A Very Delicious Freeroll
Thursday, July 30, 2009 - Gene Bromberg
It is the worst nightmare of the online poker player–the tournament is huge, the final table in sight, and at the moment when all your skill, luck and courage must coalesce into the perfect poker package…you gotta leave. You have to walk away from the computer because of some unbreakable commitment. Perhaps, say, it’s your wedding day, and if you don’t get to the chapel in fifteen minutes your future spouse’s family is gonna string you up from the nearest tree. Maybe you’ve agreed to donate a kidney and the transplant team is tapping their toes and glancing over and over at the clock on the OR wall. That IRS audit, the one you’ve blown off six times? The one where, if you don’t report THIS time, a SWAT team will be dispatched to drag you to Leavenworth? Maybe that’s the event circled in red ink on your calendar.
Last night was UltimateBet’s Delicious Freeroll, where players registered by creating a Delicious bookmark account and leaving a comment here on the blog. That’s all it took to register for a $1,000 freeroll, and 262 players took to the virtual felt last night to fight for the big prizes– two $215 entries in our $200,000 Sunday Guaranteed Tournament. As well as some bankroll-boosting cash for those who didn’t punch their ticket for UB’s biggest weekly tournament. Forty-five players would cash out of the 262, and those are some pretty good odds for turning nothing into something.
Alas for BEWITCHED13, 45th place would be just out of reach, as he/she finished 46th and burst the money bubble. With money in their collective pockets the field was quickly whittled down (though I read some complaints about players stalling, which is a freeroll is just AWFUL, really) and before long we were down to ten. And from reading the chat it seemed that the remaining players wanted to make the final table quite badly. There were two stacks much shorter than the others–LADYSUBLIME and XCAMILLA. And as the blinds and antes gobbled their chips it became apparent that XCAMILLA was missing in action. Her stack evaporated to the point where she was literally down to nothing when her big blind came along, and it looked like this would be it for her tournament.
But she picked up pocket nines, and these held up against CHITOWN21’s Ah-8h, and she had a new lease on life…even if she wasn’t actually at her computer. LADYSUBLIME moved in on the next hand and seemed to have ALEXD_22 utterly crusherized with A-3 to his puny 2-3. But a deuce came on the flop, another on the turn, and LADYSUBLIME did not pick up the four she needed on the river to make a wheel. A cruel way to see one’s tournament come to an end, but that’s poker, and with her elimination we were down to our final table:
The players exchanged congratulations with each other upon making the final table, with CHERNBURN asking, “Will this get us a blog mention?” Why yes, it will!! One of the players who joined in was the apparently-disappeared XCAMILLA. Several other players said that they’d thought she was away from her computer and it turned out she was–she had to leave to pick up her mother. She returned home to find that she was still in the tournament, and as we shall see the Poker Gods were to smile upon this on-the-surface-insane act of putting one’s Mother ahead of one’s Stack.
ALEXD_22 was the big chip leader when the final table began, and before LADYSUBLIME went out he engaged in some good-natured banter with the players at the other table. But poker, it can be a swingy game. The first elimination of the final table was a sign of things to come, as VEGASRNDER34 took out NMACK05 in one of those hands that makes you reach for the Pepto when it’s done. NMAC05 flopped two pair, then lost when VEGASRNDER34 made a four-flush on the river. NMAC05 collected $20 for finishing ninth, but still, blech:
XCAMILLA was still desperately short-stacked and when she moved in with A-6 she was in a spot of trouble against CHERNBURN’s pocket nines. That is, until she flopped an Ace. A few hands later she was all in again, and again with A-6, though this time she was dominated by NICCABEZAS’ A-Q. But on the flop, a six, and though paint hit on the river it was a King, not a Queen, and again XCAMILLA doubled through.
Losing that pot crippled NICCABEZAS and he was eliminated on the next hand, which proved to have serious repercussions for the rest of the tournament. Because ALEXD_22 and VEGASRNDER34 both played the pot to the river, with both players making two pair. But VEGASRNDER34’s Aces and tens bested ALEXD_22’s Jacks and tens and VEGASRNDER34 won a huge pot that propelled him into the chip lead and sent NICCABEZAS to count the $28 he won for finishing 8th.
From reading the chat I learned that at one point ALEXD_22 was down to 750 chips, and then he charged back to the top of the leaderboard. And almost as quickly he was out of the tournament–he and VEGASRNDER34 exchanged a series of preflop raises that ended with all the chips in the middle and ALEXD_22’s pocket sevens racing against VEGASRNDER34’s A-Q. The doorcard was an Ace, and as ALEXD_22 typed “gg” in the chatbox the board bricked out and he was out in 7th place (good for $36).
Another decisive hand came soon after, with CHERNBURN and CARNAGEEE all in with VEGASRNDER34. CHERNBURN went in with the worst hand but when he rivered a Queen for two pair he bested the Ace CARNAGEE flopped and VEGASRNDER34’s pocket sixes. That sent CARNAGEEE out in 6th place ($46), and shortly after he was joined by CHITOWN21, who was eliminated by the resurgant XCAMILLA when, holding Ac-8c. she turned an eight to beat CHITOWN21’s pocket fours. CHITOWN21 hadn’t been able to knock out XCAMILLA when she was down to the felt, and in the end it was she who put him to the sword, bouncing him in 5th place ($56.50).
A hand or so later it was BULLSHARKS who was betayed by the turn. Holding K-Q, BULLSHARKS flopped top two but that gave VEGASRNDER34 an open-ended straight draw with his J-10. The Ad spiked on the turn, giving him Broadway, and when BULLSHARKS couldn’t boat up on the river he was our 4th place finisher. Which was good for $69,50, but certainly merited what BULLSHARKS said just after the final card fell–”Damn”. Indeed.
“Camilla has been SO lucky!!” CHERNBURN said good-naturedly after she doubled twice early in the final table, and it was hard to argue that she’d been a bit fortunate. But she’d fought back from nothing to the final three, despite having to leave the tournament to pick up her mother. Would XCAMILLA have been so lucky had she blown her mother off, had she stayed at her computer while Mom shivered in the pouring rain waiting for the ride that would never, ever come? I think not! XCAMILLA acted as a dutiful daughter should and Lady Luck gave a big thumbs up. XCAMILLA ended up going out in third place, putting the last of her chips in after VEGASRNDER34 flopped a Queen to leave her 8-9 drawing extremely thin. Still, after leaving the game and having the last of her chips committed in her big blind, XCAMILLA returned to the fray and battled all the way to third place, good for a NINETY DOLLAR PAYDAY. And when you’re freerollin’, ninety bucks ain’t a bad return on your investment.
The top two players in the Delicious Freeroll both receive the same prize, a $215 entry in the $200K Sunday Guaranteed Tournament. “Why are we still playing?” CHERNBURN asked, and the players joked a bit that since they were both getting the same prize there really wasn’t much reason to continue. Whatever happened to pride??? The thrill of victory!!! Seeing your foe driven from the field in disarray!! The two players moved all-in before the flop four times…and on all four occasions, CHERNBURN held an Ace. He won all four hands, including one where he beat VEGASRNDER34’s pocket tens, and in about thirty seconds reversed a huge chip disadvantage to “win” the tournament. The final hand:
For VEGASRNDER34 this may have been a bit disappointing, because you want to win, but how often do the cards run so badly against you and it means NOTHING. Certainly nothing to your bottom line. Which, for both players, was improved to the tune of a entry in the Sunday Guarantted event. In the comments of the Delicious Freeroll post CHERNBURN said, “…I’ve never played in a tournament like that (the $200 Guarantee) before, I’m really excited for the opportunity.” And VEGASRNDER34 said, “That was alot of fun and some great people playing in that tourney!!!” We’ll be keeping an eye to see how CHERNBURN and VEGASRNDER34 do on Sunday, and you should keep an eye on the UltimateBet Blog for details on the freerolls we have planned for the future.
Tags: blog freeroll tournaments, delicious freeroll, freeroll tournaments, freerolls, ub, ub freerolls, ultimatebet, ultimatebet freerolls
