Writer’s Note: There are now a lot subscribers to this newsletter that are not in our poker club. That’s actually great because most of the writing on this Substack is meant for a general poker audience who isn’t necessarily a member of our weekly game.
Because of the growth of our readership, we have attempted to make subscription options which include the option to be included in club centric writing. This subsection is called “Freezeout Poker Club News” as opposed to the parent “Freezeout Poker”. If you aren’t a member of our weekly club, and aren’t interested in writing that is specific to that content, you can (theoretically) adjust your subscription to exclude yourself from “Freezeout Poker Club News”. If you have trouble doing so don’t sweat it as I typically only post about 4 times a year with a club specific newsletter.
f you are interested in playing our weekly game (the crux of the club), or just learning more about it, please visit the about page on the top of the page or click this link: About our game.
I say all this to let the reader know that today’s content is specific to our game and may not be of great interest to you. If this is the case, please tune in for future columns that are broarder in poker scope.
Stay tuned as I will begin a new series in a couple weeks entitled “What poker taught me about….”.
Welcome new players
We have 10 new faces in the club since May. More importantly, we are averaging 32 players per Tuesday tournament. That’s up from 27 last season at this time. While players come and go week by week and year by year, these turnouts show that we are growing in a steady and healthy way.
WSOP Points Race and Prize Pool
After dreaming of sending 2 players to the WSOP on an expense paid package for years, 2026 was the year it came to fruition. Congratulations to Steve Usseller and our champion Chris Lannoye. We hope you both had a great time and I hope to supplant you this year.
Speaking of which, this year looks like a legitimate race where at least 15 people have a reasonable shot at the championship. We will likely be sending 2 players to the WSOP with winner packages again this year. Check out the updated points standings here.
Player skill level
I posted this last year and it seems to ring even more true today. I’m don’t love cut and paste writing but I think last year me said it best:
Having a tougher time getting weekly results? I know it has been more difficult for me. Well I’m here to tell you that it isn’t because your game has diminished.
The players in our club have gotten significantly more skilled as a whole in the past few years. Some of it is attributed to players cycling in and out of the game with some players hanging it up and new up and comers moving into those spots. However, another aspect to this phenomenon is our existing players’ improvement. I hope that this substack newsletter has helped a few of you and I know that some others are finding plenty of alternative places to study.
I am really glad that we are getting better as a whole. Sure it makes it harder to win each week, however, playing against better players is a great way to improve your own game and I think we all want that.
If you do find yourself falling behind and want to do something about it, shoot me a line and maybe I can point you toward some resources that can help. It’s always free to email me at mikieculpepper@gmail.com. If you aren’t sure where to start, find a hand you played that you are unsure of and we can go from there.
We want to hear from you!
We want to hear what you want from this club. We have our annual meeting in April so any ideas or suggestions you have, please send them to me at mikieculpepper@gmail.com or share them in the discord.
If you feel like you are hearing a lot less club news these days, it is because our discord channel is live and needs input and traffic from you! This is the place to find out if our game is going to start at a new time or when we plan to make an announcement.
In summary
Wrapping it up, I want to thank you all for a great 6 months.
Also, thanks to all of our players for paying reliably. Most of you are very timely and it is appreciated more than you may imagine.
Good luck to all of you in the second half of the season!
I agree that it seems like competition Tuesday night continues to get tougher - and I like that it might mean we are improving collectively!