Tournament from Hell
"You're gonna love the blind structure."
That was what the Sam's Town tournament director said to me the night before the big WSOP freeroll. When I saw the posted structure on Saturday night, it hit me that he must have been being sarcastic. When I asked him what in the hell would make him think I'd want a structure so aggressive his reply was, "Because you're one of the most aggressive players here." I almost passed out. That a tournament director would think those two things are somehow related in anyway other than sharing an adjective is mind boggling.
It was the single worst tournament I have ever played in, or likely ever will.
They never posted the blind structure prior to the tournament. What I thought was going to be a good, long, fun tournament where skill would be most likely to win out in the end was more like a Party Poker speed freeroll. Worse actually.
We each started with stacks of $10k, and blinds of 100/100, but the blinds were doubled on almost every level (which was only every 20 minutes), and at level 5 (500/1000) antes were introduced.
After the second break we began level 7 with 20 stacks remaining, and an average stack size of 15k. The blinds were already up to 2k / 4k with a 500 ante. The pot was 11k before the cards were even fucking dealt, and we were all playing in the Red Zone (if we were lucky). I was having flashbacks of barracks games of two card guts in my Marine Corps days. Push or fold.
I finally lost when it was my turn in the big blind, and the antes had whittled what had earlier been a decent size stack to a mere to 15.5k, and I was worried about my ability to survive another orbit. One player had raised up to 11k, no other players were calling, the small blind folded, and I looked down at A8. If it wasn't for the temptation of a 7k call on a 22k pot, and I hadn't been blind with rage, I wouldn't have made the call. I know the player that raised it well enough to know he was only coming in with a monster, but I clung to the hope that I had 2 live cards, one of them an ace. It was a huge mistake that cost me a WSOP seat.
When the flop came 8 5 2, I pushed with TPTK, and he called and flipped up the bullets. Like any half decent player, I don't hit 2-outers, they hit me, and so his aces held up.
I had a long talk with the tournament director afterwards. The entire thing was bullshit, and I believe that Sam's Town has lost at least 20 good customers over the whole ordeal, myself definitely included. It really sucked for those of us that put in the time and effort to get into such an important event, only to find that our odds were barely better than pulling 10 names out of a hat and declaring them the winners. It was rumored that the structure was set that way due to a lack of tables (normally extra tables are set up in the sports book when the room is full, but the sports book wouldn't allow it due to a huge fight night), and managements desire to get the whole thing over with as fast as possible.
Possibly worse, they've changed the regular weekly night tournaments to have a more aggressive structure as well, and lowered the buyins from $65 to $45. Did they lower the juice as well? Yeah, from $18 to $15. I was grudgingly ok with the high house cut when it was going towards paying for my potential WSOP seat, but now it's just ridiculous. I guess it's time to investigate the tournaments on the strip, which I absolutely dread.
Flipchip scored a $1500 seat. His combination of extremely tight play, and a monster victory when his AA held up against a nearly same sized stack's KK carried him through to the final table.
...
I also played in the cluster fuck of a tournament put on by Poker Stars on Sunday, which without having seen the tourney I just spoke of, you'd probably thought that was what the title of this entry was about.
All was going well, and I was actually in the top 20 chip stacks for the entire first hour. Immediately following the break, two really bad things happened.
First, a total idiot appeared at our table with a stack about half as large as mine, angry at his misfortune for starting at a table full of no shows, and was in the middle of blinding them out when the table broke. He then proceeded to push me all-in preflop with a KTo against my KK, and cracked em for half my stack when he flopped one ten and turned the second.
Second, the moment that hand was done, our table was broken. I barely had time to register what had just occured when I was moved to a new table, with 4 no shows on my right, and 4 wild men on my left, two of which now had stacks larger than mine. I was suddenly playing in a 5 handed poker tournament in which I was eternally out of position. Great fun.
Why didn't Poker Stars pick up the half a million no-shows within some reasonable period of time rather than letting them be blinded off by whatever lucky donkeys happened to draw good seats? I suppose we'll never know.
...
I watched the new Mansion Poker Dome show last night, and two things stood out in particular. Those look like the most comfortable chairs I've ever seen at a poker table, and I hate the way the dealer lays the flop out one card at a time. Other than that, the show wasn't particularly good or bad, but I hope it does well. Anything that improves the popularity of poker is good for all of us.
...
Anyhow, as is likely apparent in my ranting, I'm burned out on poker, and going to take a break. Not only that, but my bankroll is about to take another large hit due to car troubles, and practically forcing the situation. You could call it bad luck, but if not for the good fortune of taking down the $40k guaranteed at Party last month, I'd really be screwed, so I'm not at all bitter about it.
I'm going to have to pass on the WSOP this year, and focus on getting some aspects of my life back in order instead, but I'm not as upset about it as I thought I'd be. I've only been playing for real money for about a year now, and only in B&M rooms for less than 5 months, so a little more practice and experience is probably a good thing. I'll set better goals for next year and start planning earlier, and all will be well.
Seriously though, I'll probably scrape up the cash for at least one satellite, and maybe consider one of the offers I've had to be staked, though I doubt I'll accept. I'm extremely uncomfortable with the idea of playing with other peoples money, and even less so about being in implied debt.
-Tommy
That was what the Sam's Town tournament director said to me the night before the big WSOP freeroll. When I saw the posted structure on Saturday night, it hit me that he must have been being sarcastic. When I asked him what in the hell would make him think I'd want a structure so aggressive his reply was, "Because you're one of the most aggressive players here." I almost passed out. That a tournament director would think those two things are somehow related in anyway other than sharing an adjective is mind boggling.
It was the single worst tournament I have ever played in, or likely ever will.
They never posted the blind structure prior to the tournament. What I thought was going to be a good, long, fun tournament where skill would be most likely to win out in the end was more like a Party Poker speed freeroll. Worse actually.
We each started with stacks of $10k, and blinds of 100/100, but the blinds were doubled on almost every level (which was only every 20 minutes), and at level 5 (500/1000) antes were introduced.
After the second break we began level 7 with 20 stacks remaining, and an average stack size of 15k. The blinds were already up to 2k / 4k with a 500 ante. The pot was 11k before the cards were even fucking dealt, and we were all playing in the Red Zone (if we were lucky). I was having flashbacks of barracks games of two card guts in my Marine Corps days. Push or fold.
I finally lost when it was my turn in the big blind, and the antes had whittled what had earlier been a decent size stack to a mere to 15.5k, and I was worried about my ability to survive another orbit. One player had raised up to 11k, no other players were calling, the small blind folded, and I looked down at A8. If it wasn't for the temptation of a 7k call on a 22k pot, and I hadn't been blind with rage, I wouldn't have made the call. I know the player that raised it well enough to know he was only coming in with a monster, but I clung to the hope that I had 2 live cards, one of them an ace. It was a huge mistake that cost me a WSOP seat.
When the flop came 8 5 2, I pushed with TPTK, and he called and flipped up the bullets. Like any half decent player, I don't hit 2-outers, they hit me, and so his aces held up.
I had a long talk with the tournament director afterwards. The entire thing was bullshit, and I believe that Sam's Town has lost at least 20 good customers over the whole ordeal, myself definitely included. It really sucked for those of us that put in the time and effort to get into such an important event, only to find that our odds were barely better than pulling 10 names out of a hat and declaring them the winners. It was rumored that the structure was set that way due to a lack of tables (normally extra tables are set up in the sports book when the room is full, but the sports book wouldn't allow it due to a huge fight night), and managements desire to get the whole thing over with as fast as possible.
Possibly worse, they've changed the regular weekly night tournaments to have a more aggressive structure as well, and lowered the buyins from $65 to $45. Did they lower the juice as well? Yeah, from $18 to $15. I was grudgingly ok with the high house cut when it was going towards paying for my potential WSOP seat, but now it's just ridiculous. I guess it's time to investigate the tournaments on the strip, which I absolutely dread.
Flipchip scored a $1500 seat. His combination of extremely tight play, and a monster victory when his AA held up against a nearly same sized stack's KK carried him through to the final table.
...
I also played in the cluster fuck of a tournament put on by Poker Stars on Sunday, which without having seen the tourney I just spoke of, you'd probably thought that was what the title of this entry was about.
All was going well, and I was actually in the top 20 chip stacks for the entire first hour. Immediately following the break, two really bad things happened.
First, a total idiot appeared at our table with a stack about half as large as mine, angry at his misfortune for starting at a table full of no shows, and was in the middle of blinding them out when the table broke. He then proceeded to push me all-in preflop with a KTo against my KK, and cracked em for half my stack when he flopped one ten and turned the second.
Second, the moment that hand was done, our table was broken. I barely had time to register what had just occured when I was moved to a new table, with 4 no shows on my right, and 4 wild men on my left, two of which now had stacks larger than mine. I was suddenly playing in a 5 handed poker tournament in which I was eternally out of position. Great fun.
Why didn't Poker Stars pick up the half a million no-shows within some reasonable period of time rather than letting them be blinded off by whatever lucky donkeys happened to draw good seats? I suppose we'll never know.
...
I watched the new Mansion Poker Dome show last night, and two things stood out in particular. Those look like the most comfortable chairs I've ever seen at a poker table, and I hate the way the dealer lays the flop out one card at a time. Other than that, the show wasn't particularly good or bad, but I hope it does well. Anything that improves the popularity of poker is good for all of us.
...
Anyhow, as is likely apparent in my ranting, I'm burned out on poker, and going to take a break. Not only that, but my bankroll is about to take another large hit due to car troubles, and practically forcing the situation. You could call it bad luck, but if not for the good fortune of taking down the $40k guaranteed at Party last month, I'd really be screwed, so I'm not at all bitter about it.
I'm going to have to pass on the WSOP this year, and focus on getting some aspects of my life back in order instead, but I'm not as upset about it as I thought I'd be. I've only been playing for real money for about a year now, and only in B&M rooms for less than 5 months, so a little more practice and experience is probably a good thing. I'll set better goals for next year and start planning earlier, and all will be well.
Seriously though, I'll probably scrape up the cash for at least one satellite, and maybe consider one of the offers I've had to be staked, though I doubt I'll accept. I'm extremely uncomfortable with the idea of playing with other peoples money, and even less so about being in implied debt.
-Tommy
posted by Tommy at 3:41 PM
2 Comments:
I'm surprised you would say so many people would leave a place over a freeroll. If it had been a money tournament and they either changed the format or just didn't make it clear, I could see it, but if it was a freeroll...
Still, sounds like they were pretty clueless...
This wasn't a normal freeroll, but one in which the seats were limited to 30 runners, and the players who won these seats have been in competition for them for 6 months.
As for the format, they never posted the format until the day of the actual freeroll, and we had all assumed that it would be a similar structure to the tournaments we've been playing every single day, but was instead designed to clear the tables as fast as possible.
So several people who have been wasting their time at Sam's Town, giving $18 in juice to the house (some of them every single night for the entire 6 months) when they could be down at the strip crushing tourists instead, will not be returning.
It wasn't just losing one poorly run freeroll, it was the feeling of just having wasted half a year of effort and getting screwed at the finish line.
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