In This Blog I Bitch About Tournaments

I think it must take a very specific temperament to play a ton of tournaments. The pain from beats in cash games is cumulative. Even the worst of beats, in the biggest of pots, are only really that painful if you're already having a terrible session. Or I guess if you're playing outside of your bankroll, but that's a different issue.

Tourneys, alternatively, can deliver beats that not only cost you money but render hours and hours of work futile. In one hand. One terrible card can ruin your life.

I played the Supernova Freeroll today. And before I complain, I will point out that part of the reason I had a big stack with only about 5% of the field remaining was because I gave someone a beat shortly after we made the money. A loose player had raised in fairly late position, and I had A2 OTB. I had him covered maybe 3 to 2, and I thought I had just tons of fold equity, so I decided to raise (there was not room to raise/fold, ftr, I was committed). He turned over AK, and a deuce was the first card out. He didn't improve. I know that's a painful way for him to go, because AK feels like such a strong hand and A2 feels like a joke. I don't think I played the hand wrong, but it had to sting.

So it's not about luck or fairness or anything. It's just the viciousness of poker. He felt it there, and I felt it later. On my first trouble hand I again had about a 3 to 2 chip edge over my combatant, and I had AK of hearts. It got all-in preflop, he had AT, and this time a ten is the first card out. By the turn I had a gutshot, plus my king was still live, plus a flush draw. So 15 outs. But no dice. I would have been chip leader, but instead I was reeling.

Couple hands later my AJ>Q4 AIPF (he had a straight by the turn) and I was done. I "should" have been chip leader after that AK hand, and instead I'm out in 90-something. Working your way through a 2500 person tournament just to have one lowly ten take away the potential huge cash (I still had an okay cash, especially considering it's a freeroll, but all the decent money's at the final table). I do love tournaments, but I really don't know how people can handle them being their main source of poker income. Maybe that's why Shaun Deeb retired?