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Heads-Up Step Challenge Twist
Monday, December 12, 2005

Heads-Up Step Challenge Twist

First off, I gotta say Happy Birthday to Little Trip who turned 5 today. I took the day off so I could spend it with boy on his big day. We had a great time and I'm really glad I spent the day with the fam instead of co-workers. Not working Mondays can be very therapeutic.

Now, on to poker. Part of the day I spent raking the yard rather than being raked at the tables. During the monotony of it all I started thinking about cmitch's Heads-Up Steps Challenge, which I think is an awesome idea for a challenge. Here's my thought...

Why not just play the 4 player Heads-Up matches available on Stars? For those that don't know about these matches, basically you start with 1500 in chips and play one other player heads-up. While you play, two other players are also playing heads-up. The winners of each match take their chips - now 3000 total each - to a final heads-up match where the winner takes all. Thus, a $21 match would give the final winner $80.

With cmitch's plan you basically play until you lose or meet your goal. Once you lose you start back at square one. Also, you play at the same level twice before going up to the higher buy-in. So, in the original format, you start at the $21 level and play two heads-up matches before moving up to the $53 level, and so on.

There's a couple reasons I think the 4 Player Heads-Up matches may be better for this type of challenge. I'll hit them with bullet points:

So, unless I'm missing something, I think it might be beneficial to give the 4 Player matches a test drive for the Heads-Up Step Challenge. I plan to do so, but I'll be starting at the $10 level. Does anyone else see a flaw in my thinking as it compares to the original plan? There are differences in the two which might make you lean one way or the other, but for the most part they are very similar.

Some folks might not like having to win two in a row before you see any money, but if you are treating this as a challenge where you continue until you lose or meet your goal, then it wouldn't be a bad thing to do the 4 Player match and only pay one rake. One negative with the 4 Player matches is they only go up to the $210 level, but if you wanted to continue you could revert back to the normal plan at that point. However, if you make it to level 4 and win you are booking a profit in excess of $1000, which is not too shabby. To the left is a grid for the 4 Player matches. You can see, with this format, the only time you will book a loss is if you lose in the first 4 Player match. So in essence, the WIN column is what you will have if you win that round and stop. The LOSS column is what you will have if you attempt that level, but lose.

Also, one final thought. With the 4 Player mach, in the second round you have 3000 in starting chips. This allows you to be able to withstand a suckout or two from a donk who is catching cards. If the theory stands that more chips with a lower blind structure favor the better player, then this should only be an incentive. It might take 20 minutes longer to finish your match, but the way players push with suspect hands these days, I doubt it would take much longer.

Cmitch and all, I'd lover to hear your thoughts. You've got a great idea C and I just wanted to put a minor twist on it in order to possibly help. However, if you don't dig it, no problemo!

Laterz

posted by TripJax @ 3:49 PM,

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