Chips For Breakfast, Anyone?

I now realize why most big poker tournaments are usually scheduled to start in mid-afternoon, or early evening. You don't hear of many with a 06.30 starting time, do you? And yet, that was the time I found myself logging into my card room and preparing to play a bit of Razz. But then I didn't have much choice...

With a bankroll of only about $17.50, the determination not to deposit any more money unless I go el busto, and the discipline to play within my bankroll at all times (which usually means playing for pennies, but every little helps) there's not many tournaments I can enter, which is why I've been trying the cash games. But there are a few with tiny entry fees that I can try, and one of them really caught my eye - a $1 Razz tournament, named after one of my favourite professional players (see if you can work out who). The tournament is only held on Tuesdays, at 06.30 my time, which means of course I would only be able to play if my rotating day off for the week happened to be a Tuesday - like it was this week. Miss it, and I'd have to wait until late March for another opportunity.

I wasn't sure about entering it, to be honest. Despite usually being awake (and at work) at 06.30, getting up that early on a day when I didn't have to seemed a bit of a drag, especially the way I've been feeling lately. And I'd just got my bankroll back up above $17. If I entered this and lost, it would be back down to $16 and change. Then again, it was a tournament (my preferred poker format) and it was razz, and there's not many razz tournaments about as everyone wants to play Hold'em. And there was no way I'd have the discipline to wait 6 weeks to have a crack at a tournament which paid almost $100 for first place last time it was held. Maybe there was another way...

There was a 30 cent "satellite" tournament being held that Saturday night. Satellites are basically "qualifying" rounds for larger tournaments - instead of winning money, the prize on offer is a free seat to a more expensive tournament. However, you don't have to play in the more expensive game - you can opt to get your prize as a "gift voucher" that you can use as payment to enter any tournament you like. The prize on offer for this one was worth a dollar - exactly the amount I'd need to enter the razz tourney on Tuesday morning.

So, the plan was as follows - go to the cash tables, play my regular game and try and win 30 cents. As soon as I was 30 cents up, leave immediately and register for the satellite - effectively, paying for it with the cash table winnings that evening. Finish in the top 25% of the satellite and I'd win that $1 voucher, which I'd use to play in the Tuesday morning gig, effectively turning it into a freebie.

It took just eight minutes, and nine hands, to win the 30 cents I needed for stage one of my plan (that was playing 5/10cent Razz). The satellite tourney was No Limit Hold'em (the game you've seen on the TV) and was quite easy - I managed to double my chip stack very early on when I had the good fortune to get dealt a pair of Jacks and bust out another player, and I pretty much tightened right up after that to try and survive as long as I could to still be standing when we were down to 113 players - the "pass mark" to get my dollar voucher (which, incidentally, became my first tournament win of 2010) Now for stage three...

It was rough getting up that early in the morning. Nevertheless, by 06.30 I was sitting in front of my screen feeling reasonably optimistic about putting in a good performance. A shame the cards didn't co-operate with that goal. Maybe it was the early hour, maybe I was trying too hard (I spent as much time scribbling notes on the other players as I did playing the cards) maybe it just wasn't my day, maybe my heart really wasn't in it. Hell, maybe I'm just not that good... but regardless of the reason, just as the tournament went on it's first break at 06.55 I was heading out the door having been knocked out and placing 353rd of the 429 starters. Pif.

I at least want to make the first break when I play in a tournament. All that preparation - for this? Still, let's look on the bright side. It was effectively a freebie - my bankroll was $17.50 before the tournament and it was still $17.50. And I'd outlasted 17% of the entrants, including an absolutely awful player who I'm not sure understood the rules... effectively donating his entire stack of chips to two other guys on my table by betting big with terrible hands. Had I got better cards myself, those chips could have gone to me and maybe the story would have been different, but I guess that's poker sometimes.

Anyway, it was nice to crawl back into bed after that and sleep properly... and even nicer when I went into the core to meet GroupieGirl. We were going to see the Ian Dury biopic "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll". I'm a big fan of Dury's music, and Groupie really fancied seeing the film with me (she's partial to a bit of the Blockheads as well) It was showing for a week, then disappeared, so we thought we'd missed our chance, but it came back at a different cinema this week so we pencilled it in for my day off.

Let me tell you, there's something about visiting a cinema in a midweek afternoon - not only is it cheaper, but because most people are at work, it's less crowded. Neither of us expected to have the whole auditorium to ourselves though! It was like a private screening - both of us felt like celebrities! Well, she is groupie to the stars, and I am a poker personality - in our own little world at least :)

ian dury & the blockheads

sex & drugs & rock & roll

new boots and panties 1977