My buddy Mike called me up Sunday afternoon and asked if I would be interested in playing in the Bike $25 +$5 Limit Hold ‘Em (Headhunter) tourney so . . . I said ok. Pretty uneventful. I pretty much played tight, conservative poker and limped along long enough to make the final table with $3500 with the blinds at $5000/$10,000. The button was to my left and so when one guy decided to bluff with AT against a set of sevens I moved up a notch with two short stacks between me and my next blind. When the blind hit the first of the short stacks 2 players to my right I looked down and saw AQs and decided I wasn’t going to get blinded out with 56o or some other crummy hand so I pushed all in and prayed for the best. We got called by a big stack and so the three of us saw the flop with came Jxx. The big stack caller had KT and the other short stack had low junk cards so I was still ahead going into the turn which was a Q. The river brought a 9 giving the big stack a straight and the end of the tournament for me and the other short stack who finished 9th.
210 Players, $6500 cash pool, $135 plus one headhunter bonus of $5 for a total of $140 for an eighth place finish. After rebuys and add-ons I was up $70. Not the best hourly rate I’ve ever had (4.5 hours of play) but it beats losing and I think I’m getting a lot better at tournament play.
I still hate the unlimited rebuy tournaments like this. Here, you can do a double rebuy if you have $200 or less and everyone starts with $200 so the second the first hand is dealt everyone in the room is doing a rebuy for $800 in chips for $20. Instead of being a $25 +$5, it’s more like a $45 +$5. It’s especially frustrating because the rebuys add so many chips (4x your initial buyin) for such a low cost that you’re forced to put in another $20 just to stay even. I don’t mind add-ons because they can breath a little life into someone who’s been short stacked by blinds but the rebuys just turn the first hour into the wild-wild-west.
Oh well, just blowing off some minor steam. 🙂