O-Poker

"Why would I ever play a live tourney again?" - I started to type this on twitter last night and then erased it.

I had just spent an entire day playing my "A" game in a tourney only to have it turn into a turbo super turbo at the tail end with nothing to show for my efforts.  I don't see how the tourney regulars do it every day.  I know the payoff is huge when you hit, but there is mostly frustration.

A more appropriate tweet might have been, "Why would I ever play a live tourney with a horrible structure when my time would be better spent at the cash tables?"  I left my house around 10:30 am and got home around 11 pm.  I had nothing to show for it other than a belly full of "free" Outback food and a few "not-free" beers.

The tourney info:
Daytona Beach Kennel Club Poker Room Venetian Deep Stack Charity Classic
Total number of players including alternates - 536
$150 buyin + $40 initial add-on + $40 add-on after 3 levels.
$80 rebuy if you bust in 1st 3 level
Starting chips - 10k (including the initial addon)
Add-on after 3 levels - 4k
Blinds - 25 minute levels
1st place - $5k Venetian tourney buy-in + $1k meal credit at Venetian + Hotel + Biz Class air
2nd-5th - $2,100 Venetian tourney + above
Cash payouts through 40th place

I was playing great most of the tourney.  I didn't even feel bad about a mistimed bluff that I made against a 70 year old guy during the rebuy period.  After all, it took him a very very long time to call me with KJ on a KKAxx board.  I got a guy to put all his chips in with 77 when I had KK.  I made a big laydown when I couldn't put the other player on anything other than the nuts based on how he played the hand.  After I folded, he proceeded to show me the nuts.  Thanks!!  And on and on....

Everything was going great, until all of the sudden it turned into a super turbo.  We were down to 55 players and I looked around my table and all the other tables.  Everyone's stack, other than maybe 2-4 ppl, was less than 10 BBs.  The blinds were 8k/16k with a 2k ante and going up to 10k/20k in 25 mins.  Assuming that the average chips/player that bought in was 15k based on 536 players, when we were down to 55 players the average stack was $140k.  I had 150k chips and was 2nd at our table.  The chip leader at our table had around 240k.

Nearly everyone was at push/fold level, but not everyone realized that they only had one move.

It didn't take long for me to bust once the 8k/16k 2k ante level hit.

This post isn't meant to complain about bad beats with hands.  I legitimately lost two 50/50s.  The first one was my AK<44 aipf against a guy with around 85k chips.  It knocked me down to around 50k.  Two hands later, my 55 lost to AQ aipf.


I was pissed after I busted.  The 50 minute drive home helped with my sanity.  I knew my state of mind, so I decided not to play any online poker when I got home.  I'll take that as a positive, since in the past I might have fired up the laptop and tilted off a few buy-ins.

A day later, I can definitely say that I had a great time playing and enjoyed playing live again for the 1st time in a while.  In the future, I'll check and analyze the tourney structure of any live tourney that I play and try to stay away from the super turbos.