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The Double
Deuce Busts Loose
( By Tom Lawler)
With another thrilling RWPL tourney in the books and
just two more monthly competitions left, this much is clear: anyone can
win one at any time! How else
to explain the fact that we have yet to see anyone win more than one
tourney, and who could have expected Tom Lawler, a guy who woke up on
tourney day ranked 22nd in the overall standings, to take the
crown in January? Some things defy explanation, and this inaugural season of
the RWPL – a titanic confrontation of minds, hearts, beer and lady luck
– has been nothing if not entertaining.
 But
this is a poker write-up, so let’s shuffle up and deal.
About 25 guys on hand again, so there were two tables downstairs
and two tables upstairs. RWPL
Commishes Red and Waterkotte were both playing downstairs, so as to be
expected from these two notorious introverts, downstairs took on a BW3
vibe, while upstairs reminded some of a Starbucks.
The banter was cordial and mellow, but nothing like the sounds of
raucous party happening below with random calls of “we’ve got an
all-in” seemingly happening just minutes after play began.
Meanwhile, upstairs they played cards to the
mellow 80s sounds of Jesse’s digital cable channels.
This month’s champion found himself at a table with Packer Tom,
Noah, Levetis and a couple of Wisconsin imports, Brendan O’Brien and his
friend Travis. With his
aggressive bets and off-speed banter, O’Brien always keeps a table
entertained and he got serious action the first hands he bet out.
He also had cards for a change and began building up his stacks
nicely.
O’Brien and Packer Tom got into a serious
confrontation though on a hand where the flop came 7, 7, Q.
O’Brien was first to act and put in a nice pot-sized wager which
PT called after a long deliberation.
Another 7 fell on the turn and O’Brien put in a huge bet, and
when PT peeked at his cards again, O’Brien needled him, “What, you
still don’t know if you have a seven?”
PT shook his head and replied, “I don’t think that’s the
question at this point.” PT
then called the huge bet. A J
fell on the river and O’Brien went all-in.
Packer Tom quickly called, turning over a 7 – showing the quads
to beat O’Brien’s full house (7s full of Queens).
O’Brien had PT outstacked, so he was still alive, but was now
walking with a serious limp. O’Brien
started talking to himself, wondering if he had played that hand wrong,
but the table consensus was that he had a very hard hand to get away from
and the chances of PT having that fourth seven were remote, although
he’d have to be concerned with Packer Tom calling
those huge bets with such a scary flop unless he had a very strong hand
himself. The players then had to look back at the hand and admire how
Packer Tom was able to feign weakness and confusion throughout it.
After the break and the chip-up, tables were
consolidated to three, and Waterkotte, Brown and Ruffino were added to the
champ’s table. Waterkotte
was so low in chips he was a dead man talking, and began entertaining the
table when not in the hand by providing gratuitous Howard Cosell-like
narrations of the action: “Lawler
is making his move. He’s making a huge to bet to take it.
He’s placing his hand back down on the felt.”
As everyone knows, Lawler has the personality of an aspirin when
he’s in a hand, so the comic relief was much appreciated.
 Fast
forward to the next break and Lawler saw that he was now up to 10K in
chips – more than double what he started with.
Action consolidated to two downstairs tables and Lawler began
raising aggressively on the button and taking blinds where he could
pre-flop (although he always had pocket bullets and cowboys when doing
so). When action finally consolidated to the final table, Lawler was
joined by Kevin Otto (new player from Ann Arbor), Packer Tom, Brunger,
Judd, Jake, Chris Brown and
Christian. Lawler was very
happy to have Jake and Judd on his right, two experienced players who are
difficult to read.
Final table eventually consolidated to Lawler,
Brunger, Judd and Jake. At
this point, the railbirds in attendance began suggesting that it’d be a
very good idea if Jake didn’t advance any further and that perhaps one
of the other players should win -- especially one of the players who was
so far down in the standings he wouldn’t threaten any of the
contenders’ chances for the final tourney.
Side bets were discussed and terms were agreed upon.
Waterkotte also started a cash game upstairs that gave RWPLrs a
second opportunity to lose money that night, yet denied them the privilege
of watching the peerless play of Brunger and Lawler. 
And then the action fell to just Brunger and
Lawler with large stacks when Jake went all-in (and then all-out) on a
mid-pair and Judd met an end so ignoble that it can’t even be remembered
at this point. (Although
it’s worth noting that in the time it took Judd to decide whether to
call Brunger’s all-in a few hands earlier we could have held two more
tourneys.)
On the button, Lawler got very aggressive with
K-9 suited and got sucked into a very expensive hand with Brunger, trying
to bluff him out on the flop and turn.
At the river, Lawler, still hadn’t caught even a pair, so he
checked to Brunger, who went all-in.
Lawler had to fold and saw about 75% of his chips get pushed across
the table to Brunger. Gentleman
he is, Brunger flipped his cards to show that he actually had the flush
that Lawler was trying to represent.
With his co-pilot Ruffino over his shoulder though, Lawler was
instructed to forget about that hand and focus on the next one.
 But
now feeling backed into a corner with time running out, Lawler got very
aggressive on the short stack and went all-in a couple of times pre-flop
to steal blinds. It goes with
out saying again that each time he had pocket Js or better.
But like two exhausted, punch-drunk boxers,
both players took turns hammering each other for the blinds and made
strong bets on the flop when the other checked.
Lawler almost went out when Brunger went all-in before the flop on
A-J. Lawler, still
dangerously low on chips, felt strong in a two-handed game with pocket 8s
and called. When the flop
brought an Ace, Lawler got up from the table and began looking for a cold
slice of Domino’s. An 8 on
the river quickly got him back in his chair though, and he got the feeling
that this might be his night. From
that point on, Lawler steadily moved to close the gap, and began feeling
his Wheaties again with healthy pre-flop raises and stacks of whites on
the flop whether he had a piece of it or not.
But here’s a hand that showed you how much
Lawler still has to learn: On the button, Lawler doubled the BB with A-J
– to 5k. Brunger called,
and the flop came 10-10-4. Lawler
was first to act but got distracted by Brunger as he appeared to be moving
chips into the center. Red, as the dealer, told Brunger the action was on
Lawler, and Lawler stupidly folded without checking first.
Obviously, this was a temporary brain lock that proved to be
expensive, but Lawler shook it off, with the encouraging profanity of
Ruffino over his shoulder.
And now, because the author’s hand is
starting to cramp, we speed forward to the final deciding hand.
Lawler was on the button and just called the Big Blind with 3-5.
He now had Brunger out stacked by a bit.
Brunger declined the option and the flop fell A-A-5.
It had been a long night and Brunger went all-in on the scary flop
counting on the fact that Lawler didn’t catch an Ace.
Lawler thought about it for a second and called, after he realized
that the chances Brunger had an Ace were slim – especially considering
that he didn’t raise with them pre-flop.
Brunger turned over a J-10 and asked, “What  do
you have? I got nothing.”
Lawler announced his two pair and when Brunger got no help on the
Turn or River, we had a new winner! Slamma
lamma ding dong!
CONGRATS TOM LAWLER!!
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