DDR League Tournament #1 - Part I

February 21st, 2008:

Twelve DDR hopefuls showed up to bet, raise, and bluff their way to glory (and Katt folded a lot). This being the first gathering, there was a draw for the bounty player of the night (high card). Ten percent of the total prize pool goes to the player who busts the bounty player. This night it would be CMoney (your friendly blogger) with a price on his head.

The fireworks started early with a barrage of all-ins from (you guessed it) Cmoney (me) against my arch-rival Jodizzle, who showed down monster hand after monster hand. Luckily there was no shortage of $20 bills in my pocket and I continued re-buying to the tune of $100 before the add-on (which of course cost me another $20). Two hands of note:

With blinds at 75-150 Jod raises to T300 UTG and I come along from the small blind with K♦3♦. The flop comes down T♦5♠3♠. I decide to check-raise all in here hoping she's on a big ace (hopefully AK). She makes a great call with 7♠7♣ and busts me (this was the second time she took me out). The very next hand I'm on the button with K♠Q♣. There are a few limpers and I raise to T500. 'dizzle comes along from the big blind with one more caller. The flop looks good - K♥J♦T♣. Top pair, open-ended, perfect. Jodizzle fires out a T500 bet (what kind of bet is this into a T1,600 pot?). Mid position preflop caller (Manwhore I believe) calls it cold, and I decide it's time for me to double up (maybe even triple up). I re-raise and push my newly-purchased T2,500 stack in. She calls right away, and Manwhore mucks. I can't say I like the insta-call here, and sure enough she shows me J♠T♥. I have a ton of outs (any A, K, Q, 9). All of my hopes are dashed on the turn when another T rolls off to fill 'er up and I'm drawing dead. Rebuy!

As soon as the rebuy period was over, I took the add-on (as did 8 others) to boost my stack to around T11,500. I turned a Q high flush after 'dizzle flopped trip jacks (with JTo again) and doubled up to climb to the top three chip position for a short time. Sweet, sweet revenge.

Picking up on other action - the first player out was [UnknownSoldier] (a non deuce-deuce ringer brought in by Katt to throw us all off - no nickname until you prove yourself in battle sucka!). He decided to bow out during the rebuy period. Party foul! Hey Katt, next time you bring a ringer, make sure he has a backup bill in his pocket. Your fellow DDRs have always relied on you to fill the game up with dead money, don't disappoint us again!

DoctorLove decided to roll with his T2200 once the rebuy period was over, forgoing the add-on. It proved to be a good move as he busted in 11th place on the worst bad beat of the evening. The Docta played T♠T♦ from mid position and wasn't scared of the flop when it came down J♥9♦2♠. Coopzilla bet enough to put him all in and was in terrible shape with T♥9♣. The turn came a worthless 3♠ and Coop's only hope was a 9 on the river. DoctorLove was looking great with a better than 95% chance to win the hand when... 9♥. Ouch - at least he didn't spend $20 for the add-on.

This knocked us down to ten players - we paused the tournament and consolidated to a single table. TheDocta now had all the time in the world to check his phone for email (he was pretty focused on it all night - I hope it was a series of booty call messages he was so intent on reading and not something lame; you know, like work).

The final stats for the rebuy period (note that all players arrived on time and received the 1,000 bonus chips):

• 12 Players x T4,000 ($240)
• 12 Rebuys x T3,000 ($240)
• 9 Add-ons x T6,000 ($180)

Beginning the final table the average stack was about T14,000. The clear chip leader as the action got underway was big Coopzilla with damn near T35,000. The prize pool was set at $660, with $256 going to the winner. Nobody had claimed the "Deuce Deuce Bonus" yet, and the bounty was still up for grabs.

It was shaping up to be a great run for the win, stay tuned for Part II...