WCOOP Event #20 Preview

Event #20 is the big daddy of my schedule. $1,050 No Limit hold'em on a Sunday. They've guaranteed a $3,000,000 prize pool, but I wouldn't be surprised if more than 5,000 players enter. This one should have a half million dollar first prize! The other tournament running on Sunday is $25,500 heads up matches so that's why I'm only playing one tournament!

The thing I love about playing tournaments like this is the possibility that I could get the best run of cards I've ever had and win an insane amount of money no matter how I play. Of course I always expect to outplay the vast majority of my opponents and that's really why I'm playing. But what if I just got AA every half hour for the whole tournament? What if I just nailed every flop I saw? Even if I was only playing my B or C game I could still win outright with some great luck. While I'm hoping to play my A+ game and go deep no matter what cards I get, maybe a miracle run of cards will shove a fortune into my lap!

2008 WCOOP Event #18 ($215 HORSE) Recap

I finished 379 of 2091 in the $215 HORSE. I really got hosed in this one. I had my starting stack of 3,000 up to almost 30,000 at one point. This put me in 13th place with less that 600 players. Somehow I managed to catch a bunch of great starting hand that then turned into garbage. 304 places paid and it seemed a sure money finish when I had all of those chips. But somehow it didn't work out.

I also came up short in the $320 PL second chance which means I've come up short in my last 6 WCOOP or Second Chance tournaments. I'm still in the $162 HORSE second chance, but it's not looking good.

2008 WCOOP Event #17 Recap

I finished 372nd out of 960 in today's $530 6 handed PL tournament. It really all came down to one hand about 3 hours into it. With blinds of 100/200 I raised to 600 from the button with 99. The big blind made it 1,900 and I went all in for about 5,500. He had AT of diamonds. The flop came down J22, the turn was a blank and the river was a ten. Sometimes that's just how it goes down.

Event #17 Underway!

We started today's $530 PL hold'em 6 handed tournament with 960 players. An hour into it we're down to 724 and I've run my starting stack of 5,000 up to 9,200 which puts me in 148th place. It's been a volatile first hour and at one point I did have all my chips at risk in the pot, but I'm doing pretty well now.

The edge of the money is 144th and that pays $768. 9th is $8,400, 6th is $14,400 and 1st is $80,400. It doesn't possibly seem like I can go deep (and blow it!) again, but you never know.

2008 WCOOP Events #17 & #18

Event #17 is $530 Pot Limit Hold'em 6 handed. Initially I was thinking since this one is going off on a Saturday we could be looking at a huge field. But right now there are only 115 people signed up! I can't imagine any hold'em tournament in the WCOOP (except for the MEGA buy in ones) having less than 2,000 players, but I guess some people don't like pot limit and others don't like 6 handed. Of my 3 WSOP cashes two are in pot limit hold'em and the other was in six handed NL so you can guess how I feel about it. By game time we'll probably have at least 1,000, but that's still less that I might have thought.

Event #18 is $215 HORSE. Do we even have to play this thing or do they just want to give me the title ahead of time? Other than the 6 handed limit hold'em this is probably the tournament that I've had my eye on as a most likely cash. More than any HORSE tournament of the year, this one is likely to be populated with people who don't know how to play all the games.

If any of you backers out there want a small advance on your profits transferred to your pokerstars account let me know and I'll make it so. That way you can play a little yourself whilst enjoying the WCOOP drama or perhaps even win your way into a WCOOP tournament via satellite yourself!

2008 WCOOP Event #16 ($215 PLO with Rebuys) Recap

Once again there's good news and bad news. The bad news is I went broke in the Omaha finishing 887th of 1,232. The good news is I busted before I got a chance to do the add on so I was only in for $415.

I got off to a great start running my starting stack of 4,000 (after I did the one rebuy) up to about 8,000. But then I dropped off slowly but steadily. I kept getting a ton of marginal but playable hands and catching a piece, but not all of it.

In the final hand I got all of my chips in with a flush draw vs two players neither of whom had a set or any cards of the suit I needed. On the turn I even picked up an open ended straight, but the river was a brick and that was it.

I did win my first match in the $215 Second Chance HU Matches (which started with 252 players). It took a little luck on the end and 88 hands to dispatch my opponent. On the final hand I put all my chips in with second pair and ran into top pair. But I made trips on the end and am now awaiting my next opponent. Two more wins is worth $504.

2008 WCOOP Event #15 ($320 HU Matches) Recap

Well, I lost my first match. Crap! It lasted 46 minutes and 136 hands which is pretty long for one of these. I got paired against another supernova. I know he was a supernova because a few days ago they made it so you can display your VIP status right on your icon! Those of you who have been watching me may have wondered about the 5 stars under my picture. If I had 4 stars it would mean I was platinum, 3 for gold, 2 for sliver and 1 for bronze.

Despite being supernova this guy totally sucked! He was one of the most predictable opponents I've every played. When he bet big he had it and when he bet small it was a bluff. The only problem I had was trusting my read (and the fact that I made very few real hands). The people I normally play against are very crafty and it threw me off to play against someone so straightforward. I just couldn't believe that he would keep acting that way! Actually towards the end he did shift gears a little, but I still think I could have beaten him 8 times out of 10.

Maybe I'll have better luck in the $215 Heads Up Matches second chance!

A Big Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who stayed up late to watch last night. Also thanks to E.B. for driving out here at about 1 a.m. to root me on in person and give me someone to high five after Jen went to sleep!

2008 WCOOP Events #15 & #16 Preview

Event #15 is $320 Heads Up Matches. The way it works is you play against one player and whoever wins moves on. If you win you have to wait until all of the other matches are done before being paired with a new opponent. If you win 3 matches you're in the money.

Event #16 is $215 Pot Limit Omaha with 1 rebuy and 1 add on. This is a tournament that wasn't on my original schedule, but since I'm now flush with cash and I did so well in the other PLO that I played I figured why not.

Also I want to give myself as many chances to cash as possible. There are only about 75 players who have 3 or more cashes, 25 who have 4 or more, 6 who have 5, one who has 6, and one with 7. While it would be tough for me to contend for most cashes, I might be able to get into the top ten by the time it's all over. I do have 4 cashes in the second chance tournaments in 6 tries, but that doesn't count for anything except the money won of course (and a little satisfaction!).

This Omaha tournament will be 9 handed and unlike yesterdays rebuy tournament where you could rebuy as many times as you wanted during the first hour (assuming you had under 2,000 chips), in this one you can only rebuy once. At the end of the first hour you can add more chips with the add on. Basically the max commitment in this one is $615.

2008 WCOOP Event #13 ($215 with rebuys) Recap

At this point much of yesterday's tournament has blended together so the details aren't going to be as sharp as most of my posts. And while I'm trying to get myself to just feel good about it I can't help but have mixed feelings.

When I last left off I had about 90,000 chips with 88 players left. Soon after a very aggressive player moved all in from the cutoff and I called with 77. He turned over J9s, but I flopped a 7 and moved up to over 200,000.

The great thing about this tournament is I was stuck at between a third and half of average for hours and hours, but I still had plenty of chips in relation to the blinds. This allowed me to stay patient and wait for good hands which I got plenty of.

Specifically I kept getting AQ! I must have had it 10 times after we got down to less than 100 players. And I won with it every time! Usually it was by blowing all in against an initial raiser who every time but one folded. I got called one time by 88, but managed to hit an ace and double up.

With less than 25 players left I had by far my favorite hand of the tournament (although that one with K9 suited is second). I wish I could remember all the precise details, but I think it went something like this. With blinds of 6,000/12,000 a player raised on the button to 30,000 and I made it 110,000 to go with 99 (I had something like 600,000 when the hand started). My opponent called and the flop came down QJ9 with two hearts giving me a set! I bet out about 150,000, my opponent who had about the same number of chips I did, made it 320,000 and I moved all in. I was hoping to see hand like AA or AQ, but instead my opponent showed KJ of hearts giving him a straight and a flush draw. In other words he was 39% to win while with AA he would have only ben 11% and with AQ it would have been 5%!

But then the turn came down...and it was a 9! QUADS BABY! 1,000,000 chips baby!

This was the first time I was in really good shape chip wise and it looked like I had a great chance to make the final table. For a long time I was telling myself that if I could just make it to 18th or better I'd be happy. All of the pay jumps were around $150 every time we'd lose another 9 players, but while 19th-27th paid $2,685 16th-18th paid $5,114. This was enough that I would feel like this tournament was a real success. We crossed that pay line and then quickly made the next pay jump. 13th to 15th paid $7,671. Before I knew it we were down to 12 which paid $10,228.

We played with 10 players for a good while and it seemed like we'd never make it down to the final table. Then I got a total gift. The blinds were 15,000/30,000 and the shortest stack had about 440,000. He was in the small blind and made a bold move with J8 moving all in. I woke up with QQ in the big blind and took him out!

Then I totally blew it! At one point at the final table I had over 2,000,000 chips, but with about 1,600,000 left I flushed my whole stack on one hand. With blinds of 20,000/40,000 I raised to 120,000 with KJ and got called by the big blind. The flop came down J T 7 and after my opponent checked I bet out 240,000. He just called and the turn came an 8. This was truly a terrible card since now any 9 made a straight. Again my opponent checked which is exactly what I should have done. Instead thought "There's no reason he should have a 9 is there?" And then I moved all in. I got snap called by T9 and that was it.

9th place paid $14,192. I won't remind you what the other places paid, because it sucks to think about what if. So officially I'm going to stop moping and try this again!

9th PLACE PAID $14,192! WCOOP FINAL TABLE BABY! This was a real marathon. I played for over 15 hours which is the longest I've ever played in any poker tournament.

The best part is now the WCOOP is guaranteed to show a profit! That right all of you backers, you'll all be getting a check from me when this is all done. For how much remains to be seen.

Right now my starting bankroll of $10,000 had ballooned to $23,723!