PLIA 2 Week 17 “How it Unfolded” & Final 9 Preview
A Win for Quinn
Congratulations to Quinn for his first PLIA victory and taking home $800! Quinn had a mostly quiet PLIA season but this late win surged him up the leaderboard to finish in 11th place, up from 16th in PLIA1. Even though he just missed the Final 9, he’s excited to finish strong and make a case to be a “player to watch” for PLIA 3.
Quinn got into poker, much like many of us, by hosting card games in his basement during high school and college. Once online poker started to boom, Quinn traded his finance books for poker books and burned out the wifi at Bentley College. He also frequented Foxwoods and the Silver Fox Lounge in Everett (eww). Despite the numerous all nighters, long drives to Foxwoods, and breathing in the stale stench of asbestos in sketchy card rooms, Quinn is still looking for his first big cash. Taking down a PLIA freezeout is a launchpad for that next step.
Congratulations to Brendan24 and Sampson for winning $440 and $260 respectively.
Final 9 Preview
Alright people…the time has come. 17 weeks of grueling concentration and watching our hopes and dreams die with coin flips has finally ended. We have our FINAL 9 table set and ready to play. I’m not even one of the finalists, but even I can feel the tension. This is why we play the game.
Jeffrey “Whites” McDonald
Whites is the obvious #1 seed for the second straight year and is the main guy to beat. As crazy as it sounds, Whites seemingly has improved his play after PLIA1. Last year he was taking advantage of the loose rebuy rules to build a massive stack and then just decimate everyone else. This year his game has taken a more nuanced and refined turn. His game is as polished as the wood in AJ’s house.
Biggest Leak: His all ins are usually polarized to nutted hands or the strongest starting hands. Easy to read against but sometimes he’ll get a call from A10 and laugh all the way to the bank.
Frank “Tanker1919” Demmerly
Tanker had the most consistent year of anyone in PLIA despite never having won a week. He tightened up his preflop range considerably and was able to fade a lot of big spots, until of course the final 3. Guy just needs to put the kids to bed early and crack open some Bud Lights and he’ll be a force
Biggest Leak: Tanker plays poker every single night of the week. Between the nightly poker games that run into the early AM and his little kids running around he has to be averaging 3 hours of sleep per night. After 17 weeks of play I’m worried he’s too tuckered out and won’t have the mental stamina to get the win.
AJ “AJIII” Mansor
AJ has been sitting pretty in the recliner since Week 3 but this is the biggest moment of his poker life. If he can fade JJ or a huge site hand, he could be the last man standing. AJ is officially my pick to win the Final 9.
Biggest Leak: When AJ gets flustered, he folds super primos just because he thinks someone has aces. 3-betting AJ could be a very lucrative play.
Mark “Sampson” Sampson
Everyone’s favorite bot had a very slow start to the season but found his stride and catapulted up the standings to finish 4th. Due to his lack of wins he doesn’t quite get the same brand recognition that Whites and Black, but he definitely should. He’s as strong a player as anyone in the league.
Biggest Leak: Sometimes his CPU needs to be rebooted for a software update
Chris “Black” Black
Although Black didn’t have as strong of a season as PLIA1, he is still an exceptional player that will always put maximum pressure on his opponents. He certainly has the confidence and experience to make a deep run in this.
Biggest Leak: Black loves to play for stacks. He’s the master of the preflop all in. If someone wakes up with a hand, he could be in for a short night.
Mike “McCann” McCann
Our commish had a monster season by capturing 3 wins and never really a threat to not make the final 9. McCann has the discipline to make the tough fold which will suit him well against this table of crushers.
Biggest Leak: He’s notoriously tight and and if he gets a run of cold cards, he could get blinded down to nothing
Brian “BrianHawk” Hawko
Hawko has had kind of a weird season where I think he’d agree he didn’t play his best poker, but 2 cashes in the last 4 weeks was enough to secure his spot for the final. He has the skill to hang but it remains to be seen if he has the chops to take down the title.
Biggest Leak: He’s been caught bluffing on some of his all ins this season. A keen player who pays attention should be able to sniff that out.
Mike “Mike K” Kerrigan
This is a big week for Kerrigan. He’s getting ready to close out Q1, his Providence Friars are making a run in the big dance, and he has an opportunity to score maybe his biggest poker win of his life. Mike has been a mentor for a couple of guys in the league, but lets see if he can be a poker mentor for all of us.
Biggest Leak: Mike is a fan of the super nutted min-raise. I sniffed it out back in week 4 but saw that he still uses that tactic. He’ll need to come up with a new plan to extract max value.
Ned “TheDivia71” D’Angelo
Will everyone’s favorite chef cook up a big win this week or will he be served a cold dish on the way to the rail? The Div has been getting ready for this moment all winter. This is his time.
Biggest Leak: I heard his Atlantic salmon is really farm raised in Illinois. He’s gotta clean that up. Also, drop the ’71’. Just TheDivia. It’s cleaner
PLIA 2 Week 15 & 16 “How it Unfolded” DOUBLE ISSUE
Tight Wad
Congratulations to McCann for winning his third PLIA title of the year, $937, and most importantly, puts him in 4th place and within striking distance of cashing for the season. Though he takes all the tight play jokes in stride, he’s the one having the last laugh as he is having a very profitable season.
Speaking of tight play, McCann was in a pot with Rosstradamus on the money bubble when he found himself holding a K-high flush. Facing Ross’s river all in raise, McCann folded. At first glance one could laugh and chalk it up to McCann just being ultra conservative, but with a paired board and another tight player, Ross, showing river aggression, it’s a fine fold. The real highlight of the night for McCann, though, was calling an all in from BrianHawk and flopping quad queens. It was just so perfect. I haven’t seen a sun run like this since Jamie Gold won the WSOP.
Congratulations to BrianHawk and Tanker1919 for winning $532 and $330 respectively.
In the Black
Congratulations to Black for winning Week 15 and taking home $836. With that win, Black currently sits in 5th and is also in striking distance for a second consecutive cashing season. Black isn’t quite the force he was last year, but he still has 2 wins to his name and even has an outside chance of defending his 2nd place finish from last year.
Congratulations to Mike K and The Divia for winning $396 and $289 respectively.
Tanker’s Toughest Decision
World quickly got around the league on Thursday that Tanker was down in Charleston celebrating his 10th anniversary. Yes, you read that correctly – Tanker was playing PLIA the night of his 10th anniversary. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when he told her he had to play cards that night. “Honey look – I can mathematically catch Whites but I need to play and win tonight. You understand right?”
My favorite part of this whole story is that he emailed McCann at the beginning of the week asking him for advice on what to do. Why are you emailing a single guy on this? If you’re going to ask anyone you gotta ask Borat. Borat specializes in 10 year anniversary card games. He doesn’t even sweat it. Regardless, I must tip my cap to Tanker for pulling that one off. Job well done, sir.
A Royal Pain in the Ass
We saw our first Royal Flush of the season last night in a pot between Cjw84 and Shades. Shades turned his set of Jacks and Cjw84 moved all in on the Royal draw and of course hit it. It was a highlight of the night between these two disappointing players.
Current Landscape
With one week to go in the regular season, lives are hanging in the balance as two bubbles are about to explode.
Congratulations to Whites for officially clinching a second consecutive 1st place finish in PLIA. His highest drop score of 11 is a testament to his consistency of high level play. He is simply a poker god amongst the rest of us degenerates.
AJ and Tanker are both fighting for that 2nd place finish, but with AJ’s highest drop score of 8 acting as his safety net, Tanker will need another strong performance to secure that spot. It’s worth noting that as strong as Tanker has been playing, he is still without a PLIA victory.
The current bubble sweaters – Hawko, Divia, Mike K, 3,5, Rosstradamus, and Shades – will have the biggest night of their lives on Thursday. Being a freezeout, anything can happen. The amount of stress and tension to ensure a Final 9 spot will be felt throughout the entire league. Rumor has it, Mike K may not be able to play as he might be going to a Providence basketball game. If I were him, I’d figure out something. Supporting your alma mater (I assume?) is important, but March Madness has already started in PLIA.
PLIA 2 Week 13 & 14 “How it Unfolded” DOUBLE ISSUE
Whites Wins….Again!
Congratulations to Whites for winning his 4th PLIA2 event and taking home $755! This win puts Whites 21 points ahead of 2nd place and basically ensures a 1st place finish since his highest dropped score left is an 11. While I’ve run out of headline puns for him and have done the “get to know him” story to death by now, we have to recognize this amazing sun run he’s been on for the past 2 seasons as simply remarkable. As stated before, I think he should let it all ride on a WSOP. It’s a guaranteed win in my book.
Congratulations to Quinn and BrianHawk for winning $413 and $242 respectively.
Divia’s ‘Big’ Break
Congratulations to TheDivia for winning Week 13, his first PLIA victory, and taking home $802! Many may know Divia as the host of many “big ones” throughout Covid, but after reaching out to him and finding out more about what drives him in the poker universe, we were left with his awe-inspiring story of fighting for survival. I normally take the winner’s response, change a few things to make the story work, throw in a joke or two and send it out, but I was so moved by this story I felt it best to copy and paste his response below…
As far as my poker career, it started about 13 years ago. When I would host a “Big” one every Monday night, of 15-20 people in my basement. Started out getting my ass kicked, then I started winning; a lot. Contemplated putting an ATM machine in the basement, but soon the action dried up. Got married and started a family and didn’t play poker again until the pandemic- when I started hosting again, online. The passion was always there, and the dream never died. As the Executive Chef of the Winchester Country Club, I work alot and late. I’m usually playing the first hour while trying to drive home on 93. I’ve loved the action that PLIA has brought me again. I was getting my butt kicked and questioning every move I would make. But you learn, you love the grind and you get better.
This January, I had open heart surgery. Not to sound corny, but the fact that there was a PLIA event every week helped me through my recovery. It was really something to look forward to and focus my energy on. I didn’t want to miss a week, so I thought I’d have the surgery in the morning and still be good to go for the game that night. But I couldn’t answer the bell. Leading up to the surgery and even early stages of recovery, there was a lot on my mind. I finally feel great, physically and mentally, and think it is showing in my game. Now with PLIA and Ace’s cash games, I’m playing like 5 nights a week. I feel like a real pro – still chasing that dream. Sorry for the length, hope you can get something out of it. Enjoy the day!
What a guy. When we started this league last year, never did I think that PLIA would give people the hope and energy to overcome something as serious as open heart surgery. What we do every Thursday is more than just an outlet for our degenerate behavior. We’re saving lives.
The Ground is Shaking
With 3 weeks left in the season, that Final 9 bubble is getting pretty stressful right now. Divia, Hawko, Hunt, Shades, Ross, Mike K are really starting to feel the heat. One bad week from here on out could be the end of the dream. I’m not sure where the actual cutoff is right this minute but I would have to guess that Quinn in 17th is the last person with a real shot of making the Final 9. Moving Week(s) has come and gone, now it’s just a fight for survival. For the new guys, you don’t want to be the guy who doesn’t make the Final 9. It’ll haunt you for the rest of the year. I know from experience.
Moon Rock Update
In Week 5 I ran a story about how the Chinese moon rover spotted a potential “hut” on the moon. Well, the results are in……it’s a “rabbit-shaped” rock. Ugh. Actually this story broke about 6 weeks ago but it was just a rock it didn’t make the papers. I mean of course it’s a rock but deep down I was really hoping it was a hut. Just an old boarded up java hut that went out of business 2 million years ago. I’m a big space guy (even went to a star party at the McDonald Observatory in Alpine TX last week) but I’m getting tired of looking at pictures of rocks and fuzzy nebulae. There better be something cool on Mars or I’m out.
And for the record, that doesn’t look like a rabbit. It looks like a rock.
A Rant from Shades
I’m not trying to turn HIU into a forum where I can just bitch about whatever is on my mind, but I really need to let this one out. I’m starting to notice this trend of parents taking kids to places where kids shouldn’t be and it’s really starting to grind my gears.
Last week, my wife and I took a trip to Big Bend National Park in order to get away from the NY rat race, find some solitude, and reconnect with nature. Being the borderline alcoholic that I am, I always try to find interesting places to drink on my travels. During the 9 hour drive from Austin to Big Bend we stopped in Texas wine country (who knew?) to enjoy a nice bottle to break up the drive. Within minutes of being on property, I was surrounded by dozens of screaming kids running around the place like it was a playground while their parents got wasted at 11am on a Sunday. Needless to say, we didn’t stay long.
When we arrived in Marfa, I was excited to hit up the newly opened Marfa Spirit Co and try their Chihuahuan High Desert Sotol. The drinks were amazing, as was the building, an old sheet metal factory that hasn’t been upgraded much. Great place to bring a family of 6 right? Apparently it is because it was slammed with crying babies.
On our last night back in Austin, I got tickets for a 9pm concert at Meanwhile Brewing Co. I paid the $10 cover charge, ordered a drink, then went to the bathroom. I opened the door and in doing so accidently hit a 2 year old to the ground…
Angry Dad: You just bumped into my 2 year old!
Shades: Why is your 2 year old even here??
Angry Dad: This is a family place guy, get used to it
Shades: This is a brewery! And it’s 9pm!
Angry Dad: Look around guy you’re in the wrong place
Quite frankly, I’m sick of it. I know this is going to be an unpopular take in the league since I’m one of a handful of guys without kids, but that’s by choice. Since when did taking small children to bars, wineries, distilleries, and rock concerts become normal? I hear all the time “ahh Shades you don’t understand the brewery is a great place for kids to run around and hang out.” Is it?? I mean the public park with nature trails is right down the street.
Look, I get that breweries are now catering to people with families and if taking kids to a smelly brewery on a Saturday afternoon is the best way for them to spend their weekend, well I guess I’ll just have to accept it. But I draw the line there. Wineries, distilleries, late night concerts – get these fucking kids out of here. I shouldn’t have to be aggravated by YOUR children when legally they can’t even consume anything there. Oh yea, and that juice box and pretzels you’re giving little Johnny? Did you see the sign that says “No Outside Food/Drink”? Does that not apply to you? Of course it doesn’t.
Thank you for listening.
PLIA 2 Week 12 “How it Unfolded”
3/5 Will Not Compromise
Congratulations to 3,5 Suited for earning the victory in the Week 12 freezeout. 3,5’s turn around in this season of PLIA has been truly remarkable. Through five weeks, he had a grand total of 11 points. His PLIA season was basically over. He was called out in the Chris Wentworth Power Rankings as needing to get a coach. Since then, he has been on an absolute tear with 2 wins and 2 third place finishes, and is now one of the most profitable players of the season. He finds himself right in the thick of it in the battle for a seat at the Final 9, only 8 points out of 9th place. If he makes the Final 9 he is an absolute lock for Comeback Player of the Year.
Shout out to Craig B who earned his first cash of the season with a second place finish. Craig B had been really struggling the past few weeks, to the point where had back to back no shows. Some thought he might have just given up on this season of PLIA. Fortunately, he must have just been clearing his head and adjusting his game. Hopefully we see some more deep runs from Craig B as the season continues.
In the race for the Top 3 in the season long standings, Tanker picked up a very important 3rd place finish to move up to 2nd in the standings. Sampson also had another deep run, something that seems to happen every week now, which inched him closer to the top 3. These two were able to take advantage of early exits from Whites and McCann to really bunch things up at the top of the standings. It should be a very exciting final five weeks!
Bubble Boy
Shades was our Bubble Boy this week, as he was unable to secure a much needed cash. While Shades’ 4th place finish was hugely important in giving him some breathing room to make the Final 9 cut, it had to be frustrating to miss out on the money yet again. Shades finds himself with zero cashes in PLIA 2, and the PLIA history books show that Shades only had two cashes in PLIA 1 (a 3rd place finish in Week 1 and Week 15). For a player of Shades’ caliber this is just unacceptable. He’s never even made it to heads up in PLIA! Hopefully he can find the wellness he needs to work his way into the money again, or else he’s going to be facing some tough questions.
Site Hand of the Night
We had a couple of patented Site Hands this week that for some reason people are still surprised to see. This one was truly special. Whites opened with ATcc and was called by Sampson’s 65cc. The flop came 4s8c7c giving Sampson the nut straight with the opened ended straight flush draw, which is a decent flop for 65cc. But somehow Whites still had outs with his nut flush draw. The 10 on the turn gave Whites top pair/top kicker to go along with his nut flush draw. Whites lead out on the turn and faced a 3x raise from Sampson. Whites just called. Of course the river brought the 9c, giving Sampson the straight flush and Whites the ace high flush. With Whites holding the 10 of clubs he was only beat by 65cc, Sampson’s exact holding. It is incredibly rare to see Whites on this side of the cooler in PLIA, but even though he was crippled in this hand, he somehow hung on to earn a critical 11 points.
Week 12 Chris Wentworth Power Rankings
12 weeks down, 5 to go, time to check back in on everyone’s favorite HIU feature. While the rankings still consider the overall body of work for each player, there is a recency component to take into account current player trends. I’m sure we’ll have consensus agreement on the below as always.
Evergreen Tier
1. Whites – Still the one to beat, top in points, highest remaining drop score, 3 wins and no bottom 5’s. With that said, the gap has narrowed and the next group of players are closing fast.
A New Hope
2. Sampson – En Fuego. Four top 5’s in a row, Five cashes in the last 7 weeks, including a win in the Highroller. Averaging 18 points per week over the last 8 weeks, 4 points more than the next best.
The Odd Couple
3. Tanker – As stable on the felt as he is unstable in the chat. A league leading 9 final tables, tied for the lead with 5 cashes. Undoubtedly the leader in shoves…open question on his ability to close, with no wins, despite all the chances
4. McCann – PLIA’s foremost gentelman. Two wins, three cashes total, to go with eight final tables. Leads the league in respect.
A Cut Above the Rest
5. Black – A force on the felt, though not quite as dominant as last season. Second to Tanker in shoves.
6. Shades – Quietly putting together a redemption season. Solidly entrenched in the Final 9, with 6 final tables to his name. Could use a cash to bolster his resume
7. Rosstradamus – Middling results, bolstered by an early season win. Has made a habit of grinding out below average stacks this year. Can’t seem to win a race when it matters, will his luck turn down the stretch?
8. AJIII – Two cashes, seven final tables, countless site related conspiracy theories. Maybe a bit too content with his early season success?
I Don’t Know What to Think
9. 3,5 Suited – Quite the turn of events. When we last ranked, 3,5 was placed deadlast, receiving his own tier to reflect his results to that point. Things have changed.
A true fan of absolute outcomes, 3,5 now has 5 final tables and 7 bottom 5’s through the first 12 weeks. Two wins and four cashes in the last 6 weeks, he’s now on everyone’s radar for contention.
Second hottest, only to Sampson”
The Meaty Part of the Curve
10. Mike K – The embodiment of this tier, sneaking into the Final 9 with just four final tables, a huge part of his success has been the ability to avoid early exits, as one of only two players (Whites) without a bottom 5 finish
11. CWJ84 – A model of inconsistency, with five final tables and four bottom 5’s. On a bit of an uptick in recent weeks, hoping to chase down a return spot in the Final 9
12. 82p – Speaking of inconsistency. Four bottom 5’s, Four final tables (and two cashes along the way). Undisputed leader in flops seen. Second nicest guy in the league
13. The Divia – To be honest, I’m struggling to find commentary here. A pretty non-descript season to date. Five final tables and a cash, but has rarely seemed to make any noise this season.
14. BrianHawk – Had made a nice run and worked his way into the Final 9, only follow up with two bottom 5’s in the last three weeks. Once touted as a shark, he finds himself on the outside looking in, yet again
Make or Break Time
“15. Mazz – Last year’s Final 9 champ is in crisis. Free falling out of the Final 9 after a strong early start to the season. He’s now earned single digit points in 6 of the last 7 weeks. Some are saying next week is make
or break for our once proud co-champ”
16. JesscoB – Not bad, not good. Three final tables, no cashes, just a lone bottom 5 finish. Never really chirps at the table, might be a bot?
The bACEment
17. Borat – Single digit points in 6 of the last 7 events he’s entered, and a heartbreaking DQ from the highroller when he signed up 30 seconds too late.
18. Ace – The results have been…not good. Despite a cash, there have been three bottom 5’s and two no-shows. For his wallets sake, i hope the side cash games are going better
19. Walnuts – The Season 1 magic is long gone. Grinding through and hitting just enough double ups to make the Final 9 last season, the results have regressed to the mean this go-around.
20. Craig B – Boy did he ever need that cash. Now three final tables to four bottom 5’s, but he might’ve earned a little respect last night with his runner up finish. If anything atleast now I can tell him and Quinn apart
21. Brendan24 – Last in the standings, but with only 3 bottom 5’s we’ll give him the slightest of edges over our next member
“22. Quinn – Single digit points in 9 of the 12 weeks, and a league leading 6 bottom 5’s. He’s twice gone out at the money bubble, which is heartbreaking, but can’t be chocked up to anything but random chance
at this point”
PLIA 2 Week 11 “How it Unfolded”
McCann He Make a Run?
Congratulations to PLIA Commissioner McCann for winning his second PLIA event of the year and taking home $971. With that win, McCann jumps Tanker for the #2 spot and is in striking distance of Whites being only 9 points back. McCann has been the model of consistency this year by making 8 final tables and still having the highest dropped score left of 12 points. Even if he has a dud week in this week’s Freezeout, he’ll still be able to maintain his margin.
McCann can thank his large stack at the final table due to a brutal beat he put on Shades by cracking his AA with KK hitting his two outer on the river. Shades may never recover from this.
McCann’s tight play at low stakes levels has been well documented, but one of his favorite poker stories came when we were at the Mirage for Rosstradamus’ bachelor party about 8 years ago. McCann was grinding away in a game when this guy sat down holding 2 foam dice. Whenever Dice Man was prompted with a decision to put money in the pot, he would roll the dice and act accordingly. After about 20 mins McCann said “I can’t do this” and got up and came over and sat at Shades’ table and told everyone the story. The next day, Dice Man got a seat at Shades’ table at which point Shades stood up, yelled “nope!” and left. They circled back an hour later and he had a mountain of chips in front of him. Dice Man cometh, Dice Man taketh away.
Congratulations to Sampson and 3,5 Suited for winning $552 and $343 respectively.
The Witching Hour
With 6 weeks left of regular season action, we have officially entered the witching hour, where wins become losses and losses become wins. The field is starting to get pretty separated from the Top 9 so if there was ever a week to start making a final push, this is it. Moving week was questionably listed as two weeks ago but I think it’s officially this week, especially with a freezeout in play. Below is a list of players who are playing for their PLIA lives
Borat’s back to back 0’s fueled by the high roller late registration fiasco was a costly mistake, but after a deep run last week he’s still alive to make a push for the final 9. There was a protest involved after the first 0 but even Borat knows he can’t stay away from this kind of action for too long. He’s a beloved member of PLIA and a late run would be good for Final 9 ratings.
3,5 Suited had only 11 points through the first 5 weeks of PLIA but after an incredible run he is now just 22 points out of a final 9 invite. A late surge would make a strong case for Most Improved player this year.
82p has seemingly improved his game light years from last year but he’s only 1 spot ahead of where he finished last season. He’s only 8 points out of a final 9 spot so it’s not time to panic just yet but he needs to keep grinding.
The Divia bubbled last year’s final 9 and is currently in a position to do so again.
Ace was making a nice little run after getting called out a few weeks ago but his no show last week made him plummet in the standings. Although he’s probably mentally out of it at this point, he needs to keep it together or else face answering some tough questions!
PLIA 2 Week 10 “How it Unfolded”
Whites vs Equity
Congratulations to Jeff “Whites” McDonald for winning his 3rd PLIA event of the year and taking home $862! Whites continues his incredible run and is the favorite to win back to back PLIAs which would simply be earth shattering. He’s clearly risen to the top and held his position for an entire year. One would wonder how he’s able to continue his hot streak and continually avoid the mine field of bad calls, suckouts, and nasty run outs. I fortunately had the pleasure to sit down with Whites for a one on one interview where I asked him these very questions.
What do you attribute as the key to your PLIA success?
I get it in a lot and I don’t lose. Way ahead, hold. Way behind, hit the 3 outer on the flop.
How do you seemingly win every single flip you face?
I’ve always been lucky. Whether it was sucking out on AJ in the college games or some random piece of shit at Foxwoods, I hit my draws and hold the good stuff. It’s not a skill game, Jo.
Where do you see the game of poker going in the next 10 years?
No idea. Lot of these home games online.
What is your biggest pet peeve on the table?
Live: random clowns trying to talk to me (under their breathe so no one can here them) about bad plays they think other guys are making. Which is also the best part.
Any plans to take your winnings and let it ride in the WSOP?
Can’t. I owe rent. Alimony. My kids eat.
Congratulations to Sampson and Ace for winning $457 and $330 respectively.
82p Sets a PLIA and Possibly Even World Poker Record
Something astonishing happened on the felt Thursday night: 82p won ELEVEN consecutive hands in a row! That has to be a world record. I can’t even imagine playing eleven consecutive hands in a row, let alone winning them. 82p bounced back after a couple dismal outings the last few weeks to make a deep run at the final table and get some much needed points to try and get back in the Final 9 standings. The second half of the year is going to be huge for him and he’s in the running for Most Improved player. 82p went back to folding semi-strong holdings as the tournament got deeper, something he found success in earlier in the season. If he wants to earn that title he needs to continue to adjust to the players and scenarios around him rather than yeet off his entire stack on bottom pairs and gut draws. Regardless, this record should be celebrated. I forwarded this to pokernews.com to see if it had any validity. I’ll follow up if I get a response.
Highly Questionable
For those who closely monitor the live standings early in the night, one couldn’t help but notice Black built up a huge chip stack within the first couple levels of play. He won two monster pots within a couple minutes of eachother but one of the hands stands out for analysis. After two limps from early position, 3,5 Suited raises 3x from MP and Black calls from the Hijack. Three others also call bringing 5 people to the flop. Flop comes TJ8 in which 82p bets, Black calls, Quinn raises, 82p calls, and Black shoves all in. Quinn calls, 82p folds. Quinn turns over top set while Black turns over the flopped straight with Q9. It holds for a massive pot. There was some chatter that Black shouldn’t even be in that pot with a “weak” Q9o holding. I defended the play since it was only the third level of action, blinds are still so small, and a hand like that can easily bust other strong hands and scoop a massive pot. I think there’s an issue in thinking with some old soul poker purists that hands like these can never call raises. Why? Why should people only be held to traditional “Super System” starting hands? That may have been the case in 2002, but 20 years later the game has evolved to mix up starting hands to balance ranges, especially early in tournaments where it has a minimal effect on your stack and easy to dump if you miss the flop. I often hear “well I had KK so I was a huge favorite to win preflop.” Sure, but the game doesn’t end preflop. There’s a flop, a turn, and a river. Hand dynamics change with every card and every bet. Let’s stop complaining about these “bad beats” and adjust our own games. We’ve all played with eachtoher for over a year now. These marginal hands should surprise no one. I applaud Black for his progressive style of play, even if he does seem to be luckier than others.
Ace made a strange play holding QQ UTG. Sitting with a starting stack at the 125/250 blind level, Ace simply goes all in and gets called by Brendan24 who wakes up with KK. Ace hits his trip on the flop and scoops a nice pot. But I just don’t understand the play. Why open shove with 34bb like that? Is it to induce someone with AK or JJ+ to call? If that’s the case, you’re rarely a favorite if you do get called such as what ended up happening. More times than not at this stage it’s going to get folded around and you’re going to pick up a measly 1.5bb. You’re just leaving so much value on the table. Maybe it’s because that hand terrifies him and he’s afraid to play it any other way. Ace ended up hitting his miracle Q and scooping the pot but that doesn’t change the fact that this play was highly questionable.
An interesting hand went down late in the tourney between AJIII and Whites. They both see a flop of 3T9 with 2 hearts on the board. Whites bets half pot and AJ raises 5x all in. Whites tanks for a moment and makes a gutsy call with AT and AJIII flips over AK. I don’t understand this shove by AJ. If you want to see another card why not just call the bet? You have enough chips. You’re going to risk your tournament life against the best player in PLIA on a bluff? And what’s the bluff? Are you representing JJ+? One PLIA participant claimed “AJ is representing KK here” but I didn’t see it that way. The shove looked really weak to me and apparently it did too to Whites who made a really great call with top top.
Is anyone else annoyed by these people who send their Wordle score to you each morning? Every morning for the past month I’ve woken up to people bragging that they got Wordle in 4 tries. Is this even a flex? Look, I’m a HUGE puzzle/game fan but I don’t find this impressive at all. For those unfamiliar with the game, you have 6 tries to guess a 5 letter word. It isn’t hard. It’s only a fad game right now because the vast majority of people in our society are dumb and bored and they find this mentally stimulating. I’ve gotten to know most of the players in PLIA over the past year and I can say that nearly everyone here is intelligent, successful, and mentally in the 1%. I refuse to find you solving this “puzzle” impressive. It’s a game meant for 4th graders to improve their vocabulary. You know who you are that keeps doing this. Let’s step it up a notch, shall we?
PLIA 2 Week 9 “How it Unfolded” HIGH ROLLER
Sampson!
Congratulations to Sampson for his first victory and taking home the biggest prize in PLIA history with $1,600. Sampson flies below the radar on the poker network. He doesn’t have any major “wins” on the felt, aside of course from last night’s high roller, but he is a verteran player at Foxwoods since his underage days. He made light of his win last night but not a soul in the poker world would sniff at the pot. It’s the biggest win this group has had since its inception. Unfortunably, all the winnings will be forwarded to his bookie after a brutal 2021 season. Sampson, like many in PLIA, is looking forward to a 2022 WSOP main event appearance. Full disclosure: Sampson went to Bentley and after some discussion there is a great possibility that we used to have relations with the same girl. She was a fun and wild one. A classic.
Congratulations to Mike K and Tanker1919 for winning $880 and $520 respectively.
Ace of Flubs
Ace has had a rough start to PLIA and was in the cellar up until now. After being put in the hot seat and under threat to answer some really tough questions about his play, Ace rose to the occasion and ended up making his 2nd final table of the year and enough points to rise to 21st in the standings. He even made a dig at Shades at the final table by saying “where is Shades??” Let’s pump the breaks a little bit Ace. Even though Shades has fallen out of the top 9, he’s still light years ahead of Ace on the felt. For one thing, Shades would never let his QQ lose to 46. Eyes will continue to be on Ace the remainder of the season to see if he can climb up the standings. If he has a super low finish, there WILL be some tough questions for him to answer at the end of the season. As one PLIA member stated this morning “Ace hasn’t shown he can put a move on anyone. He’s in over his head.”
Mike K in the Fast Lane
An interesting hand unfolded last night between Mike K and Cjw84. In a heads up pot of 4,000 chips and a flop of TJQ, Mike K donk shoved all in for 11,000 chips with top set. Cjw84 called with middle set in heart breaking fashion. This shove was very unconventional and typically does not yield the most EV in this situation. I’m sure Mike K would argue he’s afraid of the straight draw, especially since it is known that Cjw84 plays AK like it’s kryptonite, but knowing that would take AK out of his range. This flop seems like a perfect check/raise opportunity for Mike K but he doesn’t have any time for that. He just wants to get all his money in the middle with the best hand and whatever happens happens. Frankly, I find this play refreshing as it really hides the strength of his hand. Now that we’re all privy to the strategy, Mike K is going to have to adjust his play to keep us all guessing.
Borat vs. Registration
Borat was greatly missed in the high roller last night as he claims he registered with 30 seconds left but by the time his buy in was approved, the clock hit 0. Borat is a chronic late reg’er due to promises he has made for the sake of his family and marriage but cutting it this close on a high roller is just playing with fire. An obviously peeved Borat tried to make an appeal but rules are rules. Frankly, if that were me I would have lost my shit and thrown my computer against the wall. Hopefully, Borat made the most of his now free night and spent his time bonding with his family. It’s actually rather shocking that his family hasn’t caught on to him being absent every Thursday night and having $75+ deducted from his checking account every week. Even though he’s far from being MVP of the league, he’s MVP of our hearts.
PLIA 2 Week 8 “How it Unfolded”
Tirro the Hero
Congratulations to Ralph (3,5 Suited) Tirro for his first PLIA victory and taking home $829. 3,5 was in the bACEment for the first 6 weeks of PLIA but now sits in 17th after back to back cashes and in perfect position to make a move in next week’s “moving week”. He still has an uphill climb after the slow start since his lowest dropped score is a 1. 3,5 is going to have to keep this hot streak alive if he wants to stage the biggest comeback in PLIA history. We’re rooting for him.
3,5 Suited may have mixed success in PLIA but he has been grinding poker tournaments for quite some time. Years ago he drove down to try his luck in his first live tournament by playing in a WPT at Foxwoods. He considered himself a longshot but after getting a run of hot cards and playing “properly,” he ended up cashing and making the final table. Quite an impressive feat for a first time player. So much so that the PLIA jounalism team did a deep investigation to get verication of this claim. Unsuprisingly, we could find no record of Ralph Tirro ever cashing in a WPT. The PLIA team was about to call bullshit until we got an email from Ralph asking to chop up his winnings to avoid IRS detection. What a veteran move. Ralph doesn’t want to give a dime of his hard earned gambling profits to Uncle Sam and he’ll do anything to game the system. Then it occurred to us that there is zero chance he played in that tournament under his real name. Not a chance in hell. Poker is just a hobby for Ralph, living off the grid and keeping the IRS at bay is the real game. We’re all playing checkers, Ralph is playing 3-dimensional chess.
Congratulations to Mazz and Tanker1919 for winning $511 and $316 respectively.
Stawwwwp Folding AK!
Another week another nit folding AK preflop to a raise. This week, Cjw84 was sitting on a starting stack (his first bullet) and holding AK in the sb. Rosstradamus 2.5x raised from UTG+1 and two others called. Chris, holding AK, folded. “I think Ross has Aces or Kings and I don’t like the two calls. I’m going to fold.” WHAT! What makes you think he has AA or KK? Because he raised? And he’s only limited to those two hands? You block both of those hands! And why are the 2 callers freaking you out? Their ranges are capped and you’re ahead of both. With all that extra dead money in the pot it’s a full rip situation. And if Ross does wake up with AA or KK that’s alright because it’s still your first buy in. Last week I asked WTBN is over AJIII but we now have our answer. Chris is the BN.
Full disclosure: Ross did actually have KK, but an A hit on the flop. Even though Chris magically had an accurate read, he still would have won. Not sure what any of this means but it was still a terrible play.
Mid Season Hot Takes
The Divia is very quietly sitting in 9th. Prior to this week the question was heard “where’s Divia been?” Previously he was an outspoken member of our poker community, running “big ones” during the offseason and really acting like an ambassador for our program. Not sure what happened (actually I think it all stems from AJ being a dick to him earlier in the year) but he’s been radio silent. I completely forgot he was even in the league. I checked the standings and saw he was in 9th with 4 final tables. Pretty steady play and certainly can be a force in the second half of the season. He is no longer unnoticed.
Mike K and AJIII are the only ones without a bottom five finish, but are on complete opposite ends of the standings. The key difference is the number of final tables as Mike K has only made 2 and thus sitting in 14th place. So the key take away from this is that Mike K is very consistent at finnishing in 10-15th. Not overly impressive, but he is one of the players to watch this year so be prepared to see him surge in the second half.
What’s going on with Walnuts? He made the final 9 last year but is now in 21st. This is very surprising since he was known last year as a great grinder of the short stack. Some may say he is the strongest short stack player in PLIA. But this year he’s just punting his stack off like he’s Jake Bailey.
Speaking of a quiet powerhouse, let’s give Mazz some props for putting together another really good season thus far. Last year’s final 9 champ has not gotten a lot of fanfare in the newsletter (even though I correctly called his F9 victory), but he has become one of the most consistent players in PLIA. Even though he was listed as 7th in the last power rankings, I’d put him at #4 overall. (Whites, Tanker, Black, Mazz). One thing I noticed is that when Mazz makes a final table he makes the most out of it. Will he keep the run going and make a serious push to climb to the top of the power rankings?
82p is on a downward spiral and I don’t like it. It’s not good for the league. I made a side bet that he would make the final 9 but after his early exit this week I’m not feeling good about that bet. Cmon Hunt, get yoru act together. Remember how well you were playing last month? You were patient, focused, and were check raising us like we were tourists. That’s the Hunt I want to see again.
PLIA 2 Week 6 & 7 “How it Unfolded” DOUBLE ISSUE
The Covid Game
Happy New Year chat and welcome back to HIU. My apologies for no issue last week but it was hard to focus being up in VT for 2 weeks and surrounded by an entire family infected with Covid. Seems like everyone is getting this Omicron, including Tanker’s in laws “my wife’s parents have it. So cool.”
Since I was the second person eliminated and completely lit from “date night” and didn’t stay on long enough to understand what was going on I didn’t feel like I could put out a good product. I do however want to acknowledge Cjw84 for his win last week for $870. Chris joins the likes of Whites, Black, and now defunct Alubin as the only 2x winners of PLIA. Last year’s Black Fives Matter champ weaved and ducked his way through the final table and took down AJIII heads up. I wish I had more for the group on this achievement but I don’t. I’ve written about Chris’s gambling achievements in a prior newsletter but one fun fact I will add is that the two biggest hangovers of my life were because of Chris. They were near death experiences for both of us but so worth it (well one was the other one certainly wasn’t).
Black Overpowers Whites
Congratulations to Black for winning the latest racial battle on the felt and taking home $845. Black grinded a meager stack for much of the night before winning back to back all ins and suddenly becoming a force. He ended up winning a couple coin flips but that’s what you gotta do if you want to win, just ask “Betty” Whites. With that win, Black gets back into the top 9 and currently sits, though not comfortably, in 4th.
Congratulations to Whites and 3,5 Suited for winning $493 and $303 respectively
WTBN
Who’s The Bigger Nit than AJ? The image below details the exact moment AJ folded AK to a 5bb button all in. First he’s folding JJ 4way now he’s folding slick. I understand playing tight, but not even McCann would fold that. And what are you even afraid of here? That the bb is going to wake up with AA? Look, I’ll tease you about folding JJ on the money bubble but deep down I get the rationale. This makes no sense at all.
Level 19
Yesterday it was revealed that our commissioner decided to “remove” Level 19. What a complete mind fuck that ended up being. People weren’t ready for it. Did he already remove it? Is he going to remove it right before Level 18 ends? Does he have the power to do this? Why would he do this? Why Level 19? Is it because of Covid 19?
Well once it hit weird things started to happen. The banality of play finally ended when 3,5 suited was suddenly alive with a big stack and in a big pot with Shades. Shades minraised cutoff and 3,5 suited called. 3,5 puts Shades all in on the flop in which Shades tanks for a bit and calls with the nut flush draw. 3,5 was showing 7-high and holding only 28% equity. Next card out is a clean 7 which scoops the pot. It was an awful play by 3,5 and it was a horrendous way to go out for Shades.
The Ace Game
Is anyone else puzzled by the performance of new PLIA member Ace? The guy runs a poker game every single night of the week yet he’s sitting in the cellar with a measly 42 points. Through 7 weeks he’s made just 1 final table. You may say maybe he’s busy managing his other game at the same time but I’d argue it’s only one other table. Other PLIA members who know him say he understands the game and is enthusiastic about it, but I’m just not seeing it at the moment. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and chalk this up to bad luck and a small sample size for now, but if he’s still in the cellar after the High Roller, some tough questions will be asked.
PLIA 2 Week 5 “How it Unfolded”
I McCann’t Do This
Congratulations to our commissioner Mike McCann for finally getting that monkey off his back and winning his first PLIA game for $937. McCann used his tight table image to force nitty folds while gradually building his chip stack in preparation for the final table. McCann managed to get heads up with Sampson and quickly disposed of him when Sampson shoved all in on a wet board with literally no pair or draw. McCann quickly called his all in with 2nd pair and an open ended straight draw for the victory.
Mccann has been an online staple in the poker world since 2005 when he would grind out the low/mid level cash games from his dorm room. A defining moment in his poker career occurred right when he turned 21. He made the trip down to Foxwoods with Rosstradamus to experience live poker for the first time. He tried to register for the 1/2 tables but seeing how deep the wait list was he settled to play 2/5 with only $600 to his name. The very first hand he gets dealt JJ while staring at a raise and a 3bet. He immediately cold folded, which turned out to be the right move as he would have been up against AA. He ended up playing for about another hour without playing a single hand. Completely terrified and scarred, he got up and immediately left the premises. To this day, he refuses to play anything higher than 1/2 live or .5/1 online, which I dont understand. He’s currently a partner in his law firm, lives in a penthouse apartment in Stoneham, and is the defending club champion at Andover CC (Editor’s Note: *two-time defending club champion). You would think with the high life he’s living he’d be ready to face his demons and move on to bigger stakes. While he won’t make the jump just yet, he’s obviously ready for bigger games. Maybe with another win he’ll gain the confidence to make the jump.
Congratulations to Sampon and Tanker1919 for winning $532 and $330 respectively.
Boosters
82p tried to keep his god run going but ended up coming in dead last as he made some questionable plays. He deviated from his tight aggressive play that saw make make 2 consecutive cashes and reverted back to his wild west antics that made him dead money in 2021. Last night we saw him overbet pots on dry boards and call all-ins with nothing more than bottom pair, something we thought he’d give up in 2022. We might be able to chalk up last night to the side effects of his booster shot from hours earlier, but we need to see more improvement before we can get fully on the 82p train. As Black put it “it seems like he has 5G running though his veins.
Also, shoutout to Mazz for his hilarious comment that cjw84 needed a “booster stack” last night.
Kristmas Kards Klassic
I’d be remiss if I didn’t highlight the funny flop that happened last night. In a universe that has gone completely woke over the last few years it’s nice to know that poker doesn’t succomb to the mob and can still deliver funny moments like this. I don’t know who won this hand but I do know that AJIII was mad he wasn’t a part of it.
Highly Questionable
Pokerrrr2 delivered yet another classic “site hand” that ended up being the ultimate cooler with the worst hand winning. You gotta feel for the pain Rosstradamus felt when his AA was cracked by Tanker’s JJ. Pokerrrr2’s fair game disclaimer is highly questionable.
Last week it was announced that China’s Yutu 2 moon rover spotted a “hut” on the dark side of the moon. The Chinese scientists controlling this rover said the unidentified object is about 250 yards away and would take 2-3 months to travel that far to identify what it is. 2-3 months to travel 250 yards?! I’m sorry but that’s unacceptable. A catepillar can travel that distance in like a day. The Chinese can build a hospital in 6 days, why can’t they build a faster rover than this piece of shit they have on the moon? Also, look at this picture they sent us. They couldn’t attach a camera lens with a better zoom? Sadly they’re going to update us during the Final 9 freeroll that this was just a rock after all. This is embarrassing. And why the hell are we still exploring the moon. We landed there over 50 years ago! Let’s go explore the cosmos and figure out time travel already. The Chinese NASA is highly questionable.
The Chris Wentworth Power Rankings
The Power 9
“1. Whites – Two wins under his belt, 4 final tables (missing for the first time in week 5), and seemingly the boogeyman to many, Whites has a stranglehold on the top spot. “
“2. McCann – Three final tables, two cashes, including a big week 5 win, coming to the final table as the second short stack and pulling out the victory.
Seemingly the most respected player in PLIA, receiving dozens of “”NH’s”” per week, and not a shred of animosity from anyone “
3. Tanker – The bad boy of PLIA, recovered from a rare bottom 5 last week to take his second cash of the season. Remarkably consistent, both in his play and his willingness to exchange words with anyone, over anything.
4. Rosstradamus – The results have been a bit mixed so far, but with two final tables and a win under his belt, he’s a consistent threat to make the money.
5. AJIII – Typically a volatile player, he’s harnassed his energy this season with 3 final tables to his name and one cash. We’ll see how he recovers going forward after losing with the “best hand” several times this week
6. 82p – Back to Back cashes including a win last week. Hunt had been the biggest surprise this season, though he’s now left wondering if his dead last finish
last night was a previously unknown side effect to the Covid Booster. This was his second bottom 5 appearance, he’ll need to work on consistency if he wants to remain in this group
7. Mazz – 3 final tables and no duds on his resume, last year’s final 9 champ seems solidly locked in to making the season 2 freeroll “
8. Black – A bit of an up and down season thus far, but with three final tables and one cash, he’s still a force, albeit the limited buybacks this year seems to have hurt his game more than most “
9. Shades – One of the pre-season players to watch, he’s made good on his own prediction. He rounds out the group of players with 3 final tables or more,
but joins Mazz as the only members of that club without cashes this season
Jusssst a Bit Outside
10. BrianHawk – Much steadier play this season, one has to wonder if the limited buybacks have actually helped Hawk’s game. No longer chasing double-ups as the clock expires,
he has two FT’s (one cash), and no bottom 5 appearances in the early going “
11. Borat – Everyone’s favorite fashionably late player. He’s been consistent, but it can’t be easy getting into the flow of the game an hour later than everyone. “
The Meaty Middle
12. Mike K – Rounding into a solid player, he just seems to get antsy as the night goes on. We’ve seen him amass sizeable stacks early, only to loosen up and see it dwindle away late.
Let’s see if he can tighten that up moving forward
13. The Divia – A roller-coaster of a season thus far, with two final tables and a cash, but also two bottom 5 appearances.
14. Sampson – A much needed cash last night, let’s see if this consistent performer from Season 1 has righted his ship. I’ll be honest, I kinda forgot he was in the league until last night
15. Craig B – A couple final tables paired with one bottom 5 appearance…welcome to the meaty part of the curve.
16. CWJ84 – Who’s to say what’s been worse, his play or his power ranks. Hopefully this week is a sign of things to come, on both fronts.
Picking up his second final table (two bottom 5’s to his name as well), and possibly a power rankings worth of PLIA
17. Quinn – Another player whose results have been all over the place, with two final tables, but two bottom 5 appearances as well.
Needs Improvement
18. JesscoB – At one point last year he was good. Not sure what has happened since. I’m sure he’s curious as well.
19. Ace – Employing a strange strategy of sitting out for long stretches of time has…not worked out
20. Walnuts – Walnuts is hoping a deep run last night is the first step to turning things around. Often seen last season grinding a short stack deep into tourneys, he hasn’t been as fortunate this season, with two bottom 5’s and not a whole lot of luck thus far
21. Brendan24 – It’s been pretty ugly, but he’ll always have that final table from last week.
Needs a Coach
22. 3,5 Suited – There’s not a lot to say. Simple random chance should prevent anyone from being in the bottom five each week, but here we are, a perfect 5 for 5.
PLIA 2 Week 4 “How it Unfolded”
Hunting for a Win
Congratulations to 82p54m48 for earning the victory in Week 4. Black took down 2nd, with AJIII rounding out the top 3. Hunt strategically maneuvered his way through a very difficult final table that featured a number of PLIA stalwarts with healthy chip stacks. If anyone thought his 2nd in last week’s freezeout was a fluke, they were proven horribly wrong. At one point at the final table Hunt won SIX (6) hands in a row. And we’re not talking pre-flop blind stealing either. Hunt smartly outplayed his opponents after the flop for six straight hands. What a dominating performance:
Hunt has very clearly tightened up his game this season and he has the results to show for it. Last night he showed a couple of pre-flop laydowns that had yours truly reevaluating his notes on this player. Hunt was quick to qualify that had his cards been suited he would have played, but, either way, it’s clear that Hunt’s adjustment to his range chart has paid off for him big time. Let’s take a look at a couple of the big hands that helped lead to Hunt’s victory:
Tanker raised from under the gun with 99 and Hunt made the call in the hijack with 108ss. The flop of 10 8 7 with 2 hearts hit both players. With the pair and open ender, Tanker shoved for his entire stack. This was another one of Tanker’s patented massive overbets that usually takes the pot on the spot. However, this time he ran into Hunt’s top two pair. Hunt smartly made the call, and when Tanker missed his straight draw, Hunt took down a huge pot.
In this next hand, AJIII min raised from the button with AA. Hunt defended from the big blind and we got a flop of 677 with 2 spades. Hunt checked to AJ who continued with a 1/3 pot bet. Sensing weakness, Hunt put in the check raise to 9000. AJ made the call. The turn brought the Jack of clubs, which was essentially a brick. Hunt continued to apply the pressure and shoved for what would be AJ’s entire stack of 34k. This overbet shove got AJ to fold his AA face up. Hunt said that he had the 7, but didn’t show it. Did he have it?
Heartbreak for Brendan24
Brendan24 made an impressive deep run last night, and found himself in position to make a huge double up that would have put him 2nd in chips, and crippled Black with 6 players left. Black raised from the small blind with QQ and Brendan defended from the big blind with KJ. Of course the flop came AQ10 giving Black the set and Brendan the nut straight. Obviously both players got it all in on this flop, and Brendan was sitting pretty. However, Pokerrr2 remains undefeated as the board paired on the turn giving Black the full house and sending Brendan to the rail.
Too Soon to Panic?
Although there is still plenty of time left in the PLIA season as we are only 4 weeks in, there has to be cause for concern for a group of Final 9ers from Season 1. Currently, cjw84, Sampson, and Walnuts find themselves in 18th, 20th, and 21st respectively, and probably tied in the Power Rankings. These guys have proven that they have the game to compete by making last season’s Final 9, but they have all struggled mightily to open this season. The beauty of PLIA is that all it takes is one strong finish to turn things around, but these three have to be getting antsy. Will they change things up a bit or will they hope that things will turn around in the long run? We’ll keep an eye on them these next few weeks to see how it unfolds (pun).
PLIA 2 Week 3 “How it Unfolded”
White Power
Congratulations to Whites for winning yet another PLIA week for $990. This is White’s EIGTH victory in 19 regular season tournaments. Simply astonishing. Even Tiger-esque. I’m starting to think that Whites is better than what this league has to offer. I’ll be disappointed if I don’t see him quit his job and take his skills on the road. He needs to. Wife, kids, career, cat….they’re all roadblocks at this point. Live the dream Jeff and make a run at the Main Event in 2022. You’re ready.
It’s been a great week for all the Whites in the country. Between Jeff’s latest win, Thanksgiving celebrations, and the Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal it’s been smooth sailing. However, I think we can all agree that the REAL winner last night was 82p. Quite frankly, I’ve never seen such a poker transformation in my life. 82p went from biggest fish in the league to an absolute sharp shooter. 82p made to heads up with Whites (albeit lost in 2 hands) and won $494. I truely thought limiting rebuys would destroy any chance he had to make a run at the league but boy was I wrong. Even on a freezeout night he played tight, chose his aggressive spots carefully, and even threw out some dry-witted smack talk when the situation called for it. I even saw him fold 2nd pair on a river check raise. It was like watching Doyle play in his prime. The hand below just sums up the entire night:
Chris pushed all in with ATs and gets snapped called by 82p’s J4s. After hilariously crushing Chris’s better holding, Chris snarkily said “J4…sick play” to which 82p responded “here to play. had the flush too.” Damn Hunt…talk about pouring battery acid on an open wound. Chris Wentworth just got “fried” by 82p. Having 82p ahead of him in the latest power rankings has to rattle the spirit.
Time Traveling: Back to the…Present.
Quick shoutout to our commish McCann for surprising all of us with a new time bank feature. This wonderful addition gives each player 3 extra time banks of 15 seconds to use when we really need it. Sometimes life just throws curveballs at you during important times and you just need a few extra seconds to react. Last night Chris’s popcorn machine needed a few extra seconds to get those last kernals to pop and he was able to finish that task without rushing to misplay his hand. Without that extra time bank he may have done something silly like just go all in with AK with 8bb left (see questionable plays column below).
Highly Questionable
Now that we’re back into the swing of things it’s time to get back to analyzing some plays, good and bad from both on the felt and off. We’ll continue where we left off making fun of Chris for trying to slow play AK with about 8bb left. He simply called Whites UTG min raise rather than reshove and prevent 3 others in joining the pot. Naturally he completely whiffed the flop and 82p ended up taking it down like the killer whale that he is. The obvious question here is why not just shove AK? The answer he’ll likely give is that he would rather see a flop than commit his tournament life. But any competent poker player will see through that and notice that he’s just playing scared. His standings in the power rankings prove it. He’s trying to eek out a few more points, not trying to win. Here’s an idea: let’s skip the next trip to the concession stand and make your way over to the gaming section of a book store.
Shades found himself in a tough spot approaching the final table last night. Holding TT in the sb, Shades faced an all in from Black on the cutoff as well as 3 limpers to act after. Shades was sitting on a nice stack of 20bb and calling Black’s all in for about 8bb wasn’t the worry; it was Ace in the bb and Quinn’s intial UTG limp which smelled fishy (both players covered Shades’s stack). Shades correctly put Black on a mid pair (he showed 88) but he was genuinely nervous that Quinn’s fishy UTG limp was very strong. Even if it was a hand like AJ, Quinn could have called and Shades would be in a flip position for a monster stack and his tournament life. He used his newly-featured time bank to take a piss, grab a beer, and ultimately fold. It was a purely situational play. If there weren’t two giant stacks to act after him, not to mention the 2 other limpers in the pot who might think they’re priced in, it’s an auto call.
We’re now down to 22 players in PLIA after KingJonah decided to welch on the league, ditch town, and move to Vegas. At first I was peeved to learn someone would do that to our beloved league, but when I found out he moved to Vegas, it softened the sting. Glad to hear he’s living all of our dreams, but does Vegas not have internet? Is he doing the #vanlife thing living on the outskirts of Red Rocks on BLM land? If so, that’s fucking awesome but if not he’s only making his sponsor TheDivia look bad. The general rule of any renowned club is that you are responsible for new members/guests you bring into that club so if someone skips out on their bill, you are stuck with it. Considering that Divia has done a lot for the league and has hosted many big ones (small ones?) over the summer, we’ll let this slide.
The Memphis Grizzles defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder 152-79 last night which set a new NBA record for largest margin of defeat (73 points). I’m sorry but that’s completely unacceptable. I just looked at the roster of guys who played for OKC last night and I didn’t recognize a single name. Granted I haven’t watched an NBA game in years, but on any given team there should be at least 1 name I’ve heard of. Imagine being a working stiff regular Joe and treating your family to a night out at the Thunder game and having to watch that disgrace of a product? Imagine how horrible a time your wife and kids would have watching the opposing team dunk all over your “stars”? There’s something not right with this. Also, grizzly bears have never been native to Tennessee so I’m not sure how they even got that name.
Chris Wentworth Power Rankings (Or something)
A new proprietary model was formulated for the express purposes of this feature. Key analytical indicators such as: final tables, cashes, and bottom 5’s were considered. Welshing on your poker league and dropping out after not paying the entry fee was also highly weighted. Items not contemplated, but still of general interest include: most table grudges, and most likely to call an all in for half your stack with J4s. The mdoel will continue to evolve as the season progresses and I’m sure there will be broad consensus, if it’s good enougn for CFB, it’s good enough for PLIA2.
Tier 1
1. Whites
2. Tanker
3. Ross
Tier 2
4. Borat
5. BrianHawk
6. Shades
7. McCann
8. 82p
9. AJIII
10. TheDivia
11. Mazz
12. Black
Tier 3
13. Ace
14. Mike K
15. Craig B
16. Quinn
17. JesscoB
18. CJW84
Tier 4
19. Brendan24
20. Sampson
21. Walnuts
22. 3,5 Suited
The Most Un-Nobleman of All Time
KingJonah
PLIA 2 Week 2 “How it Unfolded”
Rosstradamus Predicts Victory, Shockingly Comes True
Congratulations to Rosstradamus for finally throwing that pesky monkey off his back and earning his first PLIA victory and cashing $1,005. The Damus celebrated with a fist pump at 12:45 ET (3 hours past his bed time) and jumped back into contention with the other leaders. Though he has 20 years of poker expeirence, this is the first 4-digit cash he’s had in a long time. Ross doesn’t have the time to play as much as he used to due to work and having 2 kids (who else could possibly relate?) but once Thursday comes around he spends the entire day focusing on the upcoming tournament. The self-proclaimed best short stack player on the east coast built a large stack early and was able to hold off Borat for a tediously-long heads up. At one point, Borat asked if he wanted to chop, but Ross knowing he needs to protect the integrity of the PLIA scoring system declined and continued to plow along. This is a big win for Cotton Weary, I mean Rosstradamus, as he plans to use this win to catapult him to more victories and eventually a WSOP Main Event title.
Congratulations to Borat and Hawko for winning $573 and $282 respectively.
AJIII vs. The World
It’s no secret that AJ seems to have a problem with everyone in PLIA. He’s convinced that the league is structured against him, the app is rigged, and anyone who tries to organize a game out of the goodness of their heart is simply an asshole. The league showed some sympathy last year as he rarely made final tables, narrowly missed the final 9, and his JJ never held up, but this year things are turning around for him but he’s still just as salty. Now sitting in 3rd place and after 2 weeks of vomit-inducing suckouts, AJ can never bitch or moan about PLIA again. Not after the nonsense he pulled on Ace in the hand below where he goes all in on the turn playing the board with an A kicker, HOPING for a chop and actually saying out loud “I know Ace has a higher pocket pair” then getting his K on the river to win a massive pot. Enough already. You’ve had your moment in the sun threatening and complaining to no one in particular. Props to JesscoB for going Tanker on AJ and calling him a “douche.”
Embr”ACE” the Plate
There’s been a lot of criticism about name plates lately but the one plate seemingly everyone hates has to be Ace’s. It takes up a quarter of the screen! Also, it’s not Halloween anymore, you can lose the pumpkin. It’s just hard to understand what it really is. It’s a cross between a Vegas drive in Denny’s and a horrow show. At least it’s not another flames plate.
PLIA 2 Week 1 “How it Unfolded”
The Price is White
A new season is upon us but we’re picking up right where we left off with Whites winning week 1 and pocketing $904. The #1 ranked player in Chris’s power rankings outplayed the entire field and won some lucky all ins on his way to victory. There’s a growing feeling that he’s not really a poker savant but is really just involved in the development of the app itself. The PLIA investigative journalism team has started taking a serious look into this but for now all we can do is celebrate his victory. The best of it all is that he won while partying in his neighbor’s backyard. He wasn’t even focused! That’s scary news for the rest of us.
One person who was not happy for Whites this morning was Mrs. Shades. Below is the exact exchange that happened this morning:
Mrs. Shades: Did you win last night??
Shades: No, Whites did.
Mrs. Shades: Of course he did. I don’t know why you guys let him play with you. He just always takes your lunch money.
Shades: I had him this time, honey but he sucked me out again. He’s just so god damn lucky!
Mrs. Shades: You’re not very good.
Congratulations to Tanker1919 and McCann for winning $512 and $316 respectively.
Black’s Mom has it Going on
An interesting exchange occurred between Black and Tanker1919 last night. During the play of a hand something triggered Tanker to say to Black “White’s internet is better than your mom’s.” WTF does that mean? Does it imply that Black still lives with his mom? Is Mrs. Black still using dial-up service and Tanker somehow knows about this? And why bring Whites into this? This is the strangest and most confusing trash talk we’ve ever heard on a poker table and quite possibly anywhere else.
But then the story takes an interesting turn. Tanker followed up that odd comment with a comment about Mrs. Black’s comely appearance. We’ll omit the actual comment but apparently Mrs. Black is quite the catch. The PLIA investigative journalism team is working diligently to comb the internet for photos of this little vixen and if we find anything good we’ll be sure to share.
And while we’re talking about Black, we have to address the fact that he’s the 3rd person to have the flames nameplate. We gave 82p some flack for copying Tanker’s nameplate but now that there’s 3 that’s just too much. Come on Black get your own plate. You’re better than that.
While We’re Young
There was some chatter last night that certain players were taking their sweet ass time folding hands. Those being accused were Whites, 35 suited, and Jessco. Yours truly was at the table and did notice some time clock ticking down for no particular reason but if we’re getting to the point where we’re publicly blasting people because their 10 second time bank is being fully used then we need to check our privilege a bit. White’s internet was finicky (altho somehow much better than Mrs. Black’s), and I’m sure Jessco and 35 were multitasking. It’s like when I used to get phone calls about pace of play on the golf course. “There’s 2 open holes in front of them!!” No sir, there isn’t. You’re just being an asshole.
Plays of the Night
There was a major 3-way all in between McCann, Mike K, and Craig B. Craig flopped the nut straight, Mike K had a middling flush draw, and McCann had top set. McCann managed to turn a full house to have the others drawing dead. The massive $33k pot is the largest of the season.
Mazz had his heart broken last night as UC Riverside upset Arizona St by nailing a 3/4 court shot at the buzzer. I’ve never even heard of UC Riverside but they sound like a bunch of winners. The 2-1 Highlanders take on La Sierra 2pm on Sunday. Fun Fact: They take on UC Santa Barbara on Jan 20 – the night of the PLIA Highroller. Stay tuned for updates as their season progresses!
PLIA 2 Preview
New Hope New Dreams
After 7 long months we are finally back in action. A lot has happened since the Final 9. Covid is back, club championships were defended, “big ones” were hosted, small ones materialized. I think we can all agree we are looking forward to a new PLIA season where we can test our skills, test our luck, and test our patience. Summer is for the families, Winter is for PLIA.
Season 2 Updates
The PLIA Executive Committee (McCann, Shades, Rosstradamus, Whites) spent countless hours in the off season tweaking the structure of the league and games to ensure not only more competitive action but to try and identify the best poker player of the season. Gone are the days of where there will be an all in blitz 10 minutes before registration ends. The Committee felt this was a desperate attempt to built a stack before the cutoff rather than a true, honest poker play. Many also felt that due to the inevitable all-in blitz the first hour of play was getting pointless. For that reason we have decided on a $75 entry and 1 rebuy max for non-freezeout tournaments in order to keep the same amount of money in the pots and keep the integrity of overall play.
PLIA2 will now include 6 freezeouts, increased from 4 last year. One of those freezeouts will be a $200 High Roller (Jan 20). Our goal was again to provide tournaments that identify the best player while still creating big pots. We felt that a big midseason tournament would create a lot of interested but we were conscious of not having it overshadow the Final 9 Freezeout.
Of course, we will still be taking a rake each week that will go to the PLIA Final 9 Freeroll. See the ‘PLIA2 Schedule & Results’ tab for details
PLIA2 Players to Watch
Whites: Last year’s champion is looking to defend his title. Whites didn’t try to take advantage of the all-in blitz but he seemingly won every single flip he was a part of. Will his luck continue into 2022?
Black: Black has a ton of poker experience but he exploited the rebuy loophole and tried to double up right before cutoff. He didn’t care how many times he rebought he just wanted a stack for the final table bubble. Will he adjust his strategy this year?
McCann: The Commish had more final tables that anyone in PLIA1 (10) but finished just short of cashing in the top 3. His notoriously tight play limits his ability to play aggressively on small boards. Maybe if he puts some art on his blank white wall that’ll loosen up his play a little to make him more unpredictable.
Shades: Shades had a disappointing first season of PLIA but worked on his game more than anyone in the offseason and cashed over $22,000 in the PokerBros app. He used his winnings to build a poker room in his basement where he can shuffle chips and work on his mechanics grip.
Kerrigan: Mike K finished middle of the pack last season but took down a big one over the summer. He needed to get that first win to get the pressure off his back. Considering his pre-game routine of a glass of wine in his hot tub, we can expect an extra relaxed and confident Mike K to consistently be in the mix.
Divia: The master of the “big one” continued to hone his skills all summer long in hopes to take out his snarky arch nemesis AJIII. That infamous “can you please stop” showed not only how on tilt AJ is but what a gentleman Divia is by his honest and humbling response. He’s a true steward of the game.
The Chris Wentworth (poor man’s Peter King) Preseason Power Rankings
Ivory & Ebony Tower
It’s pretty Black and White at the top of the initial PLIA2 power rankings. Some call it luck, others call it skill, others claim they’re equity investors in the app itself. Whatever the case may be, the league comes into season 2 looking to chase down a clear cut top 2 in the power rankings
1. Whites
2. Black
Contenders
A talented group of also-rans, consistency kings, last season’s Final 9 champ, and one “cool guy.” Not quite in the elite category, will we see any from this group challenge the expected front runners or will the target on their backs from the rest of the pack prove too much to handle?
3. Mazz
4. Rosstradamus
5. McCann
6. Sampson
7. Tanker
Hanging Around
A volatile bunch, capable of a wide range of outcomes week to week. The occasional deep run, a tilted burn out, or tilting and folding JJ pre-flop. Also the group most likely to buy into the “site hands” conspiracy. Contenders for the Final 9, but real long shots for the season long crown
8. CWJ84
9. Walnuts
10. JesscoB
11. TheDivia
12. AJIII
13. Shades
Just Happy to be a Part of Something
Look, the standings from last season speak for themselves. Whether it be impatience, incompetence, a lack of attendance, the results are what they are. Lousy. This group will be looking for redemption. Will they be tempted to press and dig further into the hole, or will they let the game come to them (does it even matter)?
14. BrianHawk
15. Mike K
16. 82p54m48
17. Brian
18. Craig B
Too New to Rate
Welcome to a new batch of degenerates. Rankings TBD.
19. Brendan24
20. Ace
21. 3,5 Suited
22. King Jonah
23. Borat