Success!

We're thrilled to announce that our first Full Houses was a hit—everyone enjoyed themselves immensely, and the event netted several hundred dollars so that Impact can improve the space we're in (we hear that most first-time benefit events actually lose money!).

Our dealers were pros (one dealer actually used to be a poker pro). They volunteered their time, responding to calls on Craigslist and through the Bay Area Poker Meetup.

We had 32 players, and there were nine rebuys. The iPhone went to Van, who finished the night with more than 50,000 chips. The second-place finisher was Ellen, who was nearly the first person out of the tourney but rebought and rallied her way to second place—Ellen won the gift cards to Bloomingdale's and Nordstrom. In third was Ragnar, who won two hours of one-on-one poker tutoring with Cory Cook, the aforementioned former pro.

Dozens of people won our grab bag prizes—people really liked the part about our tournament that anyone who got a full house or better won a prize. Some people even won multiple prizes!

Thanks to our awesome event sponsors and prize donors, to everyone who came out to play, and to everyone who helped run the event.

This was such a success that we're going to do it again—Full Houses 2 is coming up at the end of the season!

Here are some photos from the event:

The chips. The purple $100 chips were sponsored by the Caslavkas, and the black $250 chips were sponsored by Alyssa Bostwick, Pete Caslavka, and Wayne Rawley. M&R stands for Money & Run, Wayne's awesome action-adventure serial for the stage—Impact has produced four of the episodes so far and is about to open A Very Special Money & Run Winter Season Holiday Special.

The Northstar Mortgage Group, Inc., featured table with initial chip stacks

The Impact crew eats dinner before the event

Table D, early in the event. The guy pointing is Geoff, one of our excellent volunteer dealers. Across the table in denim is Casey Jackson, known to Impact fans as Iago, Banquo, and our original Run.

Table E, early in the event—Reimundo is dealing

Table A, early in the event—Cory is dealing, blinds still at $10-20. The guy in the shades went on to win the tournament. He was the only one in shades.

Artistic Director Melissa Hillman shows off the first-place prize—
...and the iPhone, too

Table A, later in the tournament, blinds at $75-150. Jeff is dealing, and we've just eliminated the $10 blue chips and are switching them out for higher-value chips.

Table B, later in the tournament

Table F, late in the tournament—down to three tables, blinds now at $150-300

Table B, late in the tournament, blinds now at $200-400. Across the table is Christine, who owns Northstar Mortgage Group, which sponsored table A.

Table F, late in the tournament. Everyone was hanging on at this table, while players were starting to drop like flies at other tables. In the Berkeley jacket is Pete Caslavka, a former Impact member who was a chip sponsor and drove up from LA just to play in the tournament.

The final table, blinds now at $500-1,000. Jeff is dealing. Across the table are E.T., who finished fourth; Ragnar, who finished third; and Ellen, who finished second.

The final table. Van, the overwhelming chip leader, folded his way to the finish line at just past midnight.

WINNER! Van won the iPhone plus movie tickets and a Spenger's gift certificate.