6-Maxin' the MATH and Sattelitin' the FTOPS

Ooooohweeeeeee. Lots to get to today.

First things first. The 8th seat in the BBTwo Aussie Millions Tournament of Champions is up for grabs tonight in Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt:



As I mentioned last week, we're going to try some new things this month in the Hoy tournaments, which of course are stone cold locks to draw the ire of some of the players and commenters here, but which we're going to do anyways. If you can't try a small tweak to something minor one time, then you're a donkey in my book. So heeeehawwwwww to y'all, as tonight's MATH tournament will be for the first time ever, a shorthanded nlh tournament. That's right, we will be playing 6-max at the tables throughout the tournament tonight, which for those of you who don't know means that there will never be more than six players at any table throughout the tournament. Also for those of you who don't already know this, 6-max is a tremendously fun and skilled form of no-limit -- anytime you've gotten down to the end of one of the large blonkaments then you've had to get through quite a bit of shorthanded play at the last few tables to reach the end game, so you know what I mean. With the blinds starting off low -- using the exact same starting stack and blinds structure as the normal MATH tournaments in fact -- there's still no need to make any moves early on. But overall there is just no denying it -- 6-max requires a more aggressive game than regular full ring poker, where you are more likely waiting for the really strong hands than making any position plays or dramatic bluffs in the earlygoing.

As anyone who's read here for a while knows, I do love me some 6-max holdem tournamentage, so I'm looking forward to this week's Hoy delivering the kind of fun and excitement you are used to from our weekly donklefest. If the more aggro 6-max format can end the tournament a half hour earlier or something, that wouldn't be such a bad thing either. I know I mentioned this last week, but despite a few requests originating from the eastern part of the United States, I'm not going to move up the start time of the Hoy earlier than 10pm ET. Believe me, I know as well as you do how late this requires us to be up, and some of these days I don't make it myself, but it is very important to me that the West Coast donkeys still living in earthquake land can play without having to leave work early or anything like that more than they might already have to. But we'll see if some of the things I'm going to do with the Hoy this month make the tournament end a little earlier, without sacrificing too much in other aspects of how the game is played. So come out tonight at 10pm ET on full tilt, under the "Tournaments" -- "Private" tab. Buyin is $26 or a tier I token, and the password as always is "hammer".

OK on to what really has my focus this week, and that is the onset of the FTOPS on full tilt. This is the sixth installation of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series, and for a guy like me who has done well in several of the larger-buyin online tournaments in my day but who simply never has the ability to play on the weekends, these every-day-of-the-week large-buyin tournament series are really where it's at as far as my mtt life. For four months out of every year, I am playing hard in the FTOPS tournaments that I can qualify for via the copious satellites being run by full tilt, and for the other 8 months of the year I'm focusing on satelliting in to these badboys. So suffice it to say, I love the FTOPS, and I've been spending a lot of time trying to qualify for the upcoming events that I am interested in playing in. I had already played my way in to FTOPS #1 ($216 nlh) and FTOPS #2 ($322 razz) this coming Wednesday and Thursday, and I have been remiss in not posting this as well, which actually happened one night last week:



So there is me winning my way into FTOPS #3 ($216 pot-limit holdem) coming up this coming Friday evening. Now to be honest, this was probably my 7th satellite attempt into the plh tournament that I finally won last week, which at $26 a pop means I spent basically $182 to win the $216 entry, so that ain't exactly much of a discount right there. But that being said, once you're already in for the first six failed satellite attempts, it's still a heck of a lot better to get in to the tournament for just $26 more rather than to have lost that money trying to qualify but then ever playing, or just buying in directly for cash which I suppose is always an option. So I am pleased that I will be playing the $216 plh tournament that is part of the FTOPS for at the fifth consecutive FTOPS series, dating back to last November
when I first made a real effort to play into these large-guarantee multi-table tournaments.

I also already mentioned a week or two ago that I had already qualified as well for FTOPS #12 ($216 6-max limit holdem), which I am really looking forward to. I love 6-max limit holdem. And I am happy to say that on Sunday night, shortly after logging on and about halfway through completing another very profitable weekend at the cash tables and my run in the suckout-filled suffering known as the newly-double-stacked 28k, I happened to see sitting there this 10-seat guaranteed satellite for a $50 buyin into next Sunday's FTOPS #7 ($322 nlh). This is a tournament that I would love to play in, given its million dollar guaranteed prize pool which I'm betting will be even larger than that when the time actually comes and the virtual cards are up in the virtual air. But it's on a Sunday evening at 6pm ET, and that is prime bedtime time in the Hammer household, typically a no-no for me. And I also know that I'll be hoping to play in the FTOPS Main Event on the following Sunday evening. But nonetheless, when I saw a 10-seat guarantee with about five hundy in overlay due to only 57 players entered, I had to jump in at a basically 1-in-6 shot or so to play in to a really big nlh tournament:



Booooom! So now I am already satellited in to FTOPS #1, #2, #3, #7 and #12, a nice roll call of big tournaments even if I don't manage to satellite in to anything else. I know I won't look to any other weekend tournaments except for the Main Event which I would definitely like to play in, and mixed in the weekdays of next week are a few rebuy events which I am not interested in since I can at most only satellite in to the first buyin, which doesn't do a whole lot of good in a $300 buyin rebuy tournament like FTOPS #10 is. I know there is an O8 tournament around the middle of the FTOPS week next week which is something I bet I get into before all is said and done, and the other really big event for me is next Monday's 1k buyin FTOPS #8 nlh tournament, something I missed out on last time around but would really love to participate in in FTOPS VI. But otherwise I am super psyched to already be in to these five FTOPS tournaments, which carry a combined buyin of $1292 and for which I have not had much difficulty in the satellites to get in. I've been lucky this time around to have qualified for FTOPS #1 in two tries in the nightly $10 rebuy sat, into FTOPS #2 on my first try in a $75 satellite, and as I mentioned for around $180 into FTOPS #3. FTOPS #7 was also a first-try win for $50 this past weekend, and FTOPS #12 took two tries for a total of $52 spent. This means I've spent around the low $400s to win $1292 worth of buyins. That's the way uh huh uh huh I like it uh huh uh huh.

Oh btw before I end this today, and this is just for me and not something I am recommending that anyone else follow unless their bankroll and their tournament mentality support such a decision, but I'm not bothering with any of these super satellites they're running all night every night into the FTOPS $50 satellites that are running the night before each of the big FTOPS tournaments. If I want to play a $50 satellite, at that buyin level I will just be buying in for cash. Even for a satellite guy like me, it's just not worth the time, the effort, the money and most of all the aggravation of playing a bunch of these $6 and $8 and $2 rebuy tournaments just to win myself a fairly long shot at a $50 buyin to what is just another longshot satellite tournament. I guess I can see the attraction for the more bankroll-challenged players than I, so I'm not trying to slam on anyone who chooses to play these things. But do so at your own risk -- they are low buyins but that also means low chances of winning your seat. And, even if you do win your seat, you've still got to plow through another big-field satellite to even win yourself the one FTOPS seat. That's a lot of luck you need to overcome just to win what ultimately is a $50 longshot to play in the FTOPS. It's just not for me. Maybe for you, but not for me.

OK guys, see you tonight for Mondays at the Hoy on full tilt!!