Nottom
10-01-2004, 01:15 PM
Was just reading the Aruba Blog and ran across this little interesting tidbit:
[ QUOTE ]
Round 26. The antes were 15K and blinds were 60K and 120K. With only 7 million in chips in play, and each round costing almost 300,000, you knew the end would not be long in coming.
Well, it wasn't.
Two hands into the new round, Martin pushed in under the gun with A-3 offsuit and his remaining 300K in chips. He found a willing caller in the big blind, Eric Brenes, who held pocket nines. A nine on the flop ended the drama and... at long last... we go to tomorrow.
Interesting thing about the blind structure. Though it was big enough to force all-in bets, it hardly encouraged calls. Why? No upside. Suppose you hold a million in chips. Faced with the choice of doubling up or going broke, in most cases you figure that doubling up is a significant good. But here the blinds were so high that even doubling up wouldn't move you far out of precarious territory. On the other hand, if you lost the hand, you lost both the chance for tomorrow's TV exposure (not an insignificant consideration to many) and the chance to get a little more play from your chips when the blinds roll back.
So... weirdly... the upside and the downside were upside down, and thus was the final table setting deferred until the blinds grew so high as to be insurmountable.
Congratulations to Martin Feijo -- screen name IwillbustU -- our seventh place finisher and $80,000 winner.
Here are your chip counts and contestants for tomorrow, when play will start at the considerably less draconian level of 5K antes and 15K-30K blinds:
LAYNE FLACK -- 1,548,000
ERIC BRENES -- 1,417,000
JOHN JUANDA -- 1,365,000
PATRICK McMILLAN -- 1,328,000
VIC FEY -- 1,262,000
MIKE MATUSOW -- 713,000
[/ QUOTE ]
Anyway, the last day before the final table ended with gigatic 60K/120K blinds and a 15K ante and and average stack of about 10BBs. The final table will start with 15K/30K +5K blinds and will have stacks of around 40BBs.
Is this sort of thing normal in a big tourney, to "rollback" the blinds to make for an interesting final table while raising them to set up that table?
[ QUOTE ]
Round 26. The antes were 15K and blinds were 60K and 120K. With only 7 million in chips in play, and each round costing almost 300,000, you knew the end would not be long in coming.
Well, it wasn't.
Two hands into the new round, Martin pushed in under the gun with A-3 offsuit and his remaining 300K in chips. He found a willing caller in the big blind, Eric Brenes, who held pocket nines. A nine on the flop ended the drama and... at long last... we go to tomorrow.
Interesting thing about the blind structure. Though it was big enough to force all-in bets, it hardly encouraged calls. Why? No upside. Suppose you hold a million in chips. Faced with the choice of doubling up or going broke, in most cases you figure that doubling up is a significant good. But here the blinds were so high that even doubling up wouldn't move you far out of precarious territory. On the other hand, if you lost the hand, you lost both the chance for tomorrow's TV exposure (not an insignificant consideration to many) and the chance to get a little more play from your chips when the blinds roll back.
So... weirdly... the upside and the downside were upside down, and thus was the final table setting deferred until the blinds grew so high as to be insurmountable.
Congratulations to Martin Feijo -- screen name IwillbustU -- our seventh place finisher and $80,000 winner.
Here are your chip counts and contestants for tomorrow, when play will start at the considerably less draconian level of 5K antes and 15K-30K blinds:
LAYNE FLACK -- 1,548,000
ERIC BRENES -- 1,417,000
JOHN JUANDA -- 1,365,000
PATRICK McMILLAN -- 1,328,000
VIC FEY -- 1,262,000
MIKE MATUSOW -- 713,000
[/ QUOTE ]
Anyway, the last day before the final table ended with gigatic 60K/120K blinds and a 15K ante and and average stack of about 10BBs. The final table will start with 15K/30K +5K blinds and will have stacks of around 40BBs.
Is this sort of thing normal in a big tourney, to "rollback" the blinds to make for an interesting final table while raising them to set up that table?