As best as I can calculate, the payouts were 40/30/20/10. There were 30 entries so the only numbers that make sense with a 312 payout (which first was) was that $26 went to prize and $4 went to "rake","charity",whatever the hell it was.
So Nikki's covered the nuts and bolts of getting us there, the layout etc. so here's my take on my table.
Unlike Nikki, my table had some okay players. The guy on my immediate right plays for play chips online and I get the feeling that a couple of the other players played online as well. The way I see it, I probably had the best seat in the house. The guy to my left was a preflop station but would fold to strength post flop. The woman to his left had no clue. I'm pretty sure that this was her first tournament of any sort. She knew the hand rankings and such but had absolutely no strategy what-so-ever.
Adam had warned us that the play was very donkey-ish so my initial strategy was to be tighter than a nun's...well...I was going to play tight. A couple things modified that somewhat: first - the blind structure. It was horrible. It went 1/2, 2/4, 4/8, 5/10 (???), 10/20, 15/30, 20/40, 25/50, and then 50/100. They had 15 levels set up but I don't know how far it went. The highest we saw was 25/50 before we cut out.
The blind structure was obviously the main factor in my having to change my strategy a bit. The other was cards: the deck hit me in the face right off the bat. First hand I'm dealt AKo UTG+1. I pop it to 8 (whoo!) and everyone tosses their hands. Hmm...okay, maybe their not so donkey-ish afterall. In the first half dozen hands I also received TT, AQs and some other quite playable hands. I completely realized my table image was that of a LAG/bully but I had the hands to back it up. I think I missed one flop in the first six hands or so. When I finally did fold, I actually commented, "See, I do know how to fold" which got a laugh from a few of the players. Probably the most memorable hand at 1/2 was when I was OTB. I can't remember what exactly I had but it was enough to limp in. I *think* it 9Ts but don't hold me to it. One guy in MP limped, I limped, the SB completed and the BB checked. The flop missed me completely. In fact, it probably wasn't possible for it to have missed me more. I was done with the hand. The SB, being first to act...folded. The BB...folded. The MP limper hemmed and hawed for at least 20 seconds and finally...folded. The guy to my right says "What just happened there?" I was laughing too hard as I raked in my 8 chips to answer. In all, I played 3 key hands in my game. The first was at 4/8 and I look down to rockets in the SB. There were three limpers, including the button, so, with 36 already in the pot, I overbet it to 60 or 80 or something silly like that. Everyone folded, but that additional 32 chips really helps out your stack when you only start with 150.
The next key hand was JJ. For this one I seem to recall I was UTG but who knows. I jam and the guy to my right, now one of the short stacks, calls. He flips over AT. Bet you can't guess what happens here? What? Ace on the river? Nay, I'm afraid not. No, the flop came 678 with a 9 on the turn. Naturally, the river couldn't continue the trend and give me jack high straight. I double him up and drop 44 chips in the process.
The last hand was my last hand. Blinds were at 10/20 at this point and I'm in the SB. I'm dealt 69o. At this point I've got 75 left. Two (maybe it was three) limpers make calling here hard to resist. Although in hindsight... Anyhoo, I complete the flop is 9-x-x. Great flop! The play at my table, as I mentioned, wasn't as bad as Nikki's. I hadn't seen any slowplaying of big hands. In fact, other than me and one other guy, there wasn't much raising at all. I move all in. BB folds. Limper #1 calls and the other one (or two) bail. I flip over my cards, he flips over 89o. D'oh! Needless to say, no six came and I joined Jason on the rail.
And like Nikki said - we were in the middle of freakin' nowhere. Looking at Google Maps, I can't even find exactly which road we were on. When we were leaving I said to Nikki and Jason that even having a GPS wouldn't have helped. It probalby would have said something like either "Error." or "Turn right in Madrid."
All in all, it was a fun night. I came home and was happy to see that Stars had the SNGs working again so I played three of those with a win, a 2nd, and a AKs bubble so at least I made the money back we spent plus some!
I would do it again, even though the blinds sucked.
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