Event #11 Preview

Event #11 is $530 7-card stud. I expect a much smaller field in a stud only event with a $500 price tag. Somewhere in the 500-800 player range would be a good bet. I haven't played many big stud tournaments, but neither has anyone else, because there aren't any online.

If anyone is wondering how Jen and I did in our attempt a glory in the party poker moster, we both stunk it up and were both eliminated during the second hour of play. I also lost $300 in satellites. It was a weak, weak poker day for me today.

Event# 10 ($1050 NL Hold 'em) Recap

WCOOP event #10 started with 2458 players and a first prize close to a half a million dollars. There isn't a whole lot to say about how this tournament went.

I got dealt KK twice in he first 10 minutes and won only the blinds both times.
By the second break I'd been dealt 154 hands and only won 4 pots that were more than the blinds.

Shortly into the 5th level, with blinds of 100/200 I got dealt 55 in the small blind. The first player to act made the minumim raise to 400 and got called by the second player to act. I also called, as did the big blind. The flop came down J 8 5 (giving me three 5's)and I checked hoping someone would bet. The initial raiser bet 1200 into the 1600 chip pot. After starting the torunament with 5000 chips I had 3600 when the hand started and 3200 left. My only goal here was to get the maximum number of chips in the pot. I decided to just call in the hopes that the player who had been in the big blind would also call the bet. But he folded. The turn was a 6 and I checked hoping my opponent would bet again. I also wanted to give him a chance to connect with a hand like AK or AQ or make any kind of hand that he would call me with on the river. The river was not a great card - a 7 - meaning if he had a 9 or a 3 in his hand (which I didn't think was likely) he'd have a straight. I figured if I checked again I might get him to bluff with a weak hand, and I didn't think there was much he could have with which he'd call a significant bet. So I checked, he bet 2000 and I called. When the hands got turned over he showed me 99 for a 9 high straight. I was eliminated from the tournament and couldn't help wondering if he would have folded if I'd raised on the flop or moved all in on the turn.

This tournament sucked.

Event #10 preview...AND MORE!

Event #10 is $1,000 no limit hold'em, the big daddy tournament of my schedule. I've been playing good NL hold'em lately so I'm hoping to put in a good showing.

For those of you wondering what the hell happened to the party poker monster series of tournaments I have an update. I've played 5 of the weekly events and only made the top 2000 in 1. This is pretty sub par, but I don't think there's much I could have done differently (I went broke with big pairs or after big flops all of them). But, I did make the top 2,000 in one which won me a "monthly freeroll" entry. The first monthly tournament which has a prize pool of $1,000,000 and will start with a max of 8,000 players starts tomorrow morning at 9:30 a.m. If I make the top 1,000 I'll win some amount of cash and an entry into the monster final which right now has a prize pool of 12.5 million dollars. I'll give a brief recap of what happened.

For those of you wondering about my huge pile of firewood I've made some progress. It turns out that some of the logs are much denser, harder wood than others. Also part of the problem is the bark is still on the logs which helps absorb the shock of the axe and keep the log together. Once I break the bark it's much easier to split the rest of the log into nice sized pieces. Luckily my good friend E.B. has provided me with a sledge hammer and a wedge, which together are able to defeat even the toughest logs. It's loud, hard work, but it's great exercise and burning wood that you've split yourself feels much more satisfying than burning purchased wood.

Event #9 ($530 PL hold'em) Recap

What's going on here? I thought you were playing donkey or mule or some kind of animal nonsense today? I was surprised to see that in addition to the HORSE event the $530 pot limit event was also being played at 1:30 today. So I spent the day playing two WCOOP events.

The way pot limit hold'em works is at anytime you can bet an amount between the amount of the big blind and how ever much is in the pot. So if the blinds are 25/50 and there is 500 in the pot you could bet anywhere from 50 to 500. Easy right? It gets a little more tricky when someone bets in front of you. When you're trying to figure out how much is in the pot you count: how much was in the pot before the bet, the bet itself and the amount you call before you raise. For example lets say there is 200 in the pot, someone bets 100, and you're next. You can make it up to a total of 500 (you call 100 and then raise 400).

Pot limit is very similar to no limit. If you bet the pot on every round or raise the pot back and forth once or twice all the money can easily go in on one hand (or one betting round). Traditionally I've done very well in pot limit events and in fact both of my WSOP cashes came in pot limit.

Almost nothing happened during the first few levels. Then while I was making tens full in the HORSE event I picked up AK in the small blind with blinds at 50/100. The button raised to 300 and I made it 1000 to go. After some long thought he moved in for 1955 total and I called. He showed me AQ and after turning a K, I was up to 5700.

After my turbulent stud round in the HORSE I decided I needed some milk and cookies. On the break I fueled up and got back to business.

With the blinds at 75/150 I found myself in the big blind with KQ of diamonds. A player in late position raised to the max to 525. I decided to call and see a flop which came down K 5 2. Just what the doctor ordered. My opponent only had about 1,500 left and I was about 90% sure that he'd bet if I checked. Just like clock work, I checked and he bet the pot. I raised him all in for his last 300 or so chips and he called with AQ. The turn was a very nice looking K and I won the pot.

A few hands later I picked up 99 on the button and raised to 525. I got called by holla@yoboy in the small blind and the flop came down 8 3 2. Just about the best flop not containing a 9 that I could think of. Holla checked and I bet 750. I was surprised to see him call and not happy to see a K show up on the turn. He checked, and I checked behind him. The river was another 8, we both checked and he showed me A3. I think his boys should holla at him a tell him not to call raises with A3 or 3/4 pot sized bets with a pair of 3's. After chopping out a few more small pots I found myself with 10,400 chips.

I picked up more chips a few hands later after calling an early position raiser with 10 10. Another player had actually called in between us, and I was a little nervous when I saw the flop come down 8 5 3. Clearly this was a great flop, but if I was up against a bigger pair, I could get stuck and lose a lot of chips. My opponent bet 750, the other player folded and I raised to 2250. After some thought he folded and I was up to 12,000 chips in 50th place out of the remaining 400.

Later with the blinds at 100/200 a player raised to 600 in front of me. I reraised to 1800 with KK. They immediately moved all in for about 3500 and I was hoping to see a smaller pair. Instead I was up against AQ. The board came with not one, but two aces. But, on the very next hand I got dealt QQ and managed to recoup about half of the chips I lost.

On the same level I found myself in a tight spot. I called a 600 chip raise with AQ of diamonds and the flop came down 10 J Q with 2 spades. Normally flopping top pair with top kicker is pretty strong, but in this case there wasn't much I could beat. If he had any pair 10 10 or higher or AK I was totally dominated. I sort of ignored this fact, called a 900 chip bet and hoped to pair my Q or make a straight with a K. On the turn when my opponent bet 2200 I briefly considered moving all in, but I did the smart thing and folded. Unfortunately I was now under average for the first time in a long time with about 8,000 chips.

With 220 players left, I had 7000 chips and the button who only had about 2500 chips raised to 1400. With AK in the big blind I put him all in and he showed me 86. The flop was 4 4 2 the turn was a 10 and the river was...an 8. SHIT! This hand really took the wind out of my sails and I could feel another just short of the money finish coming for me. On the very next hand I raised to 1400 with 77 and got called by two players. After the flop came with an ace I was forced to check and fold. Now I was down to 3,000. Shortly after I went all in with AJ v AK and lost finishing in 198th place, 48 spots short of the money.

I feel like I played very well in this tournament and that's supposed to be all that matters. Unfortunately I don't feel the least bit good about it. I'm really sick of losing hands like KK to AQ and AK to 86 in key situations. 150th place paid $876 and if I could have just avoided getting screwed I could have made it easily.

Event #8 ($215 HORSE) Recap

The HORSE tournament started off with 1798 players and a first place of $79,112. I'd been looking forward to this tournament for a while since it something much different than I normally play. I wrote this entire blog as I went along so if things seem a little disjointed that's why. Also you'll notice that I referenced WAY more hands than usual, but in less detail.

The first level was hold 'em as was totally unremakable even though I managed to take my chips stack from 2500 up to about 3,000. But, once we got to Omaha I picked up a few good hands. With limits at 30/60 I picked up A 10 6 3 3 of us put in 90 chips before the flop. I was happy with the first three board cards, 6 9 7 with 2 hearts. I had the second best low draw and the nut flush draw so I bet. I got raised and just called. When the turn came out the K of hearts I bet again. I had the best possible high hand and was surprised when I got raised. I reraised and my opponent put in the 4th bet (which is the maximum number of raises). The river was the 5 of hearts and again we went 4 bets. Clearly this guy had not played much Omaha. He turned over a king high flush and no low and I scooped the pot. I was up over 3500.

A few hands later I had Q 3 8 5 with the 8 5 of spades in the big blind. This is a fairly weak hand, but I called a raise out of the big blind hoping to catch hit right away or get out of there. The flop came down 6 7 j with the 67 of spades and I decided to be bold and bet. I imediatly got raised. Whoops. I called and the turn was the 4 of spades! YOOOOO, STRAIGHT FLUSH! We got 4 bets in on the turn and 3 more on the river which was a 2. When the cards got turned over my opponent showed that he'd made an ace high flush and no low. SHIP IT! This pot took me up to 4,300 chips.

On the second hand of the razz section I stared with 456, made a 6542A and got action all the way taking me to 4700 chips. Then I made a 65432 against someone who pushed an A that was showing (with a 10 in the hole) and made an 8 low. Shortly after I started with A35 against 643. By the end of the hand I had a wheel and he had a 6543A. After an hour and a half, I was in 7th of 1751.

When the stud potion started I made tens full against nines full on the third hand and moved up to 6505 and stood in second place behind one player who had 6506! Then I got totally jobbed for the rest of the stud section. It seemed like I was in every hand making just enough to be forced to trail along and never improving. When I did improve I kept running into full houses. SHIT! I was still in good shape back at 4700 and in the top 150, but starting to get a little frustrated.

After the second break I came back and scooped two big pots with Aces up and a flush. But then I blew back all of those chips after missing a slew of low draws. On one hand my first 5 cards were A2569 with 4 spades. I missed my flush and made a 7 low which lost to a better 7 low. I don't recall ever feeling so much like I was getting killed when I still had 1.5 times the average stack. It was very strange.

The next hold'em level was uneventful, but once we got back to Omaha I made some serious progress. I started with A K 10 2, made a king high flush and scooped a nice pot. On the next hand I won the low half of the pot when I made the nut low. A few hands later the chip leader of the entire tournament raised to 300 from late postion. I called with AKJ7 out of the small blind. This guy was super loose and I thought he could have anything. The flop came down KK7. BINGO! FULL HOUSE! I checked and called as a slow play. Then the turn came out and it was the fourth K! This time I check raised and he reraised me! I had the nuts so I made it 4 bets and he folded. Two hands later I made aces full and won another pot. All of a sudden I was in 65th of 950 with a stack that was twice average (9,300). I thought Omaha was my worst game of the 5? What the hell was going on?

It took 4 hours to lose half of the field which I found a little surprising. Over the next hour I bounced around a fair amount dropping as low as 6500 and as high as 10,600. Then I lost a pot to this total nut job who had been playing almost every hand in every game but was in fact in 1st place in the whole torunament for a while. During the second stud section, I started with 10 J J and he started with 6 9 in the hole and an A showing. The limits were 300/600 and he raised the bring in to 300. I decided to just call and one other player with a Q showing also called. On 4th street I caught a 5 and the bad guy caught a Q and bet. I knew this card didn't help him because two of the other Q's were already gone so I raised to get rid of the other player. And...he reraised me with no pair! I called and on 5th street I caught a 9 and he caught a 4. Again he bet with no pair and I called. On 6th street he caught an A and I caught a 7. I considered folding to the open aces and I probably should have, but the pot was huge and I thought a J or and 8 would make me the best hand. On the river I made two pair and so did he by catching a 4. I was back down to 7,000 going into the stud-8 section.

About half way through the stud-8 section I had the 120 chip bring in with a 2 showing. I had A 8 in the hole and called when someone with a 4 showing raised to 400. I caught a low card on 4th street, an ace on 5th and a Q on 6th and the river. My opponent made a smaller two pair and paid me off the whole way. At the start of the hold 'em section I was up over 11,000 chips with about 370 players left and an average stack of around 12,000.

During the third hold 'em section I picked up a good number of chips, when I made trips against top pair. Also, I won two pots out of the big blind when I called late position raises with Q5 suited and K8. I flopped a straght draw with the Q5 and then paired the Q. With the k8 I check raised the flop and bet the turn as a bluff with a board of 10 7 3 3 and my opponent surrendered. Going back into the Omaha I was up over 20,000.

After the first two tries at Omaha went so well I had high hopes for the third. With limits of 750/1500 this was getting serious. Unfortunately I blew off some chips on a bluff, went through the blinds a few times and found myself with around 13,000 chips when we went on the 15 minute dinner break. I was in 147 of 213 needing to get down to 176 to make the money.

I put on the major stall during the razz so every hand would take as long as possible and give players at other tables a chance to go broke. With 177 players left (1 short of the money) I was dealt 2 4 5 and raised the 300 chip bring in to 1,000. I got called by a player with an 8 up card and raised by a player with a A showing. On 4th street I caught another 5 and my opponents caught big cards. We all checked. On 5th street I caught a 3 which was a great card and I bet. One player folded and the 3rd street raiser called. On 6th street I caught a K, he caught a big card and we both checked. On the river I caught another K making my best hand a K high. Yuck! After catching 2 kings when all I needed was some kind of low card, I decided my only way to win was a bluff. So I bet 2000 into the 14,900 chip pot. My opponent thought for about 15 seconds and called with a 9 high.

I made the money, but with only 4,000 chips. Since the antes were 300 on every hand, clearly I was looking for any kind of hand to get in there. When I got down to about 3000 I picked up KK7 and beat someone who started with a pair of Q's. Counting the antes that I picked up I was up to about 8,500.

I made it up to almost 20,000 when I made a straight against someone who had two pair. While this seemed like a lot of chips the limits were 2000/4000 so it was only 5 big bets. When we switched to stud-8 I picked up KKQ which is a great hand in regular stud, but marginal hand in stud-8. But, it was plenty good to go with, given my short stack status and the fact that we'd just moved up another pay level. I started the hand with about 17,000 and raised the bring in to 2,000. I got action from THREE other players who all looked to be on low draws. The pot got HUGE fast and there was no way I could fold. By the end, one of the low draws made a flush and eliminated me from the tournament.

I finished in 102nd place which paid $539.40, 8 hours and 10 minutes after the tournament started. This is the third longest amount of time I've ever spent playing an online tournament. I feel pretty good about this event and my solid finish helped get the bad taste out of my mouth that I had after the other event I played today.

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.