Another Fun Triple Draw Tourney at 24h

[Tom Bayes]

I finally made it to the money and the final table in a TD MTT. I just played the €3/rebuy 2-7 tourney at 24h and finished 4th place for €28. I was in for €9 (immediate rebuy + add-on). As usual, the low-limit 24h players are naive and reluctant to use rebuys and I saw even more brain-dead play than usual.

It is virtually standard that at least one player at your first table will show down a flush or full house on the first hand, then cuss when the pot is pushed elsewhere. It happened. They figured out it was lowball, then couldn't figure out the Ace is high in 2-7. Over the tourney, I saw 2 players stand pat and go all-in with 5432A (not the nuts in this game, guys!).

One hilarious hand happened with about 25 of the original 89 players. I was heads-up with a very loose player. I had a rough eight after the 2nd draw, bet because he was drawing 2, and got raised. I figured my eight was no good and drew to the seven. I hit a king and figured I was dead. I checked, he checked back and showed down a A9xxx. Wow, my King is good and I'm not breaking any more rough eights against that guy.

I was near the chip lead with about 25 left, got card dead with about 15 left, and was pretty short by the time we made the final 6. The last hand was disappointing. I was HU with the calling station luckbox chip leader. I had 742xx and had to commit to this hand with a very short stack and sky-high blinds. I raise and luckbox follows, drawing 3. On the first draw I had 77422 but the rest of my dwindling chips went in. I tossed a 7 and a 2 and got 77432 on the 2nd draw. Luckbox draws one and I chuck another seven and pair my deuces for 74322. So I saw three of the sevens and three of the deuces on this hand. He knocks me out with a rough nine (98653 or something similar). [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] Luckbox ends up winning the tournament.

Eventually one of the 2+2ers will win this tourney (maybe someone has already and I missed the post). The competition is almost uniformly awful, but the blind structure is so crap shooty. People are just calling cold to draw 3 and drawing to rough eights and nines. Some guy knocked himself out jamming after the final draw with 87xxx when I had #2 (76432). Don't bother trying to snow anyone [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[timprov]

How many made it to the addon? Since the blinds get so crapshooty after level 5, the main profitability has to be in the dead money.

I've been using 96 as my value-betting standard on the end in these.

[Tom Bayes]

[ QUOTE ]
How many made it to the addon? Since the blinds get so crapshooty after level 5, the main profitability has to be in the dead money.

I've been using 96 as my value-betting standard on the end in these.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't keep track of the exact number to make it to the add-on period, but it was ~40 of the 89 starters, so we lost slightly more than half the field in the rebuy period, which is pretty sad because there are only 4 10-minute levels before add-ons. There were only 37 rebuys and 13 addons (one of each by me).

Also, people make a lot of straights because they don't realize some draws aren't nearly as good as they look. Then they cry and say it's a stupid game.

[MarkGritter]

[ QUOTE ]

Eventually one of the 2+2ers will win this tourney (maybe someone has already and I missed the post). The competition is almost uniformly awful, but the blind structure is so crap shooty. People are just calling cold to draw 3 and drawing to rough eights and nines. Some guy knocked himself out jamming after the final draw with 87xxx when I had #2 (76432). Don't bother trying to snow anyone [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm happy to say that I fulfilled Tom's prophecy today, coming in 1st in a field of 78.

No hand histories are available for TD, so I'm working from memory here...

My initial table had two hopeless idiots at it, who persisted in drawing to high hands until they were broke. I even commented that it was a lowball game after the first hand, but evidently they did not pause to question why their flushes and full houses kept losing to garbage hands. Two otherwise decent players at my table inexcusably folded to one of these idiots after the last draw. So, I nearly tripled my stack very quickly--- in fact, since I won the first hand I played, I didn't get to make an immediate rebuy.

Things went downhill from there for a while. I broke a hand I shouldn't have to a raise from an aggressive player, and lost a couple of pat hands to 7s made on the last draw. (One player neglected to value bet his 7 into me.) I ended up taking both rebuys in quick succession--- I busted and bought in for 1000, paid the small blind and bought in for 1000 more.

I managed to stay in the game by the first break and took the add-on, which put me comfortably in the middle of the pack. Very few players took the add on, I think. (16 players, according to the results--- less than half the field IIRC. There were only 37 rebuys as well.)

I got lucky with a couple hands where I paired but my opponent paired worse. I don't recall trying a bluff at any point during the tournament.

One hand I recall during this period I had a 1-card draw to an 8 UTG, something like 8643x. I raised and got three callers, all of whome drew one. I believe I improved on the draw and bet out, but one of the players raised me; I folded and he managed to extract a lot of chips from the other two players with his strong 7.

I didn't see a 7 myself until we were in the money (although I won with some 86s and 87s; lots of players limping in with 3-card draws makes these profitable.)

My first 7 came an an opportune time in a multi-way pot. I had 45 in the BB and there were three limpers in front of me drawing two or three. I drew three and got a 7 and a 2. SB bet out, I raised and I think both players cold-called. I had to go all-in the next betting round but made my 7 on the last draw to pull a big pot.

At this point we were down to two tables, and the big stack was being a bully and pulling off some amazing suckouts. I was still fairly short (the blind pressure is enormous), so I resolved not to get involved with anything but a quality draw. I managed to hit a wheel HU against a bigger stack (not the bully) which gave me enough chips to see the final table.

The bully finished off a lot of the other players for me. With only three players left, I got a miracle pat 7 on the button. I raised, both players had me covered and called. The shorter of the two stacks dropped out, but the bully called me down and even obligingly raised the last round to put me all in. MHIG and I take the chip lead. (This was at the 3000/6000 chip level and I had about 30K chips to start and ended up with about 60K, 45% of the chips.)

Bully did not change his behavior at this point and the other player busted him to take the lead.

The game ended shortly afterwards; the 2nd place finisher kept limping in and giving me a chance to draw 3, and checking even when ahead. Meanwhile I played more or less my normal HU game, even folding the small blind twice (gasp!). I managed to make a J and a 9 with position, bet them before the last draw into a smallish pot, and have them hold up.

Although I paid EUR 12 to play (EUR 3 entry fee, 2 rebuys, 1 add-on) the first prize was EUR 103, and most of the prizes would have recouped my investment--- 13th place paid EUR 9, 9th paid EUR 14.

Tom's analysis of the game is spot-on, your opponents will be very weak. Since so many pots will be contested multiway I think good tournament strategy requires waiting for quality hands, and perhaps a little less pre-first round aggression (although 3-bets are generally respected.) Identifying which opponents are timid and will check later streets is also immensely helpful.