Three and Thirty Tourney and a Player Alert

Had an interesting time in one of the $3+.30 tourneys on Stars last night. It seemed like if you had pocket T’s or better there was some rule that I missed that said you were required to go all-in preflop. Within my first four hands I was looking at cowboys and made it 80 to go (blinds 10/20). Before I know it, there are two all-ins. I almost called, but my spidie senses were tingling, so I folded. The two still there showed pocket Tens and Hiltons. I nearly kicked myself till Hiltons flopped a set.

I saw pocket 6’s CALL pocket J’s all-in. I saw AKo all-in against KK. I even saw A6o CALL a KK all-in. It was, in several words, un.fucking.real. Later on in the tourney, I saw the big stack at the table (about 3.5X second stack) go all-in with his pocket K’s, Q’s, J’s, only to watch the table fold to him and would almost never pick up more than the blinds.

Perhaps I missed something in that poker 101 class I never took. Would it not have been wiser for him to lead out with somewhere between 5-10 times the big blind (normally I’m a 3-5 person myself but this guy obviously felt the need to move a lot of chips with big pairs) to get rid of all the weak hands and possibly get a caller or two and maybe even manage to pick up a few more chips than just the blinds? I know, I know, that’s just crazy talk.

Of course, maybe they were all onto something, after all, the big stack was still there when I busted out in 181st (of 1932). I should note that at that time, he was no longer the big stack. The new big stack that got moved in just chased people off by betting 4-6 time the big blind, and that seemed to work for him without risking a significant portion of his stack.

Now for something useful. Add the player FoldNow23 to your Find-a-Player list on Stars. On Saturday, after my SnG while I was getting ready to head out for a live game, for some reason I pulled up a $3+.30 re-buy tourney to watch while I got ready. I kid you not when I saw this kid pull at least 12 re-buy’s, probably more, before the blinds broke 25/50, and this was a turbo if memory serves.

My notes on him read as such: All-in with any pocket pair, any paint, any suited, any connectors. I saw him take down only one pot with his big all-in move, but he was quite generous to the rest of the table. I for one would love to see if such behavior carries over into the cash games, or if his generosity is reserved for re-buy tourneys.