Astonishingly bad play. Just astonishing
I've been working from two basic assumptions for over a year now.
1) The higher up in stakes you go, the better the players
2) Players generally are getting better.
I've just busted from a tournament where I've seen some of the most bone-headedly stupid plays imagineable. I've seen a player call off 300 chips on the flop and turn leaving himself 80 only to fold on the river. I've seen a player call a preflop-raise, a flop and river bet on a board of AJxxx with 4 hearts holding 22(no heart). I've seen people call all-ins for about the pot with 10-high (and a gutshot straight draw!).
I was adding notes to the players and they all consisted of criticisms of their play
"Calling station *** don't bluff ***"
"raised 4x UTG+1 wT5s"
Amazing. And the buy-in? $55!!
If I'd have hit some hands I'd be tournament leader by now. I was chuffed that my table didn't break for ages as the shorties kept hitting cards and doubling up.
I ended up having my AA losing to a rivered straight, but I didn't actually play it that well. I called a fair number of chips on the river with 4-cards to the straight down. The trouble was the player (and several others) had been so bad they could have held almost anything.
It really was like playing in a $1 tourny - only with fewer pre-flop all-ins, but still an equivalently stupid number of post-flop calls with weak draws or made hands.
Astonishing.
1) The higher up in stakes you go, the better the players
2) Players generally are getting better.
I've just busted from a tournament where I've seen some of the most bone-headedly stupid plays imagineable. I've seen a player call off 300 chips on the flop and turn leaving himself 80 only to fold on the river. I've seen a player call a preflop-raise, a flop and river bet on a board of AJxxx with 4 hearts holding 22(no heart). I've seen people call all-ins for about the pot with 10-high (and a gutshot straight draw!).
I was adding notes to the players and they all consisted of criticisms of their play
"Calling station *** don't bluff ***"
"raised 4x UTG+1 wT5s"
Amazing. And the buy-in? $55!!
If I'd have hit some hands I'd be tournament leader by now. I was chuffed that my table didn't break for ages as the shorties kept hitting cards and doubling up.
I ended up having my AA losing to a rivered straight, but I didn't actually play it that well. I called a fair number of chips on the river with 4-cards to the straight down. The trouble was the player (and several others) had been so bad they could have held almost anything.
It really was like playing in a $1 tourny - only with fewer pre-flop all-ins, but still an equivalently stupid number of post-flop calls with weak draws or made hands.
Astonishing.