Chop Pot Classic II

This weekend (Wed 10/24 - Sun 10/28), the Peppermill held another Chop Pot Classic, which is a small tournament series that features mixed games.

As it turned out, I had this weekend off from work (Fri-Sun). I also took two vacation days on Wednesday & Thursday. So you probably assume I played in 7 - 9 of the tournaments with all that free time?

Nope. I only played in three of them, and the main reason for this was the structures of the tournaments.

There was a tournament everyday at 12n and 7pm. All but one of the events had a $130 buy-in ($97 + $33) with 6000 chips. The Saturday 12n had a $235 ($194 + $41) with 8000 chips, which I guess is what they consider a "Main Event".

However, there is a huge difference between some of these tournaments. The 12n tourneys have 30 minute levels, but the 7pm tourneys have only 20 minute levels. I refuse to pay the same juice for a faster tournament, therefore I did not play in any of the 7pm tourneys.

I wasn't the only one who had a problem with this. Overall, this series was a dismal failure for the Peppermill. The largest 12n tournament was only 41 players on Wednesday ($130 Omaha-8). The "Main Event" on Saturday was another Omaha-8 event, and it only had 27 players. The 7pm tournaments drew much worse than the 12n tournaments, which is common for Reno. Two of the tourneys had under 20 players, with last night's HORSE not even having two full tables of 8 players.

(Side note: Why was the "Main Event" for a mixed game series an Omaha-8 tourney, and not a HORSE tourney?)

Another reason I only played three tournament was the schedule. For the 12n tourneys, they had three Omaha-8 and two Crazy Pinapple-8. I don't understand why they didn't have any HORSE or Stud-8 tourneys for the 12n, since they did for the 7p tourneys. I would have happily played in those games. I don't want to play Crazy Pinapple-8 because I think it's a silly game. I have no interest in playing it for a tournament, but I wouldn't object to playing it in a mixed cash game.

As for the one that I played, I was in the Wednesday $130 Omaha-8 with 41 players. I got off to a great start, but the early levels mean absolutely nothing in these Limit tournaments. I went cold when the levels went up, and the pots got bigger. I ended up in 16th place.

The next one was the $130 Omaha-8 on Friday, which had 40 runners. This one was the opposite of Wednesday. I was ice cold at the start, but things got better as the levels went up. It was going so well that I got the Final Table as the Chip Leader.

When we got to seven players left, the super-shortstack was in the SB, and it was her turn preflop. Before she called with her last few chips, she asked if anyone wanted to make a deal because she really wanted to get her money back. Surprisingly, nobody said Yes, but I mentioned that any deals should be discussed between hands.

She did call, and end up surviving for a few more hands. She brought up wanting her money back, but everyone ignored her. After she finally busted in 6th, then a different player was eliminated on each of the next three hands.

That got us to three handed. I was co-chip leader, and the shortstack wasn't super short. His name is Tim, and he's a regular tournament grinder around town. He started the chop talk, and we eventually came to an agreement. I walked away with $1130 after the Dealer's Tip.

The last tourney was the "Main Event". It went similarly to the Friday tourney. With the smaller field, I made it to the Final Table with a decent stack. I was the only one at the Final Table who was trying to win this tournament, meaning I was the only one who was consistently raising and 3-betting. It went well, and I managed to build up a dominate stack.

Unfortunately, things started to go badly. The shortstacks kept hanging around, by either scooping or getting half the pot. The worst part was that many of the double-ups were through me. I was getting hands like Ad 2d 3d 5s, 5h 4s 3h 2c, and Ac 2c 3h 7s, which I'm happy to run it out with a shortstack. The problem was that I was completely airballing the boards, or they would hit it harder. It was a slow bleed of my chips stack until I became the shortstack.

When I finally got it All-In, I had a Pair, Open-Ender, and A5-Low on the Flop against a Flush Draw and A4-Low. The 5c on the Turn gave him the Flush, and I was eliminated in 7th place. Very frustrating.