Quicker Exit Than Last Year...

I didn't make to the dinner break this year :-(

The big lesson learned is that one is crippled without rebuy power in a rebuy tourney--duh. I'm especially disappointed that all three times I got knocked out (the two satellites and the tourney), I was all-in and ahead before the flop and got bad-beat on the flop. I wish I could have one at least one of these.

First of all, the stats: 879 entrants, 81 paying places. The $1K entry fee got you 2K in chips. You could rebuy at anytime with a stack of 2K chips or less for $1K (2K more chips) or $2K (4K more chips)--I'm pretty sure that's right, but going in, I thought you could only rebuy for $1K/2K chips until the break, then you could do the big rebuy. The rebuys need to be made in tournament or casino chips--no cash. I didn't see where I placed...

Unlike last year, there were no interesting hands of mine to talk about. I started off by shaking hands with Amarillo Slim to get some karma, but a guy at my table said maybe that wasn't such a good idea since he hadn't won anything in a long while. The Master was sitting at a table behind me--maybe I should have shook his hand instead. Strike 1.

With rebuys, everyone else was playing fast and loose. One guy rebought once right away for $1K and twice more during play, and once more for $2K right before the break. On one hand, he made a $3K call with a pair of 2s and lost to Js--pretty unbelievable. I would have liked to see how he fared going forward seeing that he was in for at least $6K (I don't remember what his two during-play rebuys were).

Part of the table image was people putting their 1K/5K tournament/casino chips on the table to show they were ready to rebuy. One guy from France didn't realize that you couldn't rebuy with cash, but an English guy sitting next to him graciously gave him 4K in chips for $2K from the French guy's wad of $10K--the English guy had at least $10K in chips in his pouch. I say graciously because the French guy had busted out, and you need to make a rebuy before the cards come back around after your busted hand.

Only one guy (I didn't recognize him, but he was a bracelet winner), didn't rebuy besides me, but he had a series of monster hands, the first being flopping a straight with J-10, going all-in, and getting two callers. He probably had 8k in chips at the first break.

At the first break, I was down to 700 in chips (from 2K)--I had "won" only one hand. That qualified me for low stack (maybe in the tournament) which was compounded even more when everyone (except that one guy) rebought. Strike 2.

So the rest of the play after the first break was uneventful. I eventually went all-in from the button after two guys limped in. One guy thought about it for a while and called. The other guy folded. I flipped over Q-J and he flipped over 10-9. A nine comes on the flop and the turn and river were of no help to me. I couldn't blame the guy for calling since the size of my stack was small relative to his, but still I want to whine again about losing after being ahead all three times I played and losing. But that's poker...Strike 3.

It's so lame to say "I didn't get any cards," but I really really really really really didn't get any cards. Without rebuy power, I probably played a little tighter than usual, but the plan of playing tight against loose players and pouncing when getting something pre-flop failed to materialize without getting anything. So if there is a next year, I'll either not play a tourney with rebuys or have enough ammo to do so.