Heavy WCOOP action

Today was the only day on my WCOOP schedule where I played 2 main events at the same time. Before I got to the real meat of the day I played a few satellites and a few other tournaments. While I was trying to figure out when I wanted to start today, I totally forgot about my supernova freeroll. You'd think that winning almost $8,000 last week would have burned the details of that tournament into my brain. Luckily Jen reminded me and I started my day off at around 11 am hoping to have a long day ahead of me. I didn't do anything in the Supernova, but I has success in other tournaments.

I'd missed out on all of the HORSE satellites which all started earlier, but I managed to play two small satellites to the $530 pot limit event. I never really got anything going and dropped $68 without getting close to the money.

A little later I played in another satellite that was special. The tournament was for Sunday's $1,050 event and was limited to players above a certain level of VIP status. What made the tournament special was Pokerstars added eighteen $1,050 seats to the prize pool above any beyond what the players contributed! Pretty sweet. The buy in was 6,600 FPP's (which are worth exactly $105 or 10% of a seat), 611 players entered and the top 79 finishers won $1,050 seats.

In contrast to the vast majority of satellites on Pokerstars which are turbos and have the blinds increase every 5 minutes, this tournament had 15 minute limits. We started with 1,500 chips and I made some progress right away. In no time I was up to 5,000 chips. I stayed about that level for a long, long time which was fine since I had enough chips to work with.

With about 125 players left I had about 4,200 chips and the blinds were 200/400 with a 40 chip ante. I picked up A6 suited in middle position and decided to move all in. I instantly regretted it. This hand was just not good enough and I wasn't yet quite desperate enough to move all in with such a marginal hand. Sure enough I got called by QQ and figured I was done. But I flopped a 6 and turned a 6 and doubled up! A few hands later I picked up QQ and won another few thousand when I reraised a raiser. So far so good.

With 100 players left I was in about 25th place with 12,000 chips and only needing to get to 79th I figured I could make it without playing another hand. Unfortunately I miscalculated. No one was playing any hands and it felt like 5 minutes was passing between every player elimination. The blinds kept getting bigger and bigger and my stack was melting away with every hand that passed.

By the time we were down to 90 players I was down to 6,000 and the blinds were up to 600/1200. ACK! I picked up TT on the button and with two shortish stacks in the blinds I was praying everyone would fold to me so I could move all in. Happily I got my wish and stole the blinds. I might have been able to make it without that hand, but it would have been much closer. After probably another 30 nerve racking minutes or so we'd lost the remaining players we needed and I picked up a sweet $1,050 seat! This was a net profit of $945 into the WCOOP coffers!

The HORSE event was amazingly uninteresting and since I don't have the ability to remember hands from all the weird games well as I do hold 'em hands I'll just gloss over it. Everyone at my table sucked at Omaha and Razz and were marginal at the other non hold'em games. I lasted about 4 hours or so and finished in 815th out of 1,639. A little disappointing given my competition but still a minor speed bump at worst.

I put in a much better showing in the $530 pot limit event. I cruised along for the first 3+ hours and had the one double up I mentioned in my previous post. I was back down to about 4,000 (we started with 3,000 chips) from my high of 5,500, with blinds of 150/300 when I picked up AK in the small blind. I raised to 900, the player in the big blind reraised and I moved in my remaining chips. He turned over KQ which I was thrilled to see (when you have AK, a worse K is the best hand to be up against). I managed to dodge a bad beat, my had held up and I was over 8,000.

I'd faded a little bit and was down to 6,000 with blinds of 200/400 when my next big hand came up. I was in the small blind again and after everyone folded I just called with QT. The player in the big blind raised to 1,200 and I called. The flop came down K J 5 giving me an open ended straight draw.

I wasn't sure what my next move should be. I didn't have anything that could win the pot yet, but I had a nice draw and my opponent could literally have anything since it's a common play to raise as a total bluff when the player in the small blind just calls. I decided to check and see what happened. My opponent bet 1,600 which didn't give me much of a clue as to what he might have. I decided to be aggressive and move all in. I thought I had a chance to win the pot without a fight right there and even if I got called I'd make my straight one time in three. Luckily my opponent quickly folded and I was up to 9,000 chips.

Shortly after, I had to put my tournament life on the line again. With blinds still at 200/400 I picked up QQ and raised to 1,200. A player who had about 7,000 chips reraised to 4,200 and I put him all in. I was hoping he had a smaller pair, but worried that he might have AA or KK. When he showed his cards I saw that he had AK suited. This wasn't perfect, but it wasn't terrible either. I was a 53% favorite before the flop, but when a Q came out on the flop it was all but over. After winning that pot my stack had swelled to 16,000 chips and I was in 77th place of 180. With 153 players making the money I was in great shape for another cash.

I went up to 18,000 and back down to 11,000, but when we finally made it to 153 players I had about 15,000 with an average stack of about 25,000. I was guaranteed to pick up $872 and hoping to move up a few more levels.

I dribbled down to 11,000 with a few minor miscues and then with blinds at 400/800 I picked up AA in the big blind. AH HA! The firs player to act raised, when it got to me I reraised and he just called. The flop came down T 9 6 and Jen said something like "That can't be a bad flop." ACK! MASSIVE JINX ALERT! I moved all in my remaining chips and got called by T9! Shit! Luckily I caught an ace on the turn, took down the pot and was up to 23,000.

A little while later with blinds of 500/1000 I put a player who had about 7,000 chips all in with AJ. He turned over QQ, but I hit an ace on the flop and was up to 32,000. After that hand I was starting to feel a little invincible. I had just about the average stack and I was starting to dream about making the final table where instead thousands, I'd be looking at tens of thousands (8th was $10,900 and it went up from there to $117,00 for 1st).

We crossed over the next money jump at 117 players and I was now looking at at least $981. Then I made a mistake. With blinds of 500/1000 a player in middle position made the minimum raise. I called with AT suited in the small blind and the big blind folded. The flop came down T 9 7 and I bet 3,000 into the 5,000 chip pot. My opponent just called, and the turn was another small card. I bet 6,000 and got raised to 12,000. I was hoping that the minimum raise preflop indicated a marginal hand, but now it looked like it was either a big pair or a set. I folded wishing I'd just dumped that cheese before the flop. I was down to 17,000 and in need of some help.

We crossed over the next payout jump which meant I was sure to get at least $1,144. Then I met my demise. A player to my left raised to 2,500 and I reraised to 8,000 with QQ. He put me all in and turned over AK. The flop came down 3 4 5 which was OK, but the turn was a 2 making him a straight and with no 6 or A on the river to force a split, I was out in 89th place.

I managed to net $614.50 on this event and felt good about how I played. Clearly things are going well in the WCOOP. Right now my starting WCOOP bankroll of $2,000 has almost doubled and is up to $3,917.30!!!

Tomorrow is the biggest event on my schedule - $1,050 no limit hold 'em. Pokerstars is guaranteeing a 2 million dollar prize pool so I suspect it will be more like 3 million with 1st place being around half a million. I give my self no worse than a 1 in 1750 shot of taking down 1st place and the way I've been playing lately, who knows what might happen.