Well, as expected, I’ve given back a bit of money so far (nothing too material). That said, I’ve played in a number of qualifiers, and I’m doing reasonably well. Not always making the next round, but mostly yes.<\/p>\n
For example, a month or two ago, I reported on playing in a free qualifier to get into the semi-final qualifier to win a full package to a big tournament in Aruba. There were 3500 entrants, top 50 get in, and I came in 34th. Yesterday, I played in the same qualifier, with 3500 entrants, top 50 get in. This time, I came 151. So, I didn’t make it, but was pretty close. I got rivered, or I would have doubled, and had a good shot of making it.<\/p>\n
I won an entry yesterday to a tourney that normally costs $109. It cost me $31. I didn’t make the money, but in the past, I wasn’t even trying to get into these bigger tournaments, but my confidence level is rising, so I’m taking the shots.<\/p>\n
Today, I played in a qualifier for this Sunday’s big one, given my great result this past Sunday. Last week, I played in a qualifier that cost $11 to get in, had rebuys and add-ons, and the top 15 made the big tourney. I put in a total of $31. Today, the tourney was $5.50, had rebuys and add-ons, and only the top 2 made it to Sunday. I put in a total of $25.50. 3rd place paid $45, 4th paid $27, and 5th paid $18. So, if I came 4th, I’d at least get my money back.<\/p>\n
There were 31 entrants. When there were roughly 16 left, I was a very small stack. I limped with 88 and the giant stack raised me from the small blind. I went all-in and he called, and had 45o. Obviously, I had been playing weak enough that he felt that I would fold. My 8’s held up and I doubled up. Somehow, that put him on tilt<\/a>, as roughly 10 hands later, he went from #1<\/a> in chip position to out of the tourney, nowhere near the money!<\/p>\n Anyway, I had one guy who folded nearly every hand, except when I had the big blind, when he went all-in, 80% of the time. While it’s possible that he had a big hand each time, I doubt it. What made it dangerous was that there were at least 2 very large stacks between him and me, who could have called him too, so perhaps he had great hands, but I folded every time.<\/p>\n At some point, we got down to the final table, and I was in 9th. The guy to my right raised, it was nearly all of my stack, so I reraised, everyone folded and he called the remaining few chips. I had KK and he had AJo. My kings held up, and I was in decent shape (7th). A few hands later, he raised again, and I reraised all-in, and only he called. He had A8o, and I had AKo, which held up again, and now I was in 3rd and he was out.<\/p>\n It then took forever, but we finally got to 5, so at least $18 was guaranteed. When we got down to 3, I was in 3rd, but at least guaranteed to get back $45 and make a profit. One of the three was the guy who was clearly picking on me earlier. At one point, he won a big pot against the chip leader and became the chip leader.<\/p>\n Finally, cutting to the chase. He raised me all-in when I was the short stack, and I had A8s. He had A7o. An A hit the board, and it looked like we might split, until the T on the board paired on the river, and my 8 kicker beat him. He was crippled. The next hand I had 22 in the small blind, and raised him all in. He had K7o and called, and not only did my 2’s hold up, but I hit a set to cement it. He got the $45, and I will be playing for free<\/em> this coming Sunday. Woo hoo! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n At the same time, I was in an Omaha Hi-Lo tourney that cost me $5.50. 95 entrants, top 10 paid. I got extremely unlucky on my last hand and finished 10th, getting $11.87 for my $5.50. Oh well, a cash is a cash is a cash.<\/p>\n Anyway, while I’ve given back some cash, if you include the theoretical<\/em> winnings from the free entry fees (a few of the nightly ones, plus the $109 and $215 bigger ones), I’d be ahead even more. But, like last month, I’ll happily count those as losses, and count any profit I make in a tourney that I get into for free as pure profit.<\/p>\n Here’s hoping I have something nice to write about this coming Sunday! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, as expected, I’ve given back a bit of money so far (nothing too material). That said, I’ve played in a number of qualifiers, and I’m doing reasonably well. Not always making the next round, but mostly yes. For example, a month or two ago, I reported on playing in a free qualifier to get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12,2,18],"tags":[1363,1368],"class_list":["post-52","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4","category-gambling","category-2","category-poker","tag-gambling","tag-poker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}