Was a crazy day for poker. We had a comfortable 14 entries, for 7 per table. On table 1 (my table), I think we had about 4-5 rebuys total, however on table 2 it was a all-in fest where they had all-in hand after hand, for about 17 or 18 rebuys on that table alone. We had a total of 22 rebuys for a total prize pool of $2050.
I had decided to try out a new game mode for this tournament, but I had actually forgot to communicate it to the players before hand (I won't do that again, my bad). Each player would start the game with a "Run it twice" chip, and then during the tournament, they could use the chip in a heads up situation, and run the board out twice. Once you use the chip, it's gone (rebuys get a new chip). There was some mixed reception to this, and while I'm glad I tried it out, I don't think I'll run this particular game mode again any time soon, but I'm always interested in adding a new gimmick into tournaments on occasion. If you play in one of my games, and I have added a new gimmick, please make sure to give me some feedback on how you liked it.
Most local tournaments close their rebuys after 4 levels, however, we close after 8 levels, due to it being a deep stack (250bb), in addition to running very slow blind increases. At the end of the 8th level + break, you'll go into a 600/1200/1200, which means, if you rebought or surrendered during the break, you would come in with about a 20bb stack, which is still very playable, and the next bind increase is 800/1600/1600, where most places you'll go to, it'll be double the previous. So if you're ever in two minds about coming to play at one of my games, know I run a very friendly blind structure, and you'll get plenty of play time for your entry fee.
At the end of the day, when the all the chips had finished exchanging hands the final payout was as follows:
- Lisa - $40 (Everyone decided to pay the bubble, $10 from each position 4th->1sth)
- Trith - $170
- Garth (Host) - $365
- Phil - $565
- Vaibhav C - $960
Going into the final table Vaibhav had a commanding chip lead (I know he had over 300k in 25k chips alone), as he was the one that had seemed to benefit the most from the all-in fest on table 2. However, once the final table started, his chip stack seemed to twindle away. When it was 3 players, I (Garth) found myself with A9o and around 15-20bb remaining. The blinds were coming around a log quicker, with. only a single hand on. the button when you weren't in the blinds, so I decided this was a great place to shove, and hope I get called by a worse Ace, or a Kx hand. Vaibhav was in a the SB and tanked for quite a while, his chip stack was bigger than mine, but at this stage, all his brown 25k chips were now living in Phil's chip stack and V had maybe around 25-30bb remaining. He eventually decided to call my call in with A3s. However the run out was not in my favour with V spiking a 3 and knocking my out in 3rd.
Heads up was pretty interesting as we saw both Phil and V getting hands on occassion, but variance seemed to favour V as slow but surely all of the chips started making their way over to V. Then a crucial hand happeed, I don't remember the run out, but V had a marginal holding, hitting middle pair, but facing a all-in from Phil. After tanking for quite some time, he decided to put his life on the line and make the call, only to find Phil bluffing with AQ (Ace high), the board ran out with no help to Phil and very large chunk of his chips going over to V. The chips didn't stop going that way and eventually V managed to pull out the win with a K9 hand and taking first place. We wrapped up play around 8:30pm-9:00pm
Thank you all for coming and for making a great tournament.
