RGP Open

RGP Open
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20 great events in 50 days.

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Who won? Plus Red's Ramblings.

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Answers to all your RGP questions.

Red's Ramblings, Event #6 — $20 Razz

by Mark "The Red" Harlan

For RGP Open Event #6, 30 able bodies paid $20+2 to play in the long slow demonic grind that is a Razz tournament, knowing full well that only four places would be played.

After four-and-a-half hours of play, five were left: Tron Carter, MissT74, LADYwithLUCK, elg26 and thejim2020.

With antes at 80 and bets at 400/800 opponents showed 5, A, A, forcing thejim2020 with a bring-in on (2 J) 7; the tauntingly vocal MissT74 quickly upped to a full bet with (K 8) 3, shaking all but thejim who, sensing strangeness, raised back. For fourth street, thejim caught a 9, and the little missy took a 5. Thejim bet and now heavily committed to the hand was raised by MissT - now in do-or-die mode, jim went all-in and was quickly called. Things looked good for thejim on fifth street, catching a 4 to Miss's J, but went all to hell on sixth street with a pairing 4, only to watch MissT low out her final two cards: thejim2020 (2 J) 7 9 4 4 (8) and MissT74 (K 8) 3 5 J 2 (6). On the bubble thejim went out to be known on the street as justanotherjim.

After a series of hands that went anemic on fourth street, MissT74 was finding herself short-stacked. With antes at 100 and bets at a you-will-take-me-serious 500/1000, Miss was dealt (7 9) 4 and decided the time was now to charge the pot, getting all-in after some back-and-forth firing on third street with sole defender of the faith, Tron Carter, holding (3 9) A. The cards peeled out: Tron Carter (9 3) A 6 K J (A) and MissT74 (7 9) 4 Q 5 2 (7). And thus, Miss was able to prevent Tron from bringing in the logic probe for at least another hand - undoubtedly made ever so sweeter for her for having taunted both jim ("jimmy poo") and Tron ("dont fawk with me" [sic]) earlier.

Several hands later, Tron had moved up a bit in chip count with MissT falling back. He was dealt an oh-so-sweet (5 4) 3 and was eager to call the sassy Missy's over-the-top all-in with (Q 4) A. Karmic pounding cards followed giving Tron Carter a 75 low, with MissT74 looking at a royal-yet-unworthy KQ. This left 74 misty-eyed with $60.

LADYwithLUCK won four of the next five hands, slowly boxing Tron in on his light-cycle. With (J 3) 6, Tron made a hail-Mary all-in bet against LADY's over-stacked (Q 3) A. The master control program wouldn't prove to be friendly, though, giving Tron Carter (J 3) 6 8 8 9 (K) and LADYwithLUCK (Q 3) A 6 Q 2 (7). This would send TronwithBADLUCK packing with $102 for light frisbees.

This left a juicy little head's-up battle between two previous RGP Open money winners: the-smokin'-hot-LADYwithLUCK and the-somewhat-dormant-to-this-point elg26; with elg sitting as a 3-to-1 chip underdog.

A long, slow grind ensued of nearly an hour playing 61 hands. In a pivotal hand, elg with 5 Q 5 8 exposed steel-heartedly called down repeating bets from LADY's 6 7 4 K. LADY turned out to be holding J7 low to elg's rough 9.

As hands progressed, every time LADY would bring in for the minimal amount, elg would raise and LADY would pass. Any time LADY brought in for a full-bet and elg had bad cards, he'd pass; with low cards he'd merely call. With all other play being roughly equal, this difference, over time, eroded LADY's stack to the dangerous point.

Twice the LADY was all-in and managed to bounce back, but elg stayed on target and eventually ground the LADY down. The final hand was a comical battle of early paired cards. Without the 10-to-1 over-stacked elg walking away, and the LADY getting committed by repeating feigning bets, the cards rolled in mockery: LADYwithLUCK 3c 5s 5h 8c 3d 6h 8h and elg26 4s 4c 3h Qd As Kh 6s.

LADY's luck had cooled, but not before pursing another $168, and leaving her with an astounding average of having placed in the money in every-other RGP event. If the RGP Open were the Olympics, she'd be holding every color of medal (a truly difficult feat to accomplish that will probably be only seriously challenged by A Webb or possibly, the following guy ...).

Elg—"I still hate this game"—26 brought home $270 and his first very-well-earned RGP title after having been a maid-of-honor to the boastful GambleAB in RGP #3.