Today I had one of those days playing that reminded me of why I've gotten so hooked on playing tournaments. It started off nicely at one of our local casinos, meeting several local tourney players that I've come to enjoy company with. We've got quite a little group of folks that routinely play a few times a week at different local casinos' small weekly tourneys, and it's definitely friendly competition for the most part. This casino has four "rounds," each with an entry fee and played like an independent final table: 7 players, top three get cash. Depending on how many players are there each night, you may get to play several rounds or only one. Played the second round, against some familiar players. Played my usual game, conservative initially then increasing later depending on the play of the table. Had possibly one of my worst rounds ever, winning only two and pushing one out of 17 hands (out of 20 total) and was the first off the table. Ugh. Winner had around $1250 in chips. Was a quiet night, so got to play the third round as well, also with several familiar players at the table. Four players came out strong, betting from $100-$300 from the first hand ($1000 chips to start, min. $10, no max, 20 hands) and mostly winning. I started my usual minimum play, as I have played against these guys before and they often come back down to me eventually and are not unusually the first off the table. About 7 or 8 hands in, each had $2500 or more, with the rest of the three of us all less than $1100. I was in 6th place. Even with no betting limitations, I was getting too far behind and started to increase my bets. I made up some ground with a couple of contrarian bets, and the top four kept betting big but began losing about as much as they were winning. I started actually winning more often than losing, and kept at it. Coming down to the last hand, I was in the top three. BR3 bet first, I was BR2 and was able to get both the high and low on the last hand against him, and BR1 bet last and bet less than me. Can you believe that I hit a blackjack on the last hand and ended up winning with $7225 in chips? I have never even come close to a round like this, going from $1000 to $7225 in 20 hands (and probably never will....) What a crazy game this is. CJ
How fun? Pretty darned fun. That's quite a rally. You know, I think we need all the bad beats to really understand how remarkable it is when everything works out in our favor. What a game!
