Fool Me Once, Twice, Three Times (Yes I’m Slow... Yr Point?)

Good Lawd. What has happened? Today I wake up and am stunned to read stories like...

“Isildur1 is Mats Sundin”

or “FBI Probe Discovers NBA Has Been Fixing Games For Past Decade”

or “Kahnawake Gaming Commission Identifies Authorities Assisting Ongoing Investigation in UltimateBet Scandal.”

Wait, wat? Oh. Right. (Big grins on that KGC one, by the way.)

What other funny business is happening today?

Well, PokerStars is running a few April Fool’s-related tourneys that look like they might provide a few more laughs. As Brad “Otis” Willis notes over on the PokerStars blog, “the PokerStars Tournaments Team has got their silly on today.”

All four events begin at 15:05 today on the PokerStars clock. All four have the same $2.00+$0.20 buy-in.


Search for “foolishness” in the tourney filter to find ’em. All pretty in pink.

Mike’s Tourney (listed as “yenrouT s’ekiM”) is a no-limit hold’em rebuy tourney in which players start with 4,875 chips. If at or below the starting stack, one can rebuy during the first half-hour (4,000 for $2), and there’s a chance to add on after that (6,000 for $2), but only if one is sitting with less than 12,000. The real twist, though, is in the blinds/antes schedule -- they decrease rather than increase, starting at a whopping 1,500/3,000 (with a 375 ante -- that’s right, everyone begins with an “M” of less than 1), then gradually sliding downwards for the first 21 five-minute levels all of the way to 100/200/25 before turning around again.

Fredrik’s Tournament is a PLO/PLH event. It is also a rebuy event, only for this one rebuys (for 2,500 chips) are only two cents. And the add-on (for 6,000) is just $0.03. The blinds and antes (including antes in PLO) also vary wildly, going up and down for the first 35 levels or so before finally settling into a rapid increase help to finish the sucker off.

Bryan’s Tournament, an NLH event, might also be referred to as “Crazy Eights.” Starting stack just 888 chips, but one can rebuy (888 more) for $0.08, then add-on 88,888 chips for $0.88. The blinds move back and forth between 88/88 and 888/888 during the first eight levels, then move up to 88,888/88,888 at level 11 where they remain for the rest of the event. The antes also vary for that initial period, but starting at Level 11 follow the Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc.). And oh yeah, the tourney will be played eight-handed.

Finally, Alex’s Tourney starts out like a plain old vanilla NLH rebuy event and remains so for the first nine 10-minute levels. Starting stack 1,000, rebuys for first half-hour, 1,500 add-on. Then comes level 10, where the blinds jump to 1 billion/2 billion with a 500 million-chip ante.

I think we can all predict the exact hand where Alex’s Tourney will be concluding. (EDIT [added 5:00 p.m. ET]: I shouldn’t have spoken so confidently here -- actually, it took what appeared to be five or so hands of Level 10 for this one to finish.)

Fun stuff all around. Might have to hop into one or more of these suckers, if I can get all this other work outta the way beforehand. Then maybe there’ll be time for what’s really important. You know, the foolin’ around.