PokerEvents Red Cow Last Night

pokertroll

I had been hearing a lot of mixed reviews about the events run in RedCow by pokerevents so decided to give it a try last night and write a book about it.

The event was billed as a 50 Euro double chance with Euro10k guaranteed.
Approx 115 players turned up which I think was a bit lower than usual. This may be due to the fact that a lot of people will be travelling to Galway this weekend for the Connaught cup. There were a handful of familiar faces that I would know from the clubs in town but the vast majority of players were complete strangers to me. The number of players present meant that it would be a bit of a stretch for the organisers to guarantee 10k so, as the tournament began, it was announced that there would be the option of 1 extra rebuy. Controversial enough, I guess, but most players welcomed it. I had no objections as it would be unfair for the organisers to lose money in running such an event so it seemed reasonable to make this adjustment at the start of the tournament.

Starting stack was 4k with a 20 minute clock. Rebuy/topup would give you an extra 5k.

I sat back for the first level to try and suss out the table and saw a very mixed standard of play. As has been said before, there are a lot of poor players but also a couple of decent ones. You see a lot of people over-valuing Ace rag and suited cards. It is also a bit easier to pick out tells in some players when they show genuine reluctance in calling your bet on the flop so if you pick the right moment you can get some of these players off hands with over-bets on the turn or river.

So I built my chips up to about 10k after 2 levels when I found aces on the BB. A guy in late position put in a 4*BB raise and I re-raised all-in. He called in a flash with As7s and I was up to about 20k. Won another big pot with AK on a KQrag flop when my opponent had J10 and re-raised my large bet on the turn.

I had 31k at the break but still decided to top-up as I thought it might buy me a bluff or 2. After the break I was moved tables a couple of times.

At one of my new tables I found AK in early position and put in a minimum raise. Flop was K high and I checked of course, hoping that the other 2 players would get the action going. No Action so I put in a sizeable bet on the turn which was called by one player. A king on the river and I bet enough to put my opponent all-in. He called but I didn't see what he had. His mate who was standing behind him said there was no way he could put me on a K because I checked the flop. Hmmm, okay.

For the next couple of hours, I picked my spots and build up a sizeable stack.
There was a big jump in blinds for 1k-2k to 2k-4k which I thought was unnecessary but allowed me to use my chip advantage to steal a lot of blinds.

the crucial hand for me was when I held AhJh on the SB. A middle position player raised to 12k and the button called. I had twice the amount of chips of any of these players so decided to go all-in to isolate one of them. The raiser had 1010 and the button had KK. An ace on the flop sealed it for me and I was up to over 100k and chip leader. What a weak play buy the guy on the button who only called with his KK before the flop. Lucky me!

Soon after I knocked out the bounty player to get Euro200 when his AQ rabn into my pocket aces

At the final table,the only players that I recognised were Brian and Joan Vickers. Brian had quite a few chips and I was in second position with about 180k. There were just over a million chips in play but the blinds had sky-rocketed to 10k-20k which meant that nobody was safe. I went card dead on the final table and only stole blinds when I went all-in with KJ and brian layed down A10 (respect to Brian). Down to the last 4 and the blinds were now 20k-40k which was absolutely ridiculus considering the average stack was about 200k - one guy had about 350k I think. I found Q10 on the button and attempted a steal with a minimum raise. The chip leader, who was the slowest player I have seen since Cliff Thorburn on the snooker tables put me all-in after he pondered for about 5 minutes. He had done this about 4 times aready and it was starting to get on my nerves as it was now 3AM in the morning. I was tired, so decided to gamble. He had 88 and my hand didn't improve.

I got 1k for 4th place plus 200 for the bounty so not a bad return on the night. First prize was worth 3k. Overall, my impression of pokerevents and the venue was very good and I would recommend anyone to play it.

Pokerevents

You should try the tournament in the Red Cow it's even better. Lol.
See you in Vegas.

pokertroll

Pokerevents wrote:

You should try the tournament in the Red Cow it's even better. Lol.
See you in Vegas.

LOL - sure you know what I mean - its all the same out that side of the city ;-)

Dr_Colossus

Good report Mark. Don't see how blinds of 20k/40k on a final table with an average stack of 200k makes for a good tournament. Not much point in killing yourself for hours getting through the mine field of 115 players to have to rely on luck to get you that extra spot where the real money is. With those blinds you're nearly as well off playing it blind.
Also don't see why they skipped the 1.5k/3k blind level. A jump from 1k/2k to 2k/4k is ridiculous at a crucial stage of the tournament for alot of players. They done this at the 250 game in Citiwest also which was pretty much which eliminated me as I didn't expect such a drastic jump.
Well done on the good finish though.

pokertroll

Very true Dr C. I suggested a blind-freeze at the final table but it was refused by the tournament director because it was getting too late.
Fintan obviously should take these suggestions on board for future tournaments.

Pokerevents

I was'nt there. What time was final reached and what time did it finish do u know.

pokertroll

Pokerevents wrote:

I was'nt there. What time was final reached and what time did it finish do u know.

I finished just after 3AM with 3 more players left. Can't imagine it lasted much longer with the blinds being so big.

roryc

one of the most annoying things about these tourneys is when they rush it at the end due to time constraints. Seen it at UCD tourneys, VC etc.

Would never happen in a casino

Samson

roryc wrote:

Would never happen in a casino

The Fitz are freezing the blinds on the final table lately (usually when it gets to 1.5/3k or 2/4k), and it makes for much better play. Much less crazy all in stuff with any decent hand.

Shortstack

Yeah the freezing of the blinds in the Fitz is a very good thing. At the €50 double chance last night myself and Michael (Happycamper on here) ended up heads up with blinds at 2000/4000 and with nearly 200,000 chips in play we had a good proper poker battle for at least half an hour before I eventually won through.

However, you can't really knock the speeding up of blinds etc in a pub/hotel tournie that has to finish in one night. Whilst I was critical of the blind structure at the Citywest event, it was only because they had a timeframe which didnt need a fast structure. We have to look at pub/hotel tournies as a different beast altogether. The value is the bad play and drink induced decisions, they will bad beat you some times but the better players will still get the money more often.