Date: Mon, 4 Jun 2007 15:04:53 -0700 (PDT) From: Ken Kubey Subject: [Target] TARGET 2007 - The mother, the brother and me Hi all, Here it is. The official 2007 Report. The 13th TARGET event was held at the Mirage. It was our 6th year there! Friday, 6/01. 10 a.m. No Donna, no Chris. I talk to Don. He knows nothing about TARGET. I tell him that I need about 30 comp slips ready at 10:30. He gets stories like this all the time. After about 5 more TARGET players show up, he gives me a book of comp slips. I've filled in several names when he comes back with the envelope full of comp slips that were filled out ahead of time. Yay. About 20 of us meet for brunch. Amazingly there is no line at all and we are able to get 3 big tables in the same area. Chris Dozen was the TD this year. Donna Harris helped set up the tournament. Again we used Patrick Milligan Tournament Timer. Thanks to Patti Beadles for bringing her laptop and getting it all set up. I introduce my new finacee, Sandi and her daughter Kristina to the field. They took a lot of pictures early on. We managed a respectable 28 players at post time. The tables: Len Marciano Tony Goldstein Barbara Garrett Ken Kubey Patti Beadles Marc Ferguson Ross Poppel Steve Nissman David Orr Steve Watanabe Rod Chavez Jim Cihla Paul Stine Barry Goren John Lloyd Adam Bachrach Russ Fox Keith Bronson Mark Rafn George Wattman Ray Klann Al Stuart Keith Troell Jeff Deitch Barry Tanenbaum Corey Imsdahl Charles Haynes Chris Sims We had 10 TARGET rookies in the field this year. A $200 buy-in got each of us 2000 in tournament chips. Rod Chavez was the only late arrival and he called ahead to warn me that he was stuck in the monster lines at the WSOP. Cards were in the air very close to 12 noon. 45 minutes of the most boring poker you have ever seen. Raise and take it. In 20 hands, maybe we'd see one flop. Keith Troell was the first out. He was all-in on a 9-6-5 flop with 97 vs. Steve Nissman's pocket jacks. Keith received a hand-held poker game, Barry Tanenbaum's business card, a roll of Lifesavers and a $10 Mirage coin. Next out was Charles Haynes. Noteworthy because Charles came all the way from Bangolore, India to play in TARGET. Oh, yeah, he'll probably play in the WSOP, etc., but he *did* say that TARGET was the main reason for his trip. I believe Mr. Haynes has been to more TARGETs than anyone except me. A few more players go out. We get down to two tables. George Wattman asks me if I've ever lasted this long in TARGET before. Thanks buddy :-) I mention that I made the final table in the first TARGET. And then add that there was only one table that year. Chuckles. I actually made the final table in 94, 95, 96, 97 and 98. Jim Cihla took a an awful beat with KK vs. 88. He was looking good until a 3rd 8 hit on the river. I met Jim at Patrick's Yacht tournament. He seemed like a BARGE/TARGET kind of guy. Someone goes out in 11th and we are down to the final table: Chris Sims 3800 Marc Ferguson 5900 Ken Kubey 4200 Dave Orr 5500 Russ Fox 2000 Barbara Garrett 8800 Rod Chavez 8600 Steve Nissman 5800 Al Stuart 8300 Barry Goren 3200 1st, 2nd and 3rd get $1500 entries in the WSOP. 4th gets $100. 5th gets a couple of hand-held gambling games donated by Fich. 6th gets a handshake. The tournament will end when we are down to three players. Final table notes... --- 5 rookies. Chip leader is Barbara Garrett. Kevan signed up for TARGET, but then found that he couldn't make it. Instead of bailing out completely, Kevan sent his mom to play in his place. Barbara is just as nice a person as Kevan and has that same great smile. It goes without saying that she plays better than Kevan. This is *my* first TARGET final table since 1998. --- Russ Fox is hunted down by Ken Kubey with QQ and Barbara with AK. Russ was very low on chips in the big blind and took a shot with A5. QQ held up for me and Russ was out in 10th. Dave Orr was up the creek without a paddle all-in on a J-X-Y flop with JT vs. Rod's AJ. Rod's ace kicker was good. 8th place for Steve Nissman with AJ vs. Uncle Al's AQ. Chris Sims went with AQ vs. Rod's 33. No help for Chris and he is sent to the rail in 7th. With the blinds at 300-600, Barbara put out two 500 chips with the intention of raising. Players agreed that her action was just a call. I should have called for a floorman as I think we made the wrong decision here. So Barbara put out 600 to call. Action folded to Uncle Al Stuart in the big blind. Al knew that Barbara meant to raise. In an act of good sportsmanship, Al threw his hand away giving the pot to Barbara. I believe this is the first act of chivalry in the history of TARGET. With 6 players left, Barry Goren jammed with A6o from the small blind. Marc Ferguson (Yes, he is Chris Ferguson's brother) woke up with A9s in the big blind and made the call. No six on the board meant 6th for Mr. Goren. Al went all-in with AJ. Marc called with a pair of 10's. Al picked up some outs with three wheel cards out, but missed the river. Al got the 5th place bubble prizes. With 56,000 chips in play and blinds of 500-1000, I thought it might take quite a while to knock out the 4th player and end the tournament. I was wrong. For the first time ever, I printed up little slips to be given to the three TARGET winners. Here's what they look like: _______________________________________________________________________ | | | $1500 $1500 | | | | TARGET Champion 2007 | | | | | | This Certificate is good for one $1500 WSOP entry. | | | | | | | | In Presto! We Trust. | | | | $1500 $1500 | | | |_____________________________________________________________________| Presto! is BARGE/RGP slang for pocket 5's (55). Presto! is considered a somewhat magical hand in rec.gambling lore going way back to the early 1990's. Anyway, on to *THE* hand. I'm in the big blind with 55. Barbara is first and calls. Barbara is not a loose player. She's been showing down quality cards. I put her on a medium ace. Maybe AT or A9s. Something like that. Barry and Marc fold. Now, I could raise here, but I decide to see the flop figuring that if the flop comes something like A-7-5, I'll be able to check-raise Barbara and perhaps knock her out in 4th place. Yes, all of that went through my mind in about 10 seconds before the flop. The flop is A-A-5! Cha-ching! I have a full house! I check it to Barbara hoping she will bet. Not only does she bet, she bets all of her chips. I call about 1/4 nanosecond later and table my cards right away. Barbara does have and ace of course. She has A6s. How perfect is this? 13 years of running TARGET and I'm finally going to win the big prize and I'm going to win it with Presto!, the most holy of all rec.gambling hands. Absolutely perfect. The turn card.... 6. No!!!!!!! The turn gives Barbara aces full of 6's which kills my flopped 5's full of aces. My only hope now is for four of a kind. River 6. Barbara wins the monster pot. I still have some chips, but I'm crestfallen. I've lost pots with more money on the line, but never a pot with so much personal meaning. I was just crushed. Barbara seemed upset about winning the hand. I was a good sport about it despite having my poker-heart ripped out. I told her that her play on the flop was fine and that I knew on the flop that she had to be drawing live to make a bigger boat. Patti told me later that Barbara was crying. She does not like to win by putting a beat on someone. I don't either. I tried to collect myself. I remembered a post to rec.gambling from years ago. Patti had lost a true monster pot in the $10,000 main event of the WSOP on a bad beat. A $32,000 pot if memory serves. But she still had chips left. She said something like this... I have to put that bad beat out of my mind. I have chips left. I just have to play my best from here on in this new situation. Okay, on we go... A couple of hands later I get AA. I raise, everyone folds. I smirk and show the AA. I collect a few chips. I'm starting to feel better. Positive thoughts are starting to creep back in. Maybe I will hang on. A few hands later, Barbara raises. Rod goes all-in. Barbara calls. I know Barbara isn't in here with swiss cheese. She shows AJ. A very respectable hand with only 4 players in. Rod shows KJ. I think he has hoping to get Barbara to fold. And it might have worked if she had a small pair or a weaker ace. So now things are looking great. I just need Barbara's hand to hold up and the tournament will be over. AJ is a big favorite over KJ of course. Rod can pretty much only survive by hitting a king. The flop shows. I see a king and two other high cards. How unlucky am I? A king has to come? About a second later, I think that maybe Barbara can catch a straight to win the hand. I look to see what card she needs to fill the straight. She has AJ and the flop is K-Q-10. Let's see, she needs a... she needs a... Oh my goodness! She's flopped the straight!!!!!!!!! The turn is a 9. It gives Rod a king-high straight, but he still needs an ace to tie the hand and survive. I say "Deuce. Deuce." The river is the 2h (that's a deuce kids). Rod is out in 4th place. He got $100 for his efforts. Barbara again seemed very upset to have won the hand. She was practically weeping. Three of us gave her quick hugs. I didn't think it was possible for anyone to be more thrilled than *me* to win TARGET, but I think Barbara was more thrilled. Congratulations to Barbara Garrett, Marc Ferguson and Ken Kubey. Yes, it *is* possible to play very tight and win. Marc played very tight and solid. I played squeaky tight. We each received $1500 entries in the WSOP at the Rio. Barbara and Ken played in the $1500 No-limit event on Saturday. Marc will play in the $1500 Omaha event on Tuesday. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Craps run. A bunch of us went to Casino Royale across the street from the Mirage. Ross, John, Al, Barry, George, Keith, Barbara, Paul and Ray. Dan S. and Paul's brother Tim joined us. I hope I didn't leave anyone out. Ray and Dan were betting the Don't. The rest of us were playing Pass. After about 90 minutes. All of us were losing money. I only lost about $50. I doubt than anyone else did better. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thanks to everyone who played in TARGET and a big Thanks to all of the folks that sent checks in early. That really helps me a lot. I'll be sending out a survey soon. I hope everyone had a good time during the TARGET weekend. TARGET will be held again sometime around the WSOP next year. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stand by for the Post-TARGET report coming soon... Ken Kubey kubey@engr.sgi.com (650) 933-3536 _______________________________________________ Target mailing list Target@conjelco.com http://mail.conjelco.com/mailman/listinfo/target