On Saturday I played in a freeroll tournament hosted twice a year by Station Casinos – the chain of properties that owns Green Valley Ranch. In order to qualify for the tournament I needed to log 75 hours of poker play over a three month period; a feat which I accomplished in only about two weeks. I have written about this tournament before, but without digging into my archives it is enough for you to know that it is pretty much the most horribly structured tournament on Earth. Each player starts with 700 chips, the limits start at 25-50 and double every 15 minutes. With each level change the game also changes. The first level is limit hold em. The second level is Omaha High. And so on…

The only reason that I even played in the tournament is because everyone who shows up is guaranteed $100 (hence the “freeroll”). Saturday’s tournament consisted of 4 heats of 500 players each. Each heat played down to 125 people and then the remaining 500 players returned on Sunday for the “Finals.” Everyone who made it to Sunday’s tournament was guaranteed $200, and first place was worth $70,000. Everyone who returned on Sunday started the final round with an equal number of chips, so whether you finished Saturday with 1 chip or 20,000 chips you enter the next day even with everyone else (think of Saturday as basically a Super Satellite). However, the top 5 chip leaders from each qualifying heat on Saturday split $10,000.

Alright, hopefully that makes sense. Basically. the shitty structure of the tournament combined with the bizarre payout schedule led me to craft a strategy that involved being hyper-hyper-aggressive very early on. Whether I lose in the first 5 minutes or go out in 126th place, I am guaranteed the same amount of money. I decided that I would try to either accumulate a lot of chips and make a run at my share of the $10,000 or get knocked out very early. I had no interest in hanging around and just trying to survive my way through a tournament just to make an extra $100 on Sunday.

Saturday
My tournament started pretty rough, though perhaps that is what I should have expected when I raised with 9-high three hands in a row. I managed to win a pot towards the end of the first level though and that brought me back to my original stack of 700 chips.

The second level was limit Omaha, a game which maybe one other person at my table even understood. Normally this would be a good thing for me (having a very significant skill advantage at the game), but that wasn’t really the case in this tournament because of the absurdly short levels and constant game changes. The typical approach of an inexperienced Omaha player is to play every hand they get dealt, at least up to the flop. I could theoretically then exploit the table by playing much tighter than everyone else. However, that plan was basically worthless in the face of this tournament’s structure. There would be no chance for me to “lay in wait” as we would be changing games after only about ten deals. My strategy in Omaha was to fold every single non-premium hand in hopes of avoiding the kamikaze chip-dusting of the noobs at my table. In fact, other than my blinds I only played one hand, the very last of the level.

Under the gun I was dealt A-K-10-9 double-suited in spades and hearts. Unlike my relentless aggression in the Hold Em levels, my approach during Omaha was to draw as many other opponents into a pot as possible, allowing them to incorrectly over-value their hands and (hopefully) help me to win a big pot. I limped in, and as expected four or five other people limped as well.

The flop came K – J – 8 with two spades, giving me top pair, a straight draw, and the nut flush draw. The player in the big blind led out and I quickly raised her. The rest of the table folded and the blind called. The turn paired the 8, which I hated, but the lady checked to me so I bet. She called. The river brought a small spade and the lady checked once again. In a cash game, despite making my flush, I would usually check the river in this spot. Her lead on the flop made me think that she had two pair minimum, maybe a set, and with the paired 8 she is likely to have a full house. However, the structure of the tournament is such that you can’t wait around for a better spot than the nut flush. Plus, she had checked to me twice so I bet at her on the end. The lady immediately called and I turned up my hand. The lady looked at my cards and then mucked her hand. The dealer pushed me the pot just as a floorman came over and broke our table, reassigning us to fill vacant seats scattered around the remaining tables. I was listening to my iPod so it took me a minute to notice the woman as she yelled at the dealer. I ignored the situation and went about picking up my chips, but before I could find my new table the woman grabbed my shoulder and with a mean look she said, “You got lucky there! I had a full house!!” I have no idea why, but the lady had accidentally mucked the winning hand.

I just shrugged my shoulders and walked away.

I arrived at my new table just in time for the no-limit levels to begin. My starting stack of 700 chips had been boosted up to a staggering 1000 chips, good enough for 5 whole big blinds at 100-200. Like each of the earlier rounds I had a predetermined strategy for the no-limit levels: be crazy fucking aggressive. My first hand at the table I was dealt A-J offsuit so I went all-in. Everyone folded and now I had 1300 chips! Two hands later I was dealt the king of spades… so I went all-in without looking at the other card. Everyone folded and now I had 1600 chips! After ten hands I had gone all-in four times and was up to about 2100 chips. By the end of the next no-limit level I was over 7000 chips and had the entire table covered by a lot. It became very clear to me that as we neared the 125-player mark everyone else was content to just hang on and survive. With so many chips, though, my goal shifted from mere survival to actually making a run at the chip-lead and a share of the $10,000. Unfortunately I had no idea how many chips I would need for that. Still, I decided to take a gamble and make a play for it.

I announced to my table that from that point on I would be going all-in every single deal… without looking at my cards. My reasoning was this: nobody at my table could eliminate me, but I could eliminate each of them. The value to them of doubling up was far less than the risk to them of being eliminated. Other than the extreme short stacks the players at my table could all fold their way into Sunday’s tournament, where everyone was going to start with even chips anyways. The only person who would get value from having more chips today was me. So I offered them a simple proposition: either 1) give me your blinds or 2) risk a lot to win very little. That seemed a particularly brilliant strategy on my part, but it didn’t work out quite as I had hoped.

One hand after issuing my ultimatum the floorman arrived to break our table. It took me a little while to gather up all of my chips and move to my new table. Once there I took my seat only to discover that I had moved into the small blind and would be dealt out one hand until the button passed. After seeing that nobody at my new table could hurt me (chip-wise) I told them about my all-in intentions. Sadly, before the next hand was dealt the room erupted into a round of applause as the director announced that the day was over, we had all qualified for Sunday. It is strange, but I was actually very disappointed. My plan had been foiled, the perfect opportunity lost.

It turned out that I had the third largest chip stack in the room anyways, but it would have been nice to abuse those players… at least for a little while. Still, I had accomplished the maximum feat possible for Saturday’s tournament. I qualified for the finals, guaranteed myself $200, and earned an extra $500 for being a chip leader. All in all it was a pretty good day.

Sunday
Coming into Sunday my plan was simply to duplicate my Saturday – I mean, that seemed to work well enough. I had gone out drinking late into Saturday night, though, and I arrived at the tournament still a little bit drunk. The tournament floor had a little bar where the other players were getting coffee and water, but I grabbed myself a beer instead. I even talked a guy at my table into having a beer, too.

I put on my iPod and settled into the game, a little bit sad to be back to the starting stack of 700 chips when less than 24 hours earlier I had more than 7,000. Before play started the tournament director got on the microphone and announced my name as one of the chip leaders from Saturday and the room gave us a polite applause. Then he made an announcement which actually made me a little bit upset: today we would be playing 30-minute levels, twice as long as the levels on Saturday. Curious what else was different from the day before I looked at the structure sheet and was shocked to see that the game didn’t switch to no-limit until level 6. We would be playing strictly limit hold em for five levels, at thirty minutes per level, up through limits of 400-800. If I wasn’t so drunk I would have been very, very angry.

I hate limit poker. I despise limit poker tournaments. My advantage is in my aggression, which is best employed in a no-limit setting. In limit poker you are basically forced to make the best hand. Sunday’s tournament was going to be a card-catching contest. Ugh.

All my preconceived strategies were now blown. I had hoped to simply survive the first few limit levels and then kick it to a new level once we got to no-limit, but with the revised structure that would be impossible. My only consolation was in knowing that I had already locked up $700 and it was stupid to be upset over a rule change in a tournament where the casino was giving away free money. I killed off my beer, grabbed another one, and then turned up my music (going with my Eminem/D12 playlist).

The first level sucked. I lost half of my starting chips when I turned two pair against a guy who had a higher two pair, but thankfully I had shifted out of hyper-aggression mode and simply check-called him down. I didn’t win a single hand for the first thirty minutes so I went ahead and made a big change. I turned off Eminem and started my Linkin Park playlist – the same one that I had listened to through all of Saturday’s tournament to great (and definitely related) success.

Things turned around immediately.

I eliminated a guy when I flopped top set and brought my chip stack back up to 700. From there I steadily grinded my way through the bullshit tournament, level after hellish level of limit hold em. By level four I was the clear chipleader of my table with a whopping 2400 in chips. Our table broke and I was moved to a new table where I found a few familiar faces. I had another beer and sparked up some lively conversation as I continued to slowly increase my stack.

Then the Fates took control.

With 2600 in chips I was healthy but not comfortable playing limits of 200-400. My new table was much more aggressive than the others and the two best players at the table (not counting myself obviously) were seated directly to my right. That would be a perfect situation in a cash game, but in the tournament it was actually the nightmare scenario. With the most passive players to my left and the most aggressive players to my right I quickly found that the action was raised before it could ever get to me. The two guys on my right made sure to raise before I could, effectively neutralizing my game. With the limits so high I could not play a raised pot without committing myself, which meant I was forced to catch cards. And because the blinds were so high, I was forced to catch cards fast.

I folded my way through about two orbits, dipping my chip count down to 2200. Then, just as it was my turn to post the big blind the level changed and the limits doubled. We were now playing 400-800 with 200-400 blinds. My previously decent stack of 2200 was now critically short, plus I had to immediately post 600 in blinds. After posting and completing I was down to 1400 chips. I could not effectively survive another sweep of blinds so I would have to win one of the next eight hands. Of course the two guys on my right made sure that every pot was raised to 800 before it got to me, and not finding anything decent I was forced to fold. Instead of looking for cards my goal was to find a spot where I could open the action. The first hand that wasn’t raised in front of me would have to be my last stand. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen until I was just off of the big blind (and those two guys were physically unable to raise). I was actually happy to see a K-9 offsuit when I looked down, but I only checked my cards out of courtesy – I was going to raise that hand regardless. Action folded around most of the table but after several long seconds of thought another player re-raised me all-in for another 200. The rest of the table folded and I called. He showed pocket threes, which was awesome for me because I was about 50% to win a big pot. The flop missed my hand but brought a paired board – further good news because now his hand could very easily be counterfeited. The turn and river bricked out, though, and I was left with just 400 chips. The next hand had me under-the-gun and rather than wait to post all-in in the big blind I figured that I would be getting much better odds by just playing the pot and hoping for the best. Again I checked my cards out of courtesy and tossed in my remaining chips with queen high. Amazingly I got five limpers so I had a shot at going from 400 to 2800 if I could win the pot… but of course I didn’t.

500 players started the day on Sunday and I was knocked out with a little bit less than 100 players remaining. It was a bitter loss because players 51-500 all earned $280, while players 11-50 earned $1000. I faded over four hundred people, but needed to hang on for fifty more. Oh well, with the specific bullshit turn of events (table changes, timing of blind increases, player positions) there was literally nothing that I could do. I don’t think that I made any real mistakes on Sunday and I of course still managed to earn the extra $500 from Saturday. I walked away with $780 for about five hours worth of work, which I can’t really complain about. Of course it is a little bit frustrating to know that first place was worth $70,000 and if it weren’t for the random structure changes I might have had a very real shot at it.