Stolen from 2+2 :)

[Robbie Robb]

I saw a thread in the Home Poker section at 2+2 and thought "Damn, that's cool. Gotta try that."

What I'm going to do is a poker night for 9 players. Those nine players will start with chip stacks that mirror the November Nine. Allocation of stacks will be done through an auction. Top 3 places will pay standard 50/30/20 format. I've got 5 confirmed players, just waiting for 4 more to set the date and play it out. I'll post a trip report when it's all over with!

[Invigilator]

PM me possible dates and I might be able to make it up for that.

[Talking Poker]

That is a cool idea.

[Robbie Robb]

That's what I thought too! I just popped into the HP thread to see if there have been any new great home timers released lately and came across the thread. One of my buddies who works for an auction house suggested doing a sealed bid auction so I think we'll be going that route possibly. I see two ways of doing it: sealed bid auction for pick order or individually auction off each stack in a bidding war.

[Robbie Robb]

Tomorrow night's the night! Nikki and I, 6 locals, and a special guest from Toronto are sitting down to determine who will win the ME in November!

[Talking Poker]

Go Phil!!!!!!

[Robbie Robb]

So we played last night. As expected, our resident donkey (at that's being kind) bought Moon's 59M stack for $60.

Here's the rundown of the winning bids with their respective (approximate) chip stacks:

58.9M - $60 (House Donkey) [Darvin Moon]
34.8M - $42 [Eric Buchman]
29.9M - $41 [Steven Begleiter]
19.6M - $38 [Jeff Shulman]
13.2M - $28 (DeCoder) [Josepha Cada]
12.4M - $24 [Kevin Schaffel]
9.8M - $20 (Me) [Phil Ivey]
9.5M - $13 [Antoine Saout]
6.8M - $10 (Nikita) [James Akenhead]
Total Prize Pool: $276

Also as expected, HD busted in 6th spot. When the bubble burst (we paid top 3 50/30/20) Nikki had actually built her 6.8M into the chip lead. Unfortunately (for us that is) she fell card dead and eventually was knocked out in 3rd.

In our version of the Main Event, good chip management, good plays, and good cards allowed Eric Buchman to slowly build his chip stack and take down first place for $138.

Here is the bust-out order:
9th: Kevin Schaffel
8th: Antoine Sauout
7th: Phil Ivey (at the same time as Sauout but had the bigger stack)
6th: Darvin Moon
5th: Joseph Cada
4th: Steven Begleiter
3rd: James Akenhead
2nd: Jeff Shulman
1st: Eric Buchman

So come November we'll have to come back and compare. I'm sure Andy Bloch would be happy with those results.

A few pictures will follow.

It was a lot of fun and I definitely think we'll play it again next year. The biggest issue was blind levels. We ran 20 minute levels as opposed to 2 hour levels which was definitely a disadvantage to the smaller stacks. As I type this I'm thinking that next year we'll start earlier in the day - mid-afternoon perhaps, play 45 or 60 minute levels, have a dinner break for pizza, and then resume play until we have a winner. That way, it will give me a bit better practice to see how I'll actually play my stack come November in Vegas.

[de-coder]

This event was a lot of fun and I'm definitely going to be looking to pre-enact my FT appearance next year.

I think the blind levels should be longer as well (I like the 1 hour idea) - at one point we were only getting about 3 hands per 20 minute level and that was just too fast I think. It was really easy to be card dead (and I mean completely, totally, not seeing a remotely playable hand dead) for 3+ whole levels.

for me, I got it in on the flop with a pair and open-ender against a FD - and I could never be good from there... meh...

[Robbie Robb]

A couple pics from the night.

First one is De-Coder live and direct!
Second one is final three players.

[Wes]

De-coder has got a pimp beard. If only I could grow that facial hair.