Tuesday, December 30, 2008

NPP Heads Up Championship Semi-Finals Are Set!

Here are the four finalists:

1 - Nixi44
2 - Mistermusic5


3 - Boother
4 - Mikeniks (Faldo)


Should be exciting!

Monday, December 29, 2008

The Faldo Legend Continues to Grow

It is no secret that Beerhog and Faldo spend quite a few hours of time up at BWW in Brighton. It is a chance to talk business, talk sports, bet sports, have a few beers and cigars – and play poker on the BWW NL Holdem game.

Beerhog and I will usually have a side bet on which one of us will finish with the most chips in any two hour session. This is tricky, because even though he and I are playing for real, many of the other players on the table are playing with fake chips for free – and their play shows.

But sprinkled into this mix are players playing for real - even if it is play money - as the high chip getters get their names up on the big board for both highest ‘weekly’ and highest ‘monthly totals. So it makes for good practice at reading players and their motives while playing.

Regardless, at or near the top of the list every month are JMAX (Beerhog), FALDO (Faldo) - and OLDMAN (Curtis) – a friend and BWW regular at the bar with Beerhog and me.

The recognition of the fact that these three names are always at - or near - the top of the leader board is so prevalent, that many of the part time players are making hybrids of our names when they play!

For example in our last visit, Beerhog and I played against IMAX, OLDMN, and (are you ready for this?) FALDO2, FALDDO, and FFALDO – all at the same time!

They say impersonation is the greatest form of flattery, but this is just plain spooky. We don’t know any of these people either. – Faldo

Friday, December 26, 2008

NPP Statistics Time - Part II

These are the best stats, I think.

Most Points Earned in 2008
1 - 7Jokers 130
2 - Faldo 122
3 - Tigercub8189 102
4 - Nahanni 92
5 - Duder1123 91
6 - Doneill 90


Most Points per Start
1 - Doneill 4.3 (3 pts is 4th place!)
2 - 7Jokers 3.7
3 - Faldo 3.5
4 - Boother 3.1
5 - Nahanni 3.1
6 - Beerhog, Matchy, Rownder 2.9

These players average a 4th place finish every start???
Honorable mention has to be given to Hlam14 who averaged an incredible 4.6 points in 12 starts!

Well, you can't say we don't let you know who can play (except for that Faldo mope - he stinks).

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

NPP Heads Up Elite Eight Bracket!

Here are the matchups:

1 - Nixi44
2 - The NewY2K {forfeits – see note below}

3 - Beerhog
4 - Mistermusic5

5 - Jamestown07
6 - Boother

7 - Greg48471
8 - Mikeniks(Faldo)

Nixi44 is moving on to the next round due to chivalry and for the betterment of his fellow man. TheNewY2K did not want to take advantage playing someone of the weaker sex in something as rough as a Heads Up poker match.

Secondly, and more important – Y2K thought of Sirgash. After all, how could Nixi44 get his slippers and beer, make and serve a nice meal, run his bath, feed him grapes – and play the match at the same time? And so close to the New Year too!

What if the computer or monitor fell into Sirgash’s bath water or knocked his beer over??? The horror!

No, TheNewY2K, seeing the potential of disaster has conceded his match to Nixi44 and heads to Florida to get his MC PIG certificate. Well done, sir.

The rest of you, email your opponent to set some dates and times. My email has already reached the rest of you quarter-finalists!

Faldo

NPP Statistics Time – Part I

Merry Christmas to all NPP players, readers and their families - including all past, present and future memebers!

Here is the time when the effort of the NPP Tournament Committee really shines - with the help of the NPP Secretary Nahanni, of course.

The Committee first has to set up the cut off point. How many games must a player play of the 48 rounds open for entry, in order to get nub at the end of the year?

This is the question that the Committee pours over for days and days, as they toil in obscurity. Ah, the suffering of the few for the enjoyment of many.

The decision was made to dis-regard all statistics of players who played less than 18 rounds – or a quarter and a half. The Committee decided that a Quarter and a half of play against the talent pool here, would determine who's stats were truly relevant.

With that in mind, here is the first posting of statistics from 2008. Enjoy.

Iron Men – most rounds played
1 – Tigercub8189 42 rounds
2 – Mikeniks (Faldo) 35 rounds
2 – 7Jokers 35 rounds
2 – Duder1123 35 rounds
5 – Nahanni 30 rounds
6 – Rennzzo 29 rounds

I think this shows that Iron-people make it to the Finals! Only Hlam14, who moved and changed jobs AND states (now an Iowan - no sheep is safe) make it to the final and was not an Iron Man. Unless you have Hlam14’s outstanding talent, being a regular grinder seems to be the secret to success at NPP.

More stat reports to follow. – Faldo

Friday, December 19, 2008

NPP Heads Up Tournament Bracket!

Ok, readers come feast your eyes on the bracket that has left March Madness in the dust! Round One of the 1st Annual NPP Heads Up Tournament:


1 - Nahanni74
2 - Nixi44

3 - Derf-63 - Forfeit
4 - TheNewY2K

5 - Beerhog
6 - Matchy

7 - CrackBuyer
8 - Mistermusic5

9 - LittleRedElf
10 - Jamestown07

11 - Boother
12 - Duder1123

13 - Acesovru - Forfeit
14 - Greg48471

15 - Sirgash
16 - Faldo

I hope to see polite notes, encouragement, enlightenment, peace, love and understanding in the comment section of this post. Players give your synopsis

(Beerhog - that is a BIG adult word for - "What the Fxxx happened", just so you know)

of your matches. Thanks to all who entered.

Faldo

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Bulldog0615 Wins His 1st NPP Tourney!

It was the consolation tourney on Championship Night, but a victory in an undercard against a full line up of NPP talent still counts!

We also welcome a new player by the name of Derf-63! Welcome to the league!
PS: Need your email too Derf. Whatever I copied Tuesday off the chat was not right.
Email me at npokerp at yahoo dot com as soon as you can. I got to get you the Heads Up Tourney bracket!

I didn't get the hands of this one. But Bulldog0615 beat most of the regulars this night. Here is the standings for this tourney:

1st - Bulldog0615 - Welcome to the Walk of Fame!
2nd - ThePunk75
3rd - 7Jokers (Playing in the Final also!)
4th - vbholdem
5th - Airforce1977
6th - Nixi44
7th - Douge2
8th - Sirgash
9th - Derf-63 (usual NPP welcome)
10th - LittleRedElf

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Duder1123 Wins the 2008 NPP Player of the Year!

Five of NPP’s finest sat down for the title. Doneill was MIA, and that is a shame.

Good will and harmony between the combatants was expected. But the overwhelming NUB for Poker Stars – and their dealing - was what impressed me!

Yes, I lie awake at night and think of all the things I want to do…er, I mean want to get…for the Poker Stars dealer. Now on to the action.

1 min: The blood is spilled early! The second hand is a family pot – all five call the blind. The flop is [4c Qd 2d]. Hlam14 bets, Duder1123 raises and only Hlam calls.

[7c] Duder bets 100 and Hlam calls.

[7s] Duder bets 200 and Hlam calls to see Duder’s (22) for a full house. One wheel off of the Hlam tricycle.

See, Hlam14 lost 500 of the 1500 he started with – so I called it a tricycle. Pretty clever eh? {Working on Internet Pulitzer Prize and smoozing judges}

8 min: Another painful hand early. Nahanni74 makes a small raise and only Duder1123 and Hlam14 call. The flop is [8c 4h 5c] and Nahanni makes a button bet for half the pot and only Hlam calls.

[Qd] Nahanni with a pot size bet and Hlam calls.

[Qh] Nahanni fires the third bullet and Hlam calls with his trip Q’s and busted flush draw, but Nahanni (76) flopped the straight!

That flop, turn and river was going to hurt someone somehow. No doubt about it. But it was Hlam who was now down to just a back wheel, and it was missing spokes.

16 min: Duder1123, Hlam14 (5th) and Tigercub8189 take the flop with friendly limps.

[9s 7s 7c] and Hlam is all-in. Only Duder calls with (KK) to beat Hlam’s 9’s over 7’s two pair. No nub for Hlam this evening.

The man with the most NPP titles is out. But, he was here at the title match AGAIN!

43 min: The battle rages on for almost 30 minutes before another family pot is played.

[7s Kc Ks] A short-stacked Tigercub8189 (4th) fires in a bet and gets raised by 7Jokers (Kh 8h), and Tigercub (22) goes all-in with two pair and gets called by 7Joker's trip kings.

The fine year for the Cat is over.

59 min: The world famous Poker Stars Break Hammer made its appearance. No NPP game is complete without it. 7Jokers (3rd) raises and gets called by Duder1123.

[Kd 7c Qc] 7Jokers (AK) fires a bet, Duder1123 (Ac 9c) raises to put 7Jokers all in, and he calls. The blank hits the turn but the [Jc] lands on the river to make Duder's flush.

The top point getter for the year – 7Jokers is out.

Break:

Duder1123 4265
Nahanni74 3235

65 min: No need for a chip log as by this time Nahanni74’s (2nd) chip stack has been halved. She moves all-in with (A3) and Duder1123 calls with (88). An [8] on the flop ended the drama.

The Secretary of the NPP Poker League falls just short of the title. But her destruction of the NPP field in the third quarter was impressive!

Now for the new champion – Duder1123! What a story this is. He worked his way up steadily in the points list and proved that perseverance and grinding gets rewarded! Nice job Duder!

1st – Duder1123 (NPP Poker Player of the Year)
2nd – Nahanni74
3rd – 7Jokers
4th – Tigercub8189
5th – Hlam14
6th – Doneill (DNP)

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Faldo Finishes 3rd in UB Omaha Hi/Lo Tourney

What do you do when you playing well, but you are on Poker Stars - and they crush you early in one tourney and bubble you in the next two playing Texas Holdem?

Well I switched sites and games! Now having played for 6 hours and just a little frustrated, I'm looking for maybe a couple table SNG that I can finish in a couple hours.

Ultimate Bet has those, but they are not filling up for some reason. I see an Omaha Hi/Lo tourney with only 48 people in it, and 4 minutes until it goes off. That looks fine.

Well 102 make it by the time late registration is over and then 86 re-buy! I don't have to do that, but I did add-on. So there are a ton more people and a ton more chips! Time to knuckle down, cause this is going to take alot longer than I thought.

Well it is another 5 hours of play before I get knocked out in 3rd. I make 15 times my buy-in and end my poker Saturday profitable.

Time to watch the Wings and the UFC fights! - Faldo

Friday, December 12, 2008

NPP Final and Consolation Tourneys Posted on Poker Stars

The two tourneys for Tuesday night have been posted.

NiksPokerPalaceFinal (password emailed to Finalists)

and

NiksPokerPalaceNoNub (same old password)

Feel free to sweater (pester) the Finalists! They can always flip the chat off if becomes a distraction.

Please - Finalists, if you can't play that night, let me know! I will try to get the next alternate in that seat.

Heads Up Tourney - There are only 3 or 4 seats left for this! It is 1st come - first serve, so let me know if you want in. Look at it this way - win the first round and you have a freeroll to a little $$$ - not to mention the more important NPP imortality and bragging rights! - Faldo

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Faldo Needs Help!

Yes I know you all know that - but let’s leave insane asylums, electro-shock, heavy drugs, intravenous whiskey drip, Alzheimer’s medicine and frontal lobotomies out of this for now.

I’m talking about help getting ready for the Final Tourney, the Heads Up Tourney and next season.

I need readers, players and friends of players to fill in the blanks. Nahanni helped me already – several times – as I overlooked some past emails. Thank God she is my secretary!

Ok, here is the laundry list of my needs:

1. From these people, I need their real names and emails sent to npokerp @ yahoo dot com.

If I already have it and didn’t connect it, blame it on my senility and hangover…or better yet, blame it on my secretary.

Bigcat1967 – new player
Bulldog0615 – new player
Dsdugout – new player
Rennzzo – veteran player
Vbholdem – wanna be player
Aquariumco – MIA (missing in action)
Kbutter - MIA
Passen - MIA
Steveseam - MIA

2. From these people, I need their Poker Stars handles:

Bradley D– wanna be player
Kevin K– wanna be player

3. And I need to know who else wants in the Heads Up Tourney? We have 13 right now.

Ok, flood me with comments and of course the famous NPP nub! - Faldo

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

LittleRedElf Wins His Fist NPP Tourney

Welcome to the Walk of Fame! But is it fair that a player named LittleRedElf can play in a tournament so close to Christmas? A bit of an unfair karma advantage I would say.

Fourteen players made it to the last regular season round of NPP 2008. This included a RECORD four new players in one night! Airforce1977, Bulldog0615, Dsdugout and Whilden – welcome to NPP! You made history for this league already!

Thank you to all who participated throughout the year – and see you next year – if not before in our Heads Up Tourney!

15 min: Congratulations to Duder1123, who clinched the last seat in the NPP Finals. Although he clinched it quickly tonight by the fact that the two guys who could catch him did not show, that doesn’t diminish the fact that he had the lead on them. And wait until you see where he finished tonight anyway! He won his spot going away!

17 min: ThePunk75 (14th) is in the big blind. 7Jokers raises and it folds to ThePunk, who re-raises and Jokers calls. The flop is [Td Jh 3s]. ThePunk goes all-in with (99) but 7Jokers has (QQ).

35 min: We play on for a while before Whilden (13th) has to make a move with (QT) and a flop with [6s 9d Jd]. Airforce1977 calls with (Td 7d) and makes his flush on the river.

47 min: A short-stacked and equally short lucked Sirgash (12th) makes his stand with (AK). Duder calls him down with (Ac 4c). A [4] on the flop and river ends the Sirgash hope of a 3-peat win performance.

50 min: Rennzzo (11th) has to go with (KT) and runs into Bulldog0615’s (KJ).

55 min: Dsdugout (10th) makes his stand with (KJ) and runs into Tigercub8189’s (A7).

Break:
Tigercub8189 5295
7Jokers 2843
Biglou93 2670
LittleRedElf 2275
Airforce1977 2175
Duder1123 1992
TheNewY2K 1840
Bulldog0615 1360
Umichpoker 550

64 min: The shortstacked Umichpoker (9th) makes her stand with (A4) but Duder1123 has (AK).

80 min: A little stretch before Airforce1977 (8th), Biglou93 and 7Jokers get into a snit. Airforce is all-in. After a flop of [2 7 Q], Jokers bets and gets called. This happens again on the turn [9d] and the river [4h]. 7Jokers takes the pot down with a pair of Ladies.

82 min: This seemed to rattle Biglou93 (7th) who tried to bluff all-in with (43), but Tigercub8189 called with (KQ).

85 min: Bulldog0615 (6th) makes his move with (88) and runs into 7Joker’s (KK).

89 min: TheNewY2K (5th) gets all-in after a flop with (KJ) looking at [J89]. Tigercub8189 calls with the made hand (QT).

98 min: Duder1123 (4th) is short-stacked and moves all-in with (K2) and a [AKX] on the flop. LittleRedElf has (A6).

110 min: For almost a quarter of an hour, LittleRedElf puts on a clinic grinding down Tigercub8189 and 7Jokers. But he loses his huge chip advantage (A4) to 7Jokers (A6).

119 min: Tigercub8189 (3rd) is short-stacked and (Jc 9c) looks like a hand to move in with when the flop is [6c 2c 4d]. But 7Jokers has (44) and no club saves the Cat.

Break:
LittleRedElf 11212
7Jokers 9788

125 min: LRE 13000 / 7J 8000

130 min: LRE 14000 / 7J 7000

132 min: 7Jokers (2nd) goes all-in with (66) and LittleRedElf calls with the coin flip (Ac Qc), and the [A] falls on the river. Congratulations to LittleRedElf for his first NPP win!

1st – LittleRedElf
2nd – 7Jokers
3rd – Tigercub8189
4th – Duder1123
5th – TheNewY2K
6th – Bulldog0615
7th – Biglou93
8th – Airforce1977
9th – Umichpoker
10th – Dsdugout
11th – Rennzzo
12th – Sirgash
13th – Whilden
14th – ThePunk75

The seats for the Final are set, and I will have a consolation tourney scheduled for the same night and time.

The consolation tourney will have the same password. I will send the seat winners the password for the NPP Championship!

Seats and final point standings on the right side of the blog. Thanks to everyone for your play, comments and friendships. – Nik Faldo

Thursday, December 04, 2008

SpartyTojo Wins a Charity Tourney!!!

If you make it to the NPP Walk of Fame, then you are a certified threat in any tournament or ring game you enter. No brag…just fact.

Job and family obligations have kept SpartyTojo from joining the NPP SNG game all that often. But he does manage an occasional appearance now and again - including with our private limit ring games. He sent me this:

Hey Faldo,

”I know that you always like to hear when a NPP student makes good, so I thought that I'd drop you a quick note.

A friend of mine has a daughter that plays on a travel soccer team.They decided that a great way to raise money would be to hold a 'charity' Hold 'Em tournament. Buy in was $100, with half or so going to the kids. There were 75 registered with a few rumors of sharks in the mix.

Top five got paid. The food was great and the beer and soft drinks were free. In addition, they were served by friendly soccer moms. [Ed. Note: How friendly? How friendly?????]

We broke into tables of nine, with no remarkable action for quite some time. I had played my crappy hands conservatively. With about half the field retired I found myself getting low on chips with the blinds climbing pretty quickly.

The club had a strict closing time because of the liquor license and they meant to hurry the game. I went all-in with a suited QJ and made the straight with a couple of callers to put together a reasonable stack.

Fast forward and we're down to two tables. The cards had improved, but the blinds were progressing at a dizzying pace. I managed to catch a hand or two, giving me just enough to limp into the final table in seventh place.

Short stacks eight and nine fell quickly, but I was now left with about three big blinds worth of chips in front of me and huge stacks across the table. I caught a pair of 9's as big blind with two callers in front of me. I went all-in and was called by a big stack and sixth place. A nine came on the flop and the set held. We lost two more on the next hand and I was thrilled to be in the money in fourth place.

The blinds now seemed to be going up exponentially as we approached the witching hour for the club. Fifth place blinded out quickly, and the guy in third lost an all-in to one of the two monster stacks, giving me third place, but with about 20% of either of the two monster stacks. They decided to blind me out and chop the pot between to two of them.

A streak of good cards foiled their plans as I hit trips and a straight on successive all-in hands against one player. Now I was in second place, and eliminated the short stack on the next hand with pocket Jacks.

I agreed to chop the pot with the remaining player as the club was turning the lights out. A chip count put me in first by a few so I got the first place trophy, a nicely engraved bottle of champagne. And eleven times the entrance fee. [Ed. Note: And how many phone numbers of ‘friendly soccer moms?]

I owe it all (ok, not all...) to my degree earned at NPP University. My tuition check is in the mail.

P.S. As I just took the buyout from Chrysler and am no longer gainfully employed the tuition check will be delayed indefinitely.”

SpartanToJo

Congratulations SpartyTojo! I see no nub for the instructor in the offering! I tell you, I toil in enamanimity, uhhh enimauppity, uhhhh ennamorusity,….uh nobody knows WHO I THINK I COULD BE!

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Sirgash Walking Thru NPP Right Now – Gets 2nd Win in a Row!

A week late trying for the repeat, but he still did it! He walked thru an eleven player tourney – including a new player added to the flock – TheNewY2K. Welcome to the game, blog, forum and Umichpoker newsletter!

[Ed Note: I swear players make up names just to screw with us bloggers that have to write the articles!] On to the action:

7 min: Umichpoker (11th) needs a lifeline as Poker Stars is giving absolutely no nub to her. After running into a full house moments earlier, Umichpoker makes a stand with (AQ) and runs into ThePunk75’s (TT).

53 min: The two-table 5 player game goes on for 45 minutes before a short-stacked CrackBuyer (10th) calls all-in with (AQ) but runs into the raiser LittleRedElf’s (JJ).

This opened the floodgates and all heck broke loose [Ed. Note: Once again players not taking the poor blog reporter into account!]. Try 4 players out in 4 minutes! This made me miss writing down the chip counts at the break as I was firing hand numbers into Poker Stars, so I could decipher what happened later.

55 min: ThePunk75 (9th) raises, then re-raises all-in with (AK) and is called by the original re-raiser TheNewY2K with (TT). Once again the dime stores win.

56 min: Short-stacked Rennzzo (8th) calls all-in with (Q9), but 7Jokers is holding (JJ).

57 min: Biglou93 (7th) limps in, but Nixi44 raises and Tigercub8189 calls, so Biglou93 moves all-in with (KQ). Tigercub gets out of the way and Nixi44 calls with (AJ).

Notice, losses by the better hand pre-flop --------yet.

Break (chip counts estimated as about 2 minutes of play happened after these totals):

TheNewY2K 4600
Sirgash 3300
Nixi44 3100
LittleRedElf 2300
7Jokers 2000
Tigercub8189 1200

Close enough.

73 min: There is some play before Nixi44 (6th) makes a stand with (Ah 7h) but gets not nub against TheNEwY2K’s (88).

82 min: Tigercub8189 (5th) calls all-in with (Ad 9d) against TheNEwY2K’s first to shove all-in with (QJ). A [Q] on the flop and we have our first come from behind win that eliminates someone this evening. Usually, there are more than a few by now. But they are still out there, and due to start in earnest.

Congratulations to Tigercub8189 for locking up a seat in the 2008 NPP Finals. Nice job! See, persistence and hard work IS rewarded (except in my bedroom, but I digress).

90 min: 7Jokers (4th) was making no headway and had to try it with (93) only to see LittleRedElf’s (77) hold up.

110 min: TheNewY2K (3rd) makes a move with (66) and has the lead against TheNEwY2K’s (AQ). But a [Q] on the turn takes him out. Nice showing in your first NPP game though, Y2K.

113 min: No time for a chip count as LittleRedElf (2nd) goes all-in with (A6) and Sirgash called with (A4). I told you the take outs of pre-flop hand leaders were in the weeds. A [4] on the river ends the evening.

That is back to back wins in back to back starts for Sirgash, to go with a 2nd before that! Impressive!

1st – 10 pts – Sirgash 27 points
2nd – 7 pts – LittleRedElf 8 points
3rd – 5 pts – TheNewY2K 5 points
4th – 3 pts – 7Jokers (35 points)
5th – 1 pt – Tigercub8189 (18 points)
6th – Nixi44
7th – Biglou93 9 points
8th – Rennzzo 8 points
9th – ThePunk75 13 points

The rest not relevant as all seats are decided but one! Be there next Tuesday for the exciting conclusion to the season.
Who will get the last seat at the finals with four still in the hunt?
Will 7Jokers overtake Faldo for the Total Points collected?
Will Nahanni ever finish the spreadsheet???
Will Beerhog, Boother, Duder, Matchy and Rownder quit watching the Brokeback Mountain DVD (expanded edition – whatever that means) together over and over again, and come back to the poker table? {Not that there is anything wrong with that.}
Total point standings are on the right side of the blog.