We all have hobbies or interests or details in our lives that take hold and won’t let go. Sometimes you’re smitten for a few days or weeks before fading; often times it’s a lifelong obsession. In my life, I can start my list with baseball cards, Frank Zappa, Ginger Lynn, the Chicago Cubs, straight pool, Guitar Hero and NTN trivia. Poker is a game that seems to breed obsession in many of us, and I’ve developed a doozy – the nightly $55k guaranteed, $10 rebuy MTT on PokerStars.

I haven’t always felt this desire to play the tournament. Just a few months back, I made a post about how stupid the first hour of this tournament seemed to be. I told a fellow PocketFiver that she should slap me if she ever saw me playing in it again. Heck, I’m an overall loser in the tournament, about -5% ROI over a fairly small sample size (less than 100). And yet, I play it several nights a week even though I know that a deep finish means only four or five hours of sleep.

It’s not the dream of a big score for a small buy-in that brings me back, bleary-eyed and caffeinated. It’s not the thrill of recent success (six cashes in my last seven tries, including a final table). The $10 rebuy is a tournament that has everything that I’m looking for in an online multi-table tournament. For once, I’m choosing not to give away any strategies or tidbits I’ve picked up on what’s been working for me. I’ll just write about why I love this tournament so much.

To start, this tournament has a nice overlay of dead money. What? You say the tournament makes it’s guarantee by an average of $10k every night? Yes, but let’s look a little closer. Most nights, there are about 400 players of the starting field of 1600 that drop out before the rebuy period ends. 25% of the field gives themselves no chance to win the tournament. Between the players who only budget one buy-in, and others who drop several buy-ins before figuring it’s not their night and giving up, there is about $10k or more of dead money in the pool. Less than $55k worth of money entered is competing to win. In my book, that’s the definition of an overlay.

During the first hour, the tournament provides a tremendous challenge in reading tendencies across the widest range possible. Some players are all-in blind every other hand. Some are tight, but in push-or-fold mode from the get-go. Still others are trying to play normal by-the-Harrington-books poker, and even more are weak-tight nits. Many pros ranked by PocketFives are mixing it up with some of the goofiest $10 buy-in players that PokerStars has to offer. To maximize your stack, you have to sort it all out, the quicker the better, and pray your table doesn’t break. To keep that stack growing, you need to read how your opponents change heading into the second hour, a read unique to rebuy tournaments.

After the rebuy period ends, if you’ve had any success, you’re now afforded the luxury of a couple of hours of deep-stack poker, a rarity in online events. The average M at the start of the second hour is usually around 40, with many players well over 100. This is a state that most of these players never find themselves in, and they play like it. In no other tournament online are there so many chips available for the taking from players lacking the first clue as to how to keep them. A sudden shift in attitude occurs from the first hour to the second; those who don’t adapt are in trouble.

As you move through the field, another shift begins. Just when you start to really feel the deep-stack groove, the Stars blind structure kicks into high gear and you find yourself back to pre-flop poker. By the money bubble, the average M is down to 12 or so. By the final 5 tables, the average M is 7. After giving putting your best push-or-fold repertoire on the back burner, you have to find the right time to fire it up again. This is another transition that many players in the tournament have difficulty making. They can’t stop raising 2.5x with speculative hands, and they fold when you push over the top.

Finally, for someone who rarely plays in big buy-in events, getting to play with some of the biggest and baddest players out there, without busting my bankroll, is a thrill and a challenge all on its own. In the last two weeks, I’ve played with Roothlus (twice, both very deep, neither with good outcomes), Randers, ComeOnPhish, atimos, Round42, Rizen, and many others atop the PLB. The tournament gets a great rail at the end because of the notable players, and the late-night setting only accentuates the mood. Good thing, too, because the laughter keeps me awake.

I’d like to encourage everyone who wants to take a shot at proving his or her all-around game (without having to take out a loan) to try the $55k guaranteed, $10 rebuy. Now, if you’ll excuse me, the hour is approaching 10 PM Eastern, 9 Central…time to register.