When Limit Holdem isn't worth playing...

[starfall]

Sometimes you just haven't a hope in hell of getting anywhere in a Limit Holdem tournament, especially a freeroll.

First hand I play is pocket Aces. Capped betting, and they get cracked by Pocket Sixes flopping a full house (the player was ultra-aggressive so I didn't necessarily put them on anything, but when they capped the flop I just called and it only cost one big bet to show down).
Next up, Pocket Two's. See the flop, with loose, aggressive players this would get paid off. Miss, and fold.
Then Pocket Queens. Another decent hand. Cap the pre-flop betting (someone else would cap it otherwise, not that the tighest player at the table raising actually scares off many people anyway). Flop includes an Ace, and someone bets and other player raises, so I know I'm now behind and fold. Yep, a crappy AX hand wins it.
Next, AJ - not a complete premium hand, but worth a look. Flop includes a Queen, and there's another bet and raise, and I know I'm behind to the raiser, and have to (correctly) fold.

By this point half my stack is gone...

Then, Pocket 3's. Flop trips. (A23). This is great heads-up, or so I think. The ultra-aggressive player who's been raising EVERYTHING raises back at me so most of my chips are in on the flop. Turn comes another club, for 3 clubs, but they could have anything and they'd still raise, so I push the rest of my chips in, and find they'd been playing something like QX clubs, and made a flush as their random finishing hand to bust me out.

So much for solid play - the aggressive donks outdrew every hand (not a single hand of mine wasn't the ahead going to the flop). NL would have been the same - I'd have pushed with Aces knowing I'd get called, would have got outflopped, and just bust out faster...

Just as well it was only a freeroll, otherwise I'd really have been annoyed.

I don't think it's rigged - just sometimes you have to wonder about how long the lucky streaks of the absolute idiots whose only action is to raise every single opportunity can last.

 

[smd173]

PP's in a freeroll limit tourney, really aren't that great. You know you'll get 6-8 callers which greatly diminish your odds. When you flop a set and their are 2 cards to the flush or straight, the drawers are getting the right odds to call. With 6 people in preflop, they are even getting the right odds to call there with QXs.

Limit is different from NL and should be viewed as such. PPs are better reserved for mid to late round tourney play.

 

[starfall]

If Pocket Aces aren't a worthwhile starting hand, I don't know what is...
The pocket 2's, unless I hit the set I was done, and folded on the flop... you also get the odds to draw to a set with lots of players in the pot, when it's not that much of your stack.
Pocket Queens, again, it qualifies as one of the best starting hands - but if the flop includes an Ace, you're done more often than not.
The pocket 3's hit, and on the flop it was heads-up. With the pre-flop maxed, they had the odds to draw to the flush, but they sure as hell didn't have the odds to raise with just the draw and no pair. Their raising on the flop made no sense. They were putting in chips to get 2x back 1/3 of the time. Calling, fine - raising, poor odds. They happened to get lucky, so rather than me nearly busting them out, they did but me out.

 

[spore]

Limit tournaments is pretty much luck at the lower levels. If you can hold on to the higher levels, then good play gets rewarded a lot more... usually. I dunno, I've never played a limit freeroll tournament. As much as it sucks, the key is to know when your great hole cards are not so great anymore.

 

[SmokyRiver]

Usually you remember the bad beats before the great wins. But those low limit players will pay you off in the end and build your tournament stack quicker than in a tourny with stronger players

 

[starfall]

Smoky, those were the sum total of the hands I played in the whole tournament - no wins whatsoever, just those losses.
I just played another Limit tourny on Jungle and it was slightly better, but not much - I actually won a couple of hands, but mostly it was a table with 7 sitouts, so 3 people actually playing, where the chip leader was the person who virtually never folded, especially if they made even bottom pair. They were leading because over 50% of the time the river would make them the best hand - a full house, 2 pair, even just a good pair when they'd had nothing, whatever was needed to take the pot off the other player who'd been ahead - they were up to 3x their stack by not knowing when to fold when they were well behind, and catching the 2,3,4 outers that would give it to them, at least 60% of the time. This time I was mixing it up a bit, and didn't mind losing my share, but again it was losing more pots to 2-4 outers catching on the river than I won by hands like top pair with an Ace kicker holding up against 1 or 2 opponents when I knew from the betting the hand was winning on the flop... I'd make 2 pair, and their unpaired A2 caught the 4-outer 5 on the river for a straight, then when I get a straight, their 2 pair catches a paired board card on the river for a full house. I get 2 pair again, and the turn and river make a board straight to split the pot, when I'd been ahead from the flop... just hand after hand where I couldn't do anything except play the best hand and lose...

Apologies for the rant... I know it's poker, and it happens, but you want to let off some steam when it happens a lot in a short space of time... like I said, it's a good thing it wasn't at a cash game or the like. I'm still making progress on getting my bankroll up on various sites... so long as the best hands mostly hold up on the cash games, and the hideous runs of outdraws mostly happen on the freerolls, then it's not so bad... it's not doing much for my hopes of getting a $50+ starting bankroll on Jungle, though (it's at $40.50 currently)...