As I mentioned at Pushing The Blinds, some of us wanted to advance the blinds faster and for longer than we do now. At Tuesday's game, someone pointed out the downside of that:
If you play in a tournament at a casino and bust out early, there are other games for you to play. If you bust out early in a home game, there's nothing to do. We could have a separate cash game for that, but nobody seems to be interested.
As another suggestion, I thought we could only start raising blinds again only in the last 15 or 20 minutes. That might work.
Tuesday's game had a full table right to the end. We need to do something.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Wednesday, December 10, 2014
Pushing the blinds
I took third place in Tuesday's tournament. I wasn't entirely happy about that, though perhaps not for the reason you might think.
When these tournaments started, there were not many players. The blind structure was capped at 20/40 an hour before the end time, and hasn't been changed as more players have joined us. As more players equals more money in play, this means that there are often five or six players still left in the last few minutes of the game.
This of course means that the low stacked players will choose to go all-in with whatever they have either on the last hand or just before. In my opinion, that isn't poker, it's Bingo.
I think the blinds should keep increasing every twenty minutes all the way to the end.
I can't say whether I would have finished first, second, third or not at all were those rules in effect, but I'd rather play that way than have that craziness at the end.
When these tournaments started, there were not many players. The blind structure was capped at 20/40 an hour before the end time, and hasn't been changed as more players have joined us. As more players equals more money in play, this means that there are often five or six players still left in the last few minutes of the game.
This of course means that the low stacked players will choose to go all-in with whatever they have either on the last hand or just before. In my opinion, that isn't poker, it's Bingo.
I think the blinds should keep increasing every twenty minutes all the way to the end.
I can't say whether I would have finished first, second, third or not at all were those rules in effect, but I'd rather play that way than have that craziness at the end.
Saturday, December 6, 2014
Money or glory?
Friday's Holdem reached the final table 45 minutes from tournament end. I found myself to the left of the chip leader, who had twice the stack of anyone else. However, within half an hour I had cut him to half that and now I was the chip leader.
As the minutes dwindled away I maintained my lead, but there were six of us still in when we reached the final hand and the combined sum of their chips exceeded mine. I was in late position with the dealer on my left. Two players had enough chips to guarantee themselves second and third place, the others did not.
So here's how it looked:
Dealer: less than 1,000 chips
Small blind: less than 1,000
Big blind: appx. 1,200
UTG appx 2,300
Former chip leader: appx 1,400
Me: approximately 2,900
The player under the gun threw in his cards. The former leader went all in and I folded. The dealer and the blinds all called, making a $3,500 pot.
My fold guaranteed me second place. The only way I could take first would be if there was a split pot, but second was locked. I think that was a no brainer, but the UTG's fold is more interesting.
Third place would only pay $2 more than his buy in, so it certainly wasn't worth much. If he had any rebuys, he was losing money already. That he had been dealt bad cards is a given, but he may have been counting on the former leader to fold. But that was unlikely as he would be pushed out of third without a split pot.
As it turned out, the former leader won the pot, giving him first place.
As the minutes dwindled away I maintained my lead, but there were six of us still in when we reached the final hand and the combined sum of their chips exceeded mine. I was in late position with the dealer on my left. Two players had enough chips to guarantee themselves second and third place, the others did not.
So here's how it looked:
Dealer: less than 1,000 chips
Small blind: less than 1,000
Big blind: appx. 1,200
UTG appx 2,300
Former chip leader: appx 1,400
Me: approximately 2,900
The player under the gun threw in his cards. The former leader went all in and I folded. The dealer and the blinds all called, making a $3,500 pot.
My fold guaranteed me second place. The only way I could take first would be if there was a split pot, but second was locked. I think that was a no brainer, but the UTG's fold is more interesting.
Third place would only pay $2 more than his buy in, so it certainly wasn't worth much. If he had any rebuys, he was losing money already. That he had been dealt bad cards is a given, but he may have been counting on the former leader to fold. But that was unlikely as he would be pushed out of third without a split pot.
As it turned out, the former leader won the pot, giving him first place.
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