Red River Roundup Roundup

by , Aug 27, 2007 | 12:05 pm

I’ll try not to overdo this as Dan has posted much on this past weekend’s tourney; but I did want to give a quick summary of my tournament and a review of the tournament and casino at large.

First, my tournament. I made it into level 7, a little more than halfway through the day. I had a good starting table, with several players limp-calling and nittily letting there chip stacks dwindle away. The only problem was that through the first break (after level 4) we hadn’t busted a single player at my table; at the same time, almost half the starting field on our day 1 was gone. As a result, there were not as many chips for the taking. Even still, I was at 8400 (average of 6200) and feeling pretty good. I have not played a MTT since the Main Event (subject of a to-be-written post entitled “Supernova, or, how to donk away a money finish in the Big One”), and I was a little loosey-goosey early, but I managed to level it out and felt pretty good with a pretty good table image.

After the break, the short stacks started busting, and we got some more chips in play. In the first orbit or two I got it up to 10K without seeing a turn card. Then, in successive hands, I was dealt QQ UTG, AK in the BB and AJs in the SB. I lost all three pots and was quickly down to 5500. The blinds then jumped to 200-400-50 (from 150-300-25), and I was suddenly pretty short. I moved in in consecutive pots in the SB and on the button to add 35% to my stack. I folded two orbits and was down to 6k or so again waiting for a hand to double through or go home. Sitting UTG+1, I found kings. UTG made it 900 to go, and I moved in immediately. It folded to UTG who had around 4200 total. He called in a shot with AJs. a MP player says he had AJ, too, so, of course, I know I’m dead. Door card is an ace. Down to 1800, I get it in on the next hand with K3 and lose to QQ. You have to win races.

As for the tournament, given the field size and the buy-in, I thought they did a very nice job. There was plenty of play, particulary in the first 5-6 levels. I thought it was better value than the 1500 WSOP events, and the field wasn’t as strong. I was also impressed with the dealers and tourney staff. We never had any issues at my table, but at the very least, it was clear they were trying to make this a great event. I was impressed and will play in this or other Winstar tournies again.

Finally, though I didn’t play any cash games, it looks like their new poker room is the real deal. It seems very nice, and they had a ton of action going when I checked it out (I assume much of that had to do with the tourney). I would definitely go back just to play some live poker.

Overall, I was impressed with Winstar and the tournament, and it will be in my future plans.


7 Comments to “Red River Roundup Roundup”


  1. Earl Roons
    says:

    This tournament was like a big home game. Bunch of dumb azzes who watched to much Poker on TV…All the pro’s were knocked out early by terrible calls and Bad Beats. I will never return!!!


  2. DanM
    says:

    ***This tournament was like a big home game. ***

    A lot of TDs out there would take this as a compliment.

    I mean my goodness, are you guys being paid by Choctaw? I can be really critical of bad tourneys … and this one was definitely better than most.

    The only thing bad about this event was the accelerated blinds at the final table. I think the tourney organizers realize this may have been a mistake — to increase the luck factor when the money really matters — and can only expect next year that they will make appropriate alterations.

    So Earl, tell us about the hand you went out on.


  3. Annonymous
    says:

    But TBR you were way ahead on those, they were not races at all.


  4. Dealer Guy
    says:

    If the players were weak, and some were, why is that a bad thing?

    All of the pros were not eliminated early Earl, did you notice TJ coming in second? I also know many of the players who made it to Sunday and while they may not be TV pros, they are very professional players.

    I dealt a lot of this tourny, 10 hours total out of about 30 hours of the event. I didn’t deal to Raymer, Kido or TJ but I saw some very good plays and some pretty bad ones. TD’s can’t control the quality of the players, if you have the money, you get to play.

    Honestly though Earl, if we keep out the dead money, where will you play?


  5. Dealer Guy
    says:

    One more thing. I have seen this event get better an better each year. Next year I expect to see more well known pros and a larger event.

    TBR said we were busy likely because of the tournament and that was true, it did increase business but Friday and Saturday’s we frequently get 35 and more tables going.


  6. Jimmy
    says:

    Since when is an event full of bad players a bad thing???


  7. DanM
    says:

    When I’m one of them.

    (rimshot!)