Interpoker Downtime Tournament

Interpoker apparently had some unscheduled downtime this week and offered three $10k overlay tournaments today to make up for it. I wasn't affected by the downtime, but I'll go for a $10k overlay if I can get one. Two of the tournaments required a minimum number of player points to have been earned recently. I played the one of these with the lesser point requirement.

603 players started this $25+2 with a total prize pool of just over $25k. First place was worth $5500.

I had the misfortune of getting some marginally playable hands early. I like to play the Negreanu types of hands early if I can get in cheap. The theory is there's lot of dead money early in these things and you have to put some chips in the pot to have a stab at it. One of these days the dead money won't be me. So I took a couple hits early. Then I managed to catch the idiot end of a straight (it was unlikely anyone had the upper end) and ran headlong into a flush. Not even out of the first level and half my stack was gone.

Eventually I had to start taking big chances. A couple uncontested all-ins kept me alive. Then, with blinds at 25/50 and my stack at 590, I pushed with 88. Things were looking very grim when I got two callers, one of whom showed 99. Luckily, I rivered a third 8, giving me 8's full, and boosting my stack to 1820.

There was one very big stack at my table who kept using his stack to maximum advantage. I don't begrudge him that, but it still sucks to be on the receiving end of that behavior. I had to give up on a couple pots where I was probably ahead but just didn't feel right risking it all after my mini-comeback.

I played it pretty tight and watched my newly restored stack dwindle due to the blinds. Finally, a hand came my way. UTG with TT I made it 3BB to go (blinds 75/150) and got two callers. When the flop came 992 I pushed the rest of it in and got a call from somebody holding 55. My tens held and I was up to 3965.

Eventually, the blinds again catching up to me, I got a bit too ambitious and ran a pair of pocket fives into pocket jacks. I don't think my all-in was a bad move, just unfortunate timing. I had the bigger stack so I was still alive with 1465.

A few well-timed all-ins saw my stack grow back to 4465. The blinds were now 200/400 with an ante of 25. This made it well worth stealing the blinds, which I did a few times, eventually building my stack to 7250.

Then I got very lucky again. My 77 ran into JJ, but I rivered a third 7 to take down a 18k pot. This moved me from the out of the money area to about fifth place. I could have folded my way into the money from here. But, of course, I'd never do that.

There were several players at my table who were near the bottom of the money list and obviously just trying to hang on long enough to get something for their time and entry fee. As we got within 20 spots of the money, they started to slow play at every opportunity. I can't say as I blame them too much -- they were simply acting in their own best interest. And I'm not sure it would have helped much if Interpoker had started hand-for-hand play a lot sooner. Both tend to drag the game out to an agonizing level.

I was able to somewhat take advantage of everyone's survival instinct bubble play and take down the blinds and antes -- which ranged from 300/600/75 to 600/1200/150 while we approached the bubble -- more often than I would have otherwise. Not to the point where it was obvious, but once or twice a round. To my surprise, the one guy at my table with more chips than me seemed to back off on the aggression at this point.

Once we passed the bubble, play became somewhat more normal, though a few players were clearly just trying to hang on til the next payout level.

The blinds and antes and a couple almost good enough hands whittled my stack down considerably. I was finally forced to push with AJo and was called by AQo. He flopped two more queens and I was out in 23rd place for $188. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon when I was battling a cold.