The Polaris Open

Last weekend I had the opportunity to be invited to what was to be a rather large tournament (compared the one-table affairs I normally find myself in), held in the shop of a Polaris dealership (you know, quads and sleds and the like). I drug along a few regulars from my home game, and found myself amidst a field of ~20 players, half of which I had played against before. Whether or not this will become a recurring tournament remains to be seen, but the mood seemed like a "yes" for a semi-monthly or quarterly.

Now, as I was worried about before hand, the people running the tourney weren't really completely on the ball about things. The buy in was to be $50, with $10 being taken for food (pizza and snacks) and beer, which was pretty reasonable... there was a lot of food, and an ample amount of Busch Light, which was indeed both 1) wet and 2) semi-alcoholic. $40 per person into a prize pool makes for a decent tourney.

The blinds and starting chips, were determined from someone's pamphlet that came with the "Howard Lederer's Secrets of No Limit Hold 'Em" video. T1000 to start, blinds at 25/25, then 25/50, and climbing rather exponentially from there. That's cool, but what I'm not such a fan of was the 12 minute blind levels... the entire tournament, including breaks was about 2 hours. I would have preferred at least 15 minute levels, considering we were dealing our own hands, there was frequent conversation which interrupted or otherwise slowed play, and we were at short-handed tables to start. The tables could only really accommodate 8 players comfortably, and large portions of the tourney saw 5-6 players at a table.

I did a lot of prep for this tourney, hitting the SNGs all week hard, reviewing the odds of all drawing hands on the drive to Pittsburgh, and really thinking about tells and playing styles a lot. Weak = strong and strong = weak and slow calls vs fast calls and the like. I was ready.

I got lucky early with JTo in the BB against a well-known maniac. He bet the flop the minimum, which had missed me pretty wide, but I felt strongly he was simply trying to pick it up, and I called. The turn brought 3 spades on board (I was holding the J), and an OESD for me. He bet the minimum again, and now I felt really strongly that he was either drawing, or held nothing. I pushed, praying for a fold, and he called. One of us was about to be the dreaded "first out". He held the Ace of spades, and a rag. My flush outs disappeared, and I realized I needed to hit a Jack, a Ten, or a Queen or Seven to complete my straight. 14 outs (Edit: minus the possible spade outs).

The river completed my straight, and I was now the big stack. The rest of the tournament was rather mundane, though I did make a few good laydowns, and a few good reads... pushing with nothing when I was certain an opponent was weak and would fold. I made an error when I pushed on a short stack (T350) really thinking he would fold and was on a draw, and lost, doubling him up. This would come back to haunt me.

Final table... I got hot. Real hot. AKs. KK. The blinds reaching half of everyone's stack... I push from the button stealing a huge pile of chips that were the blinds. Finally, I make the top three, which was all this tourney was to pay. And here's what really chaps my ass: a 70%/20%/10% prize distribution. I hate front-loaded prize structures, especially when the blinds are so ridiculous that you just know this thing will be over in 2 orbits or less. Welcome to luckfest 2005!

One thing's for sure, I'm not going to sit around and get blinded out. Any Ace = go time. Heck, damn near anything higher than a ten = go time. I find A9s on the button (also first to act at this point), and push all-in. SB, folds. BB (who almost has to call considering half his stack is already in the middle), or course, calls. QTo! I breathe a sigh of relief and take a long swig of Busch (come to the mountains baby!) knowing I at least got my money in as the favorite. Until the board throws up two Queens. Out in 3rd. BB (who was once on the respirator with T350 until I doubled him) goes on to win it all.

I've never been so disappointed with an ITM finish. I think a lot of my disappointment comes from the amount of prep I felt like I put into this tournament... I was ready to destroy it... and mostly, that's what I did. The other half of my disappointment comes from the front-loaded prize structure... 2 hands later, someone walked away with over $500. And that's all I really have to say about that.

...another multi-table tourney tonight at a co-workers (but this time using my own comfortable, familiar home game blind/payout structure).