From: Ken Kubey Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2016 14:04:47 -0700 Subject: [Target] Official 2016 TARGET Report Hi all, Here it is. The official 2016 TARGET Report. The 20th (20th? Really?) TARGET event was held at the Mirage. Sandi and I take Uber from the airport to Main Street Station. Our first time using Uber. So much better than a taxi!! About $23 instead of $40. Also with first-timer discounts, it was basically a free ride. Thursday, 9:40 a.m. Meet up with Diana Mercer and Rich Strauss at Main Street. Diana drops Rich and me off at the Mirage valet entrance. Thanks!! I find Susan Sandberg, the at the Mirage poker room. Wow, the room looks terrific after being remodeled. The tables look nice. We work out a few details. About 26 of us meet for brunch. Russ and Rich get a little scared when I tell them they are my dates for the brunch. I see some RGP guy with Pete who I haven't seen for close to a decade. My mind comes up with "Wall." Wolertz? Walters? Walter Hunt! The group gets nailed for the group 18% gratuity. We've been lucky to dodge this for many years, but they got us this time. Sorry about that. I sit with Rich, Larry and Rod. I don't remember much of the converstaion as my mind is going 120 mph trying to prepare and remember everything. --- Back to the poker room we go... For weeks we've been at 18 to 20 players, so I set up for 2 tables of 20. It occurred to me to have papers ready for 3 tables, but I was too lazy to do that days before TARGET. Big mistake. As I leave brunch, we are at 21 players. Rich Strauss helps me randomly assign seats for 7 players each at 3 tables. Suddenly, we are at 25 players. Yikes. Mark Gershoff is the Tournament Director (TD) again this year. Again we used Patrick Milligan Tournament Timer. I supplied the ancient laptop. The tables: Pete Segal Kevan Garrett Walter Hunt Doug Grismore Ken Kubey Rich Strauss Paul Stine Gillian Groves David Kluchman Ming Lee Randy Collack Len Marciano Barbara Garrett Chris Mecklin Barry Kornspan Russ Fox Rich Bremmer Rod Chavez Bill Turner Diana Mercer Dean Kerl Becca Kerl Larry Bierman Bill Chen Kenny Shei A $200 buy-in got each of us 2000 in tournament chips. Cards were in the air maybe 10 minutes late. 12:40ish. No one went out for a long time. Gillian's TT was ahead of Kubey's AT, but disaster loomed on at the turn. 4-2-X-3. The 3 gave Kubey more outs. Gillian said "No five!" just as the deal put out a river ace. Gillian received a $10 slot certificate, a roll of Lifesavers and a round of applause. Rich Bremmer goes out on the next hand reverse-bubbling the consolation prize. Later a big hand develops on table 1. Barbara has AK, Barry has QQ. The flop is an ever-so-rigged Q-J-T as all the chips go in. The board pairs knocking Mom Garrett out of the tournament. She was heard to say: "I had him till the turn. Can I kick the shhhh..." Much laughter. We do a chip race after the 50-100 round. Of course the TD and I both forgot about the 150-300 round coming later. Doh! We have to do a "color down" to get the greens back into play. We are down to 11 players. 5 at table 1, 6 at table 2. With the blinds at 150-300, I open-raise to 900. Chris is in the BB and asks "Why so much?" I answer: "I'm old school." He jams. I quickly call with AQo and I'm pleased to see he has AJo until a stupid jack hits the flop and I'm out. Becca goes out at the same time on the other table. Mark starts the process of forming the final table. I take about 10 seconds to decompress. No rest for the wicked, weary organizer. At we got a good round of applause. Final Table: Rod Chavez 2425 Pete Segal 2150 Kevan Garrett 6100 Barry Kornspan 5800 Chris Mecklin 14100 Dean Kerl 3550 Bill Chen 9075 Russ Fox 3500 Kenny Shei 3350 Kenny is the only player back from the 2014 Final Table. Three TARGET rookies made it: Pete, Barry and Dean. --- As usual, I announce the names of the players and their stack sizes before we start final table play. I get to seat four and say "Barry Korn..." my brain totally blanks as I stand there like a moron for a second. "Barry with 5800." Biggest laugh I got all day. --- 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th get $1000 entries in the WSOP. 5th gets $390. 6th gets $90. 7th gets a handshake. The tournament will end when we are down to four players. Final table notes... --- Russ jams, Kenny thinks for couple of seconds and jams. Folded back to Chris who thinks for a while and folds. He said he folded jacks. Russ has KK (Ooh, he has loosened up his play) and Kenny has QQ. Mr. Fox flops a king, but has to sweat a club draw that develops on the turn. A harmless spade falls on the river. OMG, they killed Kenny in 9th place. --- Random comment dept. "Tell me I don't have a cute ass." --- A triple jam up comes with up between Rod, Kevan and Dean. Rod has 99, Kevan KK and Dean 66. Again a king flops and again a flush draw develops for Mr. Kerl and again a blank hits the river. We are rid of Rod and done with Dean as they report to the rail in a tie for 7th. --- Bill comments "Making bankrolls great again." --- Mr. Segal is a PSSN, but the end comes as his KJ falls to Bill's AA. Pete peters out in 6th. Good for $90. --- So here we are with 5 players left. The tournament could be over on the next hand... right? Wrong... --- A couple of players can't see the tournament clock due to railbirds standing in the way. Bill: "They're clock blocking." --- Russ' supporters tell him to open on his range 5-handed. --- Russ jams. Kevan makes the call with AK. Russ "Messenger of Doom" Fox rolls over Q2off! Two onlookers faint and gasps come from the remaining conscious players. Fox flops the deuce and it holds. Kevan: "Blanking luckbox!" --- A discussion about zombies breaks out. Someone mentions that we need a wall. Pete: "We'll build a wall and make the zombies pay for it." Much laughter. --- Barry jams with KK, Mecklin calls with 99. Barry survives as he rivers a heart flush to suck out on himself. --- We are now about an HOUR into 5-handed play. There are rumors about a cocktail waitress, but she never seems to get to our table. --- Barry jams with A5, Kevan makes the call with A9. Mr. Kornspan is excited as he tells us he sees "A five in the window." Barry is well ahead with a pair of fives. I think everyone knows that Mom Garrett is a true sweetheart, but she can hold a grudge with the best of 'em. Just before the river, she says "Come on nine!" Sure enough, the river is a 9 to cream Kornspan's hopes. $390 for Barry in 5th. --- We finished with 8 minutes left at the 500-1000 blind level. What a battle. Congratulations to Russ Fox, Chris Mecklin, Bill Chen and Kevan Garrett. Bill wins TARGET for the 2nd time (2000). Kevan wins for the 2nd time (2010). Chris wins on his 2nd try. Russ (though he has multiple TARGET cashes) wins on his 14th try! Thanks also to the Mirage and poker room manager, Susan Sandberg and TD Mark Gershoff who helped set this all up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Paul, the Garretts and I went to the Carnegie Deli. Gotta say they have gone downhill since 2014. California Pizza Kitchen next time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Thanks to everyone who played in TARGET and a big Thanks to all of the folks who sent checks in early. I was quite frazzled with all the day-of entries this year. I'm happy to get more players, but people paying upfront makes it much easier for me. Every year I think that maybe we should close down TARGET, but then every year it is so much fun that I think we need to keep it going. I'm going to order Nolan to schedule the Seniors event a week earlier so it doesn't conflict with EDC. I can't deal with paying $200 a night for a fleabag room. I'll be sending out a survey soon. I hope everyone had a good time at TARGET and on the weekend. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WSOP report. Kevan played in the $1000 Seniors WSOP event. He was sending out reports every hour or so and all seemed to be going well. At 10:42 p.m., Kevan reports: "We are 3 from the money. I will fold I will fold. I will fold." And then silence. Dan Goldman reports that he is in the money. Russ reports that he too is in the money (though not with TARGET funding). At 11:44 p.m., I can't stand it anymore and text Kevan. He texts right back that he is in the money, but short-stacked. Whew! Congrats to Kevan on his first WSOP cash for $1615 in event 27. One more text from Kevan: "Mom's still the boss though." ------ Bill Chen added $9000 to his TARGET prize to play in the $10,000 limit hold'em event. Instead of the usual 15%, Team TARGET has just 1.5% of Bill's action. Early reports from Bill are all bad. But then this about 5 hours in: "Down to felt up to 48k now almost starting stack!" --- Next day from Bill: "23 left. 17 pay. 300k ish a little above avg I will not farm, I will not farm, I will not farm! Raise raise raise!" --- Kenny Shei and Bill both make the money! Woo hoo. With a TARGET rooting section, Bill puts together a final table run finishing in 6th place for a mere $49,304 in event 28. Way to go Bill! ------ Chris Mecklin played in the $1500 NL on Saturday. I don't have any specifics, but he went out in the 9th level of play. --- Russ Fox will be playing starting on July 3rd in PLO8. --- Thanks to some folks for helping with the set up and for helping get signatures. Thanks to Rich for helping me with the random seating. Thanks to Diana for the lift. TARGET players will be getting some money back this year. About $40 each at the moment. Hoping Russ can win the PLO8 bracelet and get us all unstuck. I'll contact the group later about that. All in favor of TARGET in 2017? -- 2016 World Chowaha Champion. Ken Kubey kenkubey@gmail.com