.

and so Season 9 begins...

In Season 8 the only change i made to the Tournament Setup was extend it another 4 games (making it a total of 15) which seemed to be highly popular. It's perhaps the most popular change i have employed in KPT since the current $25+ Multiple RB setup which everyone is googoo gaga over. I'm convinced these guys would actually boycott if i ever change the Multi-Rebuy setup, that or crucify me upside down on a cross.

This season, by popular demand, the Multi-RB Setup remains but not without Drama. I was very tempted to drastically change the setup, even the day of the event. This, of course, did not bode well with the players. The idea of switching the Tournament to Saturday was quickly scrapped after finding out every single player opposed it as if it were a Tax Increase Bill on Capitol Hill or something (except Rolland who could care less what day or time we played for that matter). The mere mention of admonishing the Multi-RB won me a lot of boos in the Poker Room too so i decided to scrap that idea all together as well. About the only thing i did without causing any fussing and fighting was changing the Tournament start time from 7 pm to 6 pm. That seemed to be okay with everyone... Ironically though, the first 6 PM tournament turned out to be the 2nd longest KPT Tournament ever, lasting until 1:30 am, a full 7 hours of Poker (thanks primarily to the tight play of Darwin and Gerry).

We are now Three Tournaments into the Season. So far there isn't much to talk about except for your usual Bad Beat stories and the un-restrainable Jee antics. He seems to be focusing his South Korean Petulance on Quincy now. Interestingly enough one of Scott's (the former object of his angry obsession) best buds. Either he has a serious bug up his ass or he's got a hard-one for the two most culturally dissimilar fellows in KPT.

But anyway, Korean, Blacks, and Jewish persecution aside, the long awaited Season 9 and the jostling of precious Championship points has begun. Conrad, who had just won Tourney # 3 took over the lead from Darwin (who held the lead in the first two tourneys) who would have retained the lead had he made it on time on Tourneys one, two, and three (he was only several minutes late). Even stranger is the fact that he gave up his Laker-Maverick tickets just so he could play poker in KPT, wherein, he happened to hold the provisional Championship Points Lead. So why in God's Green Felt, if he was willing to surrender tickets for a somewhat popular rivalry game to play Poker, why do it halfass be late and lose 4 points anway? Strange...

This Season i am more interested in Jeremy's Championship defense than anything else. Naturally i am still going to try to win the Championship but not solely focus on winning tournaments but trying to be mindful of points and the money at the same time... Anyway, some say Jeremy won a lot of races in Season 8, some might even call it a Fluke, a Chris Moneymaker syndrome so to speak. I think it is up to Jeremy to silence his critics, whoever they may be. Right now he sits in 5th place trailing by a manageable 14 points to first place. Although it is very early in the Season i think that it is imperative that Jeremy remain within striking distance, or more importantly within the top 5. If Jeremy falters or at least falls shy of a top three finish or even a would be impressive repeat this Season, i think we could attest it to his odd habit of laying down big hands preflop relative to his big chip counts, do you remember those 10's he laid down?? He doesn't do this often but a lot of people think it changes the outcome of tourneys drastically when he does, makes sense, right??? But like Hana said it is a very long Season so i don't recommend blowing your own trumpets just yet...

Posted by: Marc Gabay
Monday, March 12, 2007