Mookie Mania!

That's DAMN funny!

Last night I played the Mookie Tournament that he hosts every Wednesday night at PokerStars, and for the third week in a row I finished in the money. Two weeks ago it paid out to five people and I finished fifth. Last week it paid out to nine and I finished ninth. Last night it paid out to nine again, and I managed to crack the bubble -1 position to finish sixth.

But overall, the Mookie is all about having fun. Much hammer droppage, much hoying with creative variations on the hoy. The reverse hoy, the 69 hoy, the double reverse hoy. There are extra points for creativity.

A "hoy" (named after it's inventor, Hoyazo) is when a player goes all-in except for one (this is where the variations come in) chip in their stack. I think the original intention of the "hoy" is to avoid the annoying restriction at PokerStars where a player can't chat once they are all-in. If you go all-in except for one chip, you effectively do the same thing, but you can still taunt your opponent into calling or, more often, hopefully folding. But an unintended (this is debatable) side effect is that it tends to put players on tilt.

The Mookie (formerly called the big "O" tournament) started out as a sort of online home game for a few Austin Texas friends, but the bloggers kind of adopted it and participation has ballooned to a high of 57 last night. This is pretty outstanding considering that the most recent WPBT event only drew 32 people.

If you want to play an incredibly fun $11 poker tournament with some hilarious folks, give the Mookie a try next Wednesday night.