On Monday morning… very early morning, I placed 10th in a Full Tilt Poker No Limit Hold’em Freeroll Tournament and won $2. It only took 5 hours to win $2. That’s $0.40/hr. But I must say, it was worth it.

First of all, any early tournament strategy I entertained before was irrelavant considering the fact that I dozed off several times during the first 2 hours of play. I don’t know how many hands I played, but I do remember getting lucky on a few. Then I perked up. I think it was after I won some larger pots, which made me think this could be it. I ended up winning some really big pots after that and jumped my standing to 3rd out of approximately 200 players. I had just over $100,000 in chips. Once I was in this position, I figured I must really suck if I couldn’t place in the money.

I played conservatively at this point, but still lost a relatively large pot to bring my chip total down to approximately $80,000. Once we thinned out to about 50 players, things really slowed to a crawl. Everyone was just trying to get into the final 27.

There was one guy who sat next to me all the way to the very end who survived simply by waiting out his timer and folding almost every hand. He went all in on a very few hands, which replenished his stack enough to stay alive. People at our table caught on and also ran out their timers for each hand in order to slow our table’s games. Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone who got pissed or annoyed at this strategy. In fact, the chip leaders joined in to help out the short stacks at our table. In the end, everyone actually placed in the money. One guy placed 27th with approximately $1,500 in chips left and one spot away from the big blind. All because everyone at our table helped by slowing game play. The guy who sat next to me who started the whole thing ended up lasting longer than me, which means he made more than $2 and placed within the top 9. Amazing.

The only regret I have is my last hand, not because of the calls I made but because I was being greedy. I was thinking about how I could get in position to compete for first place, while I should have been thinking about how much more than $2 I could win so as to create a bigger starting buffer for myself. The size of my stack indicated that I was most likely not going to be able to compete for 1st place. I should have waited patiently so I could squeeze a few dollars more from the tournament by finishing in the top 9. Instead, I went all in on an A7 against an A8 and finished in 10th place. Oh well.

Here is the last hand I played.

Full Tilt Poker Game #8572449044: $100 Freeroll (65195985), Table 172 – 10000/20000 Ante 2500 – No Limit Hold’em – 4:48:31 ET – 2008/10/20
tattoo764 has returned
Seat 1: CyberSleuth (609,850)
Seat 4: tattoo764 (52,216), is sitting out
Seat 5: girish133 (142,926)
Seat 6: djSiCkDoG (44,488)
Seat 8: Monsters4 (374,338)
CyberSleuth antes 2,500
tattoo764 antes 2,500
girish133 antes 2,500
djSiCkDoG antes 2,500
Monsters4 antes 2,500
tattoo764 posts the small blind of 10,000
girish133 posts the big blind of 20,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to girish133 [7s Ah]
djSiCkDoG has 15 seconds left to act
djSiCkDoG has requested TIME
djSiCkDoG is sitting out
djSiCkDoG has timed out
djSiCkDoG folds
Monsters4 folds
djSiCkDoG has returned
CyberSleuth raises to 40,000
tattoo764 has 15 seconds left to act
tattoo764 folds
girish133 calls 20,000
*** FLOP *** [3s 9h 3d]
girish133 bets 100,426, and is all in
CyberSleuth calls 100,426
girish133 shows [7s Ah]
CyberSleuth shows [8d As]
*** TURN *** [3s 9h 3d] [8c]
*** RIVER *** [3s 9h 3d 8c] [7d]
girish133 shows two pair, Sevens and Threes
CyberSleuth shows two pair, Eights and Threes
CyberSleuth wins the pot (303,352) with two pair, Eights and Threes
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 303,352 | Rake 0
Board: [3s 9h 3d 8c 7d]
Seat 1: CyberSleuth showed [8d As] and won (303,352) with two pair, Eights and Threes
Seat 4: tattoo764 (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 5: girish133 (big blind) showed [7s Ah] and lost with two pair, Sevens and Threes
Seat 6: djSiCkDoG folded before the Flop
Seat 8: Monsters4 folded before the Flop