17 December 2011 Saturday

I, of course, have the world's worst memory so it'd take something really outstanding to get me to remember a hand. Unfortunately, something really outstanding happened in the Quick Tournament: I got felted on the very first hand! Shannon and I both slowplayed a flopped three-of-a-kind then managed to get all the chips in the middle on the turn. Unfortunately for me, her kicker played and I was digging more chips out of the case a scant two minutes into the tournament. Joy!

Even with 7 players (out of 9) receiving the 30% punctuality bonus to their starting stacks in the Quick Tournament, it still doesn't play like a deep stacked tournament. We have three levels during which a player can rebuy, and in terms of big blinds that starting stack is 17BB, 10BB, and 7BB. There isn't a lot of room for fancy play in the Quick Tournament, which is why its the Quick Tournament. We ended up with a total of five rebuys (four after mine) during that first half hour, which had the effect of more than adding half-again to the prize pool (from $45 from buy-ins to $70 with the rebuys). As far as Quick Tournaments go, that's a pretty nice boost to the kitty, and I remember thinking at the time that it bodes really well for the already-crazy Cheap Rebuy Tournament which follows. "Get folks diggin' in their wallets!" — that's what I always say.

After the rebuy period was over, bust-outs happened pretty quickly (we lost 8 players in just under an hour). One idea I am floating now that we're between Seasons is to put one last tweak in the Quick Tournament once things get down to heads-up. At that stage I'm tempted to take away the option for the SB (which is also the dealer each hand) to just call the size of the BB preflop. The player first to act would then have to either fold or come in for a raise. I see a couple of changes that this rule would force: we'd have a shorter heads-up period between the last two players (while everyone else is waiting around to get cranked up for the evening's Main Event), but we'd also be awarding the largest portion of the prize pool (the difference between 1st and 2nd is the biggest jump on the payout schedule) more often to the player that got dealt the better cards. The Quick Tournament is already pretty heavily based on luck, so I hesitate to push it even more in that direction, but the issue is that typically the longest amount of time between bust outs occurs between third place being established and the second-place player getting KOed. This also happens to be the period of the tournament when the most people are standing around watching, not playing, wishing they could be involved in the game. I keep going back and forth in my mind on this one, so if you're reading this and happen to have an opinion on the subject, drop me an email. I will decide one way or the other prior to our starting Season V come January.