SCP Spring Freeroll

Ok, so almost the promised domination: 2nd place, again. Now I shouldn't really complain about a $61 second place the day after a $300 first place (and both technically freerolls!), but I might. I wanted the sweep dammit.

These leagues (one some friends and I started, and the other was patterned after ours) can be a good way to establish a regular tourney game... and I've seen and heard about a lot of different systems that can be used. We use a 10% "league fee", which goes into the league pot for the end-of-season freeroll, and makes a player eligible to earn points based on tournament finish. Then, for the freeroll (open to anyone who has earned points), players' stacks are based on points earned. It's a very fair system in the end, as even players who have earned few points (perhaps because they missed some tourneys) have a shot at the pot. Granted, they have a weaker stack to start, but they've also contributed less to the pot, and have less at stake.

We've had a lot of talk about using an optional add-on (buying more chips, in this case at the start of the tourney) to boost the freeroll pot higher. The problem with a flat add on however, is that it reduces the advantage that the higher points earners would have. For instance, the point leader is to start with T1000, and someone who came out to play once is to start with T200... if you do a flat $x buys you 500 more chips, the leader is getting a 50% add on, while the other player is getting a 250% add on! Worse yet, is that the leader's advantage is now chopped down to 53% instead of 80%.

Yesterday I came up with the "50/50 add on", which we used last night: for 50% of the $ contributed to the league pot, a player can buy 50% more chips than he/she would have started with. The main idea here is that the relative stack sizes and advantages are maintained, while boosting the pot by 50% (if everyone buys the add on ). Another positive, is that the people who earned more points per dollar contributed during the season (i.e. finished well), do have some financial advantage, as they end up paying relatively less per added chip.

At any rate, I'm very content with my play again last night... I was very patient through the deeper than usual stacks and slower structure, accumulating a minor amount of chips for the first hour or two, but most importantly giving very few away. The table was playing generally very tight preflop as far as I could tell, and in certain spots I was looking for any excuse to make some pressure plays, and overall this worked well: reraising with tens, reraising with Ace-x, and reraising once or twice with small pairs and suited connectors, all with immediate success. I did suffer somewhat by the seating, as I had some selectively aggressive players to my right (often raising before me on hands where I would have raised) and some players who like to call to my left, one in particular who you can never tell if he's slowplaying or chasing as he will rarely raise except on the river (and even then it's almost always all-in).

With heavy blinds and an increasingly tight table, I got stuck in a hand when we were 6-7 handed and I raised KQs under the gun... and was reraised nearly all-in by the BB (someone who is certainly capable of making pressure plays with less than premium hands). I thought this one out for a long time, assuming that I was a dog, but guessing (correctly) that I just wasn't that bad off. Putting the BB on a middle pair, I called, and found myself essentially racing 55%/45% against AJo, and nearly doubled up with a river Q.

Two later raises in unopened pots from late position or the SB were met with all-in reraises from the player to my left, and both times I made good laydowns (he showed 99 and AK), but with standard raises being 1/5 to 1/4 of my stack, and some horrible cards for a few more rounds, I found myself crippled down to something like T1100 with blinds of 150/300, ugh. I tripled up with AJo, and then several hands later caught AA and KK back to back, reraising with the AA and taking a nice pot right there, and losing with KK: player to my left went all-in after my raise, I called, and the A9x flop had me crushed.

At any rate, I got to heads up with something like a 3:2 lead, and we traded large amounts of chips back and forth for a while... I had my opponent all-in at one point A9 vs A5, and the ugly 5 came. We sat with even stacks for a little while, and faced with his frequent all-ins, I never had the cards to fight with at the right time... any pair, any ace, two broadway cards... just a bunch of J6 and the like. Final hand, he just calls from the SB, and fearing that this is possibly a sign of strength, I check my K8... I'll gladly see a flop. The flop comes 875, I lead out with a decent bet, and he goes all in and has me covered. I call, he shows 67 for middle pair and the straight draw, and makes the straight on the turn.

You can't win 'em all.