Wow! Another amazing poker night last night, but not without a few bumps as we experienced more interest than ever before. Although I was too busy for frequent head counts, I estimate we had close to 100 simultaneous players in our private Triplejack lounge(!) Unfortunately, that translated to a bit of a rocky start as many a Flash client crashed from the rush of players to grab a seat once the tournament rooms were unlocked. Next week we will have a smoother system in place to accommodate the increasing numbers coming to join us for JIG Poker Night! =)

Similar to last week, we held a series of standard, 11-player, Texas Hold'em tournaments, in which each player buys-in for $500 in chips (money at Triplejack is free). The player to win all of the chips from all of the other players at the table qualified and earned a seat at the final table. This week's qualifiers were...

• Qualifier #1 winner: Rydash
• Qualifier #2 winner: BIGLO5ER
• Qualifier #3 winner: Akisuzu
• Qualifier #4 winner: Stationary (forfeited to Orcishhordes)
• Qualifier #5 winner: Kurq
• Qualifier #6 winner: TrickNeal
• Qualifier #7 winner: Slgalt
• Qualifier #8 winner: Frenchie
• Qualifier #9 winner: Valarauka
• Qualifier #10 winner: dj1990f
• Qualifier #11 winner: Coconut007

Once all the tournaments were held, these players all took their seats at the final table for a fight to the finish in one grandaddy elimination tournament. The prizes up for grabs this week to be split among the top 5 finishers:

• (5) FREE Eets games—our pick for Best of 2006 in the Downloadable (Other) category
• (1) FREE month Power Player subscription to Triplejack
• (1) FREE deck of Triplejack playing cards
• (1) FREE JIG Casual Gameplay T-shirt

With all these prizes up for grabs, the final table was exciting as usual. The redheaded avatars (Slgalt and Frenchie) took an early lead, dominating the table with their seasoned poker prowess, but Akisuzu, Valarauka, Orcishhordes, and the seemingly immortal Rydash gave the leading ladies a run for their money. Lady Luck was showing her gender bias again this week, with women placing in two of the top three prize-winning spots:

• 5th place: Orchishhordes
• 4th place: Rydash
• 3rd place: Frenchie
• 2nd place: Valarauka

Champion of Tournaments #3: Slgalt!

Slgalt joins Melman2002 and Bettyboo as those who have been entered into a JIG Poker Night Grand Prize drawing to be held on an as of yet undisclosed future date. We're still not announcing the prize yet because we're still trying to get our hands on one. But when we do, we'll announce what it is. =)

Congratulations to all the winners—even if you didn't win a prize at the final table you still walked away with more Triplejack chips than you started with—and thank you all for participating and for your patience and understanding during the rocky start we had again this week. I promise that next week's poker night will run smoother and more efficiently.

A big shout out to Jamie of Klei Entertainment for generously providing copies of his fantastic Eets action/puzzle game for prizes, and to the very kind folks at Triplejack for again sponsoring their part of the prize package for the tournament.

Next week's tournaments begin at Noon (12PM) Eastern (GMT-5:00), so please join us next Saturday in our private Triplejack poker lounge for more poker fun, prizes, and, of course, pies! Lots and lots of pies!