Happy Holidays!

Another Christmas ....another load placed on the wagon for men to pull.

In the poker game of life......

women are the rake!

Cheers for the Holidays!

Best Value Spirits for the Holiday Season

Faldo already posted the Best Value:

Bourbons
Scotch
Single Malt Scotch

See the posts below for those.

Here is the list of  quality spirits that won't break the budget:

Kimo Sabe Mezcal - $35
Macchu Pisco - $27
Prunier Family Reserve - $70
Rhum J.M.V.S.O.P. - $47
Teeling Single Grain Irish Whiskey - $44
Tin Cup Whiskey - $33
Tito's Homemade Vodka - $20
Agavero Tequila Liqueur - $30

Rjmech Wins 2016 NPP Player of the Year!

Edith Labelle waits for Rjmech in an NPP suite.

Rjmech rolls on!

Congratulations to Rjmech on his 24th NPP win in this annual exclusive Sit-n-Go.

This is also Rjmech 2nd NPP Player of the Year win!

2nd - T3chlady
3rd - Douge2
4th - Mikeniks-Faldo
5th - Derf-63
6th - Tomservo2
7th - LittleRedElf
8th - ThePunk75 - DNP

Dear NPP players and future NPP players:

Thank you again for another fun year. We will start up again January 3rd. Some of our tournament dates will be on holidays, but that is just the way it goes.

With the election of Donald Trump, maybe - just maybe - Pokerstars.net will be allowed to service US players again.

As you may remember, Poker Stars - 8 years ago - asked the thieves currently in the White House what they had to do to be allowed to offer on-line poker to the United States?

They agreed to the rules and paid a nearly $700 million dollar fine for crimes that there were no laws even written for.

But as Democrats do, they lied to Poker Stars, stole their money (where it went should be an investigation unto itself) and did not do anything to get Americans to the on-line felt on the most trustworthy poker site on the planet.

What Faldo is hinting to is that we might see real money poker return to Poker Stars. It's a possibility. We have businessmen - not thieves - running things now. Faldo is confident Poker Stars will once again approach the US government and remind them of the deal they thought they had.

If and when that happens, NPP will go back to a real entry fee ($) format, probably at a quarter break. But Faldo is getting ahead of himself as he often does.

Enjoy the Christmas break and see you January 3 at the NPP felt.

Rjmech Wins the 2016 NPP TOC and an Aria $125 Buy-in Before That!

Malia Jones is floored by Rjmech's poker skills.

Every player at NPP is good. Some of the NPP players are great! But, on another level is Rjmech.

ThePunk75 and LittleRedElf are JUST BELOW on the next level in Faldo's opinion.

Then the rest of the great players are below that.
Then the good players.

Then a Racko-Uno player who somehow stumbled into NPP is next.
Then Faldo.

Rjmech needed a victory in the TOC to win a seat in the NPP Finals and that is exactly what he did. It was his 4th win of the season - in only 12 starts. Did you catch that?? That is a 33% winning percentage against a very tough field.

2nd - KingBing420 (a great effort to win a seat in the NPP Finals)
3rd - Derf-63
4th - Johnnied55 (another great effort - but ran into the RJ buzzsaw)
5th - ThePunk75 (who will have blood in his eye in the NPP Final!)
Bubble - Wingsfancurt (another one giving his all to take the last seat)

Congratulations to Rjmech on his 23rd NPP win! Now all the seats are set for the NPP Final this Tuesday.

Rjmech - in his spare time (or is NPP his spare time?) - won a $125 buy in tournament at Aria in Las Vegas. Faldo will let him tell the tale:

"There was a total of 89 players in the field. 

I was alternate number 30 because I showed up at 10 minutes after 7 o'clock when the tournament started driving from the Orleans to the Aria. 

I didn't start playing poker until 9:30 PM almost at the end of level four. I made a point not to drink any alcohol the day of the tournament, ate a good dinner beforehand, and had a great night sleep the night before so I was ready to go!

I built up my stack slowly but surely. I even recovered from a coin flip late in the tournament with three tables left: I raised with pocket jacks from the cut off and the small blind moved in with ace king off suit. It cost me 2/3 of my stack to make the call but I'm not folding JJ. The board rolled out all little cards then BAM an ace hit on the river! 

I was proud to make a great recovery after losing most of my chips. I felt that I played like a champion. The tourney ended at 3:30 AM. 

This was the best live poker tournament win I ever experienced. I was even commended on my play by my table mates at the final table. 

There was a player at the final table who had the same amount of chips as me and he made a remark that I was an expert player. [Faldo concurs] 

I was fortunate to knock him out him when my pocket kings held up against his ace king. After I knocked out the big stack I had over half of the chips in play so it was just a matter of time before I ended up winning the tournament. The tourney ended at 3:30 AM.

It feels great to be a winner at the Aria! I cashed for $3100 for a $125 buy in. Needless to say. The Aria is my favorite place to play poker in Las Vegas.

As a side note, my previous best finish at the Aria was when I came in sixth in 2011 for $650 after suffering a bad beat when I held pocket threes in the big blind while a young hot shot moved all in on me from the small blind with A3 off suit. Sure enough the Ace hit on the river. I also came in 15th for a min cash last year.

Rjmech

Theedouble*d Wins for the 4th Time in 2016 - Seven of Eight Seats in Final Decided!

Theedouble*d fan (who may only be a C)

The final night as always had a lot of drama and excitement. It also had the usual mundane results also - like Faldo getting bad beat to finish on the bubble.
Some things never change.

Theedouble*d beat a field filled with 15 desperate poker players. But does he have another big night (then two) of poker left in him? Faldo will explain shortly.

But first, this last round:
2nd - Derf-63 (clinching the 4th quarter seat!)
3rd - Absea98 (left on the bubble for the Total Points seat)
4th - 95corolla
5th - Johnnied55
Bubble - Mikeniks-Faldo  (where else?)

Now there is still one seat left to fill for the NPP Final. The winner or highest place finisher of the 2016 Tournament of Champions without a seat in the NPP Final will get one! The Qualifiers are:

Mikeniks-Faldo (seat)
ThePunk75 (seat)
LittleRedElf (seat)
Derf-63 (seat)
Douge2 (seat)
Rjmech
Theedouble*d
K9isadog
Tomservo2 (seat)
Absea98
T3chlady (seat)
Tigercub8189
Wingsfancurt
KingBing420
Johnnied55
Rachel0388
Smaloo315

Only these winners of a round during the regular season are eligible for the Tournament of Champions. See you all Tuesday!