I hadn't played any charity tourneys before, and I doubt I'll play many more. This one supported our local sports program, and I hoped I might meet a few more local players, so I gave it a try, despite an awful case of the flu.
Entry Fee: 50$, $30 of which goes into the prize pool. (I asked when I paid and they said 60%. When they started, they announced 87 players, and read out the prizes, which added up to $2610. You do the math and tell me if it's 60%. It's close enough for me.)
Here's a blow by blow:
3000 starting chips, table of 10, starting blinds 25/50. I get the button.
Hand 1: I catch AQ, make a bump raise, catch top pair, and milk my one caller on the flop and turn for microbets. He folds on the turn. Chip count 3200 (40M +)
Hands 2-8 it's a generally tight/cautious crowd. People are showing hands like JJ and KK, and many players are not even agressive even with monsters.
Blind up at hand 9 One deck, 20 minute blinds. :-(
My chip count is still 3200, so about 20M
Hand 9: I'm in BB with a mediocre holding and 3 limpers. I miss the flop and fold to a pot-sized bet.
Hand 10: SB I fold to a big pre-flop raise.
Hand 12: I get QJs one off the button and the flop comes Qxx, no flush draw. One player makes a probe bet and I raise to pot-sized. He calls, and checks the turn. I feel I'm beat because he's been playing tight, and I felt he could reasonably hold AQ, KQ or trips. I check the turn, and he makes a teaser bet on the river, which I fold to. The teaser bet was 10% of my stack. If my M was was a little higher I might have called, but I felt my kicker was too weak. Chip Count: 2450 - 16M ish
Hand 14: I catch AKo, and make a 5BB raise and get two callers. I miss the flop and make a continuation bet, P1 calls, and P2 goes all in for 150 more. Against my better judgement I call, and P1 also calls. P1 and I check down the turn and river, and it turns out that NOBODY has a pair, and two players have A. My King kicker holds, and the whole table groans. Chip count 4700 - 31M.
Hand 18: Binds are up to 100/200. :-( - 16M
Hand 18: I'm BB for 200, and miss the flop. Out.
Hand 19, one UTG limper, and when I look I've got QQ. I raise to 600, BB folds, utg limper calls.
Flop is single suited, but not matching my queens. I figure I'm a lock, so I bet the pot, and this smaller stack goes all-in for 900 more, so I can pay 900 to stay in a 3200 pot. Given the level of play, I was expecting a stone cold desperation play, so I call. He flips 34s which caught his flush. I have two pair on the turn and fail to suck out with a boat.
This really steamed me. If he had flipped over AK of the suit, or even trips, I could have lived with this, but his pre-flop call was SO bad.
Chip count 2000 - 7M.
Hand 21, I'm still on tilt, in late position and everybody before me had folded, and I've got K8s. I figure this is good enough for a cold-blooded blind steal, so I put all my chips in the middle, expecting no resistance. The exact same player with the 34s calls, turns over AA, and I fail to suck out.
I could have waited for better cards, but I still don't think the blind steal was a bad decision. I was at 7M, and don't forget that the blinds were pretty much going up every time they came to me, so I maybe had 8 more hands before I was blinded down to 'can't wait for cards' mode, so I felt I needed to make any steal I could.
