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Trip Report Fitzgerald's Tourney Report - 7/29/06 Date: 08/06/06 Player: jrdogan For Rooms: Fitzgeralds, Summary: I hadn't planned on playing here, but events transpired that resulted in me sitting down and trying my hand at the tournament. I was suitably impressed with the professionalism in which this tournament was conducted and would recommend that others give it a try! Content: Due to some hotel problems, my wife and I were scouring the Las Vegas hotels on Saturday for any that had available rooms. Being that the WSOP Main Event was kicking into high gear, and it was a Saturday, it was just about impossible. We hadn't even planned on spending time downtown, but when we learned that Fitzgeralds had a room, we took it. We had just finished checking in and were starving so we moseyed over to the restaurant on the 2nd floor. The food was ok, but we couldn't finish it all so I took a box of leftovers back up to the room, and my wife had a look around the 2nd floor while I was on the elevator counting the floors up to our room. When I got back, she had noticed that they were signing up people for a 12pm NLHE tournament and would I like to play? It was a $30 buy-in, and I'd been in town for 4 days already and had only gotten to play once, so of course I wanted to play! The manager on duty was very friendly and allowed my wife to observe the action from one of the poker tables that was sitting vacant in front of the podium during the whole tournament. I enjoy having her close, so that was a bonus! I headed over to my seat and didn't have more than a minute or two to wait before they shuffled up and the tournament was underway. Wouldn't you know it, on the first hand, I was the SB with A-8 suited and completed the blind and about 4 of us saw a flop. Everyone checked it down to the river and I ended up with my 8 pairing the board. The dealer incorrectly mucked my hand and was trying to split the pot with 2 others who just had Ace-high hands, when I complained to the dealer that I had won. He was unsure of what to do, so he called over the manager who wasn't too thrilled to have this happen on the very first hand. The manager asked a few players at the table if they had seen my 8, and a few people nodded so he overturned the dealer's decision and awarded the pot to me. Everyone was in good spirits about it (maybe because there were only $80 in the pot?). That was the only real problem I had with the dealing, and since it was handled correctly, I have no complaints. The tournament started with about 40 players, and I didn't realize when I signed up that we had the option of a single rebuy ($1000 of tournament chips for $15) any time up until the first break, and a single add-on ($1500 of tournament chips for $15) during the first break. I might not have played if I knew that it was a rebuy tournament (I like being able to know exactly how much I'm committing at the start of a tournament, and rebuys play havoc with that desire). I was thinking it over as we played up to the first break, and I decided that I would do the add-on but not the rebuy, because you get more chips for your money with the add-on. The manager surprised the players with some nice submarine sandwiches we could munch on during the break, which was unexpected. We only lost a few players before the break, and I was holding steady, with pretty much the same amount of chips that I started with (started with $1500). With my add-on I was up around $3000 of chips, and I managed to build it up to about $4000 before the manager combined the tables down to 3, which meant I had to switch tables. I tightened up at that point and didn't really play any big hands during this stretch, and before I knew it, it was time for the 2nd break. We were down to 2 tables at this point, and I was feeling pretty good. I have only played 2 live tournaments at this point, and I wasn't quite prepared for the rapidity in which the blinds were escalating (I play online quite a bit and stick to the slower tournaments). They doubled every 20 minutes. Before I knew it we were down to the final table, and the final 6 or 7 places were paid (I can't recall exactly). The blinds were up to about $400/$800 at this point and I was sitting with about $8000 in chips if I remember right. We got down to about 6 people and the manager came over and said that they had an announcement to make. I wasn't sure what to make of this, but it turns out that one of the guys that was playing in the tournament (he just missed the final table, and I didn't ever have the pleasure of having him at my table) had been playing downtown for the last 40 years, and today was his birthday. They brought out a cake and sang and everything, and then passed out cake to all the players and it was all pretty cool. I was quite stuffed at that point, but who can pass up cake?!? When we got back to play, the blinds were around $800/$1600 and I had about $10k in chips. We played about another 10 minutes and had managed to get down to 3 players remaining. In addition to me, there was another guy who looked a little younger, and an older gentleman who looked to be getting tired of playing. The dealer casually mentioned that if all the players agreed, we could chop it there and split it 3 ways (was he tired of dealing?). We asked to have the manager figure out the payout if we did that, and it turned out that we would each get $470. I was the middle stack (the older guy was slightly larger, young guy slightly smaller), and the blinds were about to escalate to $1600/$3200, making it a crapshoot if we were to continue. The younger guy was all for the chop, and I thought about it for a little bit and decided that I'd rather take the cash than flip a coin (1st place would have gotten about 50% of the entire pool). The older guy thought about it a bit longer before agreeing, but in the end we all agreed and it was chopped. On a side note, the cocktail service during the tournament was pretty good. I don't drink, but they managed to keep my water glass full most of the time! The tables were very nice, and had little cup holders and nice cushions lining the tables for armrests. I didn't notice the chairs being especially comfortable or uncomfortable, which I guess means they were good enough for me. In a little over 3 hrs of play, I ended up with $470 for an investment of $45 ($30 buy-in plus a $15 add-on). I tipped the dealers 10%, and my wife congratulated me on my showing. I'm still not sure if its sunk in, but I must say that my experience at Fitzgeralds was overwhelmingly positive. I'm sure I'll find myself back there on our next trip. |
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