WOW! In all my years of playing tournaments I have never had my pants pulled down and my back side spanked the way it was last night. Swog and I came down to the Beau Rivage "Holiday Hangover" BJ tournament yesterday and played our opening round. The format was elimination, with 4 to 6 players per table (depended on which session you played in). I was lucky I only had 4 players at my table (or so I though...LOL). The rules were only one advance, starting bankroll of $25,000, min. bet of $500, max. bet of $10,000, no surrender, and we played 30 hands. Here is a run down of the first ten hands, (this is acturate, what a nightmare, it must be all Skill...LOL). I am only listing mine and one other player (Rolf) hands and bets, that is all that matters. Hand #1. Dealer 10 up. Rolf - $5,000 bet catches 6/5 DD King - winner Rick - $500 10/3 bust Net - $10,500 down after one hand #2. Dealer 9 up. Rolf - $5,000 7/4 DD 10 - winner Me - $500 8/Queen - loser Net - $10,500 hand = down $22,000 after 2 hands. #3. Dealer Jack up. Rolf - $10,000 3/7 DD Ace - winner Me - $500 6/9 bust Net - $20,500 hand = down $42,500 after 3 hands. #4. Dealer 7 up. Rolf - $10,000 10/Jack - winner Me - $500 8/7 - lost Net - $10,500 hand = down $53,000 after 4 hands. #5. Dealer King up. Rolf - $10,000 - BJ - winner Me - $500 3/3 - loser Net - $15,500 hand = down $68,500 after 5 hands. #6. Dealer 4 up. Rolf - $10,000 - BJ - winner Me - $500 6/4 DD 10 - winner Net - $14,000 hand = down $84,500 after 6 hands. #7. Dealer 10 up. Rolf - $10,000 - BJ - winner Me - $500 4/Jack bust Net - $15,500 hand = down $100,000 after 7 hands. #8. Dealer 8 up. Rolf - $10,000 Ace/9 - winner Me - #500 5/King bust Net - $10,500 hand = down $110,500 after 8 hands. DAMN! 8 hands and I was down over 11 max. bets, so I started to chase Rolf. #9. Dealer - 5 up. Rolf - $3,000 9/Jack Me - $7,000 9/9 split, 9/6 & 9/2 DD 8. Dealer flips at 9 for 14, hits and ace for 15 and 6 for 21. both Rolf and I lose. Rolf - $3,000 Me - $21,000 Net - $24,000 hand = down $134,500 after 9 hands. Standings: Rolf - $122,000 Me - $1,500 #10. Dealer 10 up. Rolf - Queen/ 9 - lost Me - 10/8 - lost Round over for me! Our table finished 14 minutes before everyone else...LOL, it was the biggest blowout I have ever seen. Swog and I drove 8 1/2 hours for this fun...LOL, what is even more fun is we have the same 8 1/2 hour drive back still...LOL. Bottonline is if you don't get the cards your dead. This was Rolf's first tournament, this poor guy probably thinks this is easy money playing these tournaments...LOL. Hope my misery made you laugh and possiblly forget your own bad experance in tournament play. Hopefully I'll have success in my re-buy round today. Later, TXtourplayer
Jeez Nothing you can do about that run of cards. Were you a really bad man in a previous life? Cheers Reachy
I know how you feel Rick. At my table there yesterday, the dealer busted out the first six hands. By then, I was looking across at two stacks of 80,000+ and two stacks in the 50000-60000 range. My minimum bets had built my bankroll to less than 27,000. I battled back and, by the last hand, was within 2000 of BR1, but on the button. Once again, I made another rookie mistake and lost the table on a swing. Today's rebuy table was much of the same. Dealer dumped chips most of the game. I started making a move on hand 23, caught losing hands and was gone on hand 28. Gotta love it.
Just such a run of cards... No, it was just such a run of GREAT cards Rolf caught, it wasn't that hard to remember DD21, DD21, DD21, 20, BJ, BJ, BJ, 20, for his first 8 hands. After that I didn't have much else to do but just watch his hands anyway...LOL. At least I won a little on the regular tables to take some of the sting out.
Funny story Rick.... Im sure you didnt think there was anything funny at the time... You are right about Rolfs future though ....I played a game similar to yours in Canada....One guy could do no wrong and he easily won the table....semi round next....he was out by hand 3 wondering what happened...!!!!Dooough! Gotta love that 8 1/2 hour non victory return drive..;-)...Out there in rattlesnake country thats what 800 - 900 miles right? Riverman...what was the rookie mistake if you dont mind sharing it?
Bad Run Damn Tex Even With Minium Bets Hoping For This Guy To Lose Has Got To Be Frustrating- Just Was Not Your Day But You Know One Thing This Guy Is Hooked Now I Am Sure He Will Pop Up On This Site :d :d
Rookie mistake was choosing the wrong play. On the last hand, I was on the button, trailing BR1 by 2000 and about 4000 ahead of BRL. All made max bets of 10000. I caught 5,5; BR1 caught 10,3 and BRL caught 8,6. Dealer showed a 10 up. I couldn't decide if my highest percentage play was to DD or simply go for the swing by hitting my 10 hoping to catch a high(19-21) standing hand which would force BR1 to also hit his stiff. I chose to hit, caught a 2 for 12 and then a 10 to bust. BR1 simply stayed on his 13 as did BRL on her 14 and the dealer turned up a 2 which she hit with a 10 to bust. In retrospect, the DD was the percentage play as it would have forced BR1 to also double or give up the high. King Ken confirmed this also. What aggravates me is I went into the hand KNOWING that an opportunity to get 2 bets in play was my best chance to advance, but then changed my mind based on the player hands. And it cost me the table.
It's only about 600 + miles each way (ONLY?...LOL) Only seasoned players to make the semifinals (that I knew) were Harry Fox and John Leland. On Harry's table they had one lady hit her run on the last four hands. They were down to 4 players for the final 4 hands, $10,000 max bet and BR4 was over 3 max bets down. BR1 has $62,000 BR4 has $26,250 *BR4 down by $35,750 Hand #27 BR1 bets $4,000 - win's BR4 only bets $5,000, DD's and win's Now BR4 is down $29,750 Hand #28 BR1 bets $4,000 - win's BR4 only bets $5,000 again and again DD's and win's Now BR4 is only down $23,750 *Note: now BR4 has moved up to BR2. Hand #29 BR1 bets $7,000 - pushes on a 20 BR4 bets $10,000 DD's (on a 8/3 vs. dealers picture) hits a 8 for 21 - winner. Now BR4 is only down $3,750 and has postion. Hand #30 BR1 bets $10,000 and hits a BJ - winner BR4 bets $10,000 and catches another 3/8. Not sure if she knew she had to, but she DD and again catches an 8 for 21. BR4 end's up winning by $1,250. I personally think BR4 under bet her hands on #27, #28, and #29, but it worked for her. What do y'all think? Was it skill or lucky? Sorry I couldn't resist...LOL
Unless I misread something, BR4 apparently had no real clue about how to bet. She got lucky, plain and simple. When you have that much luck running in your favor even the best players on the planet would have a hard time winning. I lost my semi-final table this last weekend (1/7/07) at Caesars Indiana to a lady due to her incredible good luck. She even split 10s to 3 hands on the final hand when splitting was not necessary to begin with. Yep, she beat me anyway. My only satisfaction is that she busted out on the final hand of the final table and came away with a relatively small prize. I guess this was the weekend for luck rules. Don't you just love this game??? :laugh:
Boy Tx, after reading your tale of woe, I wish I was close by to offer my condolences and share an amusing card that sums up blackjack tournament bad beats quite well. :laugh: It was given to me by a friendly and funny guy I met in Tunica at a tournament a couple of years ago. Oh wait, that guy was you. I guess you know that card by heart. Still, my condolences go out to you anyway. I wish I had run into you. I saw Casino Jim and Ken but we had to be getting home and couldn't stay any longer.
It happens to all of us! If you play in enough of these tournaments you'll see beats like I had this past week. I've been lucky in the fact that in all my years of tournament player this was the first time I ever had one this bad...LOL That is actually why I remembered it so well! I can't ever remembering being down over 11 max. bets and what was really bad it only took about 8 hands for me to get behind that far. I guess next worst (that I remember) was playing in the quarterfinals at one of the old Stardust (Live money tournaments). I was over two max bets behind and started betting the $100 plus bets. Out of the last 12 hands I pushed 8 of 12 hands (including pushes on TWO BJ's and TWO DD 21's). The amazing thing was I only lost one hand out of the last 8 hands and I was betting $300 max each hand and got to within $250 of the leader only to lose the last hand of $300 with a DD ($600 total) when I got a 9 on my 7/3 for 19 only to see the dealer draw to 21.
