Well! I just had my third online multitable no limit tournament experience. My second freeroll. My first experience was a total joke - I think I lasted all but about 3 hands. My second one - yesterday - wasn't much better. I busted out in about 7 hands. My third one - I did damned good for someone who barely has a handle on no-limit.
I played tighter than a first grader's shoe-lace for as long as I could. It helped that I was getting total dogs for cards. Eventually I was whittled down to about T410 - I got a couple of good ones, and decided to make my stand. All in! I closed my eyes (literally) and when it was all over, I'd doubled up.
Whew! That bought me a little more time. But then I went a few hands with some great cards - added some more to my stack. And then I got the Big Slick.....I took a look at who was in the pot already, my position (I'll update with details when I can get the tourney history from the site), held my breath and moved that little slider all the way up and went all-in on my AK.
I was called by a huge stack who flipped over Q J - the flop came 5 Q 2, and I thought it was all over. The last 2 cards came fast and before I could determine what had happened I was sitting there with another 2 cards in the hole and I had doubled up! I actually had to scroll back in the chat window to see what had happened. I thought I had lost the hand. Well, I drew a backdoor strait with the board at 5 Q 2 3 4! And won the darn hand! Moneymaker miracle cards.
I held out quite a bit longer then I could have hoped for - the cards weren't coming my way. I was a little mouse. I would look at my cards and ask the question "Would you see anyone coming in with these cards at the final table of the WSOP?" And if the answer was a resolute "No!" that little fold box would get a check. (ok, I can hear the groans from you pros, et al., - yes, I also paid heed to position and table texture and everything you're supposed, including pot odds..)
I wanted to at least make it to the the money - in the top 261 (there were a total of 680 entrants) - if I busted out in 260th place, I'd get $4. I ended up doing much better than that. With 9 or 10 tables left, I busted out in 89th place all-in with KJ suited facing a huge stack who set a good trap with his AA. The board was useless and down I went. But I won $6 for my efforts which will pay me back for my 4th place and out-of-the money finish in a $5+.50 fixed limit tourney earlier in the day.
What did I learn from this? I learned to be patient and let the maniacs slaughter each other for the first rounds of play. I took care as to when to take a stand. And I learned one thing about table changes. Err on the side of caution - when I got that last hand on which I busted out, I'd just a nano second earlier been transported to that table. I had absolutely no read on my opponent. If I'd been more astute, I might have seen his stack as a clue and folded out to observe - or, at the very least, not gone all-in before the flop.
