Event #39 Recap

I finished 58th in the $1,050 6 max limit which paid $1,748. A full recap is coming tomorrow. Still in the Omaha. We're down to 306 players and I'm in 60th with 28,000 chips. 180 spots pay and 1st place is $42,323.

NL Omaha

I guess I'm OK at NL Omaha. I'm in 1st of 909 players! We started with 1,285 players and 5K chips and I have 28K chips after 80 hands. Long way to go still, but the best possible start.

Hanging on in the big one. 94 players left. Average is 47K and i have 21K which puts me in 78th.

Down to 1,000 in the 2nd chance.

Lots of WCOOP action!

Right now I'm in 4 WCOOP tournaments.

First, I'm in a $55 with rebuys turbo satellite to tomorrows $2,100 8-game mixed. They guaranteed 5 seats and there's no way they are going to get $10,500 into this prize pool with the 45 players who are playing.

Second, I'm in the $530 6 max limit second chance. Tough field in that one. Only 38 players with 6 spots paying. 1st $7,030 and 6th $1,045.

Third, I decided to play Event #40 $215 no limit Omaha hi lo. It's kid of goofy playing a split pot game no limit, but I thought I'd give it a shot. It is Friday night and I'm sure a lot of less qualified players are also going for it in this one. Unfortunately I'm down to 3K from 5K after getting quartered in a big pot.

Lastly, of course I'm still in the $1,050 limit. Holding steady with 18K and in 114th of 194.

The Edge of Possibility

I've had two runs in the past two days that have been on the edge of what is possible at the stakes I'm playing.

Yesterday I lost $3,000 in 1,000 hands playing no higher than $10/$20. Things have been going well lately so I'm all but sure I didn't tilt. I just couldn't connect with a flop! And when I did I'd hit it so hard no one could call (If the flop is A 7 3 and you have AA, there aren't to many hands that are going to give you action). Of course I took some bad beats too, but mostly is was just missing flop after flop, and my opponents calling me down with worse and worse hands (not easy to bluff when you keep showing bluffs!). I don't think 1,500,000 hands of limit hold'em I've ever lost 150 big bets in 1,000 hands.

I would bet that I could see 100% of flops regardless of action and not lose $3,000 in 1,000 hands.

Today the dead opposite! $2,300 to the good in 300 hands! I won 29 of 35 hands at showdown (compared to about 35% yesterday). 115 big bets in 45 minutes is unprecedented in my poker career. I just couldn't miss.

I might not see a run like either of these anytime in the next few years and they happened on back to back days!

Still right around 17K in the limit. I might play the $215 No limit Omaha-8 at 5:00.

Update

2 hours in we're down to 410 players. I was up to 15K then down to 8K and now Back up to 16k and in 57th. Some of these guys are hyper aggressive, but it's nothing I haven't seen 100 times before and certainly not going to give me problems.

1st place pays $83,000 and the edge of the money is 66th which pays $1,530.

$10,000 Make it or Break it Weekend!

I have roughly $10,000 in WCOOP tournaments in the next 3 days. Kind of scary when I think about it.

Today I have $1,050 6 handed limit hold'em which is underway. Looks like we'll have 400-450 entrants when late registration is over. The good news is I don't recognize anyone at my table. We started this one with 10,000 chips and stakes of 60/120.

Later today I have the $530 second chance 6 max limit tournament. Not sure how many entrants to expect in that one. Maybe 50?

I'll do my best to at least post some updates on twitter.

I am ready for some good luck!

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.