Trip Report

[Nikita]

So last night Rob, Adam (who is DC=0) and Jason (my best friend) and I headed towards Strathroy for a NL hold'em tournament that Adam heard about. After about a 40 minute drive it was clear it wasn't quite in strathroy and to be honest, I have no idea where we were. It was definitely an out of the way town especially since I had never heard of the place before.

We took two cars, Rob and I followed Adam and Jason. Jason was the cellphone contact as Adam was the only one who knew how to get there. And when we pulling into the drive of what was probably a farm, I said to Rob, "You know, if Adam is actually a serial killer, this is the perfect place to lead us to." We park and Adam leads us into a barn/shed. It probably at one point held a lot of farm equipment but was mostly cleared out except for the tables and chairs for all who were going to play.

The buy-in is $26+4 (we think). From what I gathered from Adam, it was a "charity" tournament for the local Optimus Club. It really wasn't clearly advertised what the rake was, so we have no idea how much the real buy-in was. In fact, it wasn't a very organized tournament; it was more like a very big home game.

The blind structure and chip counts kinda sucked. They started the blinds and 1/2 and then doubled them every 20 minutes(for the most part, there were a couple stages where it wasn't a double). And we only started with 150 chips. Definitely not a structure I'm used to. There were 30 players and 4 ended up paying out. First was a cool $312.

It was slow for the game to start. Everyone seemed to know everyone else--if they weren't related--so there was a lot of chatting and catching up on news before everyone was ready to play. When we did get going, Jason and I ended up at the same table and Rob and Adam were at two others. The best way to describe the play is "LOL, donkaments!"

It was bad; it was worse than the play at our home game. Everyone at the table would limp in. Although, if there were raises, it still didn't thin the field, it just sweetened the pot. The betting typically consisted of min bets, ocassionally someone would bet 2XBB but that was rare. And if they had an Ace in their hand, that was good enough to call down to the river. So, my strategy was to wait. I didn't want to get into to many pots with so many players. It was tough though, because of the blinds, waiting also meant worrying about being short stacked. As well, if I was in the BB or SB and I hit TP or better, I was staying until the river as my hand was likely good.

I really didn't have a choice about waiting for hands, though. I was not getting very good cards either way. So I folded and folded and folded. Blinds are about 5/10 and I look down and see TT. My stack is so-so, so I decide to make a hefty raise and re-evaluate on the flop. I get two callers and the flop is 34Q rainbow. The only thing I am afraid of is a queen so I push and hope neither player has one. One calls and one folds. When she flips her cards I'm happy to see A7o. The turn is a 5 and I'm now dreading a 6 on the river, but I hold up when it's just a seven. I scoop the pot and I'm good for a couple more blind increases.

My friend, Jason, is eliminated shortly after that and as he is busted he says to me "I hate the Mooney tables." Mooney is the worst player at our home game. I nod to Jason in agreement as I'm a little frustrated as well.

Part way into the 10/20 blind stage, I looked down to see KK in the BB. Time to make a move, I need to get more chips if I want to get to the final table let alone to the money. The whole table limps in, so I push. Everyone folds except for one caller. He flips A6o. I laugh and just feel an ace coming since I do have the kiss of death. Amazingly, my hand holds up.

Later, I double up a short stack when my TT ran into her QQ. Then next hand I call another all in with AKo and he flips QQ again. I'm beginning to hate the ladies. I end up lucking out and the two of us split the pot when the board made a straight.

During these hands, Adam goes broke and then later I see Rob come by my table so he's out as well. It's up to me now to represent.

Finally, the "tournament director" yells out that we will be going on break and after break we will be at final table! Blinds will also start at 20/40. I count my chips and I'm hurting. I have just under 200 chips. Once the game was one again, I check the chip stacks at the table there are 8 of us and only one other player is as desperate as I am. I was definitely going to have to push with any type of good holdings.

First hand is dealt and I'm UTG. I check and see QQ. Perfect, I'm sure to get a caller with this hand, so I push my stack in. Nope, everyone folds. Okay, the ladies really are a crappy hand for me tonight. In the BB I check and see 94 both spades. Sigh, with 60 chips coming off my stack this and the next hand, I'm not likely the looks of how things are going. So before the flop is dealt, everyone but one person limps in. As the cards are dealt, I see spade, then spade and finally a third spade. I flopped a flush. Not a great one, but it's all I have, when it's my turn to act, I push my stack to the center again. I get one caller again and when he flips his cards, my tournament is over. His K3 of spades, makes his King high flush better than mine. My only hope is a runner runner for a straight flush. It doesn't happen and I end out in 8th place.

I head over to where Rob and Jason are and the three of us wait until Adam finishes playing a Sit and Go that had started up. His game ends and he tells us he finished in first, so at least one of us were able to leave with a small profit.

Rob will post his view on the night later.

And for the tl;dr crowd.

Four of us when to a tournament that was hosted in the middle of nowhere. Except for one person, we had no idea where we were. Three of us busted early and I made it 8th but still not ITM.

[Talking Poker]

Good report. I really hate playing in tourneys like that too - it's so frustrating. Sounds like you adapted about as well as you could though.

Do you remember the payouts for 2nd-4th? If you do, we can figure out what the juice was easily enough.

[Robbr25]

I have stopped playing in tourneys like that.
I get too frustrated and it is not "fun" for me.

[Nikita]

I don't remember 2nd or 3rd. Just 4th which was $76. I think Rob figured it out and he's the one who said it was probably $26+4 other wise, I would have just put $30 in my post. Although, their payouts might not be too accurate, as they had been calculated on a piece of paper. Although we were in Canada I'm sure almost everyone else at that tournament was a redneck.

[Robbie Robb]

As best as I can calculate, the payouts were 40/30/20/10. There were 30 entries so the only numbers that make sense with a 312 payout (which first was) was that $26 went to prize and $4 went to "rake","charity",whatever the hell it was.

So Nikki's covered the nuts and bolts of getting us there, the layout etc. so here's my take on my table.

Unlike Nikki, my table had some okay players. The guy on my immediate right plays for play chips online and I get the feeling that a couple of the other players played online as well. The way I see it, I probably had the best seat in the house. The guy to my left was a preflop station but would fold to strength post flop. The woman to his left had no clue. I'm pretty sure that this was her first tournament of any sort. She knew the hand rankings and such but had absolutely no strategy what-so-ever.

Adam had warned us that the play was very donkey-ish so my initial strategy was to be tighter than a nun's...well...I was going to play tight. A couple things modified that somewhat: first - the blind structure. It was horrible. It went 1/2, 2/4, 4/8, 5/10 (???), 10/20, 15/30, 20/40, 25/50, and then 50/100. They had 15 levels set up but I don't know how far it went. The highest we saw was 25/50 before we cut out.

The blind structure was obviously the main factor in my having to change my strategy a bit. The other was cards: the deck hit me in the face right off the bat. First hand I'm dealt AKo UTG+1. I pop it to 8 (whoo!) and everyone tosses their hands. Hmm...okay, maybe their not so donkey-ish afterall. In the first half dozen hands I also received TT, AQs and some other quite playable hands. I completely realized my table image was that of a LAG/bully but I had the hands to back it up. I think I missed one flop in the first six hands or so. When I finally did fold, I actually commented, "See, I do know how to fold" which got a laugh from a few of the players. Probably the most memorable hand at 1/2 was when I was OTB. I can't remember what exactly I had but it was enough to limp in. I *think* it 9Ts but don't hold me to it. One guy in MP limped, I limped, the SB completed and the BB checked. The flop missed me completely. In fact, it probably wasn't possible for it to have missed me more. I was done with the hand. The SB, being first to act...folded. The BB...folded. The MP limper hemmed and hawed for at least 20 seconds and finally...folded. The guy to my right says "What just happened there?" I was laughing too hard as I raked in my 8 chips to answer. In all, I played 3 key hands in my game. The first was at 4/8 and I look down to rockets in the SB. There were three limpers, including the button, so, with 36 already in the pot, I overbet it to 60 or 80 or something silly like that. Everyone folded, but that additional 32 chips really helps out your stack when you only start with 150.

The next key hand was JJ. For this one I seem to recall I was UTG but who knows. I jam and the guy to my right, now one of the short stacks, calls. He flips over AT. Bet you can't guess what happens here? What? Ace on the river? Nay, I'm afraid not. No, the flop came 678 with a 9 on the turn. Naturally, the river couldn't continue the trend and give me jack high straight. I double him up and drop 44 chips in the process.

The last hand was my last hand. Blinds were at 10/20 at this point and I'm in the SB. I'm dealt 69o. At this point I've got 75 left. Two (maybe it was three) limpers make calling here hard to resist. Although in hindsight... Anyhoo, I complete the flop is 9-x-x. Great flop! The play at my table, as I mentioned, wasn't as bad as Nikki's. I hadn't seen any slowplaying of big hands. In fact, other than me and one other guy, there wasn't much raising at all. I move all in. BB folds. Limper #1 calls and the other one (or two) bail. I flip over my cards, he flips over 89o. D'oh! Needless to say, no six came and I joined Jason on the rail.

And like Nikki said - we were in the middle of freakin' nowhere. Looking at Google Maps, I can't even find exactly which road we were on. When we were leaving I said to Nikki and Jason that even having a GPS wouldn't have helped. It probalby would have said something like either "Error." or "Turn right in Madrid."

All in all, it was a fun night. I came home and was happy to see that Stars had the SNGs working again so I played three of those with a win, a 2nd, and a AKs bubble so at least I made the money back we spent plus some!

I would do it again, even though the blinds sucked.

[drewjax]

Krablar pwns.........no jopke!!

I had a similar hand the other nite, playing min.bet online. CO raised my big blind with T8dd, flop all diamonds. I check raise flop, we cap it. I lead out turn, when I get raised I finally thought, hmm, maybe i am not in the lead here (duh). I call and check/call river to find AQdd and the nuts. F'n cooler.

Sounds like an interesting tourney