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For the past week I’ve been staying at the Tuscany hotel while my fiancée takes the Nevada Bar Exam. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday I played in the morning poker tournaments there. These are basically all-in fest poker tournaments that require lots of luck, and little skill. Fortunately luck was on my side Thursday morning.
The $22 buy-in gets players $1,000 in tournament chips. There is a $5 house+dealer rake from the buy-in. When players are at or below $1,000 chips any time during the first 45 minutes they can purchase a $10 add-on for another $1,000 chips. This makes the effective buy-in $32 for $2,000 in chips.
Blinds move up fast. Levels are 15 minutes, and by the 4th level blinds are at 200/400 meaning almost everyone is short-stacked. This is why the tournament is an all-in fest.
On each of the three days the tournament averaged 20-30 players. Thursday was the largest tournament with 30 players. On Monday I busted out before the 3rd level. I put all my chips in with the best hand, but I got sucked out and decided not to re-buy. On Tuesday I made it to the final table, but my top pair got out-flopped by a set of 7’s. I can’t fault myself in either of these cases. I’d make the same plays every time.
Thursday was a different story. I made it to the final table with a slightly less than average chip stack. I played my position, doing most of my work from the button or cut-off. Most importantly, I was patient and let the inexperienced tournament players make mistakes.
With the blinds at $2,000/$4,000 I was down to $6,000 in chips (smallest stack at table) with six players remaining. Luck was with me when my pocket pair of 3’s held up against over cards, and my K,J caught help on the turn against A,3. The tournament pays the top-4 players so these double-ups put me in the money.
When the tournament finally got down to heads up I was a 2-1 chip leader over my opponent. After a few hands heads-up, we reached an agreement to chop the pot with about a 60/40 split, and I walked home with $500 after tipping the dealers a Ulysses S. Grant ($50 bill).
All in all, the Tuscany poker tournament is a decent low buy-in tournament. You have to understand that the blinds go up so fast however you can’t wait around for premium hands. You must make plays with position, and hope for the best. On Thursday, the cards were in my favor. I hope they were in my fiancee’s favor also, because I would prefer not to spend another three days at the Tuscany while she re-takes the Nevada Bar Exam.
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