So this past Saturday I was invited to IlliniFans house (Bill - shown left). I met Bill playing poker on Full Tilt and we are both members of fulltiltforum.com. I had the chance to play with him before at the American Legion here in Dayton, so this would be the second time we had played live. I have known about his home game for about a month and was very excited to go! Most of the home games Id played in were just family and friends, so I knew this would be a change and FUN FUN! Then to top it off at the last minute we heard that CailtyssRulien - Roger (another forum friend - shown below right) was going to be in town as well, so more good news.



I was told food was at 6pm and poker at 7:30pm and Im not one to miss out on food, I showed up with Roger around 6:30pm. I got to meet Bills wife, Beth, and his neighbor Tom first. Beth had made us quite the spread!!! Chicago beef (I had never had this before and it was awesome), veggies and dip, my favorite potato chips (Ruffles Sour Cream and Cheddar), M&Ms (peanut and plain mind you), this FABULOUS cheese ball with crackers, cookies and many other goodies!! Ok, so I love Beth already. I sat and chatted with her for a bit before the rest of the guests arrived and she is a great gal and way too good for Bill. *snicker* It wasnt long before every one arrived and it was time to pony up!

We drew for seats and Bill, Roger and myself were all at the same table! The blind structure was fast, but it was a good thing so that we could have time to play two tournaments.

I didnt have many hands of mention at this first table. I did get to check 87o in the BB and flopped trip 8s and turned a boat. I was lucky to be able to have John, who liked to call to the river in this hand with me, he called my flop bet but folded to my smallish turn bet after thinking for quite awhile. FLOP was 884 TURN 4. I thought for sure Id get a call from him, because two hands earlier he had crippled Roger when he called a good size river bet from him when all he had was 3rd pair with a really bad kicker. I picked up KK at this table but got no action. I stole a pot on the turn w KJ when the board was AQxx and everyone was checking, but nothing fancy. Mostly at this table I was trying to get to know everyone, paying attention to their tendencies and laughing at Dennis and Don making fun of SMALL!!! (who is Bill) These guys were hilarious. Todd was a pretty funny guy as well, but as we started Illini lost the NCAA game and he got pretty quiet. But even in his and Bills sorrow they were both fair game to the jokesters!! Todd was the killa at this table and took out two of the three players eliminated before the Final Table. Bill has a good payout structure, and everyone also puts and extra $2 into a bounty pool where everyone gets an envelope, and when you bust you give your envelope to the player that bust you. Pretty fun stuff. Before I knew it we were merging into our FT.

I went to the FT with an average stack, but after the blinds I was gonna need to double up pretty fast.

I drew a seat next to someone new, Bridget (Pic right). I love funny women. She was Irish, and she came equipped with a custom flask filled with Makers Mark and everything *hehehe*. She kept me entertained most of the 2nd table, except for when she check raised me and took half my stack, cause I was bluffing.

I eyed everyones stack and realized I could easily make it into the money (5 places). Before I knew it we were down to the final three.


Bill was the chip leader with a pretty massive chip lead over Todd and I who had the same amount of chips.

First hand in I called out of the sb w Q8 and hit top pair. I went all in as I was first to act and Todd sat for 5 minutes deciding whether or not to call me. Its a hard knox life playing against the Khan.


I believe the first or second hand after that I got ATd on the button and pushed. I was called by Bill with 9Tc. Everyone OOOOHed and AWWWWed because I had him dominated, but I stood up quickly saying he would hit his 9 and he did... I got 3rd- $25 and handed over my envelope to the suckout artiste IlliniFan :). Todd came back from a massive chip defecit to beat Bill during HU action, I didnt get to see most of it cause it was time for my potty break.

OK i gotta go to bed.. more tomorrow