2008 WCOOP Event #13 ($215 with rebuys) Recap

At this point much of yesterday's tournament has blended together so the details aren't going to be as sharp as most of my posts. And while I'm trying to get myself to just feel good about it I can't help but have mixed feelings.

When I last left off I had about 90,000 chips with 88 players left. Soon after a very aggressive player moved all in from the cutoff and I called with 77. He turned over J9s, but I flopped a 7 and moved up to over 200,000.

The great thing about this tournament is I was stuck at between a third and half of average for hours and hours, but I still had plenty of chips in relation to the blinds. This allowed me to stay patient and wait for good hands which I got plenty of.

Specifically I kept getting AQ! I must have had it 10 times after we got down to less than 100 players. And I won with it every time! Usually it was by blowing all in against an initial raiser who every time but one folded. I got called one time by 88, but managed to hit an ace and double up.

With less than 25 players left I had by far my favorite hand of the tournament (although that one with K9 suited is second). I wish I could remember all the precise details, but I think it went something like this. With blinds of 6,000/12,000 a player raised on the button to 30,000 and I made it 110,000 to go with 99 (I had something like 600,000 when the hand started). My opponent called and the flop came down QJ9 with two hearts giving me a set! I bet out about 150,000, my opponent who had about the same number of chips I did, made it 320,000 and I moved all in. I was hoping to see hand like AA or AQ, but instead my opponent showed KJ of hearts giving him a straight and a flush draw. In other words he was 39% to win while with AA he would have only ben 11% and with AQ it would have been 5%!

But then the turn came down...and it was a 9! QUADS BABY! 1,000,000 chips baby!

This was the first time I was in really good shape chip wise and it looked like I had a great chance to make the final table. For a long time I was telling myself that if I could just make it to 18th or better I'd be happy. All of the pay jumps were around $150 every time we'd lose another 9 players, but while 19th-27th paid $2,685 16th-18th paid $5,114. This was enough that I would feel like this tournament was a real success. We crossed that pay line and then quickly made the next pay jump. 13th to 15th paid $7,671. Before I knew it we were down to 12 which paid $10,228.

We played with 10 players for a good while and it seemed like we'd never make it down to the final table. Then I got a total gift. The blinds were 15,000/30,000 and the shortest stack had about 440,000. He was in the small blind and made a bold move with J8 moving all in. I woke up with QQ in the big blind and took him out!

Then I totally blew it! At one point at the final table I had over 2,000,000 chips, but with about 1,600,000 left I flushed my whole stack on one hand. With blinds of 20,000/40,000 I raised to 120,000 with KJ and got called by the big blind. The flop came down J T 7 and after my opponent checked I bet out 240,000. He just called and the turn came an 8. This was truly a terrible card since now any 9 made a straight. Again my opponent checked which is exactly what I should have done. Instead thought "There's no reason he should have a 9 is there?" And then I moved all in. I got snap called by T9 and that was it.

9th place paid $14,192. I won't remind you what the other places paid, because it sucks to think about what if. So officially I'm going to stop moping and try this again!

9th PLACE PAID $14,192! WCOOP FINAL TABLE BABY! This was a real marathon. I played for over 15 hours which is the longest I've ever played in any poker tournament.

The best part is now the WCOOP is guaranteed to show a profit! That right all of you backers, you'll all be getting a check from me when this is all done. For how much remains to be seen.

Right now my starting bankroll of $10,000 had ballooned to $23,723!