Well, at least it's winning

I played a LOT at Full Tilt in May, earning me a seat in the Iron Man freeroll at the Silver level. Also, I played every day in May and got a seat in the One-A-Day Freeroll
.

The one-a-day started one hour before the Silver freeroll and had a $2000 prize pool. After more than two hours, I finished in the money, there was 927 participants and 360 places paid. A bit much, a third "getting paid" instead of the usual 10%. A whopping $4 was my prize for 87th place there!

In the Iron Man $15000 freeroll (Silver), there were 809 participants and 180 places paid. I finished in the money there as well. 25th and $60.

The trick is: Don't bust!

But here's my peeve: The payoff is so little. You could play for hours in a tournament and finish in the money, but in the lower parts of the payout structure, and you get 2 to 5 times the buyin when the winner or last three get 100 to 200 times the buyin. It almost doesn't seem "worth it". I put in a lot of effort to get to these freerolls. Well, at least in the Iron Man, there's more put into it by Full Tilt, since the winner of each of the four Iron Man freerolls plays for $5000 more, and the winner there plays for up to $100.000 more but couldn't they add more? A lottery for T-shirts, or random bonuses if you really play the freeroll. Bubble prizes?

On unique thing (I think) for Full Tilt that I've tried is the CAP cash games. I'm mainly a Texas No Limit player, but I'm a bit apprehensive about playing the higher levels. No fear, at the CAP games, which are still No Limit, the maximum you can put in the pot is thirty (30) Big Blinds, so you might not go busto to a suckout or a miracle flop (AK vs 88 on a AK8 flop for example). You can still wield the weapon of a big raise or trying the waters with check-calling/raising and sometimes get paid off, which is trickier to do in Fixed Limit. I railbirded a rare $500/$1000 6-seat CAP game. That was just sick. $30.000 is the maximum bet and there were preflop shoves and stacks of $60.000 shuffling back and forth.

Another somewhat lucrative type is the Token tournaments. $8 for a 18-seat Turbo Sit'n'Go, where five players win a $26 tournament token which can get you into any $24+2 tournament or Sit'n'Go and 6th place get $14. One third of the players get paid, not too hard to reach.

Some time this summer, I'll try the Sunday Brawl. I crave a Big Win.