Rebuy Tournament

On Saturday, I played in the $5/1 Million Dollar Qualifier with rebuys. The structure of this tournament is awesome. You start with T1000, and any time in the first hour that you are under T1000, you can rebuy T1000 for $5. At the end of the first hour, there is an add-on of T1500 for $5. I'm actually playing in the Sunday tournament as I write this blog.

A lot of people really gamble early on with junk, since they can rebuy for $5. I busted early and rebought. There was a lot of limping and min raises. Then they go all-in with draws or mediocre hands. I played somewhat tight, and was able to get all their chips when I had the best of it. I had an above average stack at the end of hour. The cool thing about the rebuys is that you can gamble too, if you want, and don't have to worry about busting out. The other great thing about the structure is that there will be a ton of chips at your table, and overall in the tournament. Since you have a lot of chips in relation to the blinds, there's a lot of play in the tournament and not so much short-stack, all-in strategy. Once you have a big stack, you can push people around or limp in with marginal hands, hoping to flop a big one and get a lot of chips.

Unfortunately, I don't have a hand history. I played decently until the blinds were up to about 50/100, and had a less than average stack. Then in the space of about 5 hands, I tripled up. In the first hand, I was dealt 99. An early player limped, then I limped, and the small blind went all-in for about 20% of my stack. The limper just called, and I reraised all-in, knowing that the small blind could have anything, the limper probably didn't have much, and I didn't want to be against two opponents with live overcards. The limper folded and it was just me against J9o, my 99 held up and I won that one. Then there were 2 more hands in the next 4 where I held the nuts or near to it and made a bunch of money. I wish I could remember them...

The important hands were late in the tournament. I was 4th in chips and there were 20 players left. Top 4 spots paid entry to the Million Dollar tournament (worth $640). I was playing well and felt pretty confident. Then these two hands occurred:

I raised to about 4 times BB in middle position with AQo, Player X (with a large stack the size of mine) reraises about triple my bet. This guy has done this a few times, but we've never seen his cards. I think about going all-in, but I will have a better than average stack if I completely miss the flop and fold. The flop comes KQX. But before the flop, I put him on AA, KK, AK, or QQ, and I'm toast to all of those. I check, he bets, I think about it awhile, pretty sure he has a king, and I fold.

The very next hand, I get KQo. I raise to 4X the BB, and he reraises me again! This time I assume he thinks I'm steaming, plus I don't want to be pushed off the hand again on the flop, so I go all-in, and he calls immediately. He's got AJo, so I'm in OK shape until he flops an ace and IGHN. So I suppose he did think I was steaming, because I assume he wouldn't risk 2/3 of his stack with AJo. But maybe he would, and now I really question my not pushing with AQo, now knowing that he has a wider range of hands there.

I was very happy with my play overall, but not at the end. I think the bigger mistake was the first hand - I should've pushed all-in preflop with AQo. He probably would've folded or I may have doubled up. This mistake led to the second one, and I went from great position to out of the tournament.

In the current Sunday tournament, I just quintupled up (yes, you heard that right). With A5d, I called a min-raise and there were 5 players that saw a flop of Jd6cTd. Someone min-bet, I raised, two callers, two short-stacks went all-in, I went all-in, another guy went all-in, and the fifth guy called. The turn was a diamond and I quintupled up! The hands of the other guys on the flop were: top pair king kicker, open-ended straight draw, inside straight draw with backdoor flush draw and two overcards, and a set of sixes. The pot was laying me great odds. PokerStove says that the set had a 48% chance of winning, and I was 28%, so I got a little lucky. But I had the right price.

As I said before, there's a lot of play in these tournaments. I currently have 130 big blinds. You're in decent shape over 30 BB, I'd say. At some point yesterday, I had over 300 BB.

Maybe today's tournament will go better than yesterday's!

- schneid