Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Running Aces website not always right--By Blind Me Down

So it's a Monday night and the wife is in San Diego. I went online to
check the Running Aces tournament schedule and noticed an 8:30
tournament scheduled for 8/18. 5000 chip stack, 20 minute blinds and
a $100 + 15 + 5 buy in. Sounded nice so I called up dad (Cowboy
Wally) and headed out there. We arrived at 8 sharp and asked the
cashier if we could buy in for the 8:30 tournament. She said we were
the 4th people to ask about a tournament that didn't exist. We were
pointed in the direction of the card room manager who was also
baffled by this. After a couple minutes of confusion we got him
online to check out the website and were told to wait while they
sorted this out. There is supposed to be Midnight Madness tournys on
Mondays but there online schedule was saying otherwise. We continued
to do some complaining about how far we drove and what they could do
to accommodate us. He finally decided to call the tournament director
whose shift didn't start until 10 for the midnight madness game. The
tourny director then came in over an hour early and held an 11 player
sit and go for those of us that came out there for the game listed
online. The impromptu game had the same blind structure and starting
chip stack that was advertised online and we all sat at 1 crowded
table and got things underway. After all the dust settled and things
moved into there rhythm it was a very nice tournament. They never do
sit n go's with that structure and never with 11 people but they bent
over backwards to make sure we were all happy customers. I have to
hand it to them for taking a bad situation and trying to make it
right. The tournament lasted 2 and a half hours and paid the top four
places. $500 for 1st, $300 for 2nd, $200 for 3rd and $100 for 4th.
Wally had a roller coaster game being short stacked early on, then
chipping up to 8500, then back down to the short stack where his A 2
suited ran into A Q off suit. Once it got to the turn he had almost
every card in the deck as an out with a flush draw, straight draw,
the 3 remaining dueces and even the board pairing would have worked.
The A Q held up and he went out in 6th. I myself played about as
water tight as I possible could have and found myself heads up at the
end. The other guy had me out stacked six to one at least and after
doubling up once, I went absolutely card dead. I couldn't get
anything going and lasted about 15 minutes before going out in 2nd
place and taking home $300. Not bad for a quickly thrown together
game by a card room that seemed to want to do everything they could
to make things all well and good.

So, next time you want to go out to the card room for a tournament
listed online, call ahead to make sure it actually exists.

-Blind Me Down

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just another example of what I was referencing in the 8/15 entry - they're evolving, but still need to do some work.

I spoke with a tourney director on Sunday and she said (basically) - marketing does a bunch of things and doesn't tell/confirm with the floor. They'll need to straighten that out.

Anonymous said...

BTW - nice finish Blind Me Down