The bugs were biting, the humidity was undefeated, and somehow 30 degenerates still showed up for an outdoor RPL sellout event. Priorities.

The donkeys came out firing early with a whopping 21 rebuys before the first break. Apparently everyone thought tonight was “Donate to the Prize Pool Night.”

Early fireworks belonged to Sidewinder, who looked down at AQ while the board ran out trip Queens, giving him quad Queens and locking up Best Hand of the Night worth $280. Late in the tournament, with only 2 players left, someone had a shot at a dirty King-high straight flush to steal it… but the poker gods said “not tonight.”

Meanwhile, the Jackpot continues to laugh at everyone. SIX games into the season and still no winner. Tonight’s targets were quad 7’s and quad 8’s. Once again, nobody could deliver. The jackpot rolls over AGAIN and is now basically turning into a retirement account.

As we approached the bubble, OG Daddy O became this month’s official “Thanks for coming” recipient, busting in 7th place and collecting absolutely nothing except mosquito bites and emotional damage.

Into the money:
• Quintrocious busted in 6th, pocketing $165 plus another $135 for cashing in the Sniper bounty from last month.
• JMAC exited in 5th for $330.
• Then chaos arrived.

Four players remained with massive stacks flying around when The Directa checked his option in the big blind holding QJ. The flop came A-K-10 giving him the absolute nuts. Like a seasoned veteran (or someone trying too hard to trap), he slow played it. Turn comes an 8 and suddenly he decides it’s time to apply maximum pressure against chip leader Black Clover.

Clover snap calls.

Problem was… Clover was drawing nearly dead holding two pair (Aces and 8’s) with only four outs to survive.

Naturally… the river delivered the final 8.

Because poker is stupid.

The Directa exits in 4th place collecting $395 while questioning every life decision that led him to an outdoor poker table in June.

Moments later short stack G-Funk busted in 3rd, taking home $495 and leaving us with heads-up action:
Chris Bal vs. Black Clover.

Clover held roughly 200K in chips to Bal’s 175K. There was brief discussion of a chop, but in true old-school fashion Black Clover simply stated:

“I never chop.”

Respectfully psychotic behavior.

Play continued for a bit before Clover extended the lead to nearly 2:1. Final hand of the night: Black Clover jams all-in with AK and gets looked up by Q8.

The flop comes King and an 8.

Suddenly everyone is awake again.

Turn: Brick.
River: Brick.

Black Clover survives and takes down the outdoor sellout event for $1,155 while Chris Bal earns a solid $760 runner-up finish.

Great night. Great crowd. Great action.

And approximately 14,000 bug bites later… we’ll do it all again next month.