Saturday, January 08, 2005

The TowneHouse Tournaments
"Hey, are those lizard?" - Reed Rothchild
I was in Midtown way past midnight again for the second time in three nights slinging around chips and knocking back beers with some of the brightest legal minds in the city. Last night all the action went down at the TowneHouse. Toni hosted a series of NL tournaments. She used to work with Ugarte a few years ago and I met her for the first time when we played together at the Blue Parrot on Tuesday. She had an open spot and was kind enough to invite me. After a dismal week of bleeding my Party Poker bankroll, I was eager to play against live people. Poker is a social activity and in that aspect, I enjoying meeting new people with shared interests, even a fanatical one like poker.

The first thing I noticed were the chips. Toni's set included pink chips and purple ones too. I say purple in the loosest of terms. It was more a shade of lavender and the combination of pink and purple complimented the color scheme of the rest of the TowneHouse. I played with orange neon chips once in a casino in Miami... but that's Miami. Yep, last night was my first experience with pink chips.

There were nine of us in total for the first two tournaments. Buy in was $20 with a $180 prize pool. The top three places paid ($100-$60-$20) and third place got their entry back. Everyone got $1000 to start. Purple chips were $100, pinks were $50, and whites were $10. First three levels were 15 minutes. The next three were ten. And then they were bumped down to seven minute levels. Blinds started out at 10/20. I cracked open a Red Stripe and I was ready to go. Toni told me that the skill level of players were mixed and that there would be some beginner's playing.
The Players... Tourney #1:
Seat 1: Brian
Seat 2: Andy
Seat 3: Toni
Seat 4: Pauly
Seat 5: Aaron
Seat 6: Sung
Seat 7: Thekla
Seat 8: Kathy
Seat 9: Cliff
To read the rest of the write up of the three tournaments I played in at the TowneHouse... visit the Tao of Poker.

It was not a bad night for me. Two money cashes (1st and 2nd place) and a bubble finish due to another incident where I blew a chip lead. I ended up $100 for the night.
The Money Winners...
Tourney #1: Kathy, Pauly, Brian
Tourney #2: Toni, Aaron, Andy
Tourney #3: Pauly, Cliff
I have to say that Toni ran her tournament better than some casinos I have played in. There was maybe one misdeal all night and that's near flawless considering everyone was drinking. I've been lucky as far as home games in NYC. Everyone I have met has been pretty cool. I play a lot and I've come across some pretty fucked up assholes out there in card rooms and casinos all over America. It's refreshing to be able to sit at a table with strangers for a few hours and feel comfortable. Hopefully, there will be more write ups of future events at the TowneHouse.

The streets were freakishly empty as I walked up along Park Ave. to Grand Central Station past a half a dozen homless people trying to sleep on benches. I handed out a few $1 dollar bills to the freezing street people that were awake, to share some of the wealth and improve my poker karma.

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