he wins and after that match Moxley gets some retribution, attacking PAC and sending him into retreat.
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On the go home show, the two have a contract signing, which ends with a brawl as security pry the two men off each other, the show going off air with PAC and Moxley staring each other down.
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Jon Moxley (c) vs PAC - AEW World Championship
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The Elite Tension
The big story in AEW the past few months has been that of The Elite, and the tensions showing between Hangman Page and The Young Bucks. After Double or Nothing, the tension having been put to the side for Stadium Stampede, Hangman Page and Kenny Omega are back to defending their Tag Team Championships at Fyter Fest against best Friends. The match ends when Hangman Page is hit with a Strong Zero and pinned for the 3 by Trent. After the match, Omega helps Hangman up but clearly is disappointed.
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The next thing on the Elite’s schedule is the Blood & Guts match at the end of July, and the match comes to an end when Sammy Guevara is pinned. After the match, Cody leaves the structure first, while The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega and Hangman Page are left in the ring, tensions seem to be rising now that the threat of The Inner Circle is gone. But as soon as Cody has left, three men in balaclava’s enter the structure and stare down The remaining men of the Elite as one of the three chains the door shut. Elite stands in one ring, with the three mystery men in the second. The Elite are one man up, that is until, the one masked man, clearly the leader of the group, raises his arm pointing to the top of the cage. When The Elite turns to look, another masked man is standing atop the cage, a clearly much smaller man, who dives off the top of the cage onto the Elite taking them all out. A beatdown ensues with the four masked men taking the elite out, and it seems a new threat has arrived, the men reach up and remove their masks one by one, first… Cash Wheeler, then Dax Hardwood, third is Rockstar Spud, and finally EC3.
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The moment which is known as the debut that shocked the world, is followed up when the four men make their way to the ring through the crowd, having not officially signed contracts with AEW yet. EC3 takes the microphone and says that over the past months he’s been talking and talking, just waiting for his moment to shine, for his moment to make an impact, as have the other 3 men standing with him, and they all agreed, there was no bigger impact than to target the namesake of this company, the one thing that will always stand above everyone else purely because of the fact that their names are in the title of the company, quite egotistical if you ask them. But regardless of that, they have achieved their goal, the headlines are talking about them, they have been trending for the past week, and everyone’s eyes are on them. They are… The Revolt.
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Over the next few weeks, The Elite confront what happened, and agree to put their differences aside one more time to take out this common enemy, they challenge The Revolt to an 8 man tag team match to Main Event All Out, in a match for the ages, a match of “self made superstars” against “creations of a monstrous company” having been let loose on the wrestling world. The Revolt accept the challenge, and if they win, they want to be officially offered AEW contracts.
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The Elite (Kenny Omega, Hangman Page & The Young Bucks) vs The Revolt (EC3, Rockstar Spud, Dax Hardwood & Cash Wheeler)
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Final Card
Buy In - 10 man elimination tag team match: Brodie Lee, The Dark Order, Jimmy Havoc & Shawn Spears vs SCU, Matt Hardy & Colt Cabana
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Lance Archer vs Dustin Rhodes - I Quit Match: If Dustin loses, he retires
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Brian Cage vs Darby Allin
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Chris Jericho vs Sammy Guevara
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Best Friends (c) vs Santana & Ortiz - AEW Tag Team Championships
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Kip Sabian (c) vs Jungle Boy - TNT Championship
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Cody vs MJF - 30-Minute Iron Man Match
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Hikaru Shida (c) vs Bea Priestley - AEW Women’s World Championship
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Jon Moxley (c) vs PAC - AEW World Championship
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The Elite (Kenny Omega, Hangman Page & The Young Bucks) vs The Revolt (EC3, Rockstar Spud, Dax Hardwood & Cash Wheeler)