Posted by Dr Fro 7:05 PM
The tournament was well run and a lot of fun. Big thanks to John as well as the Hocks. Medium sized thanks to those that brought chairs, etc. Small thanks to Ashley for the sunflower seeds. No thanks to the poker gods for my fortune.

I was not very happy with my draw of tables. At my table were no fish, even though there were a few present at other tables. I had Jeff Planck to my right. I guess if I have to be at his table, at least I can have him to my right rather than my left. Al bet a lot. Seth is twice as smart as I am. Canonico and Ashley are both smart enough to play aggressively in opportune spots. That meant not many free cards or opportunities to bully the table. I like free cards. I love bullying the table. It was apparrent I needed to change my strategy

I figured that to get too aggressive could put my chips at too much risk as these guys would probably re-raise me (or call), knowing that I usually play aggressively. So I decided that I had enough chips to wait 2 hours for a good hand to make a lot of money. After making a bigger stack, I would settle into my usual play - aggressive, creative and otherwise annoying to be around. That big stack never came. In fact, I think I only spent one hand with a stack > $3,000.

I passed on 3 opportunities to bet into a pot with nothing in my hand after it checked around to me on the flop. All three times, Planck looked at me as if to say, "who are you, and what have you done with Craig?" My logic on the conservative play was twofold: First of all, as stated before, I felt that there was enough time to eventually get something (in two hours, the best I saw was TT once). Second, and more importantly, Planck probably considered a bet from me on the button as automatic, and I was an easy target for a check-raise.

The only fortunate hand I can think of was when Ashley raised pre-flop. Ashley had been raising more and more often as the tournament progressed, and I felt like he may have gotten away with some theivery. So, I went all-in with 33 (looking for fold equity, but figuring at worst I had a race against Ax). He called before I said "-in" and I knew he had AA. He did, but I flopped a 3 and doubled up. That marked the brief period that I had > $3,000.

Planck took a nasty beat. Sorta. He ended up all in with a pocket pair (nines, maybe?) against AK - a classic race. The nasty part was that Planck survived the flop to become a big favorite only to lose to Al's runner-runner Broadway straight.

At my table, I watched Pinion make a desperation move with 66 and get 3 callers. His three oppoents had A8, A8 and A8. When Pinion made his straight, he quadrupled up. Obviously that was key to making it to the final table.

Around the same time, David Hock ended up all-in when he paired a 9 on the flop. Al called with AA. Crap. A 9 came on the river for trips. Awesome. David, of course, went on to get 3rd place.

He also went on to raise 5 out of the next six hands and picked up a lot of blinds (which were significant.) On a similiar path, I finally got AA and AK, but nobody called me pre-flop. That was about all David and I had in common.

I moved on to another table and the blinds were going to kill me quick. I was surprised to find myself heads-up against the SB on my 3rd hand without any pre-flop raises. The flop came up blank, he checked and I went all-in. Quite honestly, I didn't have a choice. It was my only opportunity to win the hand. He folded. I "pulled a Friou" by showing my rags and making a smartass remark, I got the "you're a dickhead" look from some of the other players at the table. (well, except for Junell that shot me that "attaboy" smile a dad gives his son that is in trouble with his mom for drinking his first beer) I rarely show cards, but I really wanted a loose reputation, because I needed a some calls; I needed some heads-up, all-in pre-flop situations, and I needed them quick.

Unfortunately, the advertising didn't pay off, as I was moved to another table, under the gun. The blind of 1,000 was to my right and I had around 2,600. I was planning on going all-in no matter what, so I was quite pleased to get dealt 77. Pinion calls, as does the BB. Pinion's QQ holds up, and he app. triples up. Pinion's pairs did him well Sunday.

I can't complain, I think I did about as well as I could have given what I was dealt. I won $12 in the cash game, had a lot of fun, and saw some old friends. Definitely worth the late, 4-hour drive home Sunday night.

Speaking of complaints, I want to address one. The guys were too cool to complain loudly, and I appreciate that. There were some soft grumblings about how quickly the blinds went up at the end. We have done 7 of these tournaments now, and we have learned that it is most fun for everyone to have a couple hours at the beginning with very low blinds and longer time intervals. But that necessarily means that we have to have bigger blinds and shorter intervals later in order to finish at a reasonable time. If you ask me, it is a reasonable trade-off. It sucks for the guys that placed app. 11th - 20th place as they were typically forced to play crap hands due to very large blinds, but it is a better deal for 21st - 50th place as these guys are somewhat gauranteed a couple hours of fun without the blinds being much of a threat. At least that's how we see it.

I think this is the first time there were no a-holes. Every year there is at least one guy that acts like an ass (that is, other than me!) and it was nice to have none around. Well, at least not that I saw.

Congratulations to El Jefe, Juan Miranda, for winning. I knew Juan when he didn't know a flush from a straight, and it is nice to see him doing well. My old wife, Todd, won a bunch of money which is a nice "how bout them apples?" to Boyd and Champ who were cracking jokes about him being the first out. The IAG bloggers represented well with JMG and Junell winning. But the biggest congrats goes to David Hock, who has been playing for a relatively short time. Discipline and "selectively opportunistic aggression" did him well.

We all missed the Nuclear Cockroach, The River Chief and Todd "Steve Danneman" Bryant, but I am sure we will see them at the next one. You'll see me at the next one for sure.

1 Comment(s):

Posted by  Junelli, at 1:33 PM, December 07, 2005  

Enjoyed your story!

My opinion on the blinds is that they were too harsh at the end. I completely understand the theory behind ending the tournament, but you also have to consider what's at stake:

First, the prizes are very large. Approx $7,000 was distributed between 1st through 3rd place. This is not chump change. If I'm playing for a $4,000 first place prize, I at least want the opportunity to play real poker. The blinds at that level virtually ensured that no matter how well (or bad) everyone played during the day, the prize money was going to the players who were dealt good hands in the final 30 minutes. On Sunday, you either got good hands or you didn't.

Second, most players had paid between $180 and $240 for the tournament (some even more), money that was spent for a chance to win a big prize. At the final table, those players should have that chance.

The blinds in the last hour eliminated all skill from the final table, save and except for the skill of deciding when to move all-in. For example, when we were down to 8 handed, the blinds were $2,000-$4,000, yet there was not a single player with more than $30,000. The few people who were the big chip stacks had around $15,000-$20,000. Thus, the BB represented approx 25% of "chip leaders" stack. The rest ofus were in much worse shape (the median stack being around $14,000).

$14,000 in chips isn't much when the BB is $4,000. Nobody had any other move except all-in.

In my opinion, the players who are fortunate enough to make the final table shouldn't be punished for the sake of giving everyone else more playing time early in the day. The whole purpose of playing in the tournament is to win it, and in my opinion, the most important part is at the end, not the beginning.

All that being said, the only changes I would suggest are:

1. Extend the rebuy period another level. This gives players the opportunity for longer play.

2. Shorten the 1st two levels to 15 minutes. These levels don't matter much, and the pots are generally small since the blinds are so insignificant compared to the chip stacks

3. Add an small ante for the later levels.

4. Don't shorten the length of time for the later levels.

By lengthening out the final blind levels, you are only adding 30-45 minutes or so to the tournament. Not too bad considering that we're fighting for $4,000 first place prize.

If you really need to end the tournament at a certain time, then subtract the 30-45 minutes off an earlier level(s) that won't matter to the players (i.e. the first two levels).

Those are just my thoughts.

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