A New Project

Brick city in the WCOOP today and nothing on the schedule for tomorrow.

I have been steadily kicking ass in the $10/$20 cash games though. On Friday I lost about $2,000 in $15/$30 and then my opponent in a $30/$60 heads up match was better than I thought and got an insane run of cards. In total I lost something like $5,000. But I got it all back plus and extra few hundred (plus FPPS) over the next 3 days. Then today I put another $1,200 win on the books.

I have a new poker project. My wife and I are going on a cruise next month and between the cost of the cruise, airfare to the L.A. area (we're going to leave our son with my wife's parents for a few nights) and whatever money we spend on the boat we're going to need $1,500-$2,000. My wife is very frugal by nature, and while I'm not a total spendthrift I can sometimes lose track of the value of a dollar (I'm actually much better than most pro poker players).

We were debating the various cost and benefits of certain options for our vacation and I wanted to go the more expensive route and she wanted to make things as difficult as possible logistically (you know like flying at 3 in the morning with a 48 hour layover and levaing on the cruise 147 days afer we get to LA) in order to save a few bucks. Eventually I got fed up and said "honey, don't worry about it. I'll put in some special hours on the lap top in front of the TV and get win enough to cover the cost of all this shit." So I got my way, but now I have to put my money where my mouth is!

I deposited $1,000 into absolute poker and my challenge is to turn it into $3,000 by October 20th. I'm going to treat this playing like a normal person might. Play a little here and there after work and play whatever seems fun at the time. I have a deal where I'm getting 31% of my rake back and they have some sort of other rewards programs on top of that. I've been wanting to explore the benefits as well as the level of play in their games so this seems like a perfect opportunity to do so. Today I played about 100 hands of $5/$10 and won $121. So far so good on the Absolute Poker Challenge.

The Future of This Blog

More and more I've been getting comments from people I've never met who say they enjoy reading my blog. I also keep finding out that old friends and acquaintances have been reading. These people aren't all extremely poker savvy or aren't so much interested in the pluses and minuses of my daily results, but rather the experiences an emotions of playing poker for a living. So I'm going to make an effort to be a little less results based and a little more colorful in my posts. Not sure if I'll stick to it, but that's my intention.

Now completely contrary to the spirit if this post let me say WCOOP event #34 ($215 NLH with big antes) is underway! 3,650 players to start and an hour in we're down to 3,000 or so. I'm up from 5K all the way to 5,200! Look out! 1st place $114,610.

Now in the spirit of this post let me say I got drunk as a skunk last night and don't really feel like playing today! We had a dinner party for about 10 people and I over did it. One of the biggest benefits of this job is being able to do stuff like stay up until 2 in the morning boozing it up and then be able to sleep in the next day. After 6 years of that kind of freedom I'm not sure I could ever handle a 9 to 5 job.

Anyway, I'm a little foggy this afternoon, but the show must go on! Results (hopefully good ones!) later.

The Damage and What's Left in the WCOOP

So far I've played 18 WCOOP events with 2 cashes and a net loss of $2,433. Pretty terrible!

I've also played 14 satellites and 2 second chance tournaments with a total net loss of $1,188. Not great.

If I'd been able to convert that 50,000 FPP satellite into the $10,300 prize that was all but in my grasp I'd obviously be in fine shape over all. That was the real disappointment of the 2009 WCOOP so far.

So what's left? Tomorrow at 11:30 I have $215 no limit hold'em with big antes. In that one they start the antes from level 1 and they are 20% of the big blind. It changes the dynamic a little bit to have so much dead money in the pot.

Friday at 1:30 I have the $1,050 6 handed limit tournament. This is my specialty. I play 6 handed limit more than any other game by a wide margin. I can't say why I haven't had more success in the handful of 6 max limit tournaments I've played in the past, but I have high hopes.

Saturday at 1:30 I have $2,100 8-game mixed. My best result by far in this years WCOOP was playing 8-game mixed. I thrive in the mixed games format. I've made the money in 3 of the 6 either HORSE or 8-game mixed tournaments I've played with buy ins over $1,000, never finished out of the top 30%, and had a 2nd out of 32 and a 4th out of 444.

Sunday at 10:00 am $215 NL hold'em.

The last tournament is the $5,200 main event. I got an entry to this tournament for making it to Supernova Elite in 2008, but would have played it anyway even if I didn't have a ticket. They are guaranteeing a $10,000,000 prize pool which will be the biggest in online history and that means a $2,000,000+ first place prize. There is no reason why I can't win this tournament. Sure it would take some strong play and a lot of luck, but it could happen.

Also as a late addition there are a few more FPP buy in satellites with added value in which I'm going to include my backers in the action (if I play other value added FPP satellites not listed below I have all of my own action). There is a pretty simple way to figure out what FPPs are worth. You can buy a $215 tournament entry for 13,500 FPPs so that means 62.8 FPPs are worth $1.

The tournaments I'm going to play are 50,000 FPP satellite to the $10,300 HORSE (Saturday 11:40) where pokerstars is adding one $10,300 seat to the prize pool, and 25,000 FPP buy in to the $5,200 main event (Saturday 1:40) with five $5,200 seats added. The thing about these tournaments that makes them so valuable is they don't attract that many players. There are only so many people that have 75,000 FPPs to use on these. The players that have a lot of FPPs are cash game players who tend not to play tournaments and the tournament players don't have very many FPPs. We'll see but I expect about 25 players or less in the HORSE and maybe 100 in the NLH.

Let's hope I've saved all my luck for the big ones!

What a Terrible WCOOP!

I'm out of the other tournament as well. I was up to 12K or so and got it in on the flop with top pair and a flush draw vs bare aces in the PLO and missed.

Bad so far, but a cash in the main event or even a semi deep finish in the other two $1,000+ events could turn things around.

WCOOP Events #29 and #30 Underway!

Down to 3,500 from 5K in event #29 ($320 half pot limit hold'em hald PLO) and while writing this post I lost a 13K pot and went broke in the other one ($320 NLH) with a set (got it all in vs a flush draw on the turn and he hit). ACK!

No WCOOP Today

I had two tournaments on my schedule today and both were no limit hold'em. The first started at 10 am and I slept through it and the second one has a $1,050 buy in.

The problem is I haven't been feeling well these last two days and it's totally screwed up my sleep schedule. I woke up yesterday about 6 am (4 hours earlier than normal) and for some reason couldn't get back to sleep. I was awake for almost 24 hours before falling asleep around 5 am this morning. And I just woke up at 2 in the afternoon.

So I don't feel very sharp and I'm not really in the mood for a $1,000 NLH tournament where it's going to take 6 or 7 hours to just make the money and 20+ hours to go all the way through. Playing a big tournament in person it's not so tough to handle playing all day. You're getting about 35 hands an hour and there are 20 minute breaks every 2 hours with a 60 or 90 minute dinner break. Online it's 100+ hands an hour, a break of 5 minutes every hour and 15 minute dinner break. Plus I can't just sit here any play one game because it would make me totally insane.

So that's the story. Tomorrow $320 half hold'em, half PLO, and $320 NL hold'em 2X chance (all that means is if you go totally broke in the first hour you can rebuy one time).

Things don't get really serious until next weekend. Friday is $1,050 6 handed limit hold'em, Saturday is $2,100 8-game mixed, and Sunday is the $5,200 main event. There's no backing out of any of these because first of all I wouldn't want to and second of all I have tickets for the second two that aren't good for anything else but these tournaments.

Back to Plan A

I woke up early today, spent a few hours playing with my son and then a few more reading in bed. I feel 90% recovered from yesterday and I really can't pass up a $320 HORSE tournament with 800+ players on a Saturday.

I'm also going to play the $215 HORSE second chance as well as the $215 heads up matches second chance.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Update

Today was one of the ten worst days of my poker career. I got totally decimated in the cash games, bricked in the $215 with rebuys and am pretty much dead in the Omaha. Not in the mood for a full update right now. In fact I might take tomorrow off to get myself back in the right mindset.

WCOOP Event #21 underway!

After doing the rebuy and add on, you get 17,500 chips to start in this tournament an hour and a half in the blinds are 50/100. I'll be collecting social security before we make the money in this one. 2,780 players shooting for the $220,000 first place prize!

Friday WCOOP

This is going to be my biggest day yet in the 2009 WCOOP in terms of buy ins. I'm going to play the $215 with rebuys (which should mean $615 investment) event #21 and the $109 with rebuys (which should be $309, $409 or $509 investment) second chance.

Even though it wasn't on my schedule I'm going to play event #21 $530 limit Omaha hi-lo. The more WCOOP events I play the more I realize people are getting out of their comfort zone. Other people are going to play this event who have very little experience with Omaha. This is maybe my 5th or 6th best game when it comes to tournaments, but I'm all but positive I'll still have an edge, I'm coming off a decent win, and I didn't put together a $20,000 bankroll so I could pussy out on a $500 tournament!

Lastly I'll be playing the $320 NL hold'em with 10 minute levels (typical $320 buy in WCOOP events have 30 minute levels). This one isn't going to last until the break of dawn, but they are still starting us with 5,000 chips and 10/20 blinds so it's not going to be too fast.

Let's hope I take one of these to the house!