Unusual tournament structure - Adjustments?

[davidross]

I'll make this a bit of a trip report and pose my question. Skip the trip report if you wish.

In Southern Ontario we have some charity casinos who operate with some different rules. They usually have limited space (10-15 tables) so they have developed an unusual tournament structure for their championship events. Mon-Wed they run single day smaller buy in tournaments that are capped at the max number of tables they have. Then for the main event (anywhere from ($500 - $1500) They have 3 days of qualifying Thursday - Saturday again capped at the table max, with the top 10% qualifying for Sunday and bringing their chips forward with them. The twist is that you can enter all 3 qualifying days if you wish. If you qualify more than once you bring your biggest chip stack forward but not a total. And when the finals begin on Sunday they back the blinds way up to 400/800 when the average stack will be 50K. This makes for some interesting dynamics as the bubble approaches. For instance we finished the day with blinds at 3000/6000. I had a stack of 25K which is dreadful in relation to the blinds, but if I survive to Sunday I have lots of play again a big blind of 800. On the other hand almost everyone is just hoping to sneak in (everyone on Sunday gets paid).

In General what adjustments would you make to take advantage of the situation?

My more specific question is a hand I had right on the bubble. 14 players to qualify, 16 are left. I have 25K and the blinds are 3K/6K with a 300 ante. The blinds just went through me and I had to pass both my BB (T-2 to a SB push, and 73 in the SB against a BB with only 12K left). I passed on both of them when I would normally play, simply because of the blind regression on Sunday. I can surely fold in, but it might cost me 1 more set of blinds (almost 12K). UTG pushes for 25K (our stacks look almost equal). He has pushed twice in the last orbit to get from the felt to 25K. I've watched him and he will do this with any pair, any ace and probably KQ or KJs. I have TT in the cut off. The 3 players behind me are all short stacked. Normally I call in a shot, but given the overall situation, what do you do?

If you don't want to know the results, answer before reading the rest.


Trip report, Pt Edward Casino.

I'm still looking for more live play tournament experience so whenever I get a chance locally I'm taking it. As part of the Canadian Poker tour Pt Edward Casino in Sarnia (right across the river from Port Huron Mich, not far from Detroit) has these events twice a year. This is my 3rd trip, last year I placed 13th in the main event, and found the play very poor overall. I have to realize that most of my live experience has been in WPT or WSOP events where the best players in the world play. When I play these local events I find play like I've never experienced before. For the most part they are very tight and transparent. I saw laydowns I couldn't believe (I really can't believe they showed them either, talk about an invitation to abuse.

Sarnia is a 2 1/2 hour drive from home. I rented a car and took off Wednesday at noon. I've registered to play the $300 event Wednesday and the $500 qualifier on Thursday and Saturday. If I qualify Thursday I can withdraw from Saturday and get my $500 back. I booked a room at the Best Western for Wednesday night and I'll go home when I'm out Thursday no matter what. Then I'll come back Saturday or Sunday and play it by ear.

Its a real nice little casino. They have added 4 tables this year so there are 140 spots in each event. They play 30minute rounds and the blinds go up really fast, doubling each level with antes starting in round 4. We start with 5K chips and my first table seemed pretty typical. Lots of locals.
I got a lot of hands to play early but with very mixed results. I either won the blinds or got called, then got played back at post-flop and had to fold. As a result I never got much above my starting stack. The beauty of these tournaments is that you can rob people blind when you get short. Once the blinds went to 300/600 and I had around my 5K starting stack I began pushing a fair bit to maintain my stack, and I got away with it a lot. I lasted a lot longer than my cards deserved but finally found myself under 4K with blinds now at 400/800 and I pushed blind from the cutoff. I have actually pushed and re-raised blind a fair bit in these events. When the situation dictates it I like doing it blind because a lot of times when I look at my cards I lose my nerve. I got called by AQ this time and turned over Q4..yuck. Until I flopped a 4 and more than doubled to 9K. 2 hands later there was a min raise and a call and I pushed with TT. The original raiser called with 99 and I was on my way to 20K and a chance to play with 50 players left.oops, a 9 flopped and those fickle poker gods laughed at me.

Oh well back to the hotel to play the Stars 9:00 PM, only I can't get the internet connection to work, and by the time I do, I missed it. I try to play ring games but it's so slow I have to stop. The trip is not off to a great start.

On Thursday the play is scheduled to start at 4:00 PM. I have to check out by 12:00 so I go into a restaurant for lunch and take my laptop with me. I brought the movie the Illusionist and I watch it. Unfortunately my luck holds and my battery runs out around 20 minutes from the end.

So 140 of us start up and my table looks as tasty as yesterday. Once again most of them seem to know each other. I pick up a few pots early with a couple of semi bluff raises and meet no resistance. I’m in the 4 seat, and the 3 seat is raising 3 hands an orbit, and c-betting every time. The 5 seat is a woman who appears to be very tight. In the 8 seat is a young kid who looks like a poker player (full tilt hat, some other site on the t-shirt) but he sure likes to limp a lot. My first big hand is with him. He limps from EP and so does the SB. I’m in the BB with AK and I raise to 400 (blinds 50/100). The limper calls and the SB thinks and folds. Flop is Q72 rainbow. I bet 700 and he calls immediately. Turn is another 7 and I check. He checks too. River is a J and I give up and check, he shows KQ and I’m back down to my starting stack. Next orbit when I’m in the blind again this hand comes up. UTG limps, seat 8 limps too, and the SB calls. I find QQ this time and I raise again to 800 (blinds are 100/200 now). UTG folds, but seat 8 and the SB call. Flop is J 5 3, 2 clubs. I bet 2K and seat 8 calls. SB folds. The turn is another 3. I push my last 2.5 K and he thinks a long time before calling with 99. That puts me over 10K. Once again nothing happens for an orbit but in my BB again this time it’s folded to the 3 seat. As I mentioned he’s been raising a lot. He raises again to 750 and I call with Th 7h. Flop is J 7 3 no hearts and he bets 600. I call. Turn is an 8 putting a 2nd diamond out there and he bets 600 more. I call again. River is a small club and he fires 600 for the 3rd time. I call again and he mucks.

Before I can get too comfortable, for the 4th straight BB I play a hand. This time the tight lady UTG raises the minimum. An EP call and then folded to me. I have JJ and decide to just call. Flop looks great for me, 8 6 2. I check and so does the lady. The EP makes a little 400 bet and I raise him to 1500. The lady now pushes for around 10K. I take my time folding but there is no way I’m good here. I try and decide if there is any way she’s overvaluing TT or 99 but I muck. She tells me later she had 66 and I believe her. I start bleeding chips. Raising and folding to re-raises. One hand I raise with 33, get 2 callers then the SB re-raises. I take a long time but I’m not getting a set price so I fold. Of course the flop comes 9 6 3. The SB bets, one of the LP guys go all in and they show JJ and T9. As I’m cursing my luck the J turns and suddenly I feel like I made a great laydown. Our table breaks and I get moved to another that looks just the same. I’m hanging around with a barely playable stack. I pick up AQ in MP and make a 3x raise. The BB(I’ll call him corvette guy because that’s what is on his sweater and he plays a roll later) makes a huge show out of staring at me. I stare back, I look away, I try to look stupid, which is real easy for me, especially since I don’t have a clue what I want him to do. Finally he calls. Flop is J high and I push. He mucks immediately and shows me AK. Yikes. I get moved again and this table has some interesting dynamics.

Seat 2 is a friendly 30 something lady who cashed the night before. She clearly is trying to play well, but really doesn’t know how. I’m in the 5 seat and the 4 seat is a young guy with a mountain of chips. From the conversation it seems the deck hit him in the face early. Seat 9 I recognize from the night before. He only plays pairs and AK and will let his stack get down to 1 BB if he doesn’t see those hands. I even hear him complain that he always seems to get close to the money but never gets in. I watch the guy in the 4 seat raise anyone who limps 3 times. Twice I end up seeing his hand and it is QJ and KJ.

Now he raises in EP and I have AA. I just smooth call him. Any re-raise will have to be all-in and I want to trap him for another bet on the flop. Flop is all low and he checks. I bet and he flashes AK. I comment that if I had known he had AK I would have pushed pre-flop. He makes a big show of telling me how he is good enough to lay down AK pre-flop. Within a couple of minutes we hook up again. The nice lady doesn’t catch on and she limps again. Once again the 4 seat raises. I have 99. His raise is 4K and I have 15K in my stack. I have no reason to believe I’m behind, so I push. Everyone folds and the 4 seat doesn’t think very long before calling with AT. Wow, that was one of the hands I thought I could make fold for sure. Good enough to lay down AK but not AT Anyhow my 9’s hold up and suddenly I’m at 30K. Corvette guy gets moved to my table on my left. He asks about the AK hand earlier and I tell him I had AK too. He’s complaining that he hasn’t won a single hand for an hour, and when I don’t give him the correct sympathy he starts telling the whole table. Almost right away he gets it all-in with seat 4, TT for the 4 seat and AK for corvette guy. An Ace on the river and he stops complaining…for 1 hand. Now nice lady raises UTG and corvette guy goes all-in. They each have around 25K. She takes a long time thinking about it. Corvette guy says “I’ll show them to you” which to me means a pair. I think you call AK it not them. She seems real troubled so my guess is AK or AQ for her and QQ for him. Finally she says “I’ll gamble with you” and calls. He thumps down his KK and she shows AJs. First thing she says is “that’s what I though you had”. Oh my. Of course the flop has 2 Jacks in it and corvette guy blows a gasket. I’ve seen it online, but never live before. “WTF did you think I had” was the nicest thing he said. He had enough chips for another blind so he got to throw his cards as hard as he could at the dealer a few times before he pushed from UTG. BB was 800 I think and he had around 1K. Amazingly no one called so I called blind. He shows K8, AK for me..of course. I make a full house to send him out in style. Now Mr. Uber-tight has let his stack get under 2K. BB is 800 and he finally pushes from the CO. Nice girl has 800 in the BB and 50K behind. She folds 88 face up. Holy crap. I love this when I’m the guy stealing but when I just want to see people bust it’s torture.

Now we’re getting nearer to the bubble. 14 will move on and we’re about to break. In fact they’ve given us all our cards for the last 3 tables. A young kid in seat 1 who has been solid but speculative (raising 55 in ep, and several LP raises) raises from the CO. Nice lady folds and stands up and so does the 4 seat (who’s stack has been decimated by me and corvette guy). I’m in the BB and we’re the only 2 left at the table. I’ve already decided to come over the top, and I haven’t even looked yet. I have him slightly covered and I know he doesn’t want to go home yet. I want to move blind but I’m not positive he won’t notice that I haven’t looked so I peek. K6 yuck. That’s why I hate looking. I push all-in anyway. He makes such a face. It’s obvious he’s folding. But he takes a longtime before folding. He clearly wants me to show but I just grab a rack and move on.

Now I have to decide how to play this. 30 left and I’m in fine shape with 35K. Average however will be 50K at the end. Only 1 guy at my table has me covered and with the blinds moving back down on Sunday survival is way more important than amassing chips. With everyone so desperate to move on though it would be a great time to get aggressive. Unfortunately my cards and circumstances don’t cooperate. I do manage to pick up the BB of the guy on my left a couple of times so my stack stayed where it was, but no growth. When we get to 20 it starts to get interesting. Blinds are getting seriously high and play is so slow that we’re getting 5 hands in a 30 minute level. I have several chances to call a short stack all-in and would have with any playable hand, but I’m stone dead now. Blinds at 2K/4K start to wear down everyone’s stack. There are 3 or 4 guys under 10K, but folding in will leave me short for Sunday. Several guys get walks on their BB but not me.

The most interesting hand of the night came up without me in it. The button (40K) makes it 8K to go. SB goes all-in for 10K and the BB announces all-in for 11K and throws his AA face up on the table. Button is still live. By a strict rule enforcement they could declare the BB hand dead and muck him. They decided to let them play. Button has to call 3K to win 31, and he folded his Q9s.

So finally with my stack down to 25K and blinds up to 3K/6K I pick up TT. UTG raises. He’d been very vocal about what it would take for him to raise and one of the guys at the table told me he’ll keep pushing. He’d climbed up from the felt with 3 blind steals and had the same size stack as me. 16 left, and I decided to call. I’m still not sure if it’s a good poker decision. I really thought I was ahead of his range, and probably would have folded 88 or less. Any way he had AJ, I won my race and suddenly had 60K in chips. He went out in 15th.

With the blinds one hand away from me the button pushed all-in. The BB clearly has a hand but he takes forever. We’re hand for hand and again we haven’t had an orbit at 3K/6K with 4/8 coming. The floor calls the clock on him and he goes nuts. Now he wastes his minute arguing and with the floor counting from 10 splashes the pot with the rest of his chips. Luckily they had already counted. K9 for the button and KQ for the BB. Button has 200 chips more than the BB so I’m rooting for the suck out to save me a BB. KQ holds up though so I have to post my BB. The short stack is all-in on the ante, and the SB calls. We check down a board of QTT74 with 3 hearts, and the SB has a T for trips. I haven’t even looked and I turn 8h 2h for a flush to pick up 9K more on the last hand.

[ASPoker8]

This structure sounds ridiculously +EV. The endgame of the first day sounds like a dream to exploit and build a large stack for day 2.

I think the call w/ TT is right. If he's shoving AJ, he's shoving 66+ for sure, imo.



Very cool report, thanks for taking the time to write it.