Another win at Oceans 11

So I went to Oceans 11 last night for the evening tournament - only the second time I have played the evening tournament there and the first time I chopped it 4 ways. I arrived late and just made the buyin 3 minutes before level 1 had ended.

I played tight from the start and slowly loosened up until I was a maniac with 3 tables left. I still had a smaller than average stack but I stole the blinds and made the occasional re-steal several times between 25 and 15 players until we were really near the bubble. Then I got lucky and ran AK into A9 to double up and become the chip leader going into the final table.

Interestingly the TD wrote down the prize money for each place on a whiteboard but also wrote the "even chop" number in red alongside each spot. So a 9 way chop was shown alongside 9th place as $xxx, an 8 way chop was shown alongside 8th place as $yyy etc. This probably saved her work with people asking all the time but at the same time encouraged players to request an even chop. And the did...again and again and again.

Everything was going well but several players were requesting a chop from the get-go. Obviously I said no and we got down to 6 players still with me in the lead. A chop was being requested between every hand and everyone else agreed apart from me (I was about 2-1 ahead in chips). If they had offered me a sweetener I probably would have said ok as it was getting late but they did not - they only seemed to consider an even money chop. Anyhow I run KJs into A-10 for a huge pot against one of the middle stacks and lose and now I am back to second in chips.

Another round of whining about chopping and I caved to the peer pressure accepting the chop. Everyone was happy and got their money but I was disappointed in myself afterwards. I think I was the best player on the table and was most likely to win. The even chop amount was slightly more than 3rd place money but the little stack got the same as the big stack and that did not seem right.

Anyhow I wasted some of the winnings playng $4/$8 limit after and could not help thinking I was a wimp for caving in and should hold out next time. Although it was sweet to have another win under my belt the whole chop thing left a bitter taste.