Brisbane Festival July 2024
MGA’s Brisbane Mixed Games Festival was held 19-21 July at Wantima Country Club in conjunction with our friends at The Empire and their Empire Evolution Series.
Event 1 – Triple Triple Draw
We kicked things off with Triple Triple Draw, a rotation of 2-7, Ace to five & Badugi. A lowball mix for the love of all things draw!
Each of the games have their own hand rankings and little intricacies that set them apart from each other, explained below:
2-7 Triple Draw
As the name suggests, you are looking (ideally) for cards between 2 and 7 with 2,3,4,5,7 (with one off suit card) the “Nuts”
Pairs, straights and flushes work against having a strong 2-7 hand. So in the end, you are looking for “no hand”, just unique cards.
You are given three attempts to improve your hand as much as possible, after that, we have a showdown and the best hand wins!
Ace to Five
For those familiar with the Stud Game “Razz”, this is Razz in Triple draw format. You are looking to make a hand as close as possible to Ace,2,3,4,5 which is the “Nuts”.
Pairs work against having a strong hand in Ace to Five but your straights and flushes make no difference, making this variant a little easier for newbies to understand than 2-7.
You also have three attempts to improve your hand in this game, after that, we have a showdown and the best hand wins!
Badugi
The third and least forgiving variant in this mix is Badugi. A Badugi is holding four unique cards with eadh of the four suits. The absolute Nuts in this game is A,2,3,4 rainbow.
A Badugi must consist of four different cards (no pairs) and each one must be a different suit.
You do not need a Badugi to win! It’s hard to make a Badugi, sometimes it seems impossible!
If you hold A,4,6 with three suits, you have what we call a “Three card six”. The other difference with this game is you are dealt four downcards, instead of five.
As per the other variants,
We had 42 total entries to this event, with the following players placing in the money:
1st – Eugene Portal $6,900
2nd – Damiano Aloi $4,350
3rd – David Munday $2,950
4th – Michael Rattigan $2,160
5th – Kurt Tucker $1,780
6th – Simon Chahine $1,600
I present your champion
Event 2 – Dealer’s Choice
Our first evening game of the series consisted of 16 poker variants on offer where each player would take turns choosing a game for the next rotation. There are no other rules around this, you can choose the same game as the last player, you can choose the same game all night! It’s up to you in our Dealer’s choice event!
The games on offer cover Draw, Flop and Stud games with all betting structures of Pot Limit, Fixed Limit and No Limit.
We had 42 total entries to this event, with the following players placing in the money:
1st – Callum Stanton $4,260
2nd – Lucas Durante $2,680
3rd – Leigh Rolfe $1,830
4th – Robert Jackson $1,340
5th – Michael Ho $1,100
6th – Nathaniel Hutton $970
I present your champion
Event 3 – Main Event
The jewel of the crown! Our Main Event consisted of 10 games in rotation with Draw, Flop & Stud variants mixed with Pot, Fixed and No Limit betting structures. This was two day event and was fought out to the very end with two very worthy adversaries taking the top two spots.
On one side, Aussie Millions Main Event champion from 2011, Mr David Gorr, no stranger to Poker let alone the Mixed Games world. And the other side, Mr Daniel Mayoh, fresh from Vegas where he ‘almost’ bested 893 players in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event but, in the end, came second to Phillip Hui. Dan is clearly a very accomplished Mixed Games player and would feel the sting of another second place in MGA’s Main Event. Dan is yet to win an event trophy with MGA, he does sit in the top ten of ITM and cashes, interestingly, the only top ten participant to not hold a 1st place finish in an event, yet!
Dan did win the inaugural “Player of the Series” back in January 2023 though, so he has a trophy for that, full results for the ‘ITM’ finishers as follows:
1st – David Gorr $15,000
2nd – Daniel Mayoh $9,500
3rd – Robert Dykes $6,500
4th – Simon Chahine $4,750
5th – James Ciurlionis $3,850
6th – Lawrence Stephenson $3,450
I present your champion, David Gorr
Event 4 – 8 Game
We had almost filled 6 tables with 7 players as the game started! Players came in droves for this event showing that an ‘old school’ mix is still preferred by the people, we will never take this out of the schedule!
A total of 52 entries played a mix of Flop, Draw & Stud variants covering Fixed, Pot & No Limit betting structures.
Here are the “ITM” finishers for event 4 – 8 Game:
1st – Tony Seremet $4,850
2nd – Lucas Durante $3,300
3rd – Ethan Christie $2,250
4th – Andrew Shanahan $1,650
5th – Sal Ribbera $1,200
6th – Damien Brennan $1,000
7th – Eric Sturm $830
I present your champion, Tony Seremet
Event 5 – H.O.R.S.E.
This fixed limit betting mix of games is a favourite amongst mixed game players. The blend of Flop and Stud games allows for 8 handed tables as opposed to the generally short-handed (6 players) for other mixes when we introduce draw variants.
We had 36 total entries for this event, here are the “ITM” finishers for event 5 – H.O.R.S.E.:
1st – Matthew Ginn $5,900
2nd – Michael Ho $3,750
3rd – Nikki Denker $2,550
4th – David Munday $1,860
5th – Robert Jackson $1,500
6th – Alan Wilson $1,360
I present your champion, Matthew “Mixed Games Specialist” Ginn
Event 6 – No Limit 2-7 Single Draw
I love ending the festival with the purity of 2-7 Single Draw. It is the same as the Triple Draw version with respect to hand rankings, but with two very distinct differences:
- You can shove all of your chips on either of the two betting streets
- You only get one opportunity to discard/replace cards.
We received 31 entries into this event, here are the “ITM” finishers:
1st – Eric Sturm $3,350
2nd – Kurt Tucker $2,250
3rd – Josh Strange $1,350
4th – Robert Jackson $1,080
5th – Simon Chahine $960
I present your champion, Eric Sturm
Let’s look forward to … January!
Yes, we are already looking to book the next one, the decision makers have agreed a Summer Series is the way to go when everyone is on holidays and relaxed. With that in mind we are looking to run another full (and extended) schedule of Mixed Games for you from 7th – 12th January (exact dates will be confirmed and communicated shortly).
If there is a game or mix you would like to see at this series, please reach out and let us know so when we are standing around the water cooler making decisions, we have some player feedback to roll into the series mix!
Tell your friends, tell everyone, lets grow …
Get in the Mix!
It’s good for your soul.
Previous Post
Next Post