180-Man Sitngos

Today I made my first foray into some of the multiple table sitngos. I've never played them before and actually had quite a good time. The first was a $50 45-man tourney. It was a turbo tourney so the blinds increased every 5 minutes! I finished 5th and won a little over $200.

At the same time, I played an $11 180-person tournament, again it was Turbo with 5-minute blind increases. You basically can't wait very long for a hand and at the end of the tournament it becomes a push-fest. Still, at these limits, many players don't understand correct short-stack strategy. I finished 3rd in this event, again winning a little over $200. At one point at the final table I was chip leader with an M of only 7! I think this tournament finished in less than 2 hours which is why I enjoyed it. Deep structures are great, but sometimes you just don't have the time to grind out a long tournament win.

I got lucky in both tournaments winning some hands where I was the dog, but I went out of both tournaments with the best of it.

Unfortunately, my fun came to an end when another tournament I had registered for 1 1/2 hours before, finally had enough players to get started. I had forgot about that tournament and wasn't really up to playing another one. It was a $20 tourney but with 15 minute levels I lasted about halfway through that one and I got knocked out. I raised with A4s and someone called me. He had plenty of chips left, I believe around $3K. The flop was 237. I checked, he bet $600 (less than the pot), and I moved all-in. I thought my checkraise was a very strong move but he called me with 55. I guess he thought I was bluffing! lol I think my play works at the higher levels but I guess for $11 people take a lot of chances.

In any case, a lot of fun.

My family and I are in Colombia on vacation for a couple of weeks and I hope to go to the casino for some tournaments and cash games. Last Christmas I was here and the tournaments were juicy! If I remember correctly, you start with 2 million in chips, lol (the exchange rate here is 2200 for one dollar so everything is in millions). I'll be sure to post once I've had a chance to play.