BICYCLE CASINO FREEROLL
I received a postcard from the Bike awhile back informing me of the $10,000 freeroll poker tournament. I thought, how cool, a free tournament to end the year! I wonder what it's all about? So I called the casino and asked what the tournament structure was. The poker room guy was too busy and simply said, freerolls generally start with a low chip count and the rounds are pretty fast.
I figured that you can't really go wrong with "free". As my friends already know, if it's free - it's me! I woke up a little late and started to figure out what time I should leave for the tournament. I decided to eat lunch early and left about 11:50am. The freeroll was due to start at 1pm. Since Bell Gardens isn't that far from Diamond Bar, I thought that would be plenty of time. I imagined that the line wouldn't be that long but I was in for a big surprise.
There was traffic on some parts of the freeways so I finally got to the Florence exit about five minutes to 1pm. When I drove into the casino, there was a line that made its way outside the casino and all along its side. It was long and there was no doubt in my mind that it was the line for the freeroll.
After parking, I made my way to the end of the line. The people around me were nice and talkative and we started talking about whether we would even make it into the tournament. Someone said that they'd been in these freerolls before and they normally cut off the registration at 2pm. He was right because around 1:30pm, a manager came out and announced that registration was indeed ending at 2pm and that he didn't think most of us at that point in the line would make it in. However, we were free to stay in line and take our chances.
Since we only had 30 minutes to wait and since we'd all driven there for the freeroll, we all decided to just wait it out and see what happens. When we finally got to the front of the line, it was 1:58pm and I thought to myself, it sure would make my day just to get in and play a hand. I'd been locked out of tournaments before and it's a miserable feeling knowing you drove all the way to the casino and you can't even play.
Sure enough, I got in and sat right down to my table. I had 1800 chips in front of me since I was the big blind right before I sat down. Before I knew it, our table was broken and we all made our way to the banquet room. That's when I found out there were 710 entrees. When I sat down, the guy I was waiting in line with was seated to my right. He went all-in with A5 of clubs and busted out. I wished him good luck and then we went on break.
I doubled-up with a pocket pair and got some chips to work with. I wasn't really thinking much about making the money at this point since there was still a big roomful of players. But when there were just 100 players left, everyone started to talk about it. That's when I started thinking, boy it sure would make my day to get in the money. 72 players would be awarded some money and 72nd would make $20.
20 bucks isn't much, but it sure beats getting nothing. So I played tight to get into the money and sure enough, I got in. 72 players meant eight tables so at this point, anything was possible. I doubled-up enough times with good hands to survive to the later rounds.
Before I knew it, there were just 27 players and the money started getting serious. I didn't worry about making more, but instead just concentrated to deciding whether I should move all-in with marginal hands. Then, the field got even smaller and people started talking about chopping the $10,000. If we split it evenly, everyone would get a few hundred dollars. A lot of people were for it, but it only needed one person to shoot down the deal. So we played on.
Then, I found myself on the final table and knew that I was guaranteed $300. I stayed out of trouble and waited for the shorter stacks to gamble their stacks away and ended up in 6th place with a very short stack. I decided to put it all-in with 84 under the gun rather than let the big blind wash me out. I didn't pair up and lost to a pair of fives.
After about six hours of play, I ended up with $500. I was on a natural high winning $500 when all I spent was my time and effort. I'd never won that much money before on any tournament I'd ever joined, and the best thing about it was that it was free!
I called some of my poker buddies to share the good news and celebrated the evening by playing more poker at J.D.'s. We played a few tourneys and it was nice to win another one with 27 players. Talk about a winning streak!
I received a postcard from the Bike awhile back informing me of the $10,000 freeroll poker tournament. I thought, how cool, a free tournament to end the year! I wonder what it's all about? So I called the casino and asked what the tournament structure was. The poker room guy was too busy and simply said, freerolls generally start with a low chip count and the rounds are pretty fast.
I figured that you can't really go wrong with "free". As my friends already know, if it's free - it's me! I woke up a little late and started to figure out what time I should leave for the tournament. I decided to eat lunch early and left about 11:50am. The freeroll was due to start at 1pm. Since Bell Gardens isn't that far from Diamond Bar, I thought that would be plenty of time. I imagined that the line wouldn't be that long but I was in for a big surprise.
There was traffic on some parts of the freeways so I finally got to the Florence exit about five minutes to 1pm. When I drove into the casino, there was a line that made its way outside the casino and all along its side. It was long and there was no doubt in my mind that it was the line for the freeroll.
After parking, I made my way to the end of the line. The people around me were nice and talkative and we started talking about whether we would even make it into the tournament. Someone said that they'd been in these freerolls before and they normally cut off the registration at 2pm. He was right because around 1:30pm, a manager came out and announced that registration was indeed ending at 2pm and that he didn't think most of us at that point in the line would make it in. However, we were free to stay in line and take our chances.
Since we only had 30 minutes to wait and since we'd all driven there for the freeroll, we all decided to just wait it out and see what happens. When we finally got to the front of the line, it was 1:58pm and I thought to myself, it sure would make my day just to get in and play a hand. I'd been locked out of tournaments before and it's a miserable feeling knowing you drove all the way to the casino and you can't even play.
Sure enough, I got in and sat right down to my table. I had 1800 chips in front of me since I was the big blind right before I sat down. Before I knew it, our table was broken and we all made our way to the banquet room. That's when I found out there were 710 entrees. When I sat down, the guy I was waiting in line with was seated to my right. He went all-in with A5 of clubs and busted out. I wished him good luck and then we went on break.
I doubled-up with a pocket pair and got some chips to work with. I wasn't really thinking much about making the money at this point since there was still a big roomful of players. But when there were just 100 players left, everyone started to talk about it. That's when I started thinking, boy it sure would make my day to get in the money. 72 players would be awarded some money and 72nd would make $20.
20 bucks isn't much, but it sure beats getting nothing. So I played tight to get into the money and sure enough, I got in. 72 players meant eight tables so at this point, anything was possible. I doubled-up enough times with good hands to survive to the later rounds.
Before I knew it, there were just 27 players and the money started getting serious. I didn't worry about making more, but instead just concentrated to deciding whether I should move all-in with marginal hands. Then, the field got even smaller and people started talking about chopping the $10,000. If we split it evenly, everyone would get a few hundred dollars. A lot of people were for it, but it only needed one person to shoot down the deal. So we played on.
Then, I found myself on the final table and knew that I was guaranteed $300. I stayed out of trouble and waited for the shorter stacks to gamble their stacks away and ended up in 6th place with a very short stack. I decided to put it all-in with 84 under the gun rather than let the big blind wash me out. I didn't pair up and lost to a pair of fives.
After about six hours of play, I ended up with $500. I was on a natural high winning $500 when all I spent was my time and effort. I'd never won that much money before on any tournament I'd ever joined, and the best thing about it was that it was free!
I called some of my poker buddies to share the good news and celebrated the evening by playing more poker at J.D.'s. We played a few tourneys and it was nice to win another one with 27 players. Talk about a winning streak!
posted by Tito Eddy at 8:26 PM
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