A $50 tournament

I know I talked about playing a $100 tourney, but this one happened to be starting, with not too many players (225) so I decided to jump in. I can report that there is definitely a difference in skill level noticeable. For one thing, people simply get eliminated much slower. This is also due to the excellent blind structure at this buyin: 12 minutes per level! After one hour, only slightly more than half the contestants were gone, as opposed to two thirds at lower buyins.

I am not very happy with the way that I played. I was seated immediately to the left of a complete idiot who could not lay any hand down. Unfortunately, I did not manage to hit any of my draws against him, so I ended up giving him quite a few chips.

Remarkably, it seemed that I was not the only one who was playing above their level. I checked all my tablemates at Sharkscope and the highest average stake that I found was $25 or so. There were many people that on average play for less than $10. Apparently many of these people cannot resist taking excursions to higher buyins--like me I guess, but at least I made sure that I first earned $500 before risking $50...


FTP $50, 2nd hour.

1205 chips, started with 2000 :-(
Am in 100th position out of 105 remaining. Still, due to the excellent structure, the blinds are now 40/80 so my M is still 10. No need to give up just yet... I am not even the shortest stack at my table! One player has 670.

120 out of 225 players left in the 1st hour, this is slightly less than would happen in a $5 tournament (but it is still 53%, compared to 67% in lower buyins).

AA just got cracked by 86s (quad 6s!) so now I am even the 3rd lowest stack at the table.

The same player almost lost with KK against 96s on the very next hand, due to two sixes on the board, but spiked a K on the river to make a full house.

Just missed my chance to make a full house when I check-folded 82 on a 432 flop, all clubs. Turn 2, river 8... I would have beaten a flopped flush.

Try to steal with K9o in CO. Success! Back to 1205.

AK UTG. Raise to 240 = 3BB. One caller. Miss ragged flop, push anyway. She folds, phew.... 1485!

Sick sick sick. Lost to a complete idiot to my right, who has been annoying me for the past hour. He is SO stupid, cannot lay down anything. He made his flush on the river and bet the pot...

Down to 1035, blinds 50/100, M=7. 93rd out of 96 remaining.

Push KJo in 2nd pos. No callers! 1185. 80th out of 88 remaining.

Push 33 as BB after 4 limpers. Two callers!! QQ and 66... Out in 87th place.

PS: by playing this game, I released a $25 refer-a-friend bonus as well as $5 of my deposit bonus. I also played a $11-turbo SNG (I LOVE these FTP turbo games) simultaneously with this tournament, finishing 2nd, so I made a net profit of $17.70 there. So overall, losing this $55 game has cost me only $7.30 :-)