Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Yes, it Really was "That" Felicia

Wow, I just had one of the most bizarre weekends of my life. What a story. I guess I'll start from the beginning.

I have said before that back in 1894 when Glenn and I signed up for some online poker accounts, most, if not all sites had a "one account per household" rule. So we mostly used my name, opened Neteller in my name, and used the nickname FeliciaLee.

I never really dug online poker, so Glenn continued on while I played spottily here and there over the years. Glenn simply kept the FeliciaLee name on most sites, and when both husband and wife were allowed separate accounts, unless he was being offered a sign-on bonus or rake back, he never bothered.

Okay, so that being said, Party was another one of those sites where we only had the FeliciaLee account.

About a week ago, Glenn decided to enter a freeroll on Party for a WSOP seat.

He didn't bother to find out any of the details. You know how it is with freerolls. 5000 people enter, and only a tiny fraction move on (sometimes less than 1%).

Usually, in the weeks leading up to the series, Glenn plays freerolls here and there on different sites. He can typically tolerate a couple per month, maybe more. It is a horrible, grueling process, as I'm sure everyone knows, and it can be super frustrating.

Take last year, for instance. Glenn entered a freeroll on Paradise for ONE main event seat. The top xx players moved on to the next tier. So Glenn played 5-10 hours, and moved on in one of them. The next tier an even smaller number of players moved on, but of course there were a smaller number registered. So instead of 50 moving on out of 5000, maybe it was 25 out of 1000. Glenn once again played many hours, then moved on. Finally the real seat was being given away. ONE seat. I don't think any other place paid out. The field was big, well over 1000 if I remember correct. Glenn played about a dozen hours, and finished in FIFTH PLACE!!!

Anyone who has been through this horrible, grueling process over and over again gets sick of it mighty fast, and stops trying to win big seats via freerolls online every day.

So back to my point, Glenn usually can tolerate maybe 10 altogether in the four months or so leading up to the series.

Glenn has long been a master of the satellite. He can adjust his play so expertly that he tends to cash or qualify way more than the percentages say he should. Of course, this has a negative effect, too. He has to play long, horrible hours, and sit around hour after hour while players stall, hoping to somehow sneak into the money (thank God this practice is verboten IRL).

So Glenn moved on last week. I think the top 50 out of about 5000 on Party moved to the next tier of the main event satellite.

On Saturday, the top 16 would get seats and accommodations, everyone else would have to start over. Glenn also had a seat for the million guarantee sat on UB. He planned to play both, then we were going to head up to Vegas for a dinner that 2 + 2 owners invited us to attend on Sunday.

Glenn started at 1:30pm. I believe there were about 3300 qualifiers.

I went to bed at about 6pm (my normal time, I know, it's early, but I have to if I want to keep gardening).

Glenn was still in the sat. I don't remember how many players were left. Maybe 200. I ended up waking up in the "middle of the night," lol, about 9pm. Glenn was practically on the bubble, but also on the ropes. Even the biggest stack left only had enough chips to go around the table maybe five times!!!

Everyone was playing their best game. Mostly the shorthanded tables would fold, fold, fold. One desperate player pushing all-in, then stealing the blinds and antes to be able to survive for another round of play.

Glenn pushed in a couple of times, getting lucky to have ace-something (never getting called), small pairs (never getting called), and then AA (never getting called). Although it sounds like a nightmare that he never once got called during the last hour, the blinds and antes were so, unbelievably high that he suddenly found himself with almost a million chips. No, that is not an exaggeration, I truly mean one million.

The blinds were 75/150k, the antes were 5k, I believe. The highest stack had only a little over a million, lol. Glenn went from 300k to about 900k and then could sort of sit for a few minutes to see what happened. Most people were hovering under 500k, so he was praying they would have to take more chances and get called by comparable or bigger stacks. That is exactly what happened, and several people busted quickly out of sheer desperation and getting blinded out.

The final twenty went down to 17 pretty fast. Then the bubble. It lasted for a few minutes, but eventually a desperate stack went all-in with AT and was called by the chip lead with Q6. Chip lead made two pair, and Glenn was in.

As an odd, horrific side note, these players were stalling for literally HOURS before this tourney ended. Even though play was hand-for-hand, they were so retarded that they didn't even realize that stalling did nothing except run down the clock. THE TOURNAMENT IS HAND-FOR-HAND, PEOPLE!!!

This is the key reason that so many serious players cannot tolerate freeroll sats for big event seats. Hello!

I am thankful that live tourneys do not tolerate this form of cheating. Last year at the series, a ton of newbie, green players tried the whole stalling routine when they were close to the bubble. Over and over again, I heard the TD's on the PA announcing that if they were caught stalling, they would be disqualified from the event. Since the series has gotten so big, they can't always go hand-for-hand near the bubble, or events would take two weeks to wrap up.

Anyway, Glenn won the seat.

And then I gave him the bad news.

Um, no. YOU didn't win the seat, Glenn, I did.

Yes, I'm trying to get this changed. Yes, I'm not above using the "cancer card." No, we did nothing wrong, we simply followed Party's rules at the time that we signed up. Yes, Party knows this. No, I do not want the seat. No, I do not want to play. No, I do not believe I am strong enough to play in the ME. No, I do not think I can sit in that claustrophobic room for 12 hour days. No, I do not want to be on TV. No, I do not want to be noticed or get any attention. Yes, I'm still trying to get permission to give the seat to Glenn.

Yes, it was "that" FeliciaLee.

No, I never played a hand.

Yes, I will finish with a trip report about our bizarre Sunday and Monday in Vegas. Stay tuned!

Felicia :)