Fooled Around And Fell (Into the Money)

Ended up having a blast yesterday playing in those “April Foolishness” tournaments on PokerStars (discussed yesterday). After a bit of study, I decided to enter two of the four $2.00+$0.20 rebuy events. By the way, that picture is the disclaimer that appeared when one entered the tourneys, which caused me to grin. Hey, I always try to have a sense of humor when playing tourneys. Them suckers can cause too much hurt otherwise.

One of the ones I entered was Mike’s Tourney -- or “yenrouT s’ekiM,” as it was listed in the lobby. That was the one with decreasing blinds/antes for the first 21 levels, at which point they began going up again. I also tried Frederik’s Tourney, the pot-limit hold’em/pot-limit Omaha mixed event with blinds/antes going up and down randomly and rebuys for just $0.02.

I initially was enjoying Frederik’s Tourney much more than Mike’s, mainly because of the cheap rebuys. In Mike’s tourney we all started with 4,875 chips, but the blinds started 1,500/3,000 with a 375 ante. On the first hand of the tourney I was dealt under the gun and folded. On the next hand I had in the big blind, meaning two-thirds of my stack was already in the middle. So I called an all-in and luckily flopped a ten to double up.

But that good fortune didn’t last, as within the first orbit I had A-A cracked and soon had to rebuy. I would rebuy once more, ultimately investing $6.20 in the thing, and by the time the rebuy period ended I somehow had 27,960 chips. I could not take the add-on (6000 chips for $2), since another quirky part of the event was you had to be under 12,000 to be allowed to take it.

Meanwhile, I was having more fun with the other crazies in Frederik’s Tourney going all in hand after hand during the rebuy period. I ended up double-rebuying four times over there (for just 16 cents), then took the $0.03 add-on, too, so the total investment on that one was just $2.37. Busting on the last hand of the rebuy period there meant I had the minimum -- 11,000 -- when we cranked back up again in that one.

I’d last another hour or so in Frederik’s Tourney before unimpressively busting in 1,047th (out 2,187). Meanwhile, as the blinds were going down in Mike’s Tourney, my stack was growing.

Was kind of an interesting phenomenon, to watch Mike’s Tourney change from a shove-fest during the rebuy period, to a stretch where a select few were desperately short-stacked, to a period where everyone essentially had deep stacks. As we entered Level 21 -- the last level before the blinds started going back up again -- I had a (well) below average stack of 47,135, which at the time was still 23-plus big blinds.

Even with five-minute levels and the blinds starting to increase more rapidly then they had decreased, I was able to play some postflop poker during that part of the tourney and even managed to play a few hands reasonably well.

A total of 3,517 had entered this one, with the top 396 scheduled to get paid. When the money bubble burst, I was still there, and would continue to hang on before finally busting just shy of the top 90, getting $45.23 back for my trouble. Was pleased to see our friend Kevmath also make it that deep as well (he went out about the same time I did).

By the end, all but a few of those left were essentially short-stacked again, meaning just about all of the eliminations at that point came after preflop all-ins. Kevmath sadly ran pocket jacks into pocket kings. Then, with the blinds 17,500/35,000 (ante 4,375), I was able to open-shove my 220,614 from the button with and got called by the big blind who held . Found out later it was the same player who’d knocked Kevmath out, in fact.

Flop -- -- and turn -- -- were good. But the on the river sent me railward.

I thought afterwards about how I’d at one point had a stack of over a quarter million (even then below average) and how that might have been the most chips I’d ever had in front of me in a tourney.

I railed the other two April Foolishness events a little, including watching the final hand of Alex’s Tourney, the one which featured a normal structure for nine levels, then crazily went to 1 billion/2 billion blinds and a 500,000 million ante at Level 10.

I’m not completely sure, but I think that at the start of Level 10 there were something like 500-600 players left in that one, meaning it took three or four hands to get down to the end. I wanted to show an animation of that final hand, but the converter over at Poker Hand Replays seemed to have trouble dealing with all them chips. So here’s that final hand, converted via Deuces Cracked:

Poker Stars $2.00+$0.20 No Limit Hold'em Tournament - t1000000000/t2000000000 Blinds + t4835667 - 4 players
The Official DeucesCracked.com Hand History Converter

edja15 (BTN): t6574804 M = 0.00
Biböl002 (SB): t128984 M = 0.00
simcof (BB): t2943045 M = 0.00
yulian_99 (CO): t4835667 M = 0.00

Pre Flop: (t14482500)
Flop: (t14482500) 8 3 3 (4 players)
Turn: (t14482500) 4 (4 players)
River: (t14482500) 6 (4 players)

Final Pot: t14482500

edja15 shows 8 Q (two pair, Eights and Threes)
Biböl002 shows 7 Q (a pair of Threes)
simcof shows 6 5 (two pair, Sixes and Threes)
yulian_99 shows T J (a pair of Threes)

edja15 wins t3785244
edja15 wins t8442183
edja15 wins t515936
(Rake: t1739137)

(Not sure why there’s a “rake” listed here.)

Definitely a fun time, made funner by sneaking into some cash. That’s a couple of tourney successes this week -- talked about the other one a little here -- giving me a taste for playing more (not that I’m taking having modest success in a novelty event as an indicator of much of anything). A different sort of glee at winning tourney money versus a successful cash session. More lasting, I think. (And maybe more addictive.)

Have a good weekend, all. I hope everyone finds more time for foolin’ around.