CanonBall Tournaments

I was waiting to play my regular WWdN Thursday night tournament and decided to see what was happening over at PokerRoom. They have this tournament which they call a Canonball. It has turbo levels for the first 6 levels (3 minutes per) and then switches back to the normal (12 minute) levels after that.

It has a pretty intense feel as the turbo mode kicks in and all the players get into all-in mode. I managed to survive that, a little ahead of where I started. My plan was to then switch to my more normal mode of play. Unfortunately the rest of the players still seemed to be in a turbo mode. The rush had also built up some pretty serious stacks, so the free for all continued. The biggest thing was you could pick and choose and survive. We made to the 1st break with just 2 to go to get into the money.

The money was not really the issue (it was a $5+0.50 buy-in).

At this point I had about $4900, the blinds were 400/800 (going to 500/1000 after the break). I was on the button, so the farmer in me said I can wait out two people and at least get my buy-in back (I hate busting out on the bubble).

The round started with me getting moved to another table right away (well after the first hand which I folded). This unfortunately put me back under the gun (argh) but gave me AJo. I pushed and everyone folded to me. This allowed me to pay for the upcoming blinds.

In the end, I lasted about 5 more hands (which was into the money) and went out in 38th place. I pushed with QQ and I was called by two people with Ax. An ace came on the flop and that was it.

Overall, the canonball format was an interesting variation - especially if you like turbos. I am not sure it is for me, but I might be convinced to play it again since I won a net of $4.34.