Money for Nothin', chips for free.

The 9-4 off did it to me again. Not as dramatic as the first time, but this time it was first thing out of the gate. There is no reason to call that thing, and yet...

I've got to remember to play that stupid hand if it's cheap. Just in case.

I decided to go a little crazy and put myself to a bit of a test. I pulled all my cash off of Everest. I'm going to start from $0.00. See where it can take me. Everest offers a freeroll sit-n-go. Ten person limit; blinds go up every 4 minutes. On a Sunday afternoon you can't get a seat, but at 1 am Tuesday morning it's not that hard.

The first hand on the first of the freerolls I catch 9s 4c. I fold it, of course, and you can see the result. A few hands later I watch the chipleader chase something to the river until he has pulled the stack in front of the raiser down to 3 chips. The blinds are 3-6 at this point so three is not even a full bet on the river. The pot sits in the mid 90s. The raiser puts his three chips in. The chipleader folds. He didn't call a bet of 3 on a pot of 100. He is an idiot. Game 219202482.

I end that one in fourth.

Fold your way to victory. I think that may be the key. The blinds go up rapidly. The bets seem to be on auto-raise. Make a nest-egg early, if you can. Once the blinds start going up, wait out the idiots. The next game plays out almost perfectly.

9h Td off, flops a 6s 8h Qd. It's not going anywhere, particularly not with a 3h on the turn, but it's the first hand so the price is cheap, and technically it's an outside draw. Js on the river brings it all together and late position means I can bring the pot up a little. Second hand the blinds are still low, and 9s 5s seems almost reasonable, particularly when the flop drops 3c 6c 4h. 2d on the turn and I'm feeling pretty good. I bet it, and at this point anyone paying attention should be folding. Instead a couple raise back at me. 9h on the river helps no one but me. Oh yeah, and one other guy that splits the pot with me. There's always got to be one.

Now is the time to adopt the 'fold your way to victory' lifestyle. It's easy enough to do with the 9 3 off. Wouldn't you know it, the flop presents a pair of 3s and I miss out on another earner. Blinds have gone up, though, and Ac 8c with 2d 6h 8d on the flop presents a tough choice. The turn brings a King and I'm out. Hopefully this little run of cards has cooled, cause it's getting more expensive to play the draw. Yep, someone stays in with a 6 8 off and would have had me. Definitely time to back off the trigger a bit.

Sixth hand we have our first all in. On a pair of deuces, no less. He loses to the pair of sevens, which is mildly ironic. The four minute blind with ten at the table means we get two hands per level if we're lucky. Auto-raising seems to be a way of life down here. I'm at 150 and the big blind just passed. Blinds are 5-10. Now let's see what waiting can do. Only three people have heavy stacks, and I'm in third.

It's the tenth hand. Three are all in and it's the chipleader that wins. Big Slick. Now there are five; third pays. By the time the blind gets back around to me it's doubled, and I'm in the money.

30 hands later with a halfway decent player and I'm up $0.03. I'm not sure the extra penny was worth the wait. I think the key is to push aggressive once you're in the money. If you can catch a couple of cards you can maybe go for the nickel, but otherwise just get out and start a new game.

Three cents; I'm on my way. Anyone else interested in trying to build a poker stake from scratch, let me know. I'll post a chart of our progress. If I can con Shiny or Fancyhands into it, I'll get them to pipe in, too.