Two final tables, but no money

On my trip to Austria I managed to play at the "Poker Club" in Salzburg two times. Thanks to the guys from Salzblogger to mention the club in their blog! It's a small club with only three tables (one of them is a converted BJ table) but very friendly staff and nice people. They have tournaments each day (mostly rebuy tournaments, limited to three rebuys) with a decent structure. First time visitors are invited (they don't pay the initial buy-in) and making the final table gets you another free ticket for the next buy-in.

My first visit was for the €20 rebuy tournament. They had 33 players (4 got paid). Unfortunately I didn't feel very good as I started to get a headache and still suffered from being ill two days ago. But it was an interesting experience to see how my playing quality and ability is influenced by they way how I feel. I made some major mistakes that cost me a huge part of my stack. Being absolutely card dead didn't help either. The rest of my stack went in on the following action: A raise in MP, I re-raise with QQ in LP everybody folds and the raiser goes all-in. In a freezout format my cards would have gone into the muck in that situation (as he put me all-in with that move) being sure that I was up against AA or KK. But shortstacked in a rebuy tournament this is an automatic call-all-in for me. And of course my opponent showed KK. No help for my ladies ... Floorman! Rebuy!

I started to get into the game somewhat but still didn't found much to play. So it came down to strategic decisions shortly before the end of the rebuy period. It was the next to last hand and I got J4o with around 400 chips left (of the inital 1,500). Folding would allow me to rebuy once and take the add-on for a total of 4,900 chips. Going all-in and losing would allow a double rebuy and the add-on for 6,000 chips. With blind levels after the rebuy-time at 75/150 the second option sounded more interesting. You shouldn't play rebuy tournaments if you aren't willing to rebuy and if you rebuy do it strategicly correct.

Well, there was another option: I found two callers ... one with 88 and the other with K9. Guess what? A Jack on the turn made me the winner of this hand. Sometimes you just have to be lucky. And I got the absolute lucky end of this move as I ended with 1,475 chips (which allowed an additional rebuy just because of 25 chips under). So I got the best possible result going into freezeout time with 5,975 chips and investing €20 less then planned.

I decided that I had used enough of my luck tonight and stayed away from fancy moves. This was quite difficult because I still didn't get much playable cards. Being shortstacked for the most time and decisions reduced to push or fold it was easier to concentrate even in my bad condition. And surprisingly I made it to the final table and even made it down to 7th place. My race ended with 77 vs. AT that improved to a straight.

The next day I used my free tournament ticket and played the €25 rebuy tournament (32 players). I felt much better, had a worse seat (11-seat) and got more playable cards. As always in the rebuy time I took more risks and got rewarded (e.g. improving the nut-flush draw on an all-in). That way I improved my stack to over 3,000 during the second of three rebuy levels. Unfortunately I donked of half of it with a really bad call (trying to bluff somebody from a hand). More worse, I ruined my table image that way and didn't get much respect for my raises during the next time. So I had to take advantage of the full three rebuys and the add-on still starting the freezout play with only 4,300 chips. Won some smaller pots and obviously got more respect again for my play (e.g. getting an AK to fold while only holding A-low). But the blinds took their toll and I was heavily short-stacked again as we reached the final table.

With 5,000 chips left and blinds now at 1,500/3,000 I was doomed to go all-in with any Ace, any two pictures or any two suited cards. The first ones that met this criteria had been J9 of clubs. Went all-in from early position. Everybody folded to the big-blind who correctly called the additional 2,000 with JT offsuit. Damn! That was indeed the worst possible combination. A ten on the flop and another ten on the turn ended my play and I was first to leave the final table.