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A tournament
Jun. 29th, 2006 12:11 pmI think that I’ve worked out one of the reasons I’m not a great fan of some tournaments.
They are just too much like hard work.
I took the Paradise 25% bonus yesterday and was informed that I was registered for a freeroll tournament beginning at 1.45am my time. Great. Oh well, I thought. I’m on holiday. My sleep patterns are all over the place. I’ll have a nap and, if I wake up, I’ll get up and give it a not-very-committed go.
It was a bit hard to work out what the overlay was (especially since I didn’t know how many people would turn up) but in retrospect it was probably about $30 for a random player and about $40 (my own conceited estimate) for me. Just about worth getting out of bed for. In this case, literally.
In the end I woke up at about 2.10am. I wandered downstairs, fired up Paradise, and saw that I was down to 1,350 of my original 1,500 chips. There were three other active players at the table and six absentees. Advantage one to me, I reckoned. I’ve played quite a few tournaments like this, mainly on the Sundays on Pokerstars where you qualified by being in the top 10 of the $3+$0 limit tournament on a Friday night, and lots of other tournaments during the week. These Sunday night freerolls with just 10 places paid often got only 20% turnouts.
The one other player who seemed to have sussed things out was on my immediate right, and he was already up to 4,500 chips. I had three active players on my right apart from one absentee in the middle of them. Five absentees were on my left. Trondheim guy had been stealing blinds non-stop, so it must have been a bit of a shock to him when I cropped up and flat-called his mini-raise.
I just kept up this strategy, flat-calling any raise he put in and using my position post flop. We won a few, lost a few. Then I doubled up with top pair against his flush draw with a gutshot. And then I flat called his raise with J8 off and flopped a straight. I raised his continuation bet all in and he called with top pair and a gutshot to tie. No good for him and I was up to 5,000 chips.
++++
However, all of this is hard work. 52% of flops seen and (after I had seen off Mr Trondheim) more than 50% raises. Give me a ring game, a book and the fold button any day of the week. Gradually more non-attendees were moved to the table (including Mel Lofthouse at one poin, since she was wisely in bed, I guess).
And so things went on. 1,650 players, of whom I guess 400 turned up. I may be a donkey at Tournaments and at satellites and at no limit, but this was uber-donkey territory.
Unfortunately, they were such uber-donkeys that they didn’t realize that, if they got to more than 30,000 chips, they could go to bed with impunity. I guess that it comes with the territory, but it was this that was to be my downfall.
I’d been happily stealing away, still playing something like 60% of flops and probably winning at least half of those, when we were down to about 116 players (100 qualify). I’d entered “all-in” pre-flop mode a couple of times, but had got myself out of it. However, I’d never reached “I can go to bed now” mode. This next hand was about the closest I came.
Paradise Poker Game #1559406875 - Tournament POWER Daily (June Semi-Final) - 800/1,600 No Limit Texas Hold'em - 2006/06/28-21:41:45.8 (CST)
Table "Power Daily 96" (MTT) -- Seat 8 is the button
Seat 1: jchin02 (39,775 in chips)
Seat 2: mikedb222 (4,575 in chips)
Seat 3: mgssss (63,259 in chips)
Seat 4: PoorSport (23,401 in chips)
Seat 5: BIRKS (18,912 in chips)
Seat 6: Buckroom111 (18,446 in chips)
Seat 7: Villain (9,442 in chips)
Seat 8: 6pk to go (5,162 in chips)
Seat 9: Ch_Ghost (8,776 in chips)
Seat 10: JOEYTHEB (25,617 in chips)
All ante 80
Ch_Ghost: Post Small Blind (800)
JOEYTHEB: Post Big Blind (1,600)
Dealt to BIRKS [ 6◊ ]
Dealt to BIRKS [ 7♠ ]
jchin02 : Fold
mikedb222: Fold
mgssss : Fold
PoorSport: Fold
BIRKS : Raise (4,000)
Buckroom111: Fold
Villain : Raise (9,362)
6pk to go: Fold
Ch_Ghost: Fold
JOEYTHEB: Fold
BIRKS : Call (5,362)
Now, what kind of hand is Villain going to reraise me all in with from one off the button? I’m only putting 5,400 into a 22,000 pot, so he should know that I’m calling with any two cards. Ahh, but, remember, this is uber-donkey land.
*** BOARD *** : [ 9♡ 2♠ 2♡ K◊ ] [ 8♣ ]
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: 21,924 | Board: [ 9♡ 2♠ 2♡ K◊ 8♣ ]
BIRKS lost 9,442 (showed hand) [ 6◊ 7♠ ] (a pair of twos)
Villain bet 9,442, collected 21,924, net +12,482 (showed hand) [ 6♣ T◊ ] (a pair of twos)
Yep, he reraised me all in with T6 off. I guess that, like me, he thought that he had live undercards.
++++++++++
A short while later, we are down to 106 players (100 qualify). Several players are stalling. If the really big stacks would just show some sense, I could steal my way into a place without any problem. I tried posting a couple of “you can go to bed now, you have plenty to qualify” lines, but perhaps they thought that I was a cunning fox trying to trap them. One player (mgssss) had nearly 70,000 chips, but insisted on limping first in about 50% of the time. Perhaps he was a canny guy, because it certainly made my stealing opportunities fewer.
I’m now down to 10,000 chips and it’s costing 3,100 every nine hands. 800/1600, antes 80.
Paradise Poker Game #1559419755 - Tournament POWER Daily (June Semi-Final) - 800/1,600 No Limit Texas Hold'em - 2006/06/28-21:47:41.6 (CST)
Table "Power Daily 96" (MTT) -- Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: jchin02 (41,615 in chips)
Seat 2: mikedb222 (1,615 in chips)
Seat 3: mgssss (68,736 in chips)
Seat 5: BIRKS (9,790 in chips)
Seat 6: Buckroom111 (16,286 in chips)
Seat 7: Villain (44,648 in chips)
Seat 8: 6pk to go (4,602 in chips)
Seat 9: Ch_Ghost (7,416 in chips)
Seat 10: JOEYTHEB (22,657 in chips)
Dealt to BIRKS [ K♠ ]
Dealt to BIRKS [ 8♣ ]
6pk to go: Fold
Ch_Ghost: Fold
JOEYTHEB: Fold
jchin02 : Fold
mikedb222: Fold
mgssss : Fold
BIRKS : Raise (9,710)
This is quite good enough to push with, given the stack sizes behind me and the fact that only 6 places remain to qualification.
Buckroom111: Fold
Villain : Call (8,110)
OK, I wonder what he’s called me with this time.
*** FLOP *** : [ 5♣ 6◊ 6♡ ]
*** TURN *** : [ 5♣ 6◊ 6♡ ] [ 2◊ ]
*** RIVER *** : [ 5♣ 6◊ 6♡ 2◊ ] [ J♣ ]
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: 20,940 | Board: [ 5♣ 6◊ 6♡ 2◊ J♣ ]
BIRKS lost 9,790 (showed hand) [ K♠ 8♣ ] (a pair of sixes)
Villain bet 9,790, collected 20,940, net +11,150 (showed hand) [ 8◊ 6♠ ] (three of a kind, sixes)
+++++++
So, that was that, 106th out of 1,650 runners, 100 qualify, and three hours of raising raising raising for, well, not very much. Fucking freerolls.
I stayed up until 7am working off the bonus on Stars. Ahh, that’s more like it. Multi-tabling, one hand in seven. Peace.
They are just too much like hard work.
I took the Paradise 25% bonus yesterday and was informed that I was registered for a freeroll tournament beginning at 1.45am my time. Great. Oh well, I thought. I’m on holiday. My sleep patterns are all over the place. I’ll have a nap and, if I wake up, I’ll get up and give it a not-very-committed go.
It was a bit hard to work out what the overlay was (especially since I didn’t know how many people would turn up) but in retrospect it was probably about $30 for a random player and about $40 (my own conceited estimate) for me. Just about worth getting out of bed for. In this case, literally.
In the end I woke up at about 2.10am. I wandered downstairs, fired up Paradise, and saw that I was down to 1,350 of my original 1,500 chips. There were three other active players at the table and six absentees. Advantage one to me, I reckoned. I’ve played quite a few tournaments like this, mainly on the Sundays on Pokerstars where you qualified by being in the top 10 of the $3+$0 limit tournament on a Friday night, and lots of other tournaments during the week. These Sunday night freerolls with just 10 places paid often got only 20% turnouts.
The one other player who seemed to have sussed things out was on my immediate right, and he was already up to 4,500 chips. I had three active players on my right apart from one absentee in the middle of them. Five absentees were on my left. Trondheim guy had been stealing blinds non-stop, so it must have been a bit of a shock to him when I cropped up and flat-called his mini-raise.
I just kept up this strategy, flat-calling any raise he put in and using my position post flop. We won a few, lost a few. Then I doubled up with top pair against his flush draw with a gutshot. And then I flat called his raise with J8 off and flopped a straight. I raised his continuation bet all in and he called with top pair and a gutshot to tie. No good for him and I was up to 5,000 chips.
++++
However, all of this is hard work. 52% of flops seen and (after I had seen off Mr Trondheim) more than 50% raises. Give me a ring game, a book and the fold button any day of the week. Gradually more non-attendees were moved to the table (including Mel Lofthouse at one poin, since she was wisely in bed, I guess).
And so things went on. 1,650 players, of whom I guess 400 turned up. I may be a donkey at Tournaments and at satellites and at no limit, but this was uber-donkey territory.
Unfortunately, they were such uber-donkeys that they didn’t realize that, if they got to more than 30,000 chips, they could go to bed with impunity. I guess that it comes with the territory, but it was this that was to be my downfall.
I’d been happily stealing away, still playing something like 60% of flops and probably winning at least half of those, when we were down to about 116 players (100 qualify). I’d entered “all-in” pre-flop mode a couple of times, but had got myself out of it. However, I’d never reached “I can go to bed now” mode. This next hand was about the closest I came.
Paradise Poker Game #1559406875 - Tournament POWER Daily (June Semi-Final) - 800/1,600 No Limit Texas Hold'em - 2006/06/28-21:41:45.8 (CST)
Table "Power Daily 96" (MTT) -- Seat 8 is the button
Seat 1: jchin02 (39,775 in chips)
Seat 2: mikedb222 (4,575 in chips)
Seat 3: mgssss (63,259 in chips)
Seat 4: PoorSport (23,401 in chips)
Seat 5: BIRKS (18,912 in chips)
Seat 6: Buckroom111 (18,446 in chips)
Seat 7: Villain (9,442 in chips)
Seat 8: 6pk to go (5,162 in chips)
Seat 9: Ch_Ghost (8,776 in chips)
Seat 10: JOEYTHEB (25,617 in chips)
All ante 80
Ch_Ghost: Post Small Blind (800)
JOEYTHEB: Post Big Blind (1,600)
Dealt to BIRKS [ 6◊ ]
Dealt to BIRKS [ 7♠ ]
jchin02 : Fold
mikedb222: Fold
mgssss : Fold
PoorSport: Fold
BIRKS : Raise (4,000)
Buckroom111: Fold
Villain : Raise (9,362)
6pk to go: Fold
Ch_Ghost: Fold
JOEYTHEB: Fold
BIRKS : Call (5,362)
Now, what kind of hand is Villain going to reraise me all in with from one off the button? I’m only putting 5,400 into a 22,000 pot, so he should know that I’m calling with any two cards. Ahh, but, remember, this is uber-donkey land.
*** BOARD *** : [ 9♡ 2♠ 2♡ K◊ ] [ 8♣ ]
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: 21,924 | Board: [ 9♡ 2♠ 2♡ K◊ 8♣ ]
BIRKS lost 9,442 (showed hand) [ 6◊ 7♠ ] (a pair of twos)
Villain bet 9,442, collected 21,924, net +12,482 (showed hand) [ 6♣ T◊ ] (a pair of twos)
Yep, he reraised me all in with T6 off. I guess that, like me, he thought that he had live undercards.
++++++++++
A short while later, we are down to 106 players (100 qualify). Several players are stalling. If the really big stacks would just show some sense, I could steal my way into a place without any problem. I tried posting a couple of “you can go to bed now, you have plenty to qualify” lines, but perhaps they thought that I was a cunning fox trying to trap them. One player (mgssss) had nearly 70,000 chips, but insisted on limping first in about 50% of the time. Perhaps he was a canny guy, because it certainly made my stealing opportunities fewer.
I’m now down to 10,000 chips and it’s costing 3,100 every nine hands. 800/1600, antes 80.
Paradise Poker Game #1559419755 - Tournament POWER Daily (June Semi-Final) - 800/1,600 No Limit Texas Hold'em - 2006/06/28-21:47:41.6 (CST)
Table "Power Daily 96" (MTT) -- Seat 5 is the button
Seat 1: jchin02 (41,615 in chips)
Seat 2: mikedb222 (1,615 in chips)
Seat 3: mgssss (68,736 in chips)
Seat 5: BIRKS (9,790 in chips)
Seat 6: Buckroom111 (16,286 in chips)
Seat 7: Villain (44,648 in chips)
Seat 8: 6pk to go (4,602 in chips)
Seat 9: Ch_Ghost (7,416 in chips)
Seat 10: JOEYTHEB (22,657 in chips)
Dealt to BIRKS [ K♠ ]
Dealt to BIRKS [ 8♣ ]
6pk to go: Fold
Ch_Ghost: Fold
JOEYTHEB: Fold
jchin02 : Fold
mikedb222: Fold
mgssss : Fold
BIRKS : Raise (9,710)
This is quite good enough to push with, given the stack sizes behind me and the fact that only 6 places remain to qualification.
Buckroom111: Fold
Villain : Call (8,110)
OK, I wonder what he’s called me with this time.
*** FLOP *** : [ 5♣ 6◊ 6♡ ]
*** TURN *** : [ 5♣ 6◊ 6♡ ] [ 2◊ ]
*** RIVER *** : [ 5♣ 6◊ 6♡ 2◊ ] [ J♣ ]
*** SUMMARY ***
Pot: 20,940 | Board: [ 5♣ 6◊ 6♡ 2◊ J♣ ]
BIRKS lost 9,790 (showed hand) [ K♠ 8♣ ] (a pair of sixes)
Villain bet 9,790, collected 20,940, net +11,150 (showed hand) [ 8◊ 6♠ ] (three of a kind, sixes)
+++++++
So, that was that, 106th out of 1,650 runners, 100 qualify, and three hours of raising raising raising for, well, not very much. Fucking freerolls.
I stayed up until 7am working off the bonus on Stars. Ahh, that’s more like it. Multi-tabling, one hand in seven. Peace.
