Event #11 Recap

This tournament was really boring. I got AA once and KK twice and stole the blinds all three times. Other than that it was a garbage fest.

Two hands come to mind that did me in. On the first I called a small raise with T9s. Another player called behind me and the flop came down J 9 7 giving me a pair and a gutshot straight draw. The initial raiser checked and I bet 900 into a pot of about 1,000. The player behind me called and the initial raiser folded. The turn was a king giving me a few more outs if I was beat.

I thought about checking but decided to fire again betting 2,000. My opponent raised me to 5,000. Now there was 10,000 in the pot and it would cost me another 3,000 to see if I could make my straight. This is a close situation. If the only thing that's going to give me the pot is a straight and I'm not going to get anything out of my opponent with a bet on the end if I hit, then I should fold. If a 9 or a ten makes me the best hand as well as a straight then it's a clear call. I was thinking that a straight or a 9, but not a ten would make me a winner, and that my opponent would call a small bet on the river if I hit.

The river was a 7 and I checked. My opponent also checked and showed me T8 meaning he flopped a straight!

That hand took me from 14,000+ to 8,000. I've forgotten how I dropped to 4,500, but that's where I was when the hand that did me in came up.

The blinds were 75/150 with an ante and a player in middle position raised to 400. I was in the big blind with 89 and decided to take a flop. When the cards came out I was looking at Q T 8. I didn't exactly knock it out of the park, but that wasn't a total miss either. I checked and my opponent bet out 625 into the pot of about 1,000.

Folding or calling were options I considered here, but in the end I figured it was time to go for it. There was a fair chance I had the best hand (or that my opponent would fold, since I didn't think he'd call me with a worse hand), and if I didn't, an 8, 9 or J should make me a winner. I moved all in and my opponent called me with KQ. I was 32% to win after the flop, but I didn't get there and that was it.

I won $800 in the cash games while I was playing though so I'm not feeling too bad. It's making me wonder why the hell I'm playing these damn tournaments!

WCOOP Event #11 Underway!

Event #11 is $530 NL hold'em. 6,219 of us started with 10,000 chips each, blinds of 25/50 and 30 minute levels.

This tournament is going to take a long time! 5 hours in the blinds will only be 200/400! 2 hours in I'm up to 14,400.

There is some serious money at the end of this rainbow. 1st place is $472,000! Any finish in the top 6 is worth over $100,000! 54th or better will net me $5,000 and the edge of the money is 900th place which pays $808.

The Damage So Far

With 20% of the WCOOP in the rearview mirror my $20,000 bankroll sits at $18,420. Most of these tournament have been sort of warm up and as a result the damage hasn't been to severe. I'm 1 for 6 in WCOOP events and 0 for 7 in satellites (haven't played a second chance tournament yet) which sucks, but it's still early.

WCOOP Multitournament Recap

I'll get to my satellite debachle in a minute. But first other news.

I finished 368th of 844 in the PL 5-card draw. I got my starting stack of 5,000 up to 14,000 and felt pretty good about how I played, but after hours of playing pretty well I think I got a little too aggressive late. I opened for a pot sized raise with AAKK2 got reraised and moved all in. My opponent had a pat straight, I didn't make a full house on the draw and that was it.

In the $215 limit I finished 818th of 1,800. Can't say what went wrong here. I got off to a slow start and was short stacked for a long time, but I ran my 5,000 chip starting stack up to 10,000 at one point before making a quick drop to zero chips.

In today's $215 NLH tournament (event #9) I lasted all of 20 minutes. I signed up late so as to avoid the mind numbing first few levels where the stakes are super low. Again we started with 5,000 chips. With blinds of 25/50 I lost 500 chips when I raised with AQ, got called, missed, bet the flop, got called and check folded the turn.

Shortly after a player with about 1,500 chips made it 150 from the cutoff. I reraised to 450 with AK, he moved all in with AQ, and I called. The turn and river were both queens.

A little while later a player open raised to 150, the next player made it 500, and I moved all in for about 3,000 with TT. This play wasn't crazy, but I probably should have folded. The guy who made it 500 had AA and knocked me out.

Now that that's out of the way let's talk about that satellite yesterday. Top 4 players got $10,300, 5th place got $375, and I finished 6th and got $0.

With 8 players left and blind of 250/500 with some small ante I had 16,000 and was in 2nd place, but the small stack was 8,000 or so and the big stack was less than 20,000. We were all pretty even.

Then I busted the small stack. He (insanely) moved all in from the button for 8,000 with 69 and I called from the big blind with AJs. He flopped a 9, but I turned an ace. That put me in first with 7 players left as the blinds went up to 300/600.

In a normal tournament where each place pays a different amount, it almost always the right thing to do to be active and aggressive and use your big stack to push your opponents around. But in a satellite situation where the top 4 all pay the same amount you have to ask yourself "do I have enough chips that I can just cruise the rest of the way?" Sometimes it feels like you have enough chips that your victory is all but sure and then later you find that you've been ground down to the point that you're back in jeopardy. When that happens you end up thinking "why didn't I make a few small moves when I had some chips?!"

What made this situation difficult was everyone had a solid stack. Nobody was under pressure. Even the shortest stack had 20 big blinds and the structure of the tournament was very slow. I didn't need to do anything crazy, but sitting back completely wasn't an option.

We played that way for a good 45 minutes (the blinds moved up to 350/700 at some point) and I managed to keep my stack close to 25,000 for the whole time. Twice I folded hands I would have called with in a normal tournament. Both times, I raised to 2,100 and someone reraised all in to about 12,000. The first time I folded AJs and the second time I folded 77. I didn't want to be taking significant risks unless I had to.

Then the point came where I had to. A player on the button who was the most active at the table made it something like 2,000 to go. He had maybe 15,000 chips total. I had AQ in the big blind and I can say for sure that the only move here is to go all in. So that's what I did. He thought for a little while and called me with 88. And he flopped an 8.

Now I had less than 10,000 and was the short stack. A few rounds went by and then I got dealt A8 suited in the big blind. The small blind moved all in and I thought this was a good spot to get my money in. After all if he had a really good hand you'd never expect him to just move all in like that. But it turns out he had AK!

The first card I saw on the flop was an 8 which gave me a few milliseconds of joy that lasted until I saw that there was also a king on the flop. And that was it.

I look back on everything I did and it all makes sense. But I'm certainly left playing the what if game. What if I call with those pocket sevens or AJ? What if I folded that A8? What if I'd been more aggressive earlier? What if I'd done anything other than what I did, because the end result was THE ABSOLUTE WORST thing that could have happened.

This was a very, very, very tough loss to take. One of the worst I can remember. It takes a lot for me to still be pissed the next day, and while I certainly feel better than I did yesterday, and I know I won't even care in a week or two, I'm still pissed.

Later today, event #11, $530 no limit with $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. This one is a 2 day event.

ACK!

I totally blew it in the satellite. I finished 6th. Don't really want to relive it right now so updates will have to wait until tomorrow. In fact I wish I could just get my money back from these stupid tournaments I'm in right now. This is one of those times that this job really sucks!!!!

Event #7 $215 PL 5-card Draw underway

We started with 844 players each with 5,000 chips. Since pokerstars guaranteed a $200,000 prize pool and there weren't enough players to meet that guarantee they had to add $18,500 to the prize pool. That's $22 a person, but since normally they'd be taking $15 a person out of the prize pool it's $37 a person in value that wouldn't be there if we hit 1,000 entrants.

After 2 hours of play I have 4,500 chips. I snapped off a major bluff in the first few hands and was up to 8,500, but thing have been pretty dry since then.

In the 50,000 FPPP satellite we started with 38 players which meant a much more significant $271 per player overlay! We started with 3,000 chips each and with 18 players left I have 3,750. The average stack is 6,400 and I need to finish in the top 4 to win $10,300.

Note to the Backers

Backers I told you that you wouldn't be in on any satellites where pokerstars added seats to the prize pool. I'm going to make and exception becauase there is one with lots of added value, but a hefty price tag as well. It's a 50,000 FPP (worth $750) buy in satellite to the $10,300 event. Pokerstars is adding one seat and there are only 34 people signed up with 1 minute to go. Thats like adding $300 a person to the prize pool. Not something I can pass up, but $750 is a lot for one satellite. Good luck to us all!

WCOOP Small Change of Plans

For some reason I got confused about the start time of event #6 $109 NLH WCOOP event and slept right through the registration period. Who cares about a $109 no limit tournament anyway right?

So it's time for plan B, and plan B is event #7 $215 pot limit 5-card draw! Ask me what I know about 5-card draw...NOTHING!

Well not quite nothing, but I can saw for sure that I haven't played more than a few hundred hands of high draw in my poker career (neglecting my pre-teen and early teen years). But let me tell you why I think I have a chance.

1) Despite what you might think from TV and movies, nobody plays draw.
2) The math is the same as other poker variations so I can figured out on the fly what I should do in many situations.
3) Nobody plays draw.
4) Tournament tactics transfer from game to game
5) Lastly, nobody plays draw.

Nobody plays draw because it's boring as hell. One of the reasons it's so boring is the strategy is fairly simplistic and there are only two betting rounds. So I don't expect to be surrounded by draw experts who ruthlessly stomp me. Instead I should be up against a bunch of other tournament players who are working out the kinks as they go just like me. I like my chances of doing that better.

As an added bonus pokerstars has guaranteed a $200,000 prize pool which means if there are fewer than 930 entrants there will be money added to the prize pool. 4 minutes to start time there are 559 players signed up and I expect there will be between 700 and 800 when the hour long late registration is done.

At 1:30 I have event #8 $215 limit hold'em and I have a few other non WCOOP tournaments on my schedule today. Hopefully I can make some magic happen.

WCOOP Event #5 underway!

Event #5 is $109 8-game mixed. We started with 1,779 players each with 3,000 chips. In this format every five minutes the game changes. Starting with 2-7 triple draw lowball, followed by limit hold'em, limit Omaha hi-lo, razz, 7-card stud, stud hi-lo, PLO and no limit hold'em. So after 40 minutes you will have played a few hands of each game in the mix. This format suit me very well because I play all of the games well if not very well and most of the other players aren't comfortable with all the games (it's usually the triple draw or one of the Omaha's that they have trouble with).

This tournament is meant to go quickly since it has such a small buy in relative to the other WCOOP tournaments and because it has a late start time. After and hour we've lost almost 30% of the field. In contrast, later in the series there is a $320 8-game tournament where we'll start with 5,000 chips and the game will change every ten minutes. Also at the end of the series there is a $2,100 8-game tournament where the game will change every 15 minutes and you get 10,000 chips to start.

Off to a slow start I only have 2,000 of the 3,000 chips I started with left and we're already playing 200/400 stakes so it could be a quick exit.

Event #3 Recap

I finished 248th which paid $361. I was down to about 10,000 and then I got it all in with AA85 vs AKKK which is about as far as you're ever going to be ahead preflop in PLO. That brought me back to 20K which was still only half of average.

I slipped back to 15K or so and then got dealt AQT2 with 2 spades and two diamonds. The blinds were 500/1,000 and I brought it in for 3K. The big blind who was a bronze star and played like it called me with KTT5 which is total garbage. The flop came down AT5 giving me two pair and my opponent a set of tens. He bet 3,000 and I moved all in. No miracles and that was it.

Since I almost didn't put this one on my schedule I feel great about this result.