The Deep Stack Tournament

Friday
 Having  won a ticket to the Skycity Casino Deep Stack Tournament on Saturday night, I had to wait almost a week for my first time playing in a big buy-in tournament ($1500 may be petty cash to some people, but it's big money to me). But Friday finally rolled around and I headed off to the casino for the fourth time in so many weeks. Somehow my planning went awry and I arrived later than expected, giving me no time to get anything to eat. It was pretty much a case of just checking in and getting seated. The tournament tables were on one side of the 'poker room' (really just an open bar area), with quite a few other games going on at the other tables. It looked like a busy night for poker games.
   The starting stack was 25,000 with the blinds starting at 25/50, which adds up to a starting stack of 500 big blinds; definitely a big stack! What's more, the blinds changed every hour, with a 10 minute break every two hours. It looked like it was going to be a long night. I'd never played with such a deep stack before but had already decided that as long as I had 100 BB or more I'd play the same way that I would in a ring game. It turns out the chips were different colours to those in the satellite games, so I had to get used to that. We started out with an eight-handed table but with late entries it soon became a ten-player game.
   Surprisingly, there was still quite a lot of limping in and limp-calling in this game, but also a certain amount of re-raising (3-betting). During the first couple of hours I had very few playable hands and had to fold a couple of times after being 3-bet. My best result came when I called a raise with AQ and hit top pair/top kicker on the flop and ended raking in a moderate sized pot. The only other really good starting hand I had was KK, but everyone folded to my early position raise. Finally the first break came and I had just enough time to get up to the bar and get myself a coffee.
   There were quite a few Australians around at the bar, some of them wearing Rugby League jerseys. Obviously they were in town for the NRL Nines which was playing on the weekend. On sitting back down the blinds were at 75/150 and I still had a pretty deep stack. We had started out with just 16 players in the tournament but eventually the number of entrants climbed to 42. There had been some talk among the players about when Day 1a might actually end, but nobody knew for sure what the time frame was and there had been no indication of this from the organisers. Meanwhile I was moved to a different table and had to start my observations of my table-mates' playing styles all over again. I had plenty of time for observation as I was card dead and not playing many hands. I did manage to scoop a few pots by bluffing in position but that was pretty much it.
   When the second break came I rushed over to the bistro, which is on the other side of the casino, to get myself something to eat. I still hadn't learned how to manage meals in this style of game and ended up wolfing down a pie at the counter and then rushing back to the Poker Zone in time for the next stage. We were now at a stage where the blinds were 100/200 with antes of 25. This was a first for me, never having played a live game with antes before. By this stage my stack was below 100 BB and I had to tighten up my starting hand range. But this made very little actual difference to the number of hands I was playing as I'd never had a chance to play a looser-style deep stack game because of the 'rags' I was being dealt.
   We had a number of  controversies at our table, one of which centred around me. I made a loose call in position but one of the chips I put in was the wrong denomination. On realising my mistake I pulled back the big chip and replaced it with the one I'd meant to put in. A young Chinese guy across the table from me (let's call him 'YC') took exception to that, whereupon several other people ventured their opinion. The dealer didn't seem to know what to do and I didn't want to display my ignorance any more than I already had so I just waited for the dealer to make a decision. Eventually YC insisted that the tournament director should come over and he ruled that it was a raise, whether that was what I'd intended or not. Of course I missed the flop and had to fold when the player in front of me put in a bet.
   Then on another occasion, when one player was facing a raise and asked the other 'Do you have it?' before folding, YC chimed in again. He decided that, as these two players were sitting next to each other and had talked to each other occasionally that they were friends and the question amounted to collusion. He went on at some length about this to everybody at the table. Then later, when two other players spoke to each other in Chinese and they were asked to stop by the tournament director (TD), he argued that it was acceptable as long as they weren't in a hand together. In his opinion the TD was wrong and he let everyone know it. Then when the TD told him not to use his cell phone at the table he started arguing the point once again. He clearly considered himself to be an expert on the rules and etiquette of poker. I had to smile when he ended one of his expositions by saying, 'I'm not trying to be a dick' and I heard one of the other players say, 'Well, you're failing'.
   Apart from these diversions there wasn't much else happening for me. By the time the blinds and antes reached 150/300/50 it was after midnight and I was still looking down at some of the ugliest hole cards ever. At this point the average stack was 30k but I had 9k, amounting to about 30BB. I'd already decided that, with antes in play, 30BB or less was the 'yellow zone' where I need to start pushing the action a bit and look for good spots to try and steal a little. At one point one of the other players complained that 'every time she hit a set it was a draw-heavy board so she couldn't get maximum value from it'. I was sitting there thinking 'I DREAM of hitting a set'. Although actually, at that point I would have been happy to hit anything.
   As the sixth blind level was approaching the end it was announced that Day 1a would be over at the end of the round.  Then, with ten minutes to go, the TD conducted a draw to decide how many more hands would be played. So we were to play four more hands, with all the remaining tables playing hand for hand. With less than 30 BB left, I decided to just fold, unless I hit a monster hand. I was just hoping for a better run on Day 2. Just to keep things interesting, on the penultimate hand of the night, two players ended up all-in pre-flop. One had KK and the other had QQ. Then a low straight was dealt to the board and they split the pot.
   The last card was dealt at about 1.20 on Saturday morning. There were 32 players left out of  42 total entrants and I had a rather meagre stack of 8,200. The dealers handed out zip-up bags to everyone for their chips. This was all new to me: I had to fill in a card with my name and the number of chips, get it checked, and then the bag was sealed up for use on Day 2. I checked with the organiser about check-in time for Monday and he told me I didn't need any documentation on that day; just my name and ID. The casino was still pretty busy as I left to look for a taxi. I knew that I was heading into Day 2 with a short stack and probably wouldn't last long. But I didn't care. I'd made Day 2 of a big buy-in tournament. What a buzz.
Monday
   Day 1b and 1c  of the Sky City Deep Stack Poker Tournament were held on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th, and Day 2 was played on the Monday, which was a public holiday. Play was due to start at 12.30 pm, so I turned up at the casino in time to check out what the check-in procedure was. They had the names of all the players and their seat assignments on a list posted on the wall. It was in fairly small print and I had to get someone to read it for me because I hadn't brought my glasses. I discovered what my seat assignment was and also found that I had the second-smallest stack among the remaining players. Of the 105 players who entered there were now 66 left.
   On sitting down at the table I was asked for ID by the dealer and then handed my chip pouch. I broke the seal and emptied out a sad little stack of 8,200 chips. The largest stack at my table was 77,000 (about 200BB), and the smallest stack in the tournament was also there (about 6,000 chips). On looking around I recognised a few players from Day 1. The blinds were starting at 200/400 with antes of 75.
   With about 20 big blinds in my stack and antes in play I decided that I'd better just go into push or fold mode. I managed to pick up a few decent pre-flop hands and on each occasion everyone folded to my all-in push. So I managed to pick up a few chips to keep me in the game. Then the shortest stack pushed all-in. He only had about 1/3 of my stack by this stage and I had A 6: not a great calling hand but I decided to take a chance. I called and he showed KT. My Ace was good and that gave me a few more chips to play with.
   At this stage I was trying to figure out my 'zones of play'. In an ordinary game I consider 12BB or less to be my red zone (the push or fold level), and in an ante game it's 15BB or less. But I'd already realised that the antes were higher than I was used to in this game. I calculated that with the blinds at 200/400/75 I was losing about 4BB every round. So I decided to play super-cautiously and set my red zone at 25 BB. With my topped-up stack I was able to play a few hands for about 20 minutes or so before dropping back into the danger zone.
   We had one notable 'big decision' hand at our table, which went like this: player 1 raises, player 2 calls and the Big Blind calls. The flop is J 6 4. The BB checks, P1 checks, P2 bets, BB folds, then P1 pushes all-in. Player 2 then spends a long time trying to figure whether he is ahead or behind. He tells the table that if he folds, it'll be a big fold, then apologises for taking so long to make a decision. Eventually he folds his hand but can't really let go of it. He tells everyone he had pocket Kings and keeps fishing for information from Player 1. I guess he'll never know whether it was a good fold or not.
   After two hours of play we had our first break. I rushed off to the bistro to pick up some sandwiches (I'd decided that these were the best option for meals on the run) and got back in time to grab a beer from the bar. There were now 53 players left and the blinds were 400/800/100. I had a stack of 15,000, giving me about 20 BB. In the first hand I was in the big blind and folded to a raise. In the second hand I was small blind with A T off-suit. The first player put in a minimum raise, player 2 called and I pushed all-in. I was called by player 1, who showed A Q. The flop was Q T x, neither of us improved any further on the turn or river and my tournament was over. So I retired to a nearby barstool and finished my sandwich and beer.  That was end of my first big buy-in poker tournament, lasting 2 hours into Day 2 and finishing 53rd out of 105 entrants.
   They were showing the Super Bowl on the big screen but I had no interest in that, so I wandered off into the main gaming room and had a go at a bit of roulette. After throwing away a little cash at the roulette table, and a little more at the bar, I headed home. It was still only late afternoon, so at least I didn't have to take a taxi home. The following day I Googled the tournament and  found a report in 'The Herald'. Apparently the tournament had ended at 8 am on Tuesday morning. The winner got $41,000. A long night but not a bad payday.
   Looking back at the tournament, I'm pretty happy with how it went. Although the standard of play was generally better than I usually encounter, I don't think I was out of my depth at any point. The one thing I think I could have done better is the decision about zones of play. I think I panicked a bit there, giving too much weight to the influence of the antes. If I ever play in a big tournament, I'll take a look at the structure in advance, rather than trying to make decisions on the run. Over-all, it was an enjoyable experience. I already have some 'shadow bankroll ' cash put aside, and there's a High Roller Tournament with satellites being played next month. Maybe I'll have a go...