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Gregg729
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« on: Jul 02, 2009 at 00:00 » |
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So NH law allows pubs and cardrooms to have poker as long as a percentage of the revenues go to charity. A brutal percentage, somewhere from 20-35%, I've heard different things. So it's tough for TD's to turn a profit to pay their bills, so unlimited rebuys are the norm by necessity. I hate unlimited rebuy tourneys, they're stinky donkey corrals as far as I'm concerned. But a common marketing tactic is to have a freeroll tourney - boosts the overall turnout. And when freerollers find out their chip stack is so small as to basically not have a shot at cashing, they're tempted to buy in to start out with enough chips to have a fighting chance.
There's one cardroom right around the corner from me with a Wednesday freeroll. It is indeed a donkey corral but hey, I'll do it for free. It's like a lottery-style satellite - all I can do at the beginning is pick a spot to shove and hope to get lucky or not get unlucky. But if I can double up twice, I can play poker against some donks. It is what it is. If it was more than a mile away, I wouldn't bother. I'm usually back home within an hour, but every once in a while I bust through. The first time I went there for example, I got dealt rockets twice in a row to start (wow, the odds!) and turned 1500 chips into almost 13000 in 2 hands. The first, and only, time I cashed.... so far. I've only busted through the "bingo" realm one other time. Usually, your chip stack is so small and people are so loose, you can't get enough people to fold to have a realistic shot of doubling up more than once and busting through. It's all good, it's just bingo unless you can get lucky, you expect to sit around and watch idiots make a mockery of the game of poker. But then, there's exceptionally bad nights like this....
I take my usual seat tonight and as usual, there's only one or two other freerollers at the table - the rest have me out gunned at least 4.5 to 1. Things are looking hopeful from the get-go as I start out with the button. I proceed to fold like it was going out of style, waiting. Under the gun, I get my hand to ride - cowboys! The table was pretty darn tight for freerollin standards so I smooth call for value. 2 callers after me, and the blinds in front of me, perfect! The flop comes J 10 blank, no draws. SB min bets, BB calls. Now, I have some history with the player to my left. He's a solid player who always picks the same table as me and we mix it up alot when I manage to bust through the freeroll shortstack and get to play poker. Lately, he's picked me off on a few bluffs and from talking to him on breaks can tell he's very unlikely to give my bets the benefit of the doubt - I intend to use this to my advantage. So I hammer it, all in, 1300 into a 700 pot, and pray he has a J or 10. He goes into the tank, and I do everything in my power to look as vulnerable as possible. He raises to isolate me - works for me - everyone folds and we're heads up. He flips J 9. 5 outs or runner runner, I figured about 80% (actually 79%). Next card: jack - and I'm done after 15 minutes and less than one orbit of the button.
So I leave and come back to play the 30/30. Very weak, semi-tight passive table, but I'm mostly getting garbage. I scoop pots when I feel I can and get into a groove. Blinds are 100/200. Then an old dude goes ballistic at the other side of the table and starts raising to 1500 every hand. It had tilted the table a little when I come to look at A K under the gun. I have a good table image now so I bet 800 the big blind to see what the geezer's gonnna do. He raises to the typical amount, which is 100 short of a legal bet and the dealer doesn't notice but whatever - I now know he has junk and I'm not going to give my hand strength away by making a stink of it, he's close enough. The next guy goes all in, about 3500 or 3600 total. I want this guy's stack - I've got enough of a bead on him to tell i'm in a coin flip situation at worst. But I don't want the geezer sucking out on me. So i shove, 6100 total. He flips A Q, I have him crushed. Flop, turn, so far so good. Figures though, he catches one of his 3 outs on the river, drowning my 94% odds.
Rebuy. And I go back to work, treading water and trading punches. I'm getting some cards now, but the flops are tough to work with. I'm treading water and feel like I'm betting and folding at the right times.
Again, under the gun. K Q. I make a 2.5XBB raise, figuring it was a good balance to scare away the junk and make the good players think I was betting for value. Only one caller - he has about 2/3 or 3/4 my stack. K Q 9 on the flop, yahtzee! I check, he goes all in, I'm loving it and call. He flips kojak. The J won't help him, only a 10 will - I like my 84% odds. Of course, it comes on the turn.
Sigh... now I'm borderline crippled. And on the BB too, the very next hand. I post the 600 and count 3500 left. The under the gun guy, a good player, bumps it to 2000. The table folds back to me and I look down at a suited K 8. I was steaming, on tilt, irrational. Full of righteous indignation at the injustice of it all, I launch into a speech explaining why I'm going to call despite knowing I'm behind. Yes, he may have pockets but they aren't premium. Yes, he may have big slick, in which case I'm dominated, but I just don't buy it. Yes, you probably have an A Q or A J, but I have two live cards. And dammit, the poker gods owe me some luck, and I demand that luck right now! I didn't even try to determine the pot odds, I just called.... And flopped a king! Nice, only one of three aces will crack me, I was 88% likely to regain a foothold into the tourney. But big f'in shock, an A came on the turn. I put all my chips in knowing I was behind, so technically it's not a bad beat. But I felt it was my turn - and it was, for a second, I was 88% after the flop. So in light of everything else, I'm calling it a bad beat.
Which made it 4 on the night in about 75 minutes of play. The first I was 80% to win. I was about 90% on the rest, after the flop. All were very important pots, for 60% of my chip stack or more. Sodomized.
Oh well, at least the Sox gave the O's a bad beat today....
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