Because tonight’s poker game has no effect on the end of the year rankings, I don’t believe, I’m giving myself a late Christmas present and not blogging about it. Sorry everyone. I will post the final order later this evening, however.

I’ll be back next week with the beginning of 2008: The Race to Dethrone Ryan.

When John told me his step brother Matthew was home from the Navy for the holidays and coming over to play tonight, I knew he was going to win. Whenever a new player comes into our game, they usually get sick cards and win. It’s happened time and time again. And again, it happened this time.

11. John (rebuy)
10. Dave (rebuy)
9. Me (rebuy)
8. Mike (rebuy)
7. Jim (rebuy)
- Mike
- Me
6. Charlie
5. Ryan
- Dave
- John
4. Paul
- Jim
3. Johnny
2. Jason
1. Matthew

There were so many players and so many chips on the table, for the first time ever at my house we went up to 2000 chips near the end. But waaaay before that Paul crippled John when he rivered a straight w Q10. The pot probably wouldn’t have been as big, but Matthew was playing pocket 8’s very fast with two over on the board.

The first “Germain Sucks” hand of the night was soon after. It’s the last rebuy hand and I’m on the button. Paul had made it 500 preflop and three people called. I have KJ. Flop comes K64 with two diamonds. Jason moves all in, Mike calls, Paul reraises all in and I have a problem. I’ve got top pair, good kicker. As it’s the last rebuy hand people usually play crazy but my hand is strong. I figured I’m beat but maybe a set, but figured its the last rebuy hand - points don’t matter - and I should gamble. I flip KJ. Jason has 62d for mid pair and a flush draw. Mike has bottom two pair with 64 and Paul has AA. I’m waaaaay behind. The turn is a non-diamond King and I have the lead! But then, another diamond on the river and Jason crushes with the worst hand and eliminates myself and Mike.

Jason begins picking up some hands, 10’s, J’s, etc and spreading his chips around. With AQd, my favorite hand, I make it 500 to go. Jason reraises to 2000, Charlie moves all in and though I think I have Jason beat, I’m pretty sure I’m behind Charlie. But, in the second “Germain Sucks” hand of the night I call. Charlie has QQ, Jason has AK and I’m drawing so dead I’m like Jim in the cash game (where I lost a $150 hand with the best hand, but that’s for another time. I’m busted again.

Matthew then wins a monster hand that was raised to 1200 preflop and got 6 callers. That set him up as the chip leader and he’d never look back. He knocked out both John and Paul as they bet into him with Aces and he knocked out his father, Jim the following hand with Kings.

Three handed, Johnny did everything he could to survive but eventually just couldn’t compete with the monster chip stacks of Jason and Matt. Heads up, Jason drops 20000 chips in the first hand when Matt flopped Broadway. He’d get some of it back but then Jason was dealt AJ, Matt AK and the King played giving Matt a healthy tournament victory.

When the game got four handed, I just had a feeling. Ryan has 1100 chips. Other players had 10 times that. But I just knew, he was going to comeback and win. And he did. In the process, he clinched the 2007 Player of the Year purse after finishing a close 2nd last year.

9. Jim (rebuy)
- Jim (rebuy)
8. John
- Jim
7. Me.
6. Eric
5. Johnny
4. Dave
3. Charlie
2. Paul
1. Ryan

Early on I got a nice compliment for a decent play. With 89c I called the blind. Dave raises to 400 and both John and I call. The flop comes A,7,10. I’m open ended and think to myself, “I’m checking this flop to either see a free turn card or pretend I have the A and move all in.” So I check, John checks and Dave bets 600. John folds and I move all in and take the pot down. A pretty decent win for me. The next hand though, with AK I make another raise, get a few callers and the flop comes garbage. Charlie had been playing a junk hand and ended up making a straight flush though.

Meanwhile Jim is busted twice and got involved in another big hand. I’m in the big blind. Dave calls, Jim makes it 800. Paul calls, I call (with KJ) and Dave moves all in for another 700. Jim calls, Paul folds and even though I’m in for 800 and its 700 more to win like 4600, I know I’m so far behind I can’t call. So I fold. Dave has QQ and Jim has 10,10. The flop comes KJx. Of course. Dave wins and I would have taken a sweet pot.

After knocked Jim out earlier, Eric raises from the button. Paul calls. The flop comes three diamonds. It checks around and he moves all in. Paul insta calls. He has KJ for the second nuts and Eric has AA for a pair and nut flush draw. No more diamonds hit the board though and Paul wins a biggie. He then knocks out John and almost knocks out Ryan. Paul has flopped a straight with 87 (flop comes 10,9,6). He got ryan to move all in and again, instacalled with the nuts. Ryan need the board to pair. Twice. Instead, both of Paul’s cards make the turn and river for a straight on the board and a samsies chop.

Two funny hands were next up. First, Dave moves all in with A5 and Paul - whose cards were SICK all night - calls with AQ. Charlie had folded a 5 so Dave has two out. He hit one on the river. Then Paul pushed Jim all in. He has J10 and Jim has J8. Murder. Charlie runs it out and Jim made a flush for the win. “Wait, that was the wrong deck” Paul said, showing that Charlie dealt the red deck, not the blue deck. So with the red deck we dealt it again, Jim drawing to three outs. And he makes a full house! J8 kills J10 twice in a row with two different decks!

After losing with the Aces earlier, Eric moves all in. I reraise all in with pocket 3’s hope to isolate him and I do. The flop comes 8,10 x giving him an open ended straight flush draw. He hits the straight and I’m crushed. So when I get A5 on the button I move all in, Dave rereaises all in and Jim calls. Dave has 10’s, Jim has A8 and now I have the 3 outs. Can I hit one? Nope. Neither can Jim and we’re both eliminated.

At this point, Ryan has 1100 chips and doubles through Eric. Dave then knocks out Eric. Johnny goes out to Paul. Dave goes out to Paul. Ryan doubles through Charlie. He does it again when his 22 holds up against Charlie’s AQ. Then Paul has Ryan on the ropes, catching him in a bluff. Ryan moves all in with 23d and Paul has 66. Flop comes 10,2,9 with one diamond. Turn diamond, river diamond and Ryan doubles up again. Heads up Ryan took the worst hand, J10 against Pauls AJ and won again. That was that.

Half way through tonight’s tournament if you would have told me that I would get more player of the year points then the people who finished 1-3 AND that Charlie would win, I would’ve taken a huge bet against you. I would have lost. Not only did Charlie survive from about 2000 chips against stacks 10x that big, but all three top finishers rebought multiple times. For Charlie, it was only his third win of a putrid 2007.

8. Dave (rebuy)
- Dave (rebuy)
7. John (rebuy)
6. Johnny (rebuy)
- Dave (rebuy)
- Johnny (rebuy)
- John (rebuy)
5. Charlie (rebuy)
4. Jim
3. Me
- John
2. Ryan
1. Jason
- Dave
- Johnny
- Charlie

Yup. Eight rebuys. It was just a night of parody and bad poker. But like I said, the night didn’t end up the way it looked like at the beginning. Dave dumped most of his chips to Jason when they found themselves all in before the flop during the first blind level. The classic match up of AK vs QQ. An ace fell. Dave would have gotten Kings the next hand, but Jason misdelt and so Dave moved all in dark the next hand. Had 32 and lost. Bbye number 1. He tried making a move again, but Jason had Aces. Bbye number 2. And Jason has 3 times the chips of everyone else at the table.

Ryan then became a dominating force at the table a few hands later, and a few rebuys later too. He makes is 500 to go. Dave calls. Johnny goes all in. Ryan goes all in over the top and Dave calls. Ryan has Jacks, Johnny A10 and Dave A7. Two players are busted and Ryan is second in chips. Ryan then knocks out John for a second time, Charlie makes a dumb raise with 72 and gets busted and I finally call an end to the rebuy madness.

I’ve won like one hand so I’m about even, that’s where everyone else stands too - except for Jason and Ryan. They have 3-4 times the chips of everyone else and look to be the two dominating forces of the night.

A small raise a few callers and we have a flop of K78. Dave makes it 500 to go, Jason calls. Ryan raises. Dave folds (K9). Jason reraises Ryan. Ryan moves all in. Jason calls so fast he loses his breath. 88 for a set of 8s. In the moment, Ryan’s body deflated like a balloon. We all knew what he had. 77 for a set of 7s. He dumped about 11000 chips to Jason and Jason now has the entire table covered two times over.

With J8 I see a free flop from the big blind. It’s all unders and 4 other people check. A Jack comes on the turn and I start to see my chip stack rising in my mind. I bet 700 but John reraises me 2000. Um, okay. I don’t think he has a Jack, I feel like he was slow playing a pair on the flop so I reraise all in for a few hundred chips. He calls, has KJ and I’m crushed. Great read idiot, now sit on the side while the big boys play poker

At that moment though, there really was only big boy when it came to chips. Jason. Everyone else was way behind. However Dave began to make a run. He moved all in before the flop and John, sniffing out a bluff, calls with K10. Dave has 23h. The flop is rags but two hearts. A third heart on the river doubles Dave up big. “I can’t believe you call that John. Next time I do that, I’m going to have Kings,” Dave said angrily. So the next hand, he moves all in. John, still upset over the 23 hand, calls with 107. Dave calmly flips over Aces and John is done. “That was one of the coooolest thing’s I’ve ever seen,” Johnny said. And it was pretty damn cool.

Meanwhile, chip leader Jason is getting impatient dumps a bunch of chips to Dave on a semi bluff. Also, Charlie has like no chips and is pretty much forced to play whatever he gets. He sees a 2000 chip preflop raise, 4 callers and pot odds. Holding K8 he hits two 8s on the flop and wins a big pot. A few hands later, Johnny flops a straight with 10,7 and Charlie calls his all in with middle pair of 8s. Runner runner gives Charlie a flush, though and another huge pot. Meanwhile, Ryan finally gets busted and Jason makes a great call on the river with Queen high against Dave. It’s good, of course.

That beat sets Dave on tilt and he just starts moving all in and raking pots. Johnny then limps from the small blind, Jason makes it 4000, Johnny reraises to 7000 and Jason calls. Its AJ for Johnny vs 77 for Jason. Flop brings an Ace. As does the turn and river. Are quads good as this table? I certainly think so. Johnny doubles through Jason again a few hands later, this time with the inferior 10,7 against Jason with the AJ. That pretty much was it for Jason who finished out of the points and money despite his huge early chip lead.

Dave then moves all in with A5 and Charlie has A6. The 6 plays and Charlie has about a 6 to 1 chip lead against Johnny. That kind of muscle is pretty hard to beat so Charlie beat Johnny, the two short stacks midway through the tournament. What a wild night.

SIDE NOTE - there will be no poker blog next week as I’m going to see “I Am Legend.” Read all about that at our new blog, www.recordonline.com/blogparty.