I entered an 8FPP satellite to the PS Sunday Turbo Takedown (where even 2000-4000 places get $90!), and this was my first tournament where there were re-buys and add-ons. I wasn’t too sure how they worked, but figured that it looked expensive. However this was for FPP, so couldn’t hurt.

It made the game kinda crazy – virtually no poker being played at all. Everyone would shove, call, and then rebuy if they lost. I joined in with what I thought were decent hands, and ended up rebuy-in 4 or 5 times.

Once we got to the end of the first hour the re-buy period was over. You could add-on an extra T5000 for another 8FPP, so of course just about everyone did.

After that it was no more re-buys. Except now the blinds were so high the shoving pretty much continued.

I went into the second period with slightly above average stack size. I played a couple of cautious hands which paid off a little, and then had these two hands;

• First one
  No Limit Holdem Tournament
  9 players

  Stacks:
  UTG (12570)
  UTG+1 (73505)
  MP1 (148192)
  MP2 (10536)
  MP3 (21300)
  CO (20050)
  BTN (124528)
  SB (9112)
  Hero (BB) (98760)

  Blinds: 2000/4000 Ante 400

  Pre-flop: (9,600, 9 players) Hero is BB T A
  UTG goes all-in 12,170, 3 folds, MP3 goes all-in 20,900, 1 fold, BTN calls 20,900, SB goes all-in 6,712, Hero calls 16,900

  Flop: K A 5 (87,182, 5 players)
  Hero checks, BTN goes all-in 103,228, Hero goes all-in 77,460

  Turn: 7 (267,870, 5 players)

  River: K (267,870, 5 players)

  Final Pot: 242,102
  MP3 shows: A 9
  BTN shows: A 2
  SB shows: T Q
  Hero shows: T A
  UTG shows: 7 6

  BTN wins 25,768 ( lost -98,360 )
  Hero wins 242,102 ( won +143,742 )
  MP3 lost -20,900
  SB lost -8,712
  UTG lost -12,170

• Second one
  No Limit Holdem Tournament
  8 players

  Stacks:
  UTG (72202)
  UTG+1 (63355)
  Hero (MP1) (259163)
  MP2 (253133)
  CO (67700)
  BTN (68548)
  SB (110540)
  BB (51180)

  Blinds: 5000/10000 Ante 1000

  Pre-flop: (23,000, 8 players) Hero is MP1 A 5
  2 folds, Hero calls 10,000, 1 fold, CO calls 10,000, 2 folds, BB goes all-in 50,180, Hero calls 40,180, CO goes all-in 66,700, Hero calls 16,520

  Flop: 7 J K (196,580, 3 players)

  Turn: A (196,580, 3 players)

  River: 8 (196,580, 3 players)

  Final Pot: 196,580
  Hero shows: A 5
  CO shows: K Q
  BB shows: 9 9

  Hero wins 196,580 ( won +129,880 )
  CO lost -66,700
  BB lost -50,180

And I was chip leader! From 660 entrants, we were down to about 70 players (top 5 went to the turbo takedown). I waited for a decent hand, and slowly everyone caught back up. We were down to 30 people and I was probably 10th or so, when I played this hand;

• Final hand
  No Limit Holdem Tournament
  7 players

  Stacks:
  UTG (159268)
  UTG+1 (601953)
  MP (462032)
  CO (261208)
  BTN (57314)
  Hero (SB) (338643)
  BB (424760)

  Blinds: 10000/20000 Ante 2000

  Pre-flop: (44,000, 7 players) Hero is SB K 3
  2 folds, MP calls 20,000, 2 folds, Hero calls 10,000, BB checks

  Flop: 2 K 5 (74,000, 3 players)
  Hero bets 40,000, BB folds, MP raises to 80,000, Hero goes all-in 316,643, MP calls 236,643

  Turn: 6 (707,286, 2 players)

  River: J (707,286, 2 players)

  Final Pot: 707,286
  MP shows: A Q
  Hero shows: K 3

  MP wins 707,286 ( won +370,643 )
  Hero lost -336,643
  BB lost -20,000

Not a very good shove on my part really – my kicker was way too weak when the villain had shown he was willing to bet something. I didn’t expect him to call with a flush draw though! Typical…

Lol – that’s a pretty big post for a measley FPP satellite that I didn’t win Oh well, next time it’ll have to be a winnings report!