2008 WCOOP Event #7 & Event #8 Preview

After a good 24 hours of angry sulking I've moved passed my collapse in Event #3 and now feel pretty good about finishing 33rd in a field of 2,200+ players.

I'm going pretty far off the beaten path with events 7 and 8. Event 7 is $215 6 handed Pot Limit Omaha. Those of you who are regular blog readers (thanks for the recent comment Davis) will know that I haven't mentioned anything about pot limit Omaha since the 2006 WCOOP (I think).

This isn't exactly my bread and butter, but in either 2005 or 2006 I did have a cash is a pot limit Omaha event in the WCOOP so this isn't just a waste of $215. Also when it comes down to it a lot of tournament poker is making moves based on your stack and your opponents stacks not what cards you have. Many skills that I have from my vast tournament experience are going to transfer here.

Also there are going to be 1,000-2,000 people in this tournament and only about 200 of them are going to know a damn thing about pot limit Omaha. If you put out a $215 WCOOP tournament everyone is going to want to play no matter what it is and I should be way better than those slugs.

I'll be playing a $55 satellite in the morning to get warmed up and with some luck I'll be able to make some noise.

Event #8 is one where I will be much more at home...at least compared to the other players. Event $8 is $320 8-game mixed (I guess that's the best name they could come up with). As you might have guessed it's a mix of 8 different forms of poker.

Specifically it is a rotation of these 8 games: Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Low Ball (a game I'm pretty sure I've never mentioned on the blog and maybe the form of poker at which I am worst...period), Limit Hold 'em, Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, Limit Razz, Limit 7 Card Stud, Limit Stud Hi-Lo, No Limit Hold 'em and Pot Limit Omaha. Pretty nuts huh?

This is essentially HORSE with three more games added and I expect that the same reasons that I've been killing the HORSE tournaments are going to lead to a good showing here.

For those of you who are wondering what in the hell "Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Low Ball" is I will try to explain. There are blinds just like in hold 'em, but instead of getting two cards, each player gets five cards all of which are concealed. There is a round of betting and then players get to throw away some of their cards and draw news ones just like in the classic poker variation five card draw. The BIG difference between this game and five card draw is players draw new cards THREE times with a round of betting between each draw - hence the name "Triple Draw." Of course you can fold before the first draw, or after, or after the second or third draw if there's a bet and you don't like your hand.

The "Low Ball" part of the name means that instead of trying to make the best hand you can, you're trying to make the WORST hand you can. Lastly the "2-7" part of the name means that straights and flushes count against you and aces are the highest rank. In regular Low Ball (and other games played for low like Razz) the best hand is A2345, but in 2-7 Low Ball the best possible hand is 2 3 4 5 7 with at least two suits represented. Anyway it might sound like some wacky shit, but it's a game that's been part of the WSOP for years and is one of those games that's either played for very low stakes or supercrazyhighthousandsofdollarsflyingaroundlikenickels (a very technical term) stakes.

I'll be playing a $55 satellite to this one too and there will be a second chance tournament for each event as well (probably with buy ins of $162 and $215) although I might skip the Omaha second chance. I'll keep you posted on all of my results.