Going from 54 people max, to 59 people showing wasn't an easy task.  Last month, I purchased two very nice 10-person tables, with the belief that I would be purchasing two more if they worked out.  We placed the two new tables in my fireplace room, and media room.  Thus if we had a huge showing we could fit 9 people at each of the three tables in my living room, and 10 people at each of the tables in the kitchen, fireplace, and media rooms -- for a total of 57 people.

At game time, we had exactly 57 players; but I knew one more was on his way...then an unexpected person showed up -- making it 59 players.  We squeezed 11 players at the kitchen table, and media room table.  But aking matters worse, I was expecting one more person to arrive late -- thank goodness he never showed up.

By game time, we had 57 players; so now the test is about to begin -- because I knew one more was on his way...then an unexpected person showed up -- making it 59 players.  We squeezed 11 players at the kitchen table, and media room table.  But making matters worse, I was expecting one more person to arrive late -- thank goodness he never showed up.

In the end, as with prior tournaments, it ran very smoothly.  The blind structure seems perfect for this tournament, and there's plenty of room for play at the final table without the need to go all-in every hand.  Even though we had 59 players and a record number of chips on the table, the tournament was over by 1:15 AM.

A Massive Prize Pool

In any of my re-buy/add-on tournaments, the average prize pool is 3 times the number of players -- meaning $50 x 3 per person.  With 59 players, the projected prize pool would be $8,850.  But we had more.  At the end of the re-buy/add-on period, we had a whopping $8,950 prize pool.  That's 179 buy-ins/re-buys/add-ons for the tournament -- enough to pay 10 places.

My results

My personal tournament go off to a very shaky start.  I was forced to re-buy 6 times, because I only won two hands during the entire 90-minute re-buy period.  After the break, things started to go better.  I started accumulating chips, then got involved in a huge hand.  In this hand, the cut-off guy limped and the button raised 3x my big blind, as did the very short stacked guy in the cut-off.  I defended my blind, and the flop was AJ5.  Both of us checked, and the button moved all-in.  After thinking about it, and thinking about it, I thought his play was very consistent for a guy with pocket Q's and K's, but not consistent with somebody who actually hit the pair of aces on the flop.  So I turned up my ace to show him that I had a pair of aces, and I started talking to him to gauge his reaction -- but I didn't get anything.  My opponent was the second largest stack at the table (behind me), so if I won the hand, I would clearly be chip leader in all of the tournament, but if I lost this hand, I would still have 33% of my very big stack -- which would still be larger than many stacks at the table.  So I eventually decide to call.  Much to my surprise the short-stack in the cut-off made an insta-call, as did the button.  The cut-off showed a set of 5's, and the button showed AQ -- I was pretty screwed.  The turn was a blank, but the river saved me with two pair, and I took out the other huge stack at the table, while at the same time tripled up the short-stack in the cut-off (with his set of 5's).

Shortly after that, the blinds went up and the antes kicked in.  Between a combination of a card rush and simply raising to steal the blinds and antes, my stack kept increasing until I had more than 20% of all the tournament chips in play (with two tables left).  Until I reached the final table, I made a combination of good calls and good lay-downs, when I sensed the pot odds were in my favor, or when I was being trapped.  It turns out each of these decisions was correct, and I continued to accumulate chips by making good calls, and saving chips by making good lay-downs.

I reached the final table with a huge stack, and continued to play well.  When we finally got down to 3-handed, the other players wanted to split the pot 3-ways, but I didn't want to because I was the chip leader, and I like the competition of winning it all myself.  I took out the third place player by making a great call on his all-in when I flopped mid-pair with an ace kicker.  He also had mid-pair, but my kicker played and took him out of the tournament.  When we got head's up, I played aggressive, but still managed to lose one or two huge pots.  After losing the pots, I went right back at work to "work him over" through aggressive head's up play.  The final hand of the night came when I had KJ and I raised on the button.  I intentionally raised enough, such that I would be forced to call his all-in, should he decide to do so.  My opponent moved all-in, and I called.  He showed KT, and I showed KJ.  Neither of us hit a pair, and my jack kicker played to take him out of the tournament, and win the $2,600 first place prize.

Bounties and Jackpots:

The high hand of the night was Aces full of Jacks (AAAJJ).  This hand was made by Dominic Graz at the final table, when we were down to three handed play.  The bad beat jackpot wasn't hit, and the $180 collected during this tournament will be added to last month's $695 to set next month's bad beat jackpot at $875. The $50 prize on aces cracked was awarded early in the night at my table; and Brian Kaner won the $50 bounty on last month's winner: Tony Montes.

After reviewing past tournament results, I decided to change the pay-out structure to push some of the top prize money down towards the lower places.  The tournament makes so much money, and is so expensive to some players, that giving greater rewards to the lower places seems justified.  Therefore, even though we had more players and more money in the prize pool, the first and second places weren't paid as much as prior tournaments of similar size.

The players finished in this order (with a pay-out comparison vs. the old method appearing in parenthesis):

Congratulations to everybody who made it to the money.