Tuesday, June 3, 2008

I might be a points whore but...

I have no idea how tournament points work, nor did I ever pay attention to them. I never understood what the points bubble was in the BBT3 and I never know what the points bubble is in the Bodonkey until it is announced on BDR. Where am I going with this?

Going into tonight, I was 23rd on the list. I was only 22 points behind the top 18. However, not really knowing how the points system works, I thought I had to at least final table or cash out of the 45 runners. I also didn't exactly know what the points bubble was. Now don't get me wrong. This is no one's fault but my own for not checking into the rules and finding out how many people get points, etc. So, when I was comfortably sitting in probably the middle of the pack with about 6,600 chips with about 20 players remaining of the original 45, I shoved over an UTG raiser with AQ. UTG raiser has AK and I am crippled. This is when Bayne pops up on my IM box.

Bayne: alan you needed top 14 to get points

me: how many pts do you get if you get into the pts?
Bayne: 34 for 15th

I'm assuming Bayne meant 14th. Either way, I had no idea. In other words, I didn't have to take a chance with AQ and I coulda tried to fold to the points. Oh well. In the end, I busted out around 19th or 18th or whatever. I, once again, fell short. Much like the BBT prop bet.

One issue I've been having recently in MTTs is how I'm overplaying AQ. Now it was a 6 or 7 handed table when I shoved but generally, an UTG raise means strength so if I come over the top and I get called, it's almost never an instance where AQ is ahead. I think this is resulting from my 6 max play where AQ is a standard reraising hand and in a 6 max cash game, UTG raises are no where near as tight as the MTT's UTG raise. This is probably something I need to fix.

On a totally separate note, during my vacation here, I've been playing tons of cash games recently and racking up points like they are going out of style. Not that it really makes a difference on Fulltilt since I am happy as long as I get 200pts per day (for the Ironman freeroll) and 3k points per week (for the free WSOP seat freeroll) for each of their promotions but more importantly, I am trying to rack up VIP points on Pokerstars. I am already almost at Silver VIP this month so I should clear that today. Gold VIP is pretty much a guarantee for this month but I started wondering if maybe I have a chance to hit Platinum VIP, if just for this month. There are so many perks such as the $100K freeroll that you can play in if you're a Platinum VIP. We shall see. I do have a few social obligations and once I get back to the States, I'd have to start working again which would obv be in conflict with my pursuit for Platinum VIP but we shall see. I have proven in the past that if I am determined, I can be a total points whore. Bayne knows this better than anyone.

5 comments:

Shrike said...

AQ is just sooo evil.

Enough said.

smokkee said...

dude, i look for reasons to fold AQ in tourneys and cash games. it's a friggin loser hand. i've lost more money with that and QQ it's just retarded.

Mike Maloney said...

Gotta love it. Guy spends weeks in Japan, and spends his days racking up FPPs.

Also, as a general rule, in tourneys, try and treat AQ more like AJ than AK. Especially against UTG raisers.

Bayne_S said...

Such poor planning on your part.

If you had taken vacation at home you would not lose the 36 hours of airplane time when you could have been accumulating points.

lj said...

LMAO at bayne. excellent point.