My Degree All-In Moment

So Sunday was the degree poker tournament, first stage. I had no idea what to expect - structure, goals, or even time commitments. I had heard stories that the blind structure was pretty good, which had me excited. Nope. The blind structure was significantly faster than Red Hot, unbelievably. Here was the structure:

25/50
50/100
25/100/200
50/200/400
75/400/800
etc.

Notice that they truly doubled, and the ante's started at Level 3. How often did the blinds go up? Every 20 minutes. What about starting chip count. 2000. In writing - Two Thousand. WHAT! I was all-in on the second hand, just because I had re-raised on the flop and had to continue on fourth street (he folded). By the third level, nearly every pot had someone all-in pre-flop.

So how did I do? Well, roughly 60 out of 240 starting players. When was I done? Under two hours!! That's right - down to 60 after much less than two hours. The players who were still playing at this point were pretty awful, but just lucky to win with 9 7 offsuit against K 10 offsuit. Or had AA or KK at the right time.

My best hand was J 9, and that was about it. I only stayed alive because I bought a couple blinds & antes (which was nearly a double up).

Anyways, here it is: THE DEGREE POKER TOURNAMENT SUCKS. I fully expect the second stage (which is partially televised) to be filled with CHECK CALLS on gutshot draws..:)

Any positives? Well, the tournament registration and presentation was very well done, and the Fallsview casino itself it quite nice. Oh - and the night before at a rock bar there was pretty much the best rock cover band I've ever seen!