in cast you're interested. . .
so here's how it went for me yesterday:
i go and register for the satellite to win a seat in the main tournament. its $25 to enter for a chance to win a seat at the $80,000 tourney. i don't hava a lot to spend, so i figure this is a good chance for me to get some experience and possibly get into some money if i play right. well now i'm finding out that the satellite i'm entering supports as many re-buys as you want before the break, and an add-on period after that. . .
i figure i only planned on spending the initial $25, so i'm going to stick to it and see how it goes. so i get to my seat where my chips are waiting for me - only $500 worth. now as everyone is sitting down, its re-buy city already. $25 more gets you $1000 in chips, and you can double re-buy any time for $2000 in chips. every single person that i saw doubled right away - so immediately i'm the short stack with $500 compared with everyone's $2500. i'm feeling a little meek at this point, but i'm sticking to my original plan even if it means that i get to only see one flop.
so everyone is playing very loose, re-buying left and right while i sit behind a measley $500 in chips. so i play very tight and wait for something great like AK or AA or KK. this works for me, and i win a few hands and get my chips up. after a few, i'm over $6000 from $500, feeling pretty good. by this time, there were many players at my table who had already re-bought for more than $300 actual dollars. why not just buy into the $500 tourney that you're trying to win a seat for?
its too late to make a long story short, but i saw many people eliminated before me - some who had spend hundreds of dollars on re-buys, and i had still only spent my original $25. there were close to 20 tables to begin with, and i made it down to the last 4 before i finally went out. its 2 handed between me and another player with an almost equal chip stack to mine. he goes all-in. i have AK of hearts and i call. he turns over 9c9s. flop comes down - 3s8s5s and now he needs one more spade for a flush. turn comes, i get my ace (diamonds)! feeling good, now comes the river - another ace! but of course it was the ace of spades and the other guy makes his flush. . .
it hurt to go out, but i feel i made the right play by calling his all-in. in addition, i felt great about the fact that all of these guys spent way more money than me, and most of them were eliminated before me. i played well overall, so i felt good about it. good experience for me, as i have never played in any sort of live tournament action.
ok, sorry for the essay post - i hope its not too long for some of you to read!