Crapshoots!
Recently Dusk Till Dawn have been holding affordable deepstack freezeouts, with their Super 50 and 20twenty weekends. During this time I have been amazed to hear people tell me what a crapshoot these competition become at the business end (and sometimes before). Quite frankly these statements amaze me but I have a theory.
In the days before pc’s in cardrooms competitions were run using an egg timer! I remember opening a cardroom in a brand new casino and on the opening day running down to the market to find such a device for that evenings fanfare competition. The owner looked bemused as I turned up for the press launch with a clockwork apple 
the stall had run out of the swish looking Salter’s egg timers.
It was also true that freezeouts and no limit games were very rare, the average competition was 1000pt rebuy with blinds starting at 25/50 or even 50/100. There was however a rule of thumb that most of the players tried to stick too. This was to be in contention to have a minimum of 20 big blinds and to play accordingly. As there was no such regular competition to have a 75/150 or a 150/300 level this meant that aggression was the key in the early part of a tournament, with many early exits (it suited the casino to get people on the gaming floor asap anyway).
In 2001 the egg timer finally became a thing of the past in any decent cardroom as some software was approved by the gaming board (at the time) called Cardroom Magic. This was what every TD ever dreamed of, no more buzzing of a 2 bit timer but a clear announcement of blinds to be raised/breaks/starting etc, also it cut the unnecessary paperwork by 80%. It also was pleasing for the players as they could look at a plasma screen and find all the information about the tournament that they were playing, how many people left, how long was left of that level, prize money etc., but most importantly it gave a little piece of information that no-one had used before ” Average Chipstack”. I believe that this is the most looked at part of any TD software and it is the most misleading piece of information. If you go to any cardrooms smoking room during a break, all you will hear is “How many chips have you got?” The answer is usually “Average chips” or “Just under/over average”. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ignore this information, an average is just what it says on the tin, you may have someone on a monster stack and 10 very short stacks (this is not uncommon) when those shorties bust, those sitting on their “average” chips now are in a whole heap of crap, hence why you are now playing a crapshoot, as now most of the shorties have bust, let’s say 2 levels go past without losing a player (i.e. bubble scenario) you are now in a shit or bust situation and the skill of poker has now been thrown into the lap of the poker Gods.
Revert to the old ways dear friends, keep your stack above 20bb’s, this may mean you have to play poker, steal a few blinds, be braver ……… you will be rewarded in prize money!
So for those of you that are looking at a starting stack of 10,000 chips with starting blinds of 25/50 (200BB’s!!) and have a competition that includes all festival levels on a decent clock, think that the tournament is a crapshoot please re-adjust your game and play poker, or get blinded out!
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[...] admin wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptRecently Dusk Till Dawn have been holding affordable deepstack freezeouts, with their Super 50 and 20twenty weekends. During this time I have been amazed to. [...]
[...] Administrator wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIt was also true that freezeouts and no limit games were very rare, the average competition was 1000pt rebuy with blinds starting at 25/50 or even 50/100. There was however a rule of thumb that most of the players tried to stick too. … as now most of the shorties have bust, let’s say 2 levels go past without losing a player (i.e. bubble scenario) you are now in a shit or bust situation and the skill of poker has now been thrown into the lap of the poker Gods. … [...]
[...] Nigel Tomm wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIt was also true that freezeouts and no limit games were very rare, the average competition was 1000pt rebuy with blinds starting at 25/50 or even 50/100. There was however a rule of thumb that most of the players tried to stick too. … [...]
The big problem is that until more people adjust their game to suit the structure insted of holding back and blinding away the games will always turn into a crap shoot. In my hometown of Stoke its not uncommon for the last 6 or 7 players on a final table to do a deal splitting 90% of the prize money evenly and then playing out for the winner to get an extra £50 ro £100 this usually results in you only achieving an average of ten times your buy in in return which to be honest isnt what i play poker for.
I for one love the comps at DTD and try to make it there for as many deepstack games as possible now that the price has been reduced to £50 and £100 – i wouldnt pay £300 to play one but now that i have a taste for them i plan to start to try to quality for the £300 online instead.
The fun part of the comp comes when its time to re-steal and pinch blinds as we approach the money bubble but to do this i find it very handy to try to accumulate a big enough stack and never thought i would say this but its kinda fun being a chip bully on the tables towards the end of these comps and it seems to work and suit my lack of style in these games. Afterall who need finesse when you can push 400,000 chips in someones face.
Baring a double paired board and a 3 way chip split in one hand last saturday i would of gone onto the final table with over one third of the chips in the game when my AK chopped a pot with AQ and AJ on a 6,6,3,10,10 board.