Late Night Free Rollin’

I started the majority of my online bankrolls by playing freerolls. Yep, seriously. For example, I never have invested any money into Planet Poker, but I won $8 on a freeroll there and started playing the .05/.10 hold’em tables. I eventually found my way to the .05/.10 draw tables and found a game that I really liked and could consistently win. Of course, grinding away at such penny type levels takes time, but this was all past-time activity anyway, so what else did I have but time? I have made over $400 at Planet by now.

Another example is Pacific Poker. Felicia found out that they had been sticking $20 into people’s accounts who had signed up, but never added any money to play. Every day for a week or so she’d check the account. Eventually, what do you know? $20 mystically appeared in our account. She told me to have fun. I started playing the .05/.10 HE tables there as well. Eventually, I got myself up to $50. Playing live, Felicia and I would enter both the HE and Omaha 8 or better (O8) tournaments. I grew to like O8, since so many people played the game so badly, and that carried over to my playing at Pacific. I played the .05/.10 tables. Moved up to the .25/.50 tables, etc. I now play up to the 2/4 level when a good game is going, but mostly the .50/1 and (just recently) the 1/2. I have taken the initial $20 and turned it into around $500.

This is all leading me to last night. If you’ve played at UB (Ultimate Bet), you get that Aruba pop-up in your face every time you load the client. I noticed that they have freerolls going twice a day to get a seat into a super satellite and thought I’d like to try one sometime. I missed the one during the day and figured that, if I was awake, I’d play the one at night. Well, I was, and I did. OK, I forced myself to be awake. Then again, I did manage to get a few winks in… right up to just before my blind!

At least I did wake up before too many hands had gone by. I was thinking that late at night, I’d hopefully not be up against too many people. 1350 people had entered. Holy Goodness! And I had to make my way to the top 25 spots. Out of 1350 people. Good luck.

As luck would have it, people just don’t know how to play! My first blind hand I’m allowed to see for free. I’m looking at my blind hand of T8s and thought, I might call a small raise to see the flop with that. Heck, it’s a freeroll; if I get knocked out, no biggie. Two people limped and I see the flop for free: 79J, two spades. Baby! Times in the past, I think, “you slow-play check a monster”. But with the two spades, I’m hoping someone will draw so I bet 3xbb, I think. First limper folds, second raises! Kewl, maybe he flopped a set. I shove in and he calls and turns over KK. Oh man, take about slow-playing a monster. Thank you, sir, for giving me your stack.

After that I figured I might actually have a chance. I got QQ and got some more chips when I got a called. Then a beat when I got AA; gotta love those. Why does QQ hold up for me the 3 or 4 times I get it, and the two times I get AA: once I steal the blinds; the other, I get sucked out on? Dude raise-opens the pot. I pot it again. Dude calls. Flop is KQx and he goes all-in and I call. He has AJo! Great, I think, until I see the magic T to give him the straight. Either way, I still had chips and I move on.

One of the QQ hands that was rather interesting was against a very large stack and a very small stack. Several people in the pot before me (they just loved limping in) so I go all-in with my QQ to just take the blinds. Large stack goes all-in and small stack calls. Small stack: 22 (lol), large stack: JJ. Magic 2 on the turn. However, the small stack had so little and the large stack so much, I still doubled up (including the limpers).

So, a couple more premium hands here and there: QQ, KK, AK; and I keep myself around average stacked. One hour, then two, then 3! I keep watching the number of players, the stack sizes. Dang, I’ve got a shot! Gets within 50 and I’ve been getting blinded down here and there. One hand, I was able to limp in from the SB with ATo and flopped an A. I pot it and get called by one of the limpers. Bet again on the turn and get raised. I fold. That kind of hurt, but I didn’t want to lose my chance at this. Couple rounds later I get a free look at the flop, again, with KQs. Q on the flop and I pot it and get called on the button. Visions of slow-played KK in my brain from earlier, but I’m in too deep now and pot the turn all-in. Button calls all-in and turns over K7s, two of his suit on the board. Yes, he played 2 1/2 hours and gambled all his chips on a flush draw….and lost.

Newly doubled up, I feel good. Soon, we were down to around 30 players. I noticed one guy at our table with around T11K folding, folding, folding. I smiled. There’s a Sklansky if I ever saw one. I avoided confrontations. Once I did battle with a big stack. Same one that played back at me when I had the ATo in the SB before. As fate would have it, the exact same hand ATo, again in the SB, same A on the flop. But this time, I have been playing with him longer and know his M.O. If he had a good ace, he would have raised pre-flop. This time, when he raises me on the turn, I call all-in and get doubled up that time too, as all he had was 66 in pocket.

I did my Sklansky with my T50K chips, even mucking TT on the button; there were already a couple of limpers with over T200K each and they’d been calling all kinds of raises. I don’t know their deal; they just loved to play. Mr. T11K (now down to T10K) and I just folded away. 28, 27…26! Then quick as a flash, “Hey you won, tournament’s over, prizes are awarded and now get out of here!” Kinda went fast. I did get to say “gg” to everyone; plus, I plugged in a little “nice folding ;)” to Mr. T10K. I knew and he knew and he said “thanks”.

May 2nd I get to play in the super satellite. Only one will get the seat, and I’ll probably be up against a ton of people again. But that’s fine. It reminds me of how I started: with freerolls and other promotional giveaways.

Glenn

Posted by Glenn