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Fortunately it was at the end of my session last night and only one $20 SNG was caught in the blast wave.

I have a new appreciation for the MTT players out there. I don’t know how you people do it. It’s no wonder you are all basket cases, Kidding.

Started up my regular SNGs last night. Nothing noteworthy, average stuff. Started snooping around the site and found a $3r tourney starting in eighteen minutes. Joined it. Played TAG picking my spots and things went well. Total investment $12. Started with 700 + players. 2 1/2 hours in and I’m 50th in chips with 200 left. 2nd in chips at my table. Card dead for about an hour with a steal here and there. Started thinking I could go deep in this one (back of my mind) but there is a lot of work to be done.

Woke up with KK. BBs are at 600 with an ante. UTG min raises. UTG + 1 flat calls and I’m thinking this is pretty normal with what people have been doing to see a flop. The min raise UTG did spike my radar. So, I figured I would have to clear some people out to see where I stood. I made it 4200 to go (A little on the low side in retrospect). Everyone folded around to the UTG raiser and he shoved all in. Our stacks were about even. I thought for a moment that he’s screaming AA. But then I thought he had a lot of people to get through and from what HAS been happening, he would get alot of callers. I was thinking if he had AA, he would not want everyone calling. I eventually put him on AK or a middle pair. I called.

He showed AcQx. I’m thinking this could be good. Flop came rags with two clubs. Still no problem. Turn, rag club.

NOW I’m screaming at the screen “Hold, Hold you $^%&*# HOLD! No aces, no clubs you %$&*%^ ^%$*#. HOLD!

YEP. Rag club falls on the river and the &$%#^ caught his nut flush with four on the board. I was crippled and out soon after. But not before making a few notes on the guy that can’t be repeated. Suffice to say it was a litany of profanity followed by a little synopsis of how he violated me.

The Aftermath;

I had the sinking feeling that I just pissed away 2 1/2 hours. I was not happy. I still had one SNG open and I knew how that was going to go. But then I attempted to real myself in and blow it off. I did a TILT Stop N Go. I said to myself, “Self” you need to forget about that and consentrate on what you have in front of you. I did. Then, between hands, I would start thinking…2 1/2 hours wasted, that stupid
%$#^ing  jack#@$.  Rinse and repeat, (Tilt Stop N Go = Donkey.)

After I donked off the only table I had up, I had the strength to realize I was on Tilt and shut it down for the night. Good Me. And only down -$30ish for the session.

I finally understand the MTT player pain = Respect.

Done rambling, Gl at the tables.

That is the question. I’m typically not a big fan of rebuy tournaments. That being said when I think about it, every single Cleveland Poker League tournament that I play in (which constitutes 98% of all my poker playing these days) is in fact a rebuy tournament. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the CPL rules, let me explain.

Players get a starting stack of $2,500 tournament chips for their buyin ($15). One time (prior to the 5th blind level) players have the option of a one-time rebuy ($5) for another $1,000 chips. You can do this whether you’ve busted out of the tournament or not.

So the question is… do I rebuy up front, or wait until later in the tournament? I’m not sure there is a “correct” answer to this question but I thought I’d pose it. I typically get my rebuy up from so I’m starting the tournament with $3,500 in chips rather than $2,500. This essentially turns this rebuy tournament into a standard freeze out style tourney. I do this because it give me the advantage of putting those players who have NOT done the rebuy at the beginning of the night “all in” from the first hand. That being said, I think the earliest that someone has ever busted out was hand #4 or #5.

On the other hand, I do like the fact that if I weren’t to get my rebuy up front then I’d have a $1,000 “safety net” so to speak if I made a bad play and was out early. Personally I don’t play all that aggressively early in a tournament so this whole post is probably a non issue but I thought I’d bring it up.

I suppose it does indeed depend on your style of play. If you’re the type of player that might just indeed bust out early then you may want to think about not rebuying right up front. If you’re a tighter player (especially early in the day) then might as well get the extra heft to your stack from the beginning.

They had a casino (Oh Dear). They only offered one table for holdem. It was limit holdem. Never played live before. Never played limit before. Gave it a shot. Shaky start. Those people were out of control. I played three nights in a row with mostly the same players. It was hilarious and very disappointing at the same time.

The Players;

1)The self proclaimed porn star.
2)The comedian.
3)The chip splasher.
4)The quiet (but deadly) one.
5)The mouth.
6)The old Lady.

I found that it was very difficult to actually play what I considered proper poker, even for limit. Any two cards, anytime, all the way to the river. It was amazing. You would think this would be an easy game to beat. I folded alot. The dealers were very annoyed by the shenanigans, the cursing, the chip splashing. But this was a cruise ship and some of them were not capable of maintaining control.

The Shenanigans

The porn star kept telling us that he didn’t care about the money. The second night, he got into it with his Girlfriend (the porn producer) about fifteen feet from the table. The comedian coudn’t resist and started yelling at the guy to say he was sorry and that he was not going to win the argument. This went on for several minutes until the comedian felt it was necessary to go over there and get them to play rock paper scissors to see who the winner of the argument would be. Yes, it was funny. Especially when the waiter walked by. They both stopped mid-stream of a heated argument and ordered a drink.

The mouth was extremely intoxicated the first night. He was “The Man” and said it repeatedly. He got into it with just about everybody at the table. He was a pain in the ****.

The old lady beat the pants off everyone and left early with a profit.

The comedian had ample material with the cast of degenerate drunk bozo’s that were at the table and was actually pretty damned funny. I Found out the second night that he used to do stand up for a living.

The Chip Splasher sat to my right and had to have been the most annoying. He was one beer from falling off his chair. Every single hand he had to ask, “what’s the maximum bet?” He almost played every hand and to the dismay of everyone, actually won quite a few pots with his crap hole cards by sucking out. He would grab a stack of chips every hand and basically fling them in the direction of the pot. They went everywhere, everytime. He never got the bet right and this slowed the game down quite a bit.

The first two nights I left with a very small profit and had a pretty good time. The last night, most of the players were there again. This time most of us were sober. It was an enjoyable game. I continued to fold alot and pick my hands. I actually was able to bluff a guy into folding on the river for twenty more on a 150 pot. That was cool.

The Cooler Hand

A 10 off. KJQ rainbow flop. I’m not going anywhere. We do the raise re-raise cap thing all the way to the river with just about everyone staying in. I flip my straight. Villain (New to the table and unknown to any of us) flips his cards up and declares pair of jacks. Dealer places his cards into the muck and starts to shove the chips my way 300+ pot. Villain says, “Wait!, I think I had a flush.” Dealer stops and pulls his cards out of the muck. The two cards he pulled out did make the flush. Dealer starts to shove the chips to villain. I protested. Dealer said it was his own fault and the “Cards speak.”

Look, if the guy did win then so be it. I did not see his cards clearly before the dealer mucked them. I just didn’t like the way it went down. I waited a long time for that hand.

All in all, it was a good time.

So I had just dropped a monster pot a few minutes ago after bluffing into the chip leader at my table who was on a rush like I haven’t seen in quite a while. This was a doubly difficult situation cause not only was she on a rush, but she’s a very good player as well. I figured that she just COULDN’T have a hand again and I proceeded to donk off about half my stack to her flopped full house – ARGHHH!

In any case, I looked down in first position to find one of my favorite hands

I’ll admit that I was steaming a bit but I decided to put my stack at risk to pick up the blinds and antes (and to hopefully get myself back on some kind of roll). Well it would have worked if it weren’t for that same chip leader’s CONTINUED streak.

As you can probably tell from my tone, she of course had

and promptly ended my day.

Looking back I was pissed at the beats that I’d taken, I hadn’t caught any cards in over 2 hours (don’t think I saw one pocket pair) and I was trying to make things happen. I’ll take this as a lesson in how NOT to get a streak going.