Congrats to Matt!

My good friend Matt Lessinger had a great poker day today and I thought I'd wish him congratulations and tell you a little about it. Today Matt played a $1,200 buy-in poorly run NL hold 'em tournament in Fresno, CA. The main benefit of the event was the final 6 would be on TV. ESPN? No. Fox Sports? No. Bravo? No. I'm not sure how you pronounce it, but I think the official name is "Central California Backwards Ass Hillbilly Network" or CCBAHN. TV is TV, and I've never made it to a televised final table, so maybe I should shut it...no...that's crazy.

Anyway the tournament started with 90 players, 10,000 chips per player and 40 minute limits. Sounds o.k. right? The problem is $200 of the $1200 buy in went to the house! This is an unheard of, insane, ridiculous percentage. Also whoever came up with the way the limits increased was also a total nut job. When I first heard from Matt there were 28 players left (sweet), he had 57,000 chips (sounds good), average was 32,000 (o.k.) and when he got back to the table the blinds were going to be 2,000/5,000 (WHAT!?!?). Never, ever, ever should the big blind be 1/6th of the average stack. This is just bonkers.

When they made it to the top 10, Matt had turbo-ed up to 210,000 and was in first place. The blinds were at 10,000/20,000, but once they got down to the top 6, the blinds would drop back down to 1,000/2,000 to make the TV coverage more interesting.

The next time I heard from Matt, they were down to 3 players and he was in first with 500,000 playing against a 300,000 chip stack and a 100,000 chip stack. It seemed like 10 seconds later he called back and told me he's won!

This was clearly a strong performace and while I'm happy for Matt who won over $31,000 for this effort, I'm also happy that I took 5% of his action. As a result I picked up $1,500 while sitting on my ass watching football today. SWEET! What have your friends done for you lately?

In all seriousness, congratualtions to a good friend on a fantastic victory.

Event #17 ($1050 Limit Hold'em) Recap

Event #17 was the penultimate event of the WCOOP and was my last event. With the big buy in and the fact that it was limit and not no limit, this event only drew 685 players. But, with 5,000 starting chips and 30 minute limits it was clear from the start that this would be a long event.

One of the biggest advantages limit has over no limit for a player like me is that you can't go broke (or even take much damage) on one hand in the early stages. This benefit came into play for me on the second hand of the whole tournament. I was in the small blind with 33 and after a few players called the 20 chip big blind the button raised. I called as did the big blind and all of the other callers. The flop came down 3 5 6 with 2 hearts. This was a sweet flop for me and I bet 20 hoping to get raised. Happily, I got two callers and the button raised. The pot was already big so I decided to keep my foot on the gas and I made it three bets. After a player in between us called, the button capped the betting at 4 bets (by rule there is a maximum of a bet and three raises in limit hold'em). The turn was another 5, we lost the other player, but the button and I got three 40 chip bets into the pot. I was sure he had a big pair and didn't want to see any aces or kings to show up. The river was the Q of hearts and after I bet, he raised me. I thought there was some chance he'd hit a flush, but I was pretty sure it was QQ so I just called. Sure enough, my opponent had made a full house on the river. In NL I easily could have gone broke on this hand and certainly would have lost a large percentage of my chips. But, we were playing limit so I only lost 280 chips and was left with 4,700 of my 5,000 starting chips. Yeah limit hold'em! Since it was only the second hand, however, I found myself in 681st out of 685 and my opponent found himself in 1st! HA!

The rest of the early levels were pretty uneventful. I won some pots here and there and managed to work my way up to about 8,000 by the end of round 4. Then I had a few hands go against me in round 5 and found myself down to 3,000. This was one of two times during the tournament where I was not feeling good about my chances. But then in round six I got a total gift.

With limits of 200/400 (note that in limit the "limits" and not the "blinds" are used to denote stakes - in this case the blinds are 100/200) I raised to 400 from first position with AQ. I got called by the big blind (who it turned out had 55) and the flop came down Q Q 2. BINGO! He checked, I bet, and after a short pause he called me. I was happy to get any action as I was almost certain to have the best hand here. The turn was a 7 and he check raised me! I reraised to 1200 and he called. He also checked and called a 400 chip bet on the end after a 9 came on the river. This guy way over played his hand and allowed me to pick up some stress free easy chips.

A few hands later I picked up some more chips when I busted a player who had around 1,800 chips. For some reason he decided to go nuts with J9 and I took him out with AQ. All of a sudden I was over 9,000.

During level 7 I came across maybe my favorite hand of the entire WCOOP. With limits at 300/600 I found myself with JJ on the button. A crazy player who'd been in almost every hand raised to 600 and got reraised to 900 by another player. I considered making it 1,200, but decided to just call instead. We took the flop three way and I did a double take as I saw J J K on the flop! I'd flopped quads! After a check from the crazy player and a bet of 300 from the other I decided to play it slow and just called. The crazy player folded and the turn was an 8. My opponent bet, I raised, he reraised and I capped it. The river was a 5, putting three spades on the board, and my opponent checked. I bet 600 and to my surprise he raised me! I made it 1,800, and he made it 2,400! I wished that I could have raised again. On the turn I suspected that he was holding KK and by the time the betting was over I was sure, so it was no surprise when that's exactly what he showed. This took me up to 16,700 and put me in 16th out of 460. Take that suckers.


During level 8 I moved up again when I flopped two pair with 63 after getting a look at a free flop in the big blind. I won another pot or two on level 8 and then on the 1st hand of level 9 I picked up AA! I raised and desperately hoped for callers, but found none. I was, however, now in 13th place out of 267 with 27,500 chips. I was starting to think a money finish was in the bag when it seemed like everything turned against me.

I lost AK to 66 when another player foolishly called a bet on the flop with a board of A J 4 and ended up making a flush with one of his 6's. Then I found myself in the big blind with KK and lost a big pot to A2. After those two I was down to 17,500 and not feeling great. By this time the limits were 800/1600 with blinds of 400/800 so every 9 hands I was losing 1,200 to the blinds. I got ground down to around 14,000 in this manner and then after a failed bluff, I found myself with 10,000. The limits went up again, this time to 1200/2400 and I was blinded off all the way down to 5,500 with about 150 players left. I kept thinking about how I'd had 27,000 not too much earlier and was kicking myself for not being able to hang on to them. I was also thinking about how pissed I was going to be to fall just short of the money...again.

Then I had a change of mind set. I started to think about all of the times that I've come back from nothing in other tournaments. I've done this kind of shit before. I'm not done yet. A couple of good hands and I'm right back in it.

Just like clock work, I started to make some head way. I stole the blinds once. And then I picked up AK and won a small pot with a bluff on the flop.

I was getting back into it when I picked up AQ during level 11 and raised to 2400. I got called by the big blind and the flop came down A 7 3. My opponent bet and I raised him. The turn was a K, I bet and he called. The river was another K, I bet my last 1,500 chips and he called with what turned out to be A5. This may not seem like heavy action, but this late in the tournament taking a hand all the way to the river and winning is a huge deal. I picked up almost 10,000 on this one pot and found myself in solid shape as we approached the money.

I managed to pick up enough blinds to keep me even during level 12 and sometime during that level we lost our 595th player. 90th place paid $1,668, so I was very happy to be in the money. I only had 20,000 chips, with the average stack being 38,000, but found myself in 63rd place. It took over 6 hours and I played over 500 hands(this is a much higher hand per hour rate than you'd normally expect) to get this far, but I was still hoping for more. The next money jump was up to $2,085 which would come when we made it under 60 players. In order to make it that far I knew I'd need to make some moves.

The blinds ate up a small chunk of my stack and I found myself with just under 16,000 at the beginning of level 13. With limits of 2,000/4,000 I picked up AK and made it 4,000 to go. I got called by the big blind and the flop came down K 4 2. This was a sweet flop for me and I was happy to see my opponent bet. I raised, and he reraised, and I raised again. We both knew I was going all in before the end of the hand so why wait to get it in there. On the turn I got my last 4,000 or so chips into the pot and when the cards were turned over I saw he had K8. When a harmless 9 fell on the river I was up over 32,000 chips.

A little later, after flopping a flush draw with K6 out of the big blind, I turned a 6 and rivered a K to win a small pot. I was up over 40,000 for a brief moment and then I made a second best hand that took half of my stack. Still in level 13, I raised to 4,000 with KQ of spades and got reraised by the big blind. I called and the flop came down Q 8 3 with one spade. He bet 2,000 and hoping top pair was good, I raised to 4,000. He paused for a moment and I thought that my hand must be good and he was going to fold. Then he made it 6,000. Uh oh. I figured I was behind, but there was already 23,000 in the pot so calling 2,000 more to see the turn was an easy decision. When it came out, the turn was the ace of spades. This was a great card for me since it meant I had 9 cards left in the deck that would make me the nuts (the nine remaining spades) and 5 cards (2 Q's and 3 K's) that might make me the best hand. So when my opponent bet 4,000, I called and hoped for a spade. The river was a disappointing 7 of hearts and after I called another 4,000 chips (this time just to make sure he wasn't getting out of line) he showed me AQ and took down a 41,000 chip pot.

Around this time we dropped under 60 players and I picked up another $400 in guaranteed money.

On level 14 with limits of 3,000/6,000 I picked up AK and raised to 6,000. I got called by the big blind and the flop came down J 10 6 all clubs. My opponent checked and even though I had no pairs and no clubs I had to bet. I got called and the turn was a red 4. Again my opponent checked. I only had 6,500 left so I wasn't happy when my 6,000 chip bet on the turn got called. The river was a red 3 and we both checked (I only had 500 left anyway so it really didn't matter). I was very happy to see my opponent turn up A7 with the A of clubs. If he'd had a pair instead of a flush draw I'd have been gone here.

Soon after, we dropped under 45 players and moved up another pay level, meaning I was guaranteed just over $2,700. After winning another baby pot I found myself in 30th of the 40 remaining players with 47,000 chips. I had my eye on the next pay level which would happen when we got under 30 players

On level 15 with the limits at 4,000/8,000 I reraised the tournament chip leader with 10 10. He just called and after I bet 4,000 into a 25,000 chip pot with a flop of K J 5, I was thrilled to see him fold. This pot took me up to 55,000 and is also an example of a "bluff" (I had 10 10 but it might as well have been 22 with a K and a J on the flop) that worked. I know I mention plenty of "failed bluffs" and few that work so I wanted to point this one out.

A few hands later I got AK again (I must have had AK 10-12 times during this tournament) and got some good action. After raising preflop, I bet and got called on a 10 7 2 flop. The turn was a beautiful A and I bet again, this time with confidence. I got called again, but after another 7 on the river my opponent folded to my bet. At this point I was up to 88,000.

We lost the 31st player and I moved up to the pay level where I was guaranteed $3,600.

I picked up another pot and found myself at 105,000. I started to look at moving up to the next pay level which would be with 18 players left, but this was still a mile away. Even though it was only 12 players, those 12 represented 40% of the remaining field. Sadly, I would stall at the $3,600 level.

When level 16 started with limits of 6,000/12,000 it meant that the big blind would be larger than the entire stack that we all started with. Clearly every hand was serious from this point on and I just didn't connect with some flops. First I lost 24 thousand with 88 and then another 18 thousand with AJ. Of course the blinds didn't stop chewing up my stack and soon I was running low again.

I lost both of my final 2 hands to the same guy who made a few weird plays that hurt me. First he raised with Q9 in first position and I made a loose call out of the big blind with K5 of clubs. The flop was K 9 4 and after I check raised him he was all in on the flop. I was in good shape and just needed to dodge a queen or a 9, but he got both when the turn was a 9 and the river was a queen.

After that hand, I was down to my last 15,000 chips, so when I picked up A3 it was a clear decision to raise with it. My friend from the last hand reraised with Q10 putting me all in. I was 60% to win before the flop, but he made a flush and I was eliminated in 21st place. It was 8 hours and 50 minutes after this tournament started when I got eliminated and 12 hours after I started playing that day so I was pretty tired.

I was 3 places away from another $2,500, 14 away from another $20,000 and 20 places away from another $150,000. While I was pleased to pick up a few grand, I was a little disappointed to be a few good hands away from a major pay day.

With that said, I was still very happy with how things went and it was nice to close out the WCOOP with a victory. I'll give some final thoughts in a recap of the WCOOP as a whole tomorrow.

Event# 13 ($320 6-Handed PL Hold'em) Recap

WCOOP event #13 kicked off with 1741 players seated 6 to a table. Despite small blinds relative to the chip stacks, with fewer players at each table, people were taking more risks and going broke quickly. Like I said in the preview I felt very comfortable with the format was hoping to do well in this event.

One part of playing well short handed is playing well in the blinds. After all you're in one of the blinds a third of the time in this format. Unfortunately the player who was in the small blind when I was in the big blind, gave me a lot of trouble. I didn't get to see his cards often and is possible that he was just hitting plenty of flops, but it seemed like he was putting me to the test every time and unfortunately I never managed to connect with a flop out of the big blind.

Another part of playing well short handed is about chopping out a bunch of small pots and I succeeded in doing this during the first two hours. At one point I had my chip stack up to about 5,000 (after starting with 2,500) without winning more than about 500 chips in any one pot. Around this time I picked up AJ on the button. With blinds of 50/100 the player in first position raised to 300. I thought about reraising but decided to just call. The blinds folded and the flop came down J 7 6. My opponent bet and I decided I'd just call and pop him on the turn. The turn came another J and while I was almost sure to have the best hand I thought this card would kill my action. As I expected my opponent checked, but after I bet he raised me! Great! I moved all in and hoped for a call from a hand like QQ or KK. I got the call I wanted, but not the hand. He also had AJ and after an A came on the river to make us both full houses, we split the pot.

After two hours we'd played exactly 200 hands (roughly 80 more than you'd get in 2 hours of 9 handed play) and were down to 683 players. Unfortunately I'd given back some chips and found myself with around 3,000.

During the 6th level is when I met my demise. With blinds of 100/200 I had about 2,700 chips and found myself with QJ (with the Q of spades)in the small blind. I raised to 600 and got called by the big blind who had close to 15,000 chips. The flop was A 10 5 with two spades. Normally I might bet here, but I decided that with so many chips the big blind might call me with a wide range of hands. So, I checked. I expected the big blind to bet, but he checked behind me. The turn was a 7 of spades. I figured if my opponent had anything he would have bet the flop so I bet out 1,000 and found myself facing a raise that would put me all in. I only had 1100 left, there was 4300 in the pot and the average stack was over 8,000. I had a flush draw a gut shot straight draw and some chance that a Q or a J might be good if it hit. It was a call that I had to make, but I wasn't happy about it. My opponent showed A3 and after a nothing came on the river I was eliminated in 494th place.

Tomorrow is another Omaha event and I've decided to cut out the $530 Stud-8 event that was on my original schedule so I'm "off" (meaning I'll be playing single tables and chopping wood) for two days. All that's left for me in the 2006 WCOOP is a $1,000 limit event on Saturday. I also plan to play a special $280 satellite to the $2,500 main event. Pokerstars has guaranteed 100 seats will be given away in this tournament and if I win one (or if I was to go deep in Saturday's event) I'll be playing, but other wise I'll be skipping it.

Now to finish with a splash of good news. I'm sure those of you reading who don't know me well sometimes think "how does he do this for a living? All he does is lose!" Unfortunately the stuff I write about is big buy in tournaments that have very high fluctuation. On a day to day basis the money is much more steady. In fact, if you neglect the WCOOP I'm on an 8-day winning streak and have netted somewhere in the $2,500 range during that time (this is actually a pretty low number for an 8-day winning streak - normally I'd expect closer to the $4,000 range for a streak like this one). Event #17 preview coming soon.

Event #13 preview

Event #13 is $320 6-handed pot limit hold'em. In this torunament instead of having 9 (or 10) players at a full table, there are only 6. Also instead of being played no limit, this event will be played pot limit.

If I had to choose any WCOOP event to put all my money on, it would be this one. As I mentioned in a previous post I seem to do slightly better with pot limit than I do with no limit. More importantly I feel I have a strong advantage playing short handed. While most players spend almost their entire poker lives playing against 8 or 9 other players I've made my living playing against 4 or 5 players. This goes all the way back to when I was a prop player at The Oaks Club and my job was to keep short handed games from breaking up. Perhaps more significantly, when playing single table tournaments, as players are eliminated you get to play against fewer and fewer opponenets. As a result, I have many practiced and proven strategies for playing against 4 or 5 players. Another thing that helps is I've played about 15,000 hands of 6 handed NL cash games in the past 6 weeks.

Taking out those three extra players means a whole new range of starting cards become playable. More hands are taken to the flop, and there's more room for creativity. Some of you might remember that in the 6-handed event at the WSOP I took my starting stack of 2,500 chips up to over 10,000, before losing AJ to A4 and then QQ to AQ.

Of course anything can happen and I might find myself broke and scratching my head on the first hand, but I like my chances in this one. I'll let you know how it went down.

Event #11 ($320 7-Card Stud) Recap

There's good news a bad news. The good news is this event was $320 instead of the $530 I thought it was. The bad news is I've never been eliminated in a stud event so quickly. I finished 621 of 657 and I'm not even sure how it happened. I think the problem was, other than during the first 15 minutes or so (when I made two flushes and won a whopping 200 chips)I just never improved my starting cards. I'd start with JJ10 and end up with J J 10 9 4 3 2 and loose to someone who made 5's and 4's. Or I'd start with AQJ of diamonds, catch two black small cards and have to fold.

In the hand that really did me in I got caught between two guys who both seemed to think they had the nuts (one of them started with 555 and the other only had a pair of 7's, but had a scary looking board and was foolishly trying to get rid of two people who clearly weren't going anywhere). I had a flush draw and if I'd hit it I would have had about 1.5 times average. But, I missed.

Nothing tomorrow, but look out for an event #13 preview.

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.