A minor discovery for the low-limit-but-serious poker player: Binion’s 2 PM tournament. In Vegas, it is not hard to find good tournaments for 250 and higher range. Below that price, the tournaments generally suck. The problems with the lower level tournaments are two-fold: 1) poor starting chip stack—typically around 3,000-4,000 (some offer 6,000-7,000 which is better, but not ideal); and 2) fast moving blind structures. These factors combined make the tournaments much more a crap shot, to use a gambling analogy.
If the a player starts a tournament with 4,000 and the blinds increase every 20 minutes, after the first hour, the blinds are usually 100/200. After two hours, the blinds are 800/1,200. Some places don’t double every twenty minutes, but still the blinds move up quickly. This accelerated rate and poor stating chip stack does not allow any play. It requires players to push all-in early in the tournament and hope to get lucky.
It was exciting that the Golden Nugget held its Grand Series to pull in some players from the WSOP. While, many of its tournaments were in the mid-range, it still had several lower limit tournaments—I wrote about one. Too bad this does not happen all year. However, I believe I have found a minor discovery which offer lower limit players an opportunity to play in good poker tournaments. Of course, there is always an element of luck in poker, but this tournament allows for some actual poker playing.
I played in the 2 PM tournament yesterday and found it very good. First, the $100 buy-in makes sense. Making the buy-in an even number seems obvious, but casinos rarely do this. The buy-in is never an even number. For example, one might offer a $45 buy-with a $10 dollar add-on and one $20 re-buy. Why not dispense with all the extras and make the buy-in one simple fee? Binions seems to understand that basic concept. I like the clarity of thinking there.
Next the starting chip count is 10,000 chips—a very strong starting chip stack. This chip stack allows some play. It provides enough of a cushion to play some hands and mix it up with the players. If you have a short chip stack, you can’t afford to see flops without committing too many chips. So the chip stack is terrific. The next factor centers on the blind intervals.
Although the blind structures start at 20 minutes, they de-accelerate to 30 minutes after the 1st hour. Not too bad, but it would be better if they were 30 minutes throughout. Even with this structure, it requires some 7 hours to grind it to the final table. And the antes, (not a plus in my book, but it does force one to get involved) begin after the 6 level—so two hours in.
Additionally, the tournament had 154 players, so it was big but not too big. The Grand Series tournament had twice as many players and after my 7 hours of play, it was nowhere near the money, let alone the final table. While the amount of players can’t be determined, a couple of regulars indicated to me that the tournament usually generates around 80-100 players.
So finally, I found a decent tournament and even better did not get unlucky and in fact, got pretty lucky a couple of times. Luck is part of every tournament and some went my way. I must say thought that I did take down several pots with rags. You can’t do that all the time, but maybe I should try. The grind to the final table took about 7 hours and the table stacks were mostly equal with the exception of one person—a very attractive female. She had everyone dominate. I did not play with her, so I had no idea how she generated her massive chip stack. But she was an easy favorite.
Because of the chips stacks being relatively equal (a rarity in my experience), it was going to take several more hours to winnow the field down. At this point, all the players were in the money, but still the players all had chip stacks that require respect. So someone offered a chop with the chip leader getting 2nd place money. She accepted, amazingly to me, since it would have taken several bad beats for her to be in any danger whatsoever. But I was happy to take the chop.
Here is a list of key hands that helped me to the final:
Early in the tournament: I had A,10 and raised. One player called—the big, I think. The flop was J,10,3. He bet and pushed all-in. At this point, things were not going well and I decided to force the action hoping for a fold. He had Q,J and was way ahead—80/20 ahead. Things looked bleak, but then a 10 on the flop. Lucky!
Mid-tournament I called an all-in and although it would not have busted me, it would have taken half my chip stack. I had K,Q and I called the all-in with A,Q 75/25 dog. Blanks all the way to the river, where I was behind 85/15. River was a king. Of course, the pot odds made the call correct, but still I was lucky.
I won several races: pockets fours against big aces. I won those races at least three times. So not lucky, but no unlucky either. I won a coin flip, three times.
With the final table in sight, I got dealt aces. I was the big, and there were two all-ins before me. This is perhaps the best scenario—two all-ins and you look down at the best hand, A,A. And, miracles, upon miracles, they held up against kings and J,7. The J.7 was on tilt and short stacked. That was the tournament in a nut shell—plus several steals.
Perhaps the steals really made the tournament a success. When one is late in the tournament and each hand deposits an ante, stealing is key. I did this several times. Blinds against blinds steals. It was almost too easy. If there were no calls and the action came to me, I raised my blind—be it small or big, almost every time and it worked. One hand stands out, as I was in the small and pushed all-in against the big, who was short stacked. I thought I mis-stepped because he was short stacked and seemed like he had to call. In fact as he looked at his hand, he held his cards high so that I could see his cards: Q, 10 he had. I thought, shit. My hand was 10,2. I was just pushing heads up to steal. He folded. As I said, I did this several times and it really paid off. Glad I was against players who did not understand heads up play.
So Binions has a terrific tournament for the “small people.” Play it if you can.
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