Winner Tatter
2nd Steve
3rd Paul
4th Chris
5th H
6th Jordan
The 2007 season finally reached its throbbing climax with TPS 11 `07 shooting thick streams of poker jizz over the expectant faces of the Hold `Em world. Thirteen payers turned out to see if Kev R could take the title and, for those not already in it, for one last desperate attempt to reach Masters Heaven.
After the sad demise of Paul's Old Green Table (R.I.P.), table 2 had to contend with squeezing round a tiny coffee table, whilst those on table 1 had the luxury of Paul's Big Red Fancy Table. The seating draw meant that league leader Kev R was placed next to the contender Sids, whilst Sids was placed next to the only two players who could knock him off second spot if he failed to win: John and Tatter.
The evening started off in a subdued, pensive atmosphere; possibly down to the high steaks at steak, or possibly down to several players (Kev R, Steve, John and Paul) still recovering from the previous nights real-ale-athon (courtesy of JD Wetherspoon).
All this pressure must have got to Sid's when he failed to spot Brendan's flush and, despite holding trip queens got knocked out first - handing Kev R the league title on a doily with only a couple of dozen hands played.
With the title in the bag Kev R was the next to bow out, leaving the rest of table 1 at the mercy of Jordan's new found all-in tactics, which where starting to give him a tidy pile of chips and effectively blocking everyone else from playing anything but their strongest hands. Which was exactly what Brendan did, flopping a straight and calling Jordan's all in only to get rivered by a full house.
Table 2, which had started out much tighter soon started to unravel with Mark, Andy and Rob dropping out in quick succession. The last player to get knocked out on table 1 was John who finally stood up to Jordan's dominating play with and Ace 9 of hearts to Jordan's Ace 6 off. The flop gave up two more hearts and John was still in front until the river gave Jordan a pair of 6's and a seat in the final.
He wasn't there long- Paul finally putting an end to his blitzkrieg tactics. H and Chris where the next to exit leaving Tatter, Paul and Steve still in contention. With Tatter needing to win to overtake Sids in the still lucrative second league position and Paul and Steve desperate to add their name's to the final Masters list, the game slowed to a chess pace- "it was like watching Cliff Thorburn v. Terry Griffith's" said Andy.
Paul was the first to exit, going all-in with Jack King only to suffer a humiliating defeat from Tatter's Ace high, pissing all over his dreams of defending his Masters crown* which he won so effectively in 2006. Tatter won out after a long heads up with Steve, who leapfrogged John and Sids into second in the league.
And so a season that's seen smashed houses, drunken arguments, drunkener players, pot money mix ups, Masters dates disagreements and even some poker drew to a close. The lucky few who managed a win can prepare for playing in the Masters whilst those who failed can practice their dealing and only dream about what might have been. And bore people endlessly with bad beat stories.
TPS 2008 starts in January (2008).
*Please note: TPS Masters™ winners do not win a crown.
