OK, this game
http://www.thebike.com/images/com_t...antum_reload_friday_fast_structureat_4_pm.pdf
Ended up being huge. 350 peeps by the end of registration which was at 8 pm local time and I had already been playing 3 1/2 hours by then. G of $10K ended up near 22K.
I haven't seen but one player who I think was actually better than me in any live tourney I have played in the 3 months I've been playing live tourneys. While you might think that is arrogant, what I am actually saying is that there are a lot of tourney players in So.Cal, and most of them are pretty damn decent. I do consider myself pretty damn decent on the felt, which means I'm average around here. And the fact I can only point to one guy who I thought was measurably better than me really only means he is on the verge of greatness, or he had his meds right on that night.
So, last night was a surprize to me and I was unprepared for it. I had done the same game mid week and it only collected about 100 peeps, and was near the bubble (12 paid) when I went out (22nd or so) at 11:30 pm or so. Last nights game was still 90 peeps strong at about the same time. 36 paid but the bottom 10 barely make back the entry costs. I found out that typically the Bike pays around 10%. I would guess that by the time it got to 4 10 player tables, a deal might happen to pay 40, rather than the 36 the tourney board showed.
I had come unprepared. I had not done my meds, insulin, and not eaten properly. I figured from experience that the game would go critical about midnight. Some mentioned that the game historically would go until 3 or 4 in the morning. I knew I could not do that last night. Next time I will prepare for that much better.
So I pick up AKs UTG or UTG+1, and raise healthy, fold fold fold and the quiet guy across the table fast shoves his 44, fold fold fold and the nice guy finally looks at his cards and quick shoves his bigger stack, he has me covered. He had done nothing weird for the 3 hours I was sitting there. Possibly one steal, but it was such a scripted steal, anyone who didn't make it would have been nuts. He showed a card on that hand which suggested he was stealing.
OK, Huge hand which would put the winner in a position to take an hour off and go eat a real dinner, which the structure here did not provide any time for. I'm worrying about my insulin levels, and hunger, and ask what time it was. Not ask for time, but what time it was. Found out it was later than I thought, and decided that I probably needed to get lucky but now was the time, so I called.
He showed AA, so the table is set 44 vs AA vs AKs (diamonds), flop comes diamond diamond x, and I'm excited, but alas, I am not a girl, and diamonds were not my best friend......
I could have laid that AK down, I had laid the same hand down just before the previous break, and all it was was a little disappointing.
Overall another very fun learning experience where I learned what I will have to do to prepare for the big games, and that very few are noticeably better than me, be seemingly many are luckier than me.
I have no doubt now that my 2k win a few weeks ago was no fluke (lesser casino talent maybe) and that I can look forward to crushing the local MTT circuit this year. I am ahead by many hundred in my live career. And overall happier playing live tourneys, than online tourneys.
