Play in a poker re-buy tournament and you’d better make sure you have the cash on hand. I learned that lesson the hard way. Some days when I was bored I would head over to the area casino each day and buy into their little no limit poker tournaments. Not actually understanding the re-buy structure I made the decision to test it out. It was just 10 dollars to buy in and a sign hung saying ”Unlimited re-buys until first amount.”
Having brought only a hundred dollars with me, I figured the most I ’d be out was 10 bucks. Waiting for the tourney to begin, I asked around and gathered you could purchase another pack of chips equal to your beginning processors until the initial increase in blinds, in case you lost all of them. Only 10 dollars extra I thought, not getting the goal of losing before the blinds went up. Once we started playing, it wasn’t so cool.
I slowly realized that people at my table were playing in the manner of a couple of maniacs. Going all in, losing and re-purchasing and re-buying and re-purchasing, they were simply trying to construct their chip stacks. Having been dealt truly great hands, I used to be getting sucked out on, becoming rivered left and right and soon was in on the re-buying craze.
Mad that these clowns were sucking out on me, I was determined to get their chips and soon found myself out of $100 in less than a half an hour. Much a lot more than the $10 I was originally ok to part with. To my complete dismay, after having lost all my money I watched as everyone in the table had tightened up and began to play ”real” poker following the re-buy period ended. These weren’t only maniacal poker players, they were regulars at the casino who made their living off newbies like me.
I headed around to the ATM, steaming and on tilt and took out another $100, that actually turned out to be $103 after being evaluated ATM fees. Getting into a limit game, I rapidly lost another $100, adding even more insult to injury when I realized that this table made their money off newbies who were on tilt after losing in the tournament. So much for my enjoyment $10 day. Hey, there’s always blackjack.