the heartland poker tour is in town. very well run, and they had a good turnout with 442 players in the $1650 buyin main event.
part of the reason for the good turnout is that turning stone “gave away” 100 seats (paid for by the jackpot drop). this is a pretty brilliant move by TS, and i hope they keep it up in the future. a lot (most) of the giveaway seat recipients are dead money, and the more dead money in a tournament the farther other people are willing to go out of their way to play it. and TS gets 150 juice on the 1650 free seat, so they’re getting a piece of their own jackpot drop. brilliant! this is a win/win/win for the lucky and grateful free seat recipients, for the good players who benefit from the dead money, and for the casino who gets a hefty fee for facilitating the transfer of wealth from the jackpot drop to the good tournament players.
about the structure: the structure was TOO good. 60 minute levels on day 1, with 75 minute levels after day 1, and a structure that started at 25/50 and included a 75/150 level, 2 150/300 levels (without and with 25 ante) and a 250/500 level. the problem (if you can call it that!) was that despite this nice slow structure, we also started with 30,000 chips. the published schedule said that they hoped to play down to 6 players on day 2. weeks ago i did some quick math based on a minimal 350 players (they needed 334 to meet the 500k guarantee) and a nominal final table average stack of 60 to 100bb, and calculated that they couldn’t possibly reach 6 players until several hours into day 3. i sent an email to a couple interested parties, warning them not to make any solid plans for early this week. sure enough, the tournament finished a full day behind schedule. c’mon guys, the math wasn’t that hard. if you want to keep it to 3 days, please consider reducing the starting stack and/ or eliminating an early level or two, rather than reducing the length of the levels. 60 minute levels rock!
as for my tournament, there’s not much to say. i kept my stack at a playable level through guile and deception for 11 hours, but it was a struggle. i never had any big pairs until late in the first day when i had QQ and had to fold on the turn, and KK when i reshoved my last 20bb preflop and got called by QQ. oops, there’s a Q on the flop. done. finis.
the most interesting hand of the day was one i lost. i called a raise on the button with 89. flop Q22 with 2 hearts and a spade, check check. turn 9 of spades, he checks, hmmm. i think i have the best hand, but it’s hard to get value out of it, because i feel like he doesn’t have anything. i check with intention of catching a river bluff if a blank comes off. river another 9, he leads out for 1000, about 2/3 of the pot. i already decided on the turn he doesn’t have anything (would have bet a Q or any decent pair with 2 possible flush draws out) and this doesn’t change much, except now with my small boat i can beat something like TT. he might also have a 9 for a chop. i raise to 3000. the way i played the hand it doesn’t seem like i have anything either, so i’m hoping for a call from A high or maybe TT. to my surprise he makes it 6000. ugh. but i still like my read, he’s unlikely to have a Q. it’s either a weird bluff trying to get me to lay down an A, or a 9 for a chop. i ponder “i don’t see how i can be behind here”. i call. he shows QQ for flopped quads. “oh. well i guess you could have that” i say out loud. LOL