Event #8 Preview

WCOOP event #8 is $215 buy in HORSE. Most of you are thinking "what in God's name is HORSE and what does it have to do with poker?" The way HORSE works is, the tournament is played using 5 different forms of poker: (H)old'em, (O)maha hi-lo, (R)azz, 7-card (S)tud, and 7-card stud hi-lo (E)ight or better (sometimes called just stud hi-lo or stud-8). You start off with hold'em and after 30 minutes you switch to Omaha. The next round is razz, followed by stud and then stud-8. All of the games are played limit (as opposed to no limit or pot limit). Assuming you all know about hold 'em, razz, and 7-card stud from previous posts, I'll give you a brief run down of how you play Omaha and stud-8.

Omaha is actually short for Omaha hold 'em (as opposed to Texas hold'em). In Omaha, the betting and the way the cards come out is just like Texas hold'em except each player is dealt 4 cards. At the end of the hand, players must use EXACTLY TWO cards from their hand and EXACTLY THREE cards from the board to make their best 5 card hand. Sometimes this game is played where the best hand wins the whole pot, but it's usually played where the best hand and the worst hand split the pot (hence the hi-lo). You can use different cards to make your best high hand and your best low hand and aces are both the highest and lowest card. The only rule for making a low is you must use 5 unpaired cards 8 and below. Since you need to use three cards from the board, if there aren't three cards 8 and lower on the board it's impossible to make a low hand. In this case the high hand wins the whole pot. For example let's say you're dealt A K 2 5 with the A and K of hearts and the board is 3 6 8 K Q with 3 hearts. You're best high hand is the flush using the AK and your best low hand is 8632A using the A2. In this case you should win the whole pot, since you have the "nut high" and the "nut low." But if someone else had an A and a 2 among their 4 cards then you'd get the high half of the pot and split the low half with the other player who also had 8632A as their low hand. Confused yet?

Stud-8 is also a game where the highest hand and the lowest hand split the pot. It works just like 7-card stud and razz in terms of how the cards come out and the way the betting takes place. Also as you may have guessed by the name, in order to win the low half of the pot you have to have 5 unpaired cards 8 and below. In both Omaha and Stud-8 straights and flushes don't count against you in terms of making a low hand. For example A 2 3 4 5 is the best possible low hand, but it's also a straight which will often times will be the best high hand as well.

The bottom line is I'll be playing 5 different games, in one tournament with the limits going up every half hour and the game changing every half hour. I'm hoping since I'm familiar with all of the games I'll be able to beat anyone who's only comfortable with 2 or 3.

While this may seem like a funky gimmick (and it sort of is), there was a $50,000 HORSE event at this years WSOP. It only drew 142 players, but probably 98 of the top 100 tournament players in the world played and other than the main event it was maybe the most prestigious title to win.

In this years WCOOP there is also a $5,000 HORSE event which will be filled with the best players the online world has to offer as well as many of the big names from in person poker. To my knowledge it will be the highest buy in online tournament in history.

I don't know what my recap is going to be like, but I'm sure it will be confusing for those of you who are not particularly poker savvy. Feel free to post or e-mail me your questions.

Event #7 ($215 limit hold'em) Recap

Event #7 started with 1872 players, a first prize of $70,012, a 9th place prize of $4,493 and a 270th place prize of $374. It's interesting to note that if this was a NL tournament there would have been at least 5,000 entrants. Limit hold'em is just not that popular.

The tournament started off with a little excitement. One minute before start time I went down stairs to reload my coffee cup and when I came back I saw that it was my turn, I was in the big blind and I had KK! The limits were 20/40 and one player had called the 20 chip big blind. I raised to 40 and he reraised to 60 and I reraised to 80. The flop came down A 5 6 with 2 diamonds. I hated to see the ace, but the pot was already pretty big so I decided to check and call when he bet. He did in fact bet, I called and the turn was the 2 of diamonds. I had the K of diamonds and I thought there was maybe a 10% chance I could get him to fold if I bet. I bet 40 and he raised me to 80. I called and the river was a blank. At this point I checked and he bet 40. The pot was so big I had to call just in case he was a nut bag who was just getting creative on the first hand. He wasn't. When the cards got turned over he showed me AK and won the pot. If this had been a NL tournament, all the money could have gone in before the flop and I'd have gone broke on the first hand. Instead I still had 2280 of my original 2500 chips. One of the nice things about limit is you can't get killed early by one hand.

For those of you not familiar with limit hold'em you should notice that all of the bets and raises before and on the flop are in increments of 20 and all the bets and raises on the turn and river are in increments of 40. This is how limit hold 'em works. No matter how good your hand is you can only bet and raise in set amounts.

As predicted this was the most boring tournament that you could imagine. So boring that I'm only going to share the details of one hand. With the limits at 100/200 I raised to 200 from the button with AK with the K of clubs. I got called by the big blind and the flop came down 4 6 7 with 2 clubs. He checked I bet 100 thinking that I might get him to fold and I might have the best hand. He raised me to 200 and I called hoping to hit and A or a K on the river. The turn was the 9 of clubs and he checked. I made a semi bluff figuring a A, a K or a club would make me the best hand and there was a chance I could get him to fold. But, he raised me again. Whoops. Happily the river was the 3 or clubs. He check and called and showed me 3 5. He'd flopped a straight and it took a miracle runner runner flush for me to win the pot. He squawked on and on about his bad luck, but it was his own fault since he should have folded before the flop.

That was about the only good thing that happened to me in the whole tournament. I played a few hands, won a few pots, but never got above 3,000 chips. About 3 hours into the tournament with the limits at 200/400 I lost my last 1000 or so chips with A5 against QJ. I finished 793 out of 1872 and definitely went out with a fizzle instead of a bang.

Event #7 Preview

Event #7, $215 buy in limit hold 'em, is perhaps the most boring of the WCOOP events. Traditionally I've done very well in limit hold 'em events so I have high hopes of making the money. In the spirit of the most boring event this will go down as the worst, most lackluster, half assed event preview of all time! Well, it's really 3/4 assed. I wrote something didn't I? If it was half assed I would have said "215 hold'em yall, look out," and left it at that. It's not as easy to write an event preview while watching Celebrity Duets as you might think. You try writing something while Cheech is singing in the background. He's just so terrible it makes you sick.

Event #6 ($215 w/ Rebuys) Recap

WCOOP Event #6 started with 2081 entrants and the promise of being one of the longest WCOOP events. We started with 2500 chips, but anytime you were at or below 2500, you could rebuy and add another 2500 to your stack. 7 out of the 8 other players at my table rebought before the first hand was dealt. I decided to hang back and feel out the table before I invested another $215. While most of the players were acting like rebuys cost actual money, two were treating them like they were free. One player, westmenloAA ended up spending in the neighborhood of $3000 on rebuys and succeeded in accumulating ZERO extra chips by the first break.

I spent most of the rebuy period folding unplayable hands, but I did pick up KK about 25 minutes in. Big pairs are like gold during a rebuy period and I easily could have found myself all in against one or two marginal hands. With blinds on 10/20 I raised to 60 and got called by 3 players. The flop came down 7 8 9 with two clubs. Not the greatest flop in the world, but it could have been worse. I bet out 240, got called by one player, and then raised all in by westmenloAA. I knew he could have anything so it was as easy call. I wasn't too surprised when the other player also called since I figured he was on a draw of some kind. When the hands got turned over the other player had A 10 and westmenlo had 5 6 making him a straight. Time to rebuy.

Towards the end of the rebuy period I dropped another 2500 when I lost 88 to KK. At this point I did a double rebuy giving me 5,000 chips and after the add-on (which gave me an extra 3000) I was up to 8,000 chips. 248 players were eliminated from the tournament (meaning they chose not to rebuy at some point) before the first break. About half way through the first hour someone had their stack up to over 50,000 chips, but by break the big stack in the tournament was just over 40,000. With 8,000 chips, 30 minute limits and blinds only at 25/50 (roughly the same chip stack and exactly the same blinds that the main event of the WSOP started with) I knew I was in for a long day.

Towards the end of the 4th level I had a little drama when my computer crashed and I had to dash down stairs and jump onto my lap top. I managed to work my way from 8,000 to 12,500 by winning a series of small to medium pots mostly with AK. I picked up AK five times during the 4th and 5th levels and won 4 out of 5.

During round 6 I made what I thought was a good lay down and missed out on a pretty big pot. With blinds of 100/200 I raised to 600 with KQ and got called by both of the blinds. The flop came down K 10 4 with 2 clubs and they both checked. This looked like a great flop and I bet out 1400 into the 1800 chip pot. To my surprise the small blind called and while I was thinking about what I was going to do on the turn, the big blind moved all in for 7500! If I was up against one of them I could maybe put that player on a draw, but I thought it unlikely that they were both on draws. I thought I might be up against 44 or K10, but even if I was up against QJ or a flush draw there was no guarantee I would win the pot. I folded, the small blind called the all in bet with 89 of clubs and the big blind showed KJ. Whoops. After no clubs materialized I saw the 18,000 chip pot that could have been mine slide into the big blind's stack.

I made some progress a few hands later when I picked up AJ of hearts on the button. The cutoff, who had over 60,000 chips, raised to 600, and after giving some thought to reraising I just called. The small blind also called and the flop came down J 8 2 with one heart. Sweet! Unless I was against an over pair I almost certainly had the best hand. To my surprise the small blind bet out 1,000. Normally the preflop raiser starts the action on the flop and it was a show of real strength to bet out like that, but I had a very solid hand. After the other player folded I made it 3,600 to go. I decided that there was no way I could fold this hand and I thought it likely I was up against QJ or KJ. I got called and the turn was the 6 of hearts. Other than an ace or a jack this was about the best card in the deck for me. There was almost no chance it helped my opponent and it gave me a flush draw to the nuts. My opponent bet out again (1500 this time) and I thought I might be in trouble, but I knew I at least had the flush draw so I moved all in. After some thought he folded I picked up a nice pot.

I picked up a few more small pots along the way and found myself with around 18,000 when the blinds went up to 200/400 at the start of level 8. I picked up AJ and raised it to 1200. Not that this impacted my decisions, but AJ had been a pretty strong hand at my table. In the past few hands one player had lost with KK and QQ to two different players who had called him before the flop with AJ. He was going on and on (for the most part correctly) about how stupid it was to call a preflop raise with AJ. So when he moved all in for his last 4,000 against my AJ, I figured he might be on tilt and I knew he would go bananas if he went broke against AJ. I called and he showed me 33. When an ace fell on the turn I'm sure his mouse paid the price.

I was up to 22,000 which was just over average with 660 players left and feeling good about my chances. Then I dribbled away a good chunk of my chips as I waited for some kind of hand. Some players are very good at picking up chips without much in the way of cards. This is not one of my strengths. Most of my advantage comes from accurately assessing the strength of my opponent's hand once I get involved. I'm not good at getting in there with garbage and making it work somehow. Thus when I have a long drought it can take a toll on my stack.

After what felt like forever I found myself with 15,000 chips, blinds of 400/800 and KQ on the button. The cutoff who was among the tournament chip leaders raised to 2400 and after a brief thought of moving all in I decided to call. The flop came down 6 7 8 and my opponent checked. I figured he had big cards and had missed the flop so I bet out 4,000. He quickly raised to 12,000 and I was forced to fold. All of a sudden I was in bad shape.

Before I knew it the blinds had gone up to 600/1200 and I needed to make a move with any kind of hand. After a few trips through said blinds, I was just under 6,000 (in third to last chip position in the whole tournament) when I picked up KQ in late position. The first player to act, who had a ton of chips, just called the 1200. I had hoped to pick up the blinds without a caller and I thought it very unlikely that he would fold to my pittance of a raise, but KQ was a good hand and I couldn't wait for anything better. I moved all in and got called by the small blind. I was expecting 3 way action, but the first player folded (maybe fearing a big hand from the small blind). I was fearing AK or AQ so I was happy to see him turn up 44. I was even happier when the flop came with a K. The turn was a blank and the river was...a 4!?!? DAMN IT! This was the worst way for that hand to play out. Although the result would have been the same if I hadn't flopped a K, this was the most painful way to lose.

Apparently Jenn (my sister), Damian, Mike, Jake and Matt were all watching and have indicated that they were also swearing when that 4 showed up. 270th place would have paid $1,184 so it would have been nice to make it that far. Instead I finished 363 almost 6 hours after the tournament started. I felt like I played really well in this event and it always sucks to fall just short of the money.

WCOOP Event #6 Preview

Event #6 is $215 NL hold 'em with rebuys. Some of you must be asking yourselves "what the hell is a rebuy?" The way rebuy tournaments work is when you have below a certain predetermined number of chips you can "rebuy" and pay more money to add more chips to your stack. Usually the number of chips you need to be at or under is the same amount you start with, so you can immediately rebuy when the tournament starts. Also at the end of the first hour you can "add on" more chips regardless of how many you have at that time.

For example if you're playing a $55 with rebuys tournament (my favorite level of rebuy tournament) and you start with 1500 chips, you can immediately rebuy for another $50 and add 1500 more chips to your stack. If you lose a hand and find yourself with zero chips you can rebuy 1500 for $50 more dollars or 3000 chips for a total of $100. Then if you managed to lose 1700 chips and found yourself with only 1300, you could rebuy again and add another 1500 to your stack (making it a total of 2800) for $50. But, if you only lost 1000 of your chips you'd be stuck at 2000 and unable to rebuy. At the end of the first hour regardless of how many chips you had you could add 2000 (you get more for the add on) additional chips to your stack for the same $50.

Rebuy tournaments have tremendous value because the house only makes money on the initial buy in. As a result you can find yourself in a tournament where players have put in an average of $200 per person, but you and everyone else have only paid $5 to the house (instead of $15 or $20). There is also value generated by people who over do the rebuys and people who under do them. Some people take the approach that they are just going to do the initial buy in and hope for the best. Almost all of these people go broke in the opening stages and leave their money behind to be split up. Other people go totally nuts during the rebuy period (especially in the $5.50 or $11 with rebuy tournaments) moving all in on almost every hand regardless of what cards they have, in an effort to accumulate chips while they can still rebuy. Neither of these strategies is optimal. One reason why some people don't like this flavor of tournament is "they take forever." The blinds move up in a standard fashion, but the rebuys and add ons add an insane number of chips to the tables so it takes MUCH longer to play rebuy events to their conclusion.

One interesting story involving a rebuy tournament is during the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) $5,000 with rebuys Pot Limit Omaha event Daniel Negreanu (one of the best players in the world and 2004 WSOP player of the year) did 22 rebuys at $5000 a pop trying to pick up enough chips to take him to victory (it didn't work). For someone like him the WSOP bracelet is all that matters.

In WCOOP event #6 I'm looking at $215 plus rebuys. This is at least a $615 commitment and could easily run into the $1015 range. But, there will be tons of chips in play and I'll have plenty of time for my skill to come into play.

In other news, Jen and I have had a little bit of good fortue when it comes to free firewood. Jen saw this truck on the side of the road that said "free firewood, help yourself" so knowing about my insatiable love of a crackling hearth she pulled over to grab a few logs. The truck bed turned out to be about eye level, however, and she wasn't exactly in the best of neighborhoods, so she decided to jot down the phone number which promised a full truckload delivered to your home. So we called said number and got a shit load of wood delivered to our house for free. The catch is it's not nice fire wood, it's 50 pound cross sections of trees that need to be split. So I went to home depot and bought a "log splitting" axe (makes sense right?).

Being a fairly burly, lumber jack sized man I expected that when I swung said axe at said logs that they would go bursting apart in fear. Instead they just got pummeled and did little or no splitting. I think I might just need some practice and I really need to "go for it" with the axe. It turns out that swinging a full sized axe at full force seems dangerous. Who knew. Mom, if you're reading this I promise to use all due care in protecting my appendages first and foremost and actually think there is little or no danger (unlike in college when we decided to demolish perfectly good furniture with an axe for no good reason and then decided to see who could throw the axe the farthest, only to have the axe head fly off the handle. That was dangerous.).

After a few tries I managed to split one log nicely and gave up for the night because it was, in a word, "dark." I plan to try again tomorrow when certain neighbors won't be disturbed by the sounds of amature lumberjacking. For now here are some pictures of our pile of wood (it looks much smaller in the pictures) and of me crouching in front of a non split huge log in the fire, holding a piece of the log that I successfully split.

I'll let you know what happened in event #6.

Event# 4 ($215 heads up matches) Recap

As expected the $215 match play event started with 2048 players. I found myself matched with "gcave777." We each started with 1500 chips, blinds at 10/20 and 15 minute limits. On hand #2 I took a small lead when I rivered an A while holding A7 against my opponent's 10 7 (he'd flopped a 10). While the pot was only 240 chips it was nice to be in the lead. It was clear from the start that go old gcave was not comfortable playing heads up. He was either betting 20 chips into 200 chip pots or betting 500 into 150 chip pots. I slowly ground him down to 1070 chips during the first 26 hands and then on hand 27 I got the rest of his chips.

He just called in the small blind (SB) and I checked with 10 4 in the big blind (BB). The flop came down 10 3 9 and I bet 40. gcave raised me the minimum and I just called. I wasn't sure what he had, but top pair is a strong hand heads up. I figured if I was behind I'd lose less, by checking and calling and I might get him to bluff off some chips if I was ahead. The turn was a queen (not a great card for me) and I check. My opponent immediately bet 400 into the 200 chip pot and I thought "ah ha!" This is not the kind of bet one would make with a strong hand. I moved all in and got called by AK. After no J's, K's or A's showed up on the river I won the pot and the match. Good thing he didn't raise before the flop like he should have. It took all of 8 minutes to win my first match.

In my second match I got unlucky and I blew it. Usually it's one or the other, but in this case I should have been able to overcome the bad luck. I the first 20 hands or so I picked up a few raising hands that turned into junk and my opponent seemed to connect with every flop. I quickly found myself down 2,000 to 4,000 (the chips and blind are doubled in round 2 - this is stupid because all that matters is the ratio of the chips to blinds which is exactly the same). On hand 35 I flipped things around when I made a full house against my opponents 3 of a kind. Then I began a long process of grinding him down. He was a pretty straight forward player who bet when he had something and checked when he didn't. This is the easiest type of player to beat, especially heads up.

After about 120 hands I had him down to 500 chips and I was already getting ready for the next round. Then over the next few hands I had him all in 5 times and he won every time. First I had A2 against his A4 and we split the pot when neither of us paired our kicker. Then I had A 10 and he had A 7 and we split when two pair showed up on the board. On my third try I had QJ, he had A 9 and he flopped an A. Then I had A4 and he had 55 and he doubled up again. This was one of the hands on which I blew it. I never should have put in so many chips with A4 when I could just take him down a piece at a time. At this point we were back to even and I was extremely frustrated. I let this frustration get the best of me and all the chips went in before the flop a few hands later. I had 99 and he had 10 10. I didn't catch a miracle 9 and I was eliminated after almost 150 hands. This was another situation where I should have been more patient and waited for a spot where I was pretty sure I had the best hand.

But I did get kind of screwed. Here are the exact percentages I had of winning each of the hands on which I had him all in. 1) 27% 2) 66% 3) 43% 4) 30% 5) 17%. It sure seems like I should have hit one of these. In fact if you put it all together statistically only 8.3% of the time would I lose all 5 hands.

Event #5 is another Omaha tournament so I'll be either taking the day off or having a normal style work day. Starting with event #6 I'll be playing 6 in a row and 8 in 9 days so there is plenty of action on the horizon. Look out for an event #6 preview tomorrow.

WCOOP Event #4 preview

Event #4 (I skipped event #3 $320 pot limit Omaha with rebuys) is $215 buy-in heads up matches. The way this event works is all of the entrants are paired against one other player and they play, one on one, until one of them is eliminated. The winning player then waits for all of the first round matches to be completed and is then paired with a new opponent who has also won a first round match. When one player remains from this new pair, they wait again for a new opponent who has also won two matches. This continues until one player remains. Last year they capped the number of entrants at 1024. This event was my best performance at the 2005 WCOOP. I won my first 5 matches and was eliminated 30th. This year they are allowing 2048 entrants. Unlike the other events where I have to beat thousands of opponents, to make the money, in this event I only have to beat 3. If I win 11 matches in a row I'll win the whole thing. Sounds pretty easy when I put it that way. I spent the better part of the day today gearing up for this event by playing $50 heads up tournaments so I feel ready. I'm really hoping to at least make it past the first match. I'll let you know how it all went down.

WCOOP Satellite Update

Aren't satellites those things that orbit the earth and beam TV shows and stuff down at us? What the hell do satellites have to do with poker? Nothing you idiot! HA HA!

Actually a satellite is a name for a specific kind of poker tournament where instead of cash prizes, the top finishers win entries into larger tournaments. For example, let's say you wanted to play in the $530 NL WCOOP event so you could compete against yours truly. But, $500 is way more than you'd normally spend on a poker tournament. You could enter a satellite. Let's say you found one that had 100 players who each paid $55 to enter. After $5 from every player goes to the house, you've got $5,000. Instead of first place getting $2,000, second getting $1,000 and so on, all of the top spots (in this case 9) pay an equal $530 entry to the WCOOP event. The remaining $230 would go to 10th place (or sometimes 10th-13th would all get $55 and 14th would get $10). This is a great way to build up big fields for special tournaments. After all there really aren't that many $500 tournament players out there and they're not too excited about just butting heads with each other when they can chop up a bunch of yahoos instead.

Not surprisingly pokerstars has gone buck nuts with the satellites for the WCOOP. Some kind of satellite for one of the WCOOP events starts AT LEAST every 15 minutes around the clock. There are regular cash satellites, there are rebuy satellites (where you can buy more chips if you go broke for a certain amount of time), there are turbo satellites (with 5 minute limits), there are satellites you can buy into with frequent player points (FPP's) and to answer the million dollar question....yes, there are turbo-rebuy satellites that you can buy into with FPP's. If you want in, they want to help you.

Also as a VIP member (ummm yes just put my monocle next to the martini that my butler just made for me) I get the bonus of playing in a few FPP buy in events where pokerstars has juiced up the prize pool. Basically the way FPP's work is every time you do anything on pokerstars you earn FPP's. You can trade them for merchandise of all shapes and sizes from cups and T-Shirts to IPOD's and flat screen T.V.'s to a Porche (It's 3,000,000 FPP's). You can also trade them for gift certificates or tournament entries and if you do the math you'll discover that there are exactly 62.8 FPP's to the dollar. So how does pokerstars juice up the prize pool? Well, you can buy a $215 WCOOP seat directly from the pokerstars FPP store for 13,500 FPP's, or you can play an FPP buy in satellite where they give away one seat for every 13,500 FPP's in the prize pool. But, a few times a day they run satellites where they might give away a seat for every 6,250 FPP's in the prize pool (sometimes it might be a $1050 seat for every 33,000 FPP's instead of every 66,000 FPP's- they do it for all buy-in levels). This is the same as just throwing extra money into the pot and I've tried to catch as many of these as I can.

So how have I done in all of these various satellites? If you're one of my backers I'm sure you'll want to know, because although we haven't talked about it in a month, you are all in for the satellite action as per our agreement. So far I've played 33 of various flavors with buy-ins ranging from $16 to $100 (in the case of FPP buy-in events I just did the math and noted them as if they were cash buy-in events since FPP's effectively have cash value). I went 0 for my first 15, but then I turned things around a little winning a $320 seat on try number 16. I picked up a $215 seat on my 19th try, but then went cold again and found myself stuck $513 after 28 attempts. Luckily on attempt 29 and 32 I won $530 seats! One of these was today before I started WCOOP event #2.

While the money won in these satellites is supposed to go to a specific event, it is transferable to other WCOOP events. The bottom line is I'm ahead $303 on satellites to go with the $154 I'm ahead in the two events so far. Tomorrow is Omaha so I won't be playing, but look out for an Event #4 preview. For now I'll just say that it has a unique format and was the event that I did best in during the 2005 WCOOP.

WCOOP Event #2 ($530 NL Hold 'em) Recap

With the bullshit razz tournament out of the way the WCOOP kicked off for real today with 4,495 players (50% more than last year) putting up $530 to play no limit hold'em. First place was $365,218, 9th was $22,475 and 600th was $899.

Once again we were playing 30 minute limits and started with 2,500 chips. After folding just about everything for the first level, I found myself first to act with a pair of red kings during the beginning of level 2. With blinds of 15/30 I raised to 90 and got called by two players. When the action got to the big blind he reraised to 270. I had the second best possible starting hand so there was no way I was backing off. I made it 810 to go and the two original callers folded (like cheap lawn furniture!). My opponent thought for 30 seconds before just calling so I knew he didn't have AA (the only hand I was worried about) and I figured he had either AK, QQ or JJ. The flop came down 10 7 4 with 2 hearts. He checked and I immediately went all in for my remaining 1,600 chips. There were already 1,800 chips in the pot and I didn't want to screw around with my tournament life at stake so early on. After about 45 seconds (an eternity in online poker) he called with 99. Sweet! And then...the 9 of hearts came on the turn. AHHHHHH! What a bad beat! I screamed for a heart and the poker gods must have heard me because the 5 of hearts made me a flush on the river. I was up to over 5,000 chips.

We were down to 3,800 players after the first hour and I was in pretty good shape. Unfortunately a failed bluff took me back down under 3,000. With a board of 8 7 4 3 I put someone all in on the turn figuring it was unlikely they had a solid piece of a board with a bunch of junk cards. But I got called by K8 and lost a good chunk of my chips.

In round 4 with the blinds at 50/100 I dodged a bullet. The first player to act raised to 300 and I made it 800 to go with JJ. Another player moved all in for 5,500 and the first player called. Yikes! There haven't been many times that I've thrown away JJ before the flop, but this time I was pretty sure I was way behind. When the cards got turned over the player who moved all in showed AA and the original raiser showed JJ! Good thing I didn't call.

A few hands later I picked up Q10 in the big blind and got aggressive. Everyone folded to the small blind who raised to 400. I figured a raise to 400 was a little too much to be raising if he had a strong hand so I decided to put him to the test. He only had about 1,500 chips total and while I didn't have many more than him, I'd still be alive if I lost. I moved all in and he quickly called with KQ. Whoops. Luckily I had the 10 of clubs and managed to make a flush when 4 other clubs showed up. I definitely caught a nice break here.

After a few miscues I found myself with 2,110 chips in the big blind looking at AK of hearts. When the button raised to 300, I decided not to mess around and moved all in. He had 1700 chips, instantly called, and showed me AJ. I was happy to see a flop of Q 8 7. So far so good. To my great dismay the turn was a J, and as if to rub it in the river was also a J. Damn it!

I was down to 410 chips and thinking about how I was going to spend the rest of my day when I made a great comeback. First I beat A7 with KJ to get to 900 chips. Then I beat A5 with QQ to move to about 2,000 chips. Then in a big hand I beat AK with 10 10 to get to 4,000 chips. A few hands later I picked up another 1,200 chips when QJ moved all in against my JJ. Suddenly I was right back in the thick of things and feeling pretty good.

The next big hand showed up during round 6. With the blinds at 100/200, the first player to act just called 200. I was on the button with AQ of clubs and made it 800 to go. Everyone folded to the caller who put in 600 more chips. The flop came down 6 6 4 with one club. Not exactly my dream flop. My opponent checked and I stopped to think. Normally I would bet here in an attempt to pick up the pot, but I thought the most likely hand for my opponent to have was a medium pair like 77 or 88. If I was up against that kind of hand or if my opponent thought (correctly as it turns out) it was likely that I just had big cards, I might end up facing a check raise. I decided to check and see what the turn brought. Another advantage to checking here is some players would check the flop with a big hand (like AA or KK) in an attempt to induce a bluff, so if I bet the turn after checking the flop my opponent might give me credit for having a monster hand. When a 10 of clubs showed up, giving me a flush draw, I decided I would bet the turn if it was checked to me. Instead of checking, my opponent bet out 700. Given the fact that the pot already contained 1900 chips I made an easy call. The river brought the 9 of clubs. Bingo! I was pleased when I saw that I was facing a bet of 2,000 and I quickly moved all in for 3600. I got called by Q 10 and took down a nice pot.

A few hands later I put a button raiser all in with A9. He only had 2100 chips, but after he called, I was not happy to see him turn up KK. But, I was happy to see an ace on the flop and his chips added to my stack. I was up over 12,000 chips and with about 1,800 players left and and the average chip stack just creeping over 6,000 I could see the money just over the horizon.

As level 7 started with blinds of 150/300 I made a few plays that ended up costing me a good chunk of my chips and left me feeling a little shaky. After two hands where I raised before the flop, got called and unsuccessfully bluffed on the flop I found myself back down around 7,500. Ouch. Shortly after these minor blunders, while feeling like I was going down the tubes on a rocket powered jet ski, I picked up 88 on the button. Not exactly a freight train of a hand, but plenty good for a player on the button. I raised it to 900 and the small blind made it 2100 to go. Uh oh. He was a pretty frisky player and I'd seen him be fairly aggressive so I didn't think folding was the right thing to do. On the other hand I didn't want to move all in because I was fairly sure he'd call and I didn't want to put the fate of my whole tournament on a marginal hand like 88. So I just called. The flop came down 10 7 4 and he instantly moved all in. If he had a strong hand there's no way he would bet so much. Even though it was for all of my chips it was an easy call and I made it with great haste. He showed AQ and after a couple of bricks on the turn and river I took down a big pot. The call I made on the flop here was the type of call I wish I'd made during the main event of the WSOP. I'm thinking of the hand where I had 97 and was facing a big all in of the river and all I had was top pair...I should have called. I guess the important thing is I learned from that occasion and applied it here.

I was up to almost 16,000 and was in 166th place with 1633 players left. And then I went totally card dead. I'd been dealt about 200 hands at that point and taken 14% to the flop. Over the course of the next 105 hands (online you can go back and look at what happened in all of your previous hands and they keep track of all kinds of stuff so that's why my info is so specific), I played two hands, stole the blinds on both, and folded the other 103 before the flop. Although this kind of sucked it was much better than being faced with many tough decisions.

Most importantly, during this stretch the 3,895th player was eliminated and I cruised into the money. I bet some of you thought I wasn't going to make it since I didn't start off by saying, "I MADE THE MONEY!" Shame on you. :)

I was down to about 9,000 chips with the blinds at 300/600 and an average stack of 18,000 so I wasn't in great shape, but I was still alive. A few hands into the money play, I picked up AK and made it 1800 to go. A player to my left reraised to 3,000. This is a scary raise. If he was trying to win the pot before the flop he'd have made it at least 4,500 and this mini raise told me that he wanted to be called. But, there was no way I was throwing away AK. We were down to about 530 players and when we got down to 525, I'd pick up another $235 which was barely a consideration considering the amount of money involved. But, it helped me make a close decision about whether to call or move all in. I called the extra 1,200 and the flop came down K J 9. Now I was locked in. I figured if I bet and I was behind I'd certainly get called, while if I was ahead he might fold. But, I was about 95% sure that if I checked he'd bet no matter what he had and if I was ahead I wanted to get paid off. So I checked and as I suspected he put me all in. I made an easy call and was thrilled to see him show 77. I was 90% to win the pot and it would have left me with 19,000 chips...but the turn was an 8 and the river was a 10 making him a back door straight. SHIT!

I finished 528th which paid $899 for a net profit of $369. Not too earth shattering, but a solid showing and a good confidence booster. Also I feel fantastic about it when I think that I was down to 410 chips in level 4.

Event# 2 Preview.

Now it's time to get this party started. WCOOP Event #2 is $530 buy-in no limit hold'em. Last year this event had 3,062 entrants and a first prize of $306,000. Pretty straight forward.

My plan is to win around $6,000 in this event so I'll be free rolling the rest of the way. My back up plan is to make the final table and get even for the WSOP as well. My third option is to win the whole thing and pour champagne over my head. I'll let you know what happens.