Lowest of the Low: Small-Buy-In Tournaments

For most people, it's a dream to play the WSOP. But for those who stump up the cash to play the side events, they might find themselves not getting their money's worth.

Last year, Harrah's made the decision to double the starting stacks for all competitions. Then they doubled the blinds also. And took some levels out too.

Last year's final tables were nothing more than crapshoots and bore more resemblance to a PokerStars turbo sit-and-go than to honorable battles for a bracelet. After all the complaints and moaning, this year, the levels have all been put back in at the later stages of the tournaments and this has allowed for some excellent finals, so credit to Harrah's for doing this.

For those of us who can't afford the big buy-ins to these events, the Venetian, Caesars and Binions offer cheaper alternatives with usually better structures. But for those of us who have to work and only have the odd day off, there are still some occasionally good places to find poker where we too can (almost) experience decent poker tournaments.

Planet Hollywood and the Sahara both run reasonably priced tournaments for around $60 with $4,000 or $5,000 worth of chips, but my own personal favorite place to play is the Orleans, which was completely refurbished this year with big comfy chairs and brand-new poker tables.

LOL donkaments.

Generally they do an $80 tournament every night with $4,000 chips and a 20-minute clock, but on the Friday, the tournament features a $105 buy-in with $5,000 chips and half-hour clock after the first few levels. This structure attracts the sharks and the fish alike and and means that the tournaments regularly boast prize pools of over $20,000 a night.

The other night I was lucky enough to have time off to take a whack at this tournament. I'm not really a cash-game player, so the chance of a reasonably priced tournament that would only last one day was a compelling reason to go.

With the WSOP in full swing, the room itself was packed with not a single table to spare, while the waiting lists were huge for both tournament and cash games.

I managed to snag a seat, but unfortunately it was the 10-seat, which, like most poker players, I hate because you cannot see much of seats 1 and 2. This was doubly bad because there was a very attractive girl in seat 1.

But I digress - after just a couple of hands I found pocket kings after the player opposite me sitting in UTG+1 raised pre-flop to $300 with the guy to my right calling.

I reraised to $1,200 and after everyone else folded, both players called. I was going to move all-in on most flops, thinking that one of them had to call if they caught anything on the flop or were holding any sort of reasonable pair.

Of course, that plan went out the window once the dealer put down a A J T flop, pretty much the worst possible flop for me to see.

Winner of the biggest donkament of them all.

Sure, I had a gut-shot, but that oasis quickly became a mirage when the first player checked and the second led out for $1,200. I gave up the hand and the original raiser quickly moved all-in. The guy to my right agonized for a while - he'd put half his chips in this pot and then ended up folding for the other half, showing the A as he mucked. The original raiser showed T T.

So not exactly a great start, doing a quarter of my stack within a few minutes, but recoverable enough.

A level later the "tens" guy raised to $400 after a loose-passive woman limped under the gun. I called this time with eights, the woman folded and we were heads-up. The flop came out K T 3, not a great flop. "Tens" didn't look happy either but nevertheless fired out $400 again, which seemed weak-ish.

I decided just to call; I didn't want to turn my hand into a bluff and I actually felt I was still ahead. The turn was the 9 and he checked to me. Now I felt I was good against a smaller pair or an A-x hand. This wasn't enough reason to bet, though, so I checked behind. To my chagrin the A came on the river, but Tens checked once more and so did I have.

"Errr, you must be good, I just have a ten."

I mucked as he turned over ten-six offsuit. Tens was kicking my ass.

I was down to $3,000 with blinds becoming $75/$150. I picked eights again and raised to $450 in mid-position; the loose-passive woman called from the big blind. She been limping into many pots but was playing very tight after the flop - a couple of hands previously she had folded kings face up on the turn of a 5-7-8-T board after another player raised her on the flop and moved in on the turn.

I can't dodge donks, baby!

The flop appeared Q 7 6. She studied it for a second and then picked a few of the $25 chips, placed them on the $100 chips, then placed those on her remaining $500 chips and moved all-in for about three and a half times the pot. I thought for about 20 seconds. She couldn't be on a draw, could she?

I then realized I was probably thinking too much; I wasn't good, and should get on with the next hand. I felt somewhat vindicated a bit later when she limped UTG (again) and Tens limped behind her and they saw an 8-7-4 flop.

She did the same trick again and moved all-in for around twice the pot. This time Tens called, and everyone else folded. She turned over K-8 and he flipped 9-6, she held and doubled up.

"Figured I'd take a shot," said Tens.

In case you were wondering where the Erica Schoenberg picture was going to be.

Soon after I was down to $2,200 with the blinds now reaching the end of the $100/$200 level. Tens limped from the cut-off with a stack of about $8,000 and I was in the small blind. I looked at one card; it was the A.

I moved in and the big blind folded. Tens gave me a frowning look, as if to say, "How dare you try and stop me from seeing a flop?"

He decided he was going to see it anyway, and quickly called me. I looked at my other card - it was the 8 - and he showed K J. The dealer dealt out a T 9 8 flop to tease me, before dropping the 7 for pure amusement.

Naturally the A came on the river, just like in any film involving poker. I'd made the dead man's hand, of course, but it was no good.

Tens was apathetic about the outcome. "Sorry bud, but you've been running bad all day" was his unique outlook on the situation. I left the table but then saw there was a second tournament that started in a couple of hours, but that's another story ...