Deja vu!
Rafael Again!

Fighting off some intense competition Rafael took home his 2nd consecutive Tournament of Champions Trophy. Clawing back from a slow start he made his move with 9 players left and never looked back. Another tremendous year for the obvious front runner for Best player in the league.

Miller our Hebrew fill in came in 2nd for the 2nd year in a row playing in place of a heartbroken Larry. Card dead for the first few hours of the night he caught fire in the 3rd hour and ran hot until heads up got the best of him. back to back Silver medals will keep him in the conversation of top 10 player for sure.

Pete also fought back from an early small stack to take home the Bronze in 3rd. Quietly sat back and patiently played his game. He makes back to back December tables.

Mark S. was chip leader for q good portion of the evening then the dreaded river reared its ugly head. He bet off a big portion of his chips and could never recover. 4th place and the bubble will be hard to swallow when he looks back at what might have been.

Our host was very quiet. Focusing on the game playing the cards he had but in the end 5th place was all he had to show for it. No traction.

Javier was the big brother who just could not get the ball rolling. A few great moves but it just was not in the cards. 6th place, 8 beers, 1 bottle of wine and may I say too much cheese. Aaron had to throw away the chair Javier occupied.

Big Frank could not win a hand, At least he thought so. A bad read on the board had him backtracking and announcing he lost when he won. Still trying to grasp the rank of hands he quietly finished with little fan fair in 7th.

Yours truly was gone in 8th. As chip leader too early I won the minimum with a check on river with quads. Miller and Frank checked behind me and that was it for me. A river suck out on Mark kept me alive in later rounds but nothing materialized.

Kyle was sent packing in 9th. His pair of 9's against Rafael's AK was a back breaker when Kyle 3 bet all in before the flop and Rafael called. The ace came and Kyle was crushed losing 95% of his stack leaving him with about one big blind. Two hands from a giant stack to out.

Dave R was Short stacked from hand #1. Good hands all night but just could not stay ahead. A questionable fold is what I believe led to his demise. A few double ups when he was down to 2k gave him a chance but it was not to be. 2010's big money winner for sure but the December game was one to forget.

All in all a great night. We discussed masturbation, The BCS bowl games and had more than our share of inappropriate comedy. Aaron was nice enough to buy a 15th of a pound of shrimp (1 each per player) and Corrine stopped buy to root on her man Frank. Larry's spot was nicely filled in by Miller and Rafael stole the spotlight from Dave R with a Hard fought win that keeps him atop the list and the man to beat in 2011.

Next years schedule will be forwarded soon and the third Friday of the month looks to be the date to reserve.