10% of Nothing is Nothing

Like I figured, Otis outlasted me in the tournament. I believe I went out either 36th or 37th. The structure of the tournament was, at best, poor.

Starting chips were $85 and the blinds were $1/$2. No problem there really. But the levels were only 20 minutes. At a table of 10, that's 1 orbit per level, a la Party Poker. The blinds progressed to $2/$4, $3/$6 then $5/10.

At the first break after level 3, I'm exactly even at T85. I pay the blinds one time through and then I'm dealt the best hand I saw all night, A,T hearts. I limp for T10 with about 5 others. The flop is Q-high, 2 hearts. Pretty easy move right here, all-in. I get called by someone holding A,Qo and don't see the heart I need. Buh-bye.

Meanwhile, Otis is surviving the blind increases, but only barely. He gets to play much longer than me and as I suspected there's a flurry of people busting out in the $10/$20 level. I believe Otis finished in 13th, which is pretty remarkable.

Cash games ensued and I made back my buy-in relatively quickly at a $1/$2 NL table. J,J and A,K suited won me big pots. But alas, I gave most of it back when my A,8 suited that turned top two pair lost to a rivered 4-outer gutshot straight draw. That was a big $100+ pot. Then I went card dead and basically broke about even for the cash games.

People started leaving and I was one of the final 6 to keep playing. But unfortunately, it wasn't poker. It was a game resembling poker, but all you basically did was get dealt 2 cards and someone goes all-in. After about 2 hands of this garbage, I packed up and left pondering if I'd be playing in these types of tournaments again.

I'm not a big fan of crap shoot tournaments where you don't really need a bunch of skill to stay alive.

And yeah, I had Otis' back the whole night.