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#404 – FTOPS Notebook – The Rebuy Disease
I spent a couple hours in the afternoon in FTOPS #8, the $100 + $9 NLHE-Rebuy. That means, of course, that I didn’t finish in the money but for me it’s a major victory making it to a break with chips, even if I can replenish them with a hundred bucks. In fact, I rebought zero times (though I did pay for the add-on).
I did not rebuy at the beginning. I’m still trying to figure out if that’s a good idea. I feel like I’m saving money if I want to move in on a bold bluff or with a draw or because I have a weak hand but am sensing a bluff. On the other hand, I could be missing out on winning a bunch of chips if my opponents with extra starting chips are playing like maniacs. (By the way, there were 27 red pros in the event and 12 immediately rebought, which I guess is inconclusive on the issue.)
I noticed only two players at my table rebought, so I didn’t. It was then clear my table was so tight that I was better off rattling cagees with a shorter stack (and I was shorter than one 2 other players to start). Then I doubled up on the third hand and was never eligible to rebuy after that.
In fact, this table was so tight that I was very quickly getting bored. I started looking at the other tables to see if there was anything interesting going on. I found one table that had more than double average chips 20 minutes in but it soon broke up.
Then I found Table 99 about 20 minutes before the break and watched in amazement. The tournament chip leader, fkscreennames (who won a previous FTOPS Main Event), was at this table, along with a couple others on the first page of the leaderboard. This table was also stacked with four of the best tournament players on Full Tilt: fkscreennames, CMoney3 ($400k in Full Tilt tournament winnings), 1Mastermind (currently ranked #27th on Full Tilt according to OfficialPokerRankings.com, my source for all these numbers), and USCphildo ($537k in Full Tilt tournament winnings).
It was quickly clear that USCphildo was the center of the action. On the first hand I watched (#1), with the blinds at 25-50, me moved all-in for 3,000 and was called. USC had T-9. His opponent had A-4 and won. USC did a double-rebuy for 3,000 more chips and did the same thing on the next hand (#2). This time, he had 8-3o (”octo-crab”, according to Robert Williamson III) and was called by 9-9, but he won this one. No matter, he was all-in on the next hand (#3) with 3-9o (”Jack Benny”, though most online players are too young to have heard of him and the hand doesn’t get played enough for the nickname to come up much) and lost a 3-way all-in against A-8 and A-K. Another double-rebuy.
This is how the rest of the hands went for USCphildo up to the first break:
#4 – All-in preflop with A-2. Called by A-8 and won.
#5 – All-in preflop with A-K, called by A-4 and lost. Double-rebuy.
#6 – All-in preflop, no call.
#7 – In the big blind, it was checked around to the small blind, who limped. All-in and called. The small blind had A-J. USC lost with 3-9. Double-rebuy.
#8 – All-in preflop with A-J, lost to A-K. Double-rebuy.
#9 – All-in preflop with 6-4, lost to 6-6. 200 chips left. No rebuy.
#10 – All-in with K-J for 200, called by A-4 and won. No rebuy.
#11 – All-in preflop for 500 with 4-5, lost to A-9. Single-rebuy.
#12 – Fold. Single-rebuy.
#13 – All-in preflop with T-7, lost to K-a6. Double-rebuy.
#14 – All-in preflop with Q-5, lost to A-8. Double-rebuy.
#15 – All-in preflop with 3-9, lost to 9-9. Double-rebuy.
#16 – All-in preflop with A-J, called by K-8 and won.
#17 – Folded small blind.
Then it was time for the break. Of course, he added-on. The whole thing was unbelievably weird to watch, but there was other weirdness about it. While USCPhildo was doing this, he was also playing the PLO event that started a couple hours before – and leading it! In fact, he was leading it by a huge margin. He had 132k chips. Second had 92k, third 82k. The big beneficiary of USC’s spree was fkscreennames, who had 56K chips at the break. The chip runner-up at the break was Stuart Paterson, who had 29k. USCphildo spent $1,700 during the 20 minutes I watched. Who knows what went on before I arrived but it was probably the same kind of story.
Here’s how it all played out:
* USCphildo rallied soon after the break to get to 15,000 chips. I lost track of him but saw that he finished in 326th, about 70 spots short of the money.
*fkscreennames made good use of all those chips and went deep before busting in 16th place, though that probably wouldn’t have paid enough to make it profitable for USCphildo if he was the one finishing 16th.
*USC faltered in the PLO, finishing 51st, worth just under a thousand dollars.
*fkscreennames was soon challenged for the chip lead by Stu Paterson. Stu spent a long time near the top of the leaderboard but finished a disappointing 262nd – especially disappointing because that was the bubble.
It was another disappointing FTOPS finish for me, busting after the second break, but I guess it could have been worse. Of course, it could have been a lot better, too: jornx won it, picking up over $102,000. Even USCphildo would have turned a healthy profit off a finish like that.
