Monday, July 17. 2006
And it's over. I guess we were about 560th in the end.
It all went very choppy. The table broke and before I could open up the new one I'd raised to 2400 under the gun with AQ. One player calls and the flop brings 245.
We apparently bet 3200 out of position here, leaving us with 5800 but the other player has a bit less. He moves all in for 7400.
[01:44] Fake Me: committed
Well, yeah. Easy for me to criticise when I'm somehow completely detached from the hand I know. This is one of those bets where you look like a genius when he holds AK and can lay it down, but otherwise gets you into a world of trouble. It's a check-fold, or a move all in - there's no half measures with these stacks. I'd often push here if there's something to represent but on this super low board, any pocket pair is going to play, so you won't get any worse hands to call so you're only doing yourself a favour against AK or another AQ.
[01:44] Fake Me: arse
[01:44] Fake Me: F**K
We didn't get any help and we're down to 1600 with the big blind coming right now. Any two will do now with 900 already in the pot in blinds and antes, and 33 looks sweet. It's very sweet in fact when a 3 comes on the flop and we just about stay alive.
Next hand JJ vs KQ and we double up.
Next hand TT vs KK and it's time for bed.
[01:48] Fake Me: bollocks
[01:48] Fake Me: sorry
Hey, it's a hell of a lot better than having me blind away because I can't make the start. At least we had a shot...
Anyway, I'd already noticed that a lot of the Full Tilt pros were playing this, and looking at the top stacks now I can still see John Juana, Erick Lindgren and Kristy Gazes vying for a seat. We finished above Phil Gordon, by the way, for what it's worth. It does seem a bit tight though that these players - who undoubtedly are getting their Main Event entry paid by Full Tilt - are playing this satellite. One would expect the Team Full Tilt field to have a decent success rate in these satellites (it will be interesting to see how many of them make it), and certainly you would expect better than 1-in-24 to make the top 127.
So if Full Tilt are paying their entry to the satellite, isn't this just a stealth rake? And if they're not, why are these guys playing it at all?
The strangest thing about having someone play for you is that I'm really not sweating it that badly at all. We're getting in bad shape, picking up just the blinds with AA and somehow I'm not relating what's happening on screen at all to my shot at a $10k seat and ultimately $10m and all that fame and (more) fortune malarky.
Even when this happens, I just find it ... well... slightly amusing.
[01:30] Fake Me: well 5 hands to push or not
[01:30] Fake Me: all in next hand
[01:31] Fake Me: ok not this time
[01:32] Fake Me X: KJ o
[01:32] Real Me: nooooooooo
He duly moves all in, from early middle position
Fortunately the big stack big blind folded, and we're still alive.
And try as I might to stay out of it, I can't. But whether I'd follow my own advice here I don't know...
[01:37] Fake Me: ok this level is going to kill us
[01:37] Fake Me: looks very dodgy now mate
[01:37] Real Me: push any 2 if folded
[01:37] Fake Me: here we go
He does as I suggest
[01:38] Real Me: gl
[01:38] Real Me: what ya got?
[01:38] Fake Me: KQ
We are called by AJ, but the flop brings a Q and we survive
[01:38] Real Me: f**k yeah
[01:38] Fake Me: rockin
An average stack is within sniffing distance once more...
So Full Tilt's fear that they'd be out of pocked on the guaranted tournament was - as expected - a load of nonsense. There were 3,050 entrants making 127 seats to be awarded! They're making a cool $106,750 in entry fees from this tournament alone.
I also just checked at PokerStars who were having a 150 guaranteed seat satellite today - with 7,377 players they are awarding 234 seats! Blimey, that'll go on until the wee hours and then some.... The self proclaimed largest satellite in the world ever, and it's very hard to argue. I didn't even realise their software could cope with such a big field - usually it's capped at 3600 or some such number.
I got back a bit earlier than I thought I would and I've already seen myself rollercoaster.
[00:13] Real Me: how are we doing?
[00:14] Fake Me: 5500
[00:14] Fake Me: make that 9200
[00:14] Fake Me: AA just held up
[00:19] Fake Me: in 50th place
[00:24] Fake Me: 11595 chips
At that point we were in 37th place and I'd finally got settled, microwaved myself a chicken burger (surprisingly good, and ready in just 55 seconds) and pulled up the table on screen to watch.
Then it all went a little pear shaped. The first hand I saw with AQs turned into the nut flush draw vs two overpairs (88 and JJ on a 7-high board) and we got no love from the poker gods. I decided to stop watching for a while - clearly it's bad luck to observe yourself from afar, with likely side effects ranging from mild itching to a variety of natural disasters.
But by the time I was brave enough to peak again we were back down to just over 5000, and the average had overtaken us. It's now the second break, and after a steal with 66 (so I'm told) we have 5,785 with 250/500 blinds and a 50 ante. 1090 players remain and the average stack is 8394.
