Freeroll

Peppermill runs a Quarterly Freeroll for their tournament players, and they held it last week. They gave us 1500 chips. There was $10 Dealer AddOn for 1000 chips, and two  Rebuys $50 for 2500 chips each. I got none of those because I don't pay in a freeroll. I don't know how much money they are putting up. If it's a lot, that may persuade me to pop open the wallet next time.

They seemed to be using the standard Peppermill tourney structure. The surprising part was they had 20 minutes levels for a freeroll. Most of their tournaments have 15 minute levels.

The freeroll is for 100 players, but they allowed five Alternates (not a clue why). Players get into the freeroll by earning points when they cash in a tourney. I had 10 points, which put me in. 4 points was the lowest they allowed this time. The Top 10 Point Earners got $100, which they were encouraged to use for their Rebuys. They had between 85 - 48 points.

Because I had just 1500 chips, I started off with a tight preflop strategy. It worked wonderfully. I hit a Set of Tens and Two Flushes. I was over 5000 chips in Level 2.

But... I then went completely card dead, and essentially blinded off. I never had any good spots to steal, and one players a few seats down was on the loose side. When we got to the break (before 200/400/75), I had 3500.

In my first BB after the break, I won the pot by betting on the Flop with Top Pair (Q). Next hand, the Button raised to 1200. I'm the SB with AQo, and go All-In for 4500. She called rather quickly with ATc (her Lucky Suit). However, it wasn't lucky for her this time, as I doubled up to 10k.

In the next level (300/600/100), a Kid razed from Hyjack, and been doing it a lot lately. I had KQd in SB, and seriously considered calling. But he had about the same as me, so I reluctantly folded. I never found out what he had.

In the very next hand, it folded to the Cutoff, the ATc Lady from before, and she went All-In. I'm the Button with 7d 7h, and insta-ship All-In over the top to isolate against her. She had KJd, and the board was 8d 6d 6h Kc 2d. We counted the stacks, and I had 1600 left.

Next hand, it folded to me in Cutoff. I shipped the 1500 with 75o while I still had a little Fold Equity left. The SB also goes All-In for just 900 with J8o. The BB reluctantly had to call the extra 900 with 94o. Board was 965 K K, and the mighty 94o knocks out two players. I finish somewhere around 60th.

Oh, well. At least I got two hours of entertainment.

Later on, I got more information about the freeroll. First, it's a Cash Me Out. When they get to two tables, the tourney chips get converted to cash chips. The 18 players then can either Cash Me Out, or continue to battle for the remaining prize pool.

I also found out the amount of money that Peppermill puts up for the freeroll is $20,000. My initial reaction to this was, "Holy Shit!!" That's a huge amount of money for a casino to just give away. (It's $80k for the four freerolls they have each year.)

Even though I said I don't pay for freerolls, I may change my mind next time. If all 100 players got both Rebuys for $100, that would add $10k to the prizepool, which is only half of the $20k that Peppermill is donating to the prizepool. Now that's what I call an overlay.

EDIT (07.14.11) - I got some more info about their freerolls. I'm not positive about this, but it seems that the prizepool is $20k, and not that they add $20k to the prizepool. This would make more sense, as they "strongly encourage" players to use their Rebuys. The more Rebuys in the prizepool, the less that the Peppermill needs to add to the prizepool.