4 replies to this topic

[palitig8r]

Great site and forums. I've been playing for about 2 years, mostly low-limit (2/4, 3/6) where I've floated. About a year ago I started playing live limit and NL tournaments (typically $120 entries, 100 entrants, and $3-5K for a win) with some decent success (at least it pays for the hobby): 7 final tables and 2 outright wins out of probably 30 played.Well, a (good) friend owed me a favor and offered to stake me to the WSOP main event and, after pondering it for awhile, I suggested that my local WPT tour stop event in San Jose at my home club would probably be more fun, and that he'd have a better shot at seeing a return on his investment (we'll split any recovery). Same $10K buy-in, but 400 players instead of the cast of thousands, and an impressive line-up of pros will be there. First prize is a cool million.So, I'm all signed up for the Bay 101 Shooting Stars main event that starts on March 7th. I drew a seat to start on Day 1 so hopefully I'll get to meet Daniel and Josh, who are both scheduled to start that day (although I'd prefer *not* to see them at my first table). Here's the Day 1 list (they split the field so 200 start on Day 1 and 200 start on Day 2): http://www.bay101.co...rs/players1.cgi.Any advice for my first (and perhaps only) big-time tourney?

[JimmyWellington]

That's the one that has $5,000 bounties on all the big name players, right?That would be really fun to play in. You might be able to take advantage of the fact that everyone will be going after the bounties? I've never played in a big tournament, so I don't really have any good advice.

[palitig8r]

Yep. That's the one. I expect on day 1 everyone will be gunning for the pro at their table. I'm more interested in picking off everyone else. The bounty's will take care of themselves. I just want to stick to my game and try to not let the stakes and the event change how I play.I'd imagine having a target on your back makes it harder for the pros (interestingly, there are other pros like Dewey Tomko, signed up without the bounty on their head. Historically, I think they do better. Last year, Phil Gordon won, but he had no bounty. Moneymaker was the only bounty target to make it to the final table.I like the format, though. It was fun to watch, and I'm sure will be even more fun to play. One big change from my usual tournaments is that the blinds go up much slower (60 mins, and 90 mins after day 1 compared to 15 or 20 mins.). This will reward patience a lot more, I'd imagine.

[gobears]

I'll probably drop by to watch some of the shooting star since it's in my neck of the woods. At this point in my limited poker playing career, I can't see risking $10K on the entry fee; all the satellites at Bay 101 seem to be spread limit - rebuy to get into the shooting star; Any thoughts on the rebuy satellite tournaments at Bay 101?I wish that pokerstars had satellites into this one like they did for Atlantis,although I notice that another online poker site does have some seats saved.Good Luck!

[palitig8r]

Bay 101 is running satellites every Saturday, at 9:45 am (spread limit, which is basically no limit as the spread extend to just about everyone's stack ... something about a San Jose law that limits the number of NL tournaments per year). They are getting 30-40 people each Saturday, last I looked, and it'll cost 300-500 to get to the final table to get a shot at a $10K entry. For what it's worth, I've played comparable tournaments at other Bay Area card clubs and in Vegas, and I find the skill level at Bay 101 to be the toughest. There are some *very* good players at the week-end tournaments.Now that Matt Savage is an international celebrity tournament director, Sam is doing a great job running the show in his absence.Paradise Poker is running online satellites for Bay 101, but I haven't checked it out.