SCOOP Update

Since my last post I've played 4 (well three and a half) SCOOP tournaments and come up short in them all.

The biggest disappointment came in the $215 triple shootout. Starting at a table of 10 players and needing to beat all of them to make the money I made it down to 1 opponent. And I was much better than him. And at one point I had a 33,000 to 17,000 chip lead.

He beat me because I did exactly what I shouldn't have done; I played big pots. If you have the skill advantage you want to play small pots and let your edge kick in over time. If you just throw your chips in there who knows what might happen. I can't remember the last time I felt so frustrated about a tournament result. I totally blew it! I won $1,700 in the cash games that day and still felt super pissed at the end of my work day.

The other 3 tournaments were two turbo limit tournaments ($22 and $215) that ended very quickly without much fanfare and a $162 half pot limit hold'em, half pot limit Omaha. In that one I got dealt AA on the button, raised, got reraised and I raised again (I considered calling, but decided to be aggressive). The flop came down jack high garbage and my opponent check raised me all in. I called and he showed me JJ! BOO!

I'm losing $1,689 for the SCOOP, and my $7,500 FTOPS/SCOOP bankroll sits at $5,248.

Nothing today, but $109 with rebuys tomorrow at 2 PT and $320 8 game at 11 on Thursday.

SCOOP Event #13 $162 "Ante Up" Recap

This tournament had a very interesting format. I thought it was just going to be antes from hand #1, but it turns out it was increasing antes with blinds of 5/5 the whole way through. After the first few levels there were effectively no blinds.

My opponents clearly had no idea how to adjust to this format. I'd say about 2/3 of the pots were being raised preflop. That means 1/3 of the time you could see a flop for 5 chips. We started with 5,000. I can see when the antes are 10 chips a player, or even 25, folding might be an option. But when the antes are 100 and there's 900 in the pot and 1/3 of the time you get to see a flop with a shot of hitting big and winning that 900, folding for 5 chips is crazy.

But EVERY SINGLE HAND 2, 3 or 4 players would fold preflop with no raise. Even when the antes got up to 500 a player and there was 4,500 in the pot before anyone had done anything and these guys had 50,000 chips they were STILL not putting in those 5 chips to see the flop. It's flabbergasting! What are you worried about someone popping it and losing .01% of your stack? PUSSIES!

I committed to playing every hand for 5 chips early on as did some of my thinking opponents. I think the fact that I play limit all day and am used to seeing flop after flop in spots where my opponents could have a wide range of hands and playing pots on the turn and river helped me a lot.

Early on I was on the button and a few people had called the 5 chips. The ante was 50 a player so there was close to 500 in the pot. Confused by the format everyone was playing really tight and passive. I decided I was going to just start shooting at the pots with air for a while until I got some resistance. So I made it 400 to go with T2.

I got called by one player in the field and the flop came down Q 9 8. My opponent checked to me and I bet out 600 still on a bluff. He called me and the turn came down a jack. BINGO! My total bluff turned into a straight! My opponent checked and I checked behind him hoping to convince him that I didn't have a ten in my hand.

The river was a brick and my opponent moved all in! HA! I had about 4,000 left in my stack and snap called him. He had QJ and I was up to 11,000.

At this point he went ballistic going on about how I was a moron and how could I play T2 and how he was rich because of players like me. For 30 minutes every time I'd lose a pot he'd call me an ATM or a donk or my favorite a "Donk ATM." Clearly he was rattled big time (he raised to 900 on the very next had with only 450 in the pot)and this hand helped me later on.

I flopped a straight vs a set and busted a short stack who had AJ vs my AK and found myself with 18K. We started with 2,007 players, at that point there were 575 left and I had a dead average stack.

I was up to 25K when I got into it with Mr. Donk ATM again. We were 4+ hours into the tournament and we were still at the same table which was a little surprising. The antes were 200 a player at this point and I made it 1,200 to go with AK. Mr. Donk called me and the flop came down A 8 2 rainbow.

I knew he was thinking about the hand with the T2. He'd mentioned it hours after it happened. I was sure he'd call me with anything at all if I bet the flop and there was no way he'd have me on AK. So I bet and he called. The turn was a blank and I checked hoping he'd bet, but he checked behind. The river was another blank and I decided to overbet the pot to make it look like a bluff. There was about 6,000 in the pot and I bet 7,000. He insta called me with QQ. He was down to 5K and I was up to 35K. SUCK IT JERK!

I still had about 35K which was average when we made the money with 288 players left.

I caught a nice break beating JJ with AQ which took me up to 62K and had me in great shape. At that point I was in 60th of 219 remaining players.

I'd faded down to less than 40K when the following hand came up. I had J9s and I made it to the flop cheap (for more than 5, but not a ton). The antes were about 500 at this point and the flop came down K T 8 with two spades. My lone opponent bet out 10,000 into the pot of about 10,000 and I decided to go for it. So I moved all in for something like 35K. He called me with AT of spades! Whoops! The turn was an ace, but the river was a queen and I was up to 77K!

At that point I started dreaming big, but I was done in soon after by a hand I might have misplayed or at the very least could have played differently.

I had about 60K, got 88 and made it about 4K to go. I got reraised to 10K and I called. The flop came down 2 3 4, I checked, my opponent bet 15K and I went all in. He thought for a little bit and called me with 99. No miracles and that was it. When I got reraised preflop it felt like a big pair and I feel like maybe I could have check folded the flop. Of course if he has 77 I feel like a genius so who knows.

I finished 153rd which paid $376. Not off the charts by any means, but it felt good to make the money.

A Big 4 days of SCOOP Action

Brick city in the Mixed hold'em and the 7-card stud. Not much to tell. If you want a little more detail you can look back at my twitter updates.

At 11 PT Friday I have $162 NLH with antes from the start and I might play $55 limit Omaha 8 at 3.

On Saturday I have $215 triple shootout in the morning and then $22 and $215 limit turbo (5-minute limits) at 5 PT.

On Sunday we're back with $215 NLH "big antes" (not sure exactly what that means) in the morning and $215 NLH in the afternoon

Monday is $162 PL hold'em/PLO at 11 am, and maybe $11 and $109 with rebuys turbo at 5 pm.

Tuesday is going to be an off day with 5 days of SCOOP after that.

It only takes one good one to make this whole thing a big success.

Wednesday's Action

Today I have $215 half Limit hold'em, half NL hold'em which is underway, with about 900 entrants. The action is 6 handed, so this one is right in my wheelhouse (whatever that means).

At 3 PT I have $320 Stud. I've actually played a fair amount of Stud (50 times more than your typical online poker pro) so I like my chances in that one too.

I'm ready for a SCOOP victory!

The Race - Days 3,4

These Carbon Poker games are making me crazy! For some reason I'm not playing well in them. Many times at the end of a hand I ask myself "why the hell did I do that?"

I have played in all kind of limit poker games. After a couple million hands I feel like I've played just about every type of opponent you could face. But some weak players are easier for me to beat than others. The players easiest to beat are the ones who play too tight and are predictable. That's not how the games play on Carbon.

The Carbon games are really loose with lots of multiway action and frequent raising and reraising. The players are much more showdown bound than their AP counterparts and while in the long run I know I'm going to crush them (because they suck!), I can't just go on autopilot and use my standard plays. I have to do things like check when I miss the flop (gasp!) or check when I miss the turn (double gasp!).

My default when I raise preflop and am only facing one opponent is to fire the flop and the turn (and often the river too) whether I have it or I don't. It makes it tough for my opponents to put me on a hand and if we both miss the flop (which is the most likely thing to happen) then I usually win. You might think that players would catch on to this and start coming after me with nothing, but it takes balls to bluff hard enough to be effective and of course some of the time I have a good hand. After you crash face first into a real hand with a total bluff it's really hard to summon the courage to try another one right away.

Anyway, these fuckers on Carbon Poker seem to be calling me down left and right no matter what they have so I need to change my tactics a little bit. It's not hard, I just need to be explicitly conscious of what I'm doing.

With all that bitching you'd think I was getting killed, when I'm actually just about even. I just feel like I should be winning more.

As far as the race itself I've earned 9,000 points in 4 days. In order to make it through level 13 of the race and pick up $5,000 in prizes I need to make it to 75,250. I think that's my target right now, since I'm way behind pace to make it to the next level which is 125,000. Actually I need to step it up a little to just make it to the 75K mark, but I think I have it in me.

In other news, I'm still beating the shit out of the players on Absolute Poker. I'm +$3,000 or so this month on AP in 2,000 hands of action.

SCOOP Badugi and Heads Up Matches Recap

The Badugi tournament was interesting, but not profitable.

One of the things that is frustrating about badugi is that your hand doesn't often improve that often. In hold'em the best hand you can start with is one pair, and you only have two of the seven cards that go into making a showdown hand.

In Badugi if you have a playable hand it means you have 3/4 of or your entire showdown hand already. If you have A23 (the best possible draw) - let's say it's one club, one diamond, one heart - then the only cards that improve your hand are the 4-K of spades. That's only 10 cards out of the remaining 49 in the deck. Clearly starting out with a made 4 card hand is a huge advantage.

In the end I played for about 4 hours, but never got my starting stack of 5K over 7K. $162 out the window in that one.

I got much closer in the heads up matches. We started that tournament with 2,048 players. It takes 3 match wins to make the money and 11 to win the tournament. Somehow it seems like it shouldn't be that hard to only beat 11 guys.

In my first match my opponent was not great. I'd say under these conditions I could beat him 7 or 8 times out of 10. We went back and forth for a long time and while I was ahead almost the whole time it took 120 hands for me to finish him off. In the end he got his money in good with JJ against my 77, but I hit a 7 on the river to win the match.

In match #2 my opponent was much better. I'd say we were very evenly matched. After 82 hands we got it all in (I had him significantly covered) with a small pair for him and A9 for me. A nine came on the river and I was on to match #3.

Match #3 came to an end much quicker. About 10 hands in I got dealt AKs. He raised, I reraised, he popped it again and I put him all in. He called me with 88 and I missed. I still had 1,000 chips to his 9,000 and actually got it back to 2,500 when I got it all in with AJ vs 55. If I win that pot we are back to even. Instead I was out the door, just short of the money.

After 13 tournaments in the FTOPS and SCOOP my $7,500 bankroll is at $6,183.

The Race - Day 2

I was mostly focused on tournament on race day 2, but I did manage 2,100 points, which was enough to finish the 2,000 point milestone 4 and get most of the way through the 2,500 point milestone 5.

Once I get through milestone 5 I will have made $67.50 from the race which is of course total bullshit. But significant prizes are right around the corner.

As far as the game play goes these Carbon poker players are making me crazy! On AP I know everybody and have notes on them all. I don't have a feel for the field on Carbon yet. I'm getting a handle on it, but it's taking longer than I'd hoped.

The thing that's throwing me off is some of the players are pretty good and the rest are incredibly bad but in a very aggressive way. I'm taking a lot of weird bad beats which I know is a good thing in the long run, but tough in the short run.

I hope today is a good one!