A Comment Response

In response to my horror story about the player at my table going broke in the first 3 minutes on Sunday's Event EB commented: "Out of curiosity, do you see yourself doing anything differently if you are either of those two players? (Except that if you'd been the player with the aces, of course the river would have been a non-pairing club).

Heres a recap of the hand if you've forgotten the details: Someone at my table went broke with AA vs KK on the third or fourth hand. We started with 15,000 chips and blinds of 25/50. One player raised to 130, the player with AA went to 230, and the player with KK made it 500. The initial raiser called, the player with AA made it 2,500 and got called by the player with KK. The flop came Q high with 3 clubs and they both had a club. All the money when in on the turn which happened to be a K.


I would have done a few things differently. First of all I would have made a slightly larger initial reraise if I was the player with the AA, going to maybe 350 instead of 230 and I would have gone a little bigger with the reraise if I was the player with KK also, but that's not really important. Since I didn't include them, let me fill in details of the remaining action. On the flop the player with AA bet 2,500 and got called and on the turn he went all in for 10,000 and got called.

The all in on the turn is a big mistake. When a player in front of you raises, you reraise, someone else raises again and then calls another BIG raise what they hell could they possibly have? Given that action and the fact that I already have AA if I'm that player, I'd put it at 70% KK, 15% QQ, 5% AA, 5% JJ, 4% AK, 1% all other hands.

So on the turn when the board has a K and a Q on it and your opponent called a bet on the flop what they hell can you beat? You have to hope that he's got JJ with the J of clubs or AK with the K of clubs, or the other two aces which are the only hands he could possibly have that you could beat. You wouldn't mind giving any of those hands a free card since you're a 22-1 favorite against the first two and freerolling against the other aces. On the other hand, in the extremely likely case that your opponent has KK or QQ you'd like to see the river for as little as possible to see if it's a non pairing club. It seemed painfully obvious that this was a case of AA vs KK or QQ to me.

In the actual hand if the player with AA had checked there's no way the player with top set and a second nut flush redraw would have gone all in. He'd probably bet something like 5,000 (or even something less like 3,000) and there's some chance (maybe 10%-15%) he might even check as a slow play. This would give the player with AA the chance to see the river and either win by hitting an ace or a club or survive with at least a third of his stack.

If the player with AA faces a bet of more than 5,000, the play would be to fold and preserve his chances. Of course it would be a tough, frustrating fold on the river (assuming he calls the turn) with an overpair (if he missed) when he'd put 2/3 of his stack in. But given the preflop and flop action, folding on the river would be the only reasonable play. Trusting your read in a spot like this can be difficult and most players let their emotions come into play too much. They get attached to those aces and forget that they're just a pair.

I just put up this hand because it sucks to go broke with AA so early, but it's actually a very interesting hand.

WCOOP Event #14 Recap

I started off yesterday playing a few cash tournaments and two WCOOP satellites to the day's $1,050 event. The WCOOP satellites were both very low risk, high reward tournaments. One was an $8 with rebuys and one was a $2 with rebuys. But both had 5 minute limits and rebuys for 12 levels (this is contrary to most turbo rebuy tournaments which have rebuy periods lasting only 6 levels).

I thought it would be fun to try the crazy loose strategy with very little money on the line, but when the time came, I couldn't do it. I certainly played looser than normal, but I couldn't just fling my chips in there with nothing hoping to get lucky since I've spent 7 years training myself to do otherwise.

Despite that fact, I started off kicking major ass. We got 2,000 for each buy in and rebuy and 4,000 for the add on in both tournaments. In the $2 I needed to finish in the top 5 of 611 and in the $8 I needed to finish in the top 6 of 312. At one point I had over 150,000 chips in both tournaments simultaneously! This put me in second chip position in the $8 and about 10th in the $2. I was thinking that it would be one of the greatest achievements of my poker career if I could win two, $1,050 seats in tournaments that I got into for $10 and $25.

But anytime you have 5 minute limits things move so quickly that it becomes a bit of a crapshoot. In the $2 with 60 people left the blinds were up to 10,000/20,000 with a 2,000 ante. I moved in for 120,000 with KQ, got called by AT and lost.

The $8 was more of a heart breaker. With 16 players left (needing to make it to 6th to win) I was in third place (there were many fewer chips in play in the $8 since people did many fewer of the more expensive rebuys and the field was half the size to begin with) and I raised with AK. A player with JJ moved all in for about 100,000 and I called. The flop came with a K and I was a 10-1 favorite. The turn was a blank and I was a 22-1 favorite. Sadly the river was a J, I lost the pot and was out a few hands later. If I'd won that pot I would have been in 1st place with 15 players left with (in my estimation) about an 80% chance of making it to the top 6. So close!

I started the $1,050 event feeling pretty good about my chances since I'd made the money in my previous two WCOOP hold'em events (the chance of that happening for a player of exactly average skill in both events or if it was all luck would be 1 in 57.7). The blinds started off at 25/50 and the players started with 15,000 chips each.

One of the things that makes a big money tournament great is how long it's going to take. If I'm playing a $20 tournament I want it to be fast so I can play a lot of them. But if I'm playing a $1,000 tournament I want it to take as long as possible. The longer it takes the more skill comes into play. The things that determine how long it's going to take are the number of starting chips, the length of time between blind increases and the severity of blind increases (ie do they jump from 100/200 to 200/400 or do they jump from 100/200 to 150/300 and then to 200/400).

It occurred to me that at the main event of the WSOP they also start with 25/50 blinds and have almost the exact same severity in blind increases, but they start with 10,000 chips instead of 15,000! Of course they have 90 minute limits instead of 30 minute limits, but when you factor in the fact that you get twice as many hands per hour online, this tournament structure was not far off from that one. The point is, this was a great tournament set up allowing for plenty of time to have skill come into play.

Early on, I played a hand beautifully, but it didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. The blinds were 50/100 and a player in middle position open raised to 400. I had AA in the small blind and I reraised to 1,000. I was hoping the initial raiser would do something stupid like move all in or make a big reraise, but he just called. The flop came down 6 5 2 with two spades which was a fantastic flop. There was almost no chance that I was behind and I knew I'd get action from just about any middle or big pair. I bet out 1,200 hoping to get raised, but my opponent just called. The turn was a 5 which was another great card.

I figured there was about a 98% chance that my opponent had either AK (not very likely since I had two aces AND he'd called a sizable bet on the flop, but still a slim possibility), a pair between 77 and KK or a flush draw. By far the most likely hand for him to have was a pair. Conventional wisdom would tell you to bet again here and almost anyone would have bet again. But, I was almost positive that my opponent had an over pair to the flop and I figured that if I checked, he'd think that I had a hand like AK and bet his pair. I could then raise him and put him in a real bind. Even if he didn't have much of a hand I thought he might try to steal the pot with a bet. Checking when you know you have the best hand hoping to induce a bet from a worse hand is one thing that separates the pros from the weekend warriors.

But he checked. Crap! Maybe he had a flush draw? The river was the 3 of spades which was a terrible card since it completed the flush draw and put a 1 card straight possibility on the board. Now I couldn't bet for fear of a flush and if my opponent did have a big pair there was no way he'd bet it now. We both checked and he showed JJ.

Pocket Jacks? What kind of weak ass player won't bet pocket Jacks on a board of all small cards after a check on the turn? Bastard! For about 3 seconds I thought "I should have bet on the turn." But then I remembered David Sklansky's Fundamental Theorum of Poker. It essentially says; anytime you do something differently than you would if you could see your opponents cards, they benefit and every time you do something the same way you would if you could see their cards, you benefit.

The point is, if I saw that he had JJ I would have checked the turn for sure so even though I would have made more money by betting, I still played the hand correctly. That might be a little counterintuitive, but asking yourself if you would have done anything differently if you could see their cards during the hand is a powerful tool in evaluating your own play.

My next interesting hand came with blinds of 150/300. I had Q7 of spades in the big blind and the player on the button raised to 850. I made a loose call in the big blind and the flop came down K 4 4 with two spades. My opponent could really have just about anything. Some players will raise almost any two cards on the button if everyone folds to them and one of the reasons I called is I knew if I got a chance to show my hand, the player on the button would be less likely to raise my big blind in the future knowing I would call with weak hands.

Now that I'd called and gotten a fair flop, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. This was a rare situation in the sense that betting small, betting big, check calling, check folding and check raising were all reasonable options with their own risks and benefits. I decided to check and see how much my opponent bet. There was 1,850 in the pot and he bet 1,500. I was hoping he'd bet something like 1,000 or less which would indicate weakness which would make check raising the clear thing to do, but this was a little tougher. Folding was certainly an option, given the size of his bet, but I decided to call.

The turn was a blank and now I was facing a tougher decision. I was now only about 20% to make my flush and I couldn't call a big bet. Luckily my opponent only bet 2,000. I wasn't quite getting the odds I needed to justify a call, but I figured if I hit, I'd be able to win some more chips on the river. Happily the river was a spade, I bet 5,000 and got called. My opponent had AK and was no doubt wishing he'd bet more at some point during the hand.

I was over 30,000 chips at that point and feeling pretty good. In fact over the next hour or so I managed to win 3 or 4 pots in the 2,000-3,000 chip range and found myself with over 40,000 chips about 3 hours into the tournament. Unfortunately it was all down hill from there.

It wasn't one big hand that did it to me. It was a few failed small bluffs, a few times I missed with good hands against people who hit and a few risks that didn't work out. Essentially the problem was I went over 100 hands without winning a pot bigger than just the blinds. When the blinds moved to 500/1000 with a 100 chip ante about 5 hours into the tournament (I'd been dealt over 300 hands to that point) I was down to just over 10,000 chips.

On the hand that I went broke I was in the small blind with K 3. The player on the button just called and I put in 500 chips looking to see a cheap flop. There was already 3,400 in the pot so I was getting almost 7-1 on my money and I needed to take some chances before I was ground into dust. The flop came down K T 9 with two spades, which looked promising and dangerous at the same time.

I decided I was going to go with this hand and hope for the best so I decided to try a check raise. I checked as did the player in the big blind and the button bet 2,000. I moved all in, the big blind folded and the button instantly called. When the cards turned over I saw that he had A4 of spades which put me at 54% to win the hand. The turn was a blank and I was 73% to win the hand, but the river was an ace and I was out in 1,054th place.

The WCOOP is winding down for me even though Sunday's event was only #14 of 23. Almost all of the remaining events are either too expensive or games that I don't play for big money or both. After yesterday's action my starting bankroll of $2,000 is at $3,082.

I have plans to play two more WCOOP tournaments. One is $320 6-handed no limit hold 'em on Wednesday and the other is a $320 satellite to the $2,600 main event on Saturday. The satellite is special because pokerstars is guaranteeing 100 seats will be given away. I'm sure they'll get more than enough players to meet that guarantee and I feel like this is my best chance to get into the main event which I'd love to play, but is just too expensive.

I might play a handful of satellites here and there, and if I make the money on Wednesday I might make a stronger effort to get into the main event, but I'd like to have some profit to show for all of my efforts even if it's just a few bucks. I think maybe I'll give myself another $142 to work with playing small satellites to various events so that no matter what I'll end with a $300 net profit and my backers will return 15% on their investment.

No Good News

No good news today. Details coming later today or tomorrow.

WCOOP Event #14 Underway

Today's $1,050 event kicked off with 3,325 players. 1st place is $580,212, 5th is $130,340, 18th is $17,622, 117th is $4,655 and 486th is $1,330 just to give you little idea of the prizes.

Someone at my table went broke with AA vs KK on the third or fourth hand. We started with 15,000 chips and blinds of 25/50. One player raised to 130, the player with AA went to 230, and the player with KK made it 500. The initial raiser called, the player with AA made it 2,500 and got called by the player with KK. The flop came Q high with 3 clubs and they both had a club. All the money when in on the turn which happened to be a K.

This tournament is probably a really big deal for all but about 200 players in the field and it makes me kind of sick to see that happen to someone. The amount of good that the player who doubled up is probably 5% of the pain that the player with the AA is feeling.

Heavy WCOOP action

Today was the only day on my WCOOP schedule where I played 2 main events at the same time. Before I got to the real meat of the day I played a few satellites and a few other tournaments. While I was trying to figure out when I wanted to start today, I totally forgot about my supernova freeroll. You'd think that winning almost $8,000 last week would have burned the details of that tournament into my brain. Luckily Jen reminded me and I started my day off at around 11 am hoping to have a long day ahead of me. I didn't do anything in the Supernova, but I has success in other tournaments.

I'd missed out on all of the HORSE satellites which all started earlier, but I managed to play two small satellites to the $530 pot limit event. I never really got anything going and dropped $68 without getting close to the money.

A little later I played in another satellite that was special. The tournament was for Sunday's $1,050 event and was limited to players above a certain level of VIP status. What made the tournament special was Pokerstars added eighteen $1,050 seats to the prize pool above any beyond what the players contributed! Pretty sweet. The buy in was 6,600 FPP's (which are worth exactly $105 or 10% of a seat), 611 players entered and the top 79 finishers won $1,050 seats.

In contrast to the vast majority of satellites on Pokerstars which are turbos and have the blinds increase every 5 minutes, this tournament had 15 minute limits. We started with 1,500 chips and I made some progress right away. In no time I was up to 5,000 chips. I stayed about that level for a long, long time which was fine since I had enough chips to work with.

With about 125 players left I had about 4,200 chips and the blinds were 200/400 with a 40 chip ante. I picked up A6 suited in middle position and decided to move all in. I instantly regretted it. This hand was just not good enough and I wasn't yet quite desperate enough to move all in with such a marginal hand. Sure enough I got called by QQ and figured I was done. But I flopped a 6 and turned a 6 and doubled up! A few hands later I picked up QQ and won another few thousand when I reraised a raiser. So far so good.

With 100 players left I was in about 25th place with 12,000 chips and only needing to get to 79th I figured I could make it without playing another hand. Unfortunately I miscalculated. No one was playing any hands and it felt like 5 minutes was passing between every player elimination. The blinds kept getting bigger and bigger and my stack was melting away with every hand that passed.

By the time we were down to 90 players I was down to 6,000 and the blinds were up to 600/1200. ACK! I picked up TT on the button and with two shortish stacks in the blinds I was praying everyone would fold to me so I could move all in. Happily I got my wish and stole the blinds. I might have been able to make it without that hand, but it would have been much closer. After probably another 30 nerve racking minutes or so we'd lost the remaining players we needed and I picked up a sweet $1,050 seat! This was a net profit of $945 into the WCOOP coffers!

The HORSE event was amazingly uninteresting and since I don't have the ability to remember hands from all the weird games well as I do hold 'em hands I'll just gloss over it. Everyone at my table sucked at Omaha and Razz and were marginal at the other non hold'em games. I lasted about 4 hours or so and finished in 815th out of 1,639. A little disappointing given my competition but still a minor speed bump at worst.

I put in a much better showing in the $530 pot limit event. I cruised along for the first 3+ hours and had the one double up I mentioned in my previous post. I was back down to about 4,000 (we started with 3,000 chips) from my high of 5,500, with blinds of 150/300 when I picked up AK in the small blind. I raised to 900, the player in the big blind reraised and I moved in my remaining chips. He turned over KQ which I was thrilled to see (when you have AK, a worse K is the best hand to be up against). I managed to dodge a bad beat, my had held up and I was over 8,000.

I'd faded a little bit and was down to 6,000 with blinds of 200/400 when my next big hand came up. I was in the small blind again and after everyone folded I just called with QT. The player in the big blind raised to 1,200 and I called. The flop came down K J 5 giving me an open ended straight draw.

I wasn't sure what my next move should be. I didn't have anything that could win the pot yet, but I had a nice draw and my opponent could literally have anything since it's a common play to raise as a total bluff when the player in the small blind just calls. I decided to check and see what happened. My opponent bet 1,600 which didn't give me much of a clue as to what he might have. I decided to be aggressive and move all in. I thought I had a chance to win the pot without a fight right there and even if I got called I'd make my straight one time in three. Luckily my opponent quickly folded and I was up to 9,000 chips.

Shortly after, I had to put my tournament life on the line again. With blinds still at 200/400 I picked up QQ and raised to 1,200. A player who had about 7,000 chips reraised to 4,200 and I put him all in. I was hoping he had a smaller pair, but worried that he might have AA or KK. When he showed his cards I saw that he had AK suited. This wasn't perfect, but it wasn't terrible either. I was a 53% favorite before the flop, but when a Q came out on the flop it was all but over. After winning that pot my stack had swelled to 16,000 chips and I was in 77th place of 180. With 153 players making the money I was in great shape for another cash.

I went up to 18,000 and back down to 11,000, but when we finally made it to 153 players I had about 15,000 with an average stack of about 25,000. I was guaranteed to pick up $872 and hoping to move up a few more levels.

I dribbled down to 11,000 with a few minor miscues and then with blinds at 400/800 I picked up AA in the big blind. AH HA! The firs player to act raised, when it got to me I reraised and he just called. The flop came down T 9 6 and Jen said something like "That can't be a bad flop." ACK! MASSIVE JINX ALERT! I moved all in my remaining chips and got called by T9! Shit! Luckily I caught an ace on the turn, took down the pot and was up to 23,000.

A little while later with blinds of 500/1000 I put a player who had about 7,000 chips all in with AJ. He turned over QQ, but I hit an ace on the flop and was up to 32,000. After that hand I was starting to feel a little invincible. I had just about the average stack and I was starting to dream about making the final table where instead thousands, I'd be looking at tens of thousands (8th was $10,900 and it went up from there to $117,00 for 1st).

We crossed over the next money jump at 117 players and I was now looking at at least $981. Then I made a mistake. With blinds of 500/1000 a player in middle position made the minimum raise. I called with AT suited in the small blind and the big blind folded. The flop came down T 9 7 and I bet 3,000 into the 5,000 chip pot. My opponent just called, and the turn was another small card. I bet 6,000 and got raised to 12,000. I was hoping that the minimum raise preflop indicated a marginal hand, but now it looked like it was either a big pair or a set. I folded wishing I'd just dumped that cheese before the flop. I was down to 17,000 and in need of some help.

We crossed over the next payout jump which meant I was sure to get at least $1,144. Then I met my demise. A player to my left raised to 2,500 and I reraised to 8,000 with QQ. He put me all in and turned over AK. The flop came down 3 4 5 which was OK, but the turn was a 2 making him a straight and with no 6 or A on the river to force a split, I was out in 89th place.

I managed to net $614.50 on this event and felt good about how I played. Clearly things are going well in the WCOOP. Right now my starting WCOOP bankroll of $2,000 has almost doubled and is up to $3,917.30!!!

Tomorrow is the biggest event on my schedule - $1,050 no limit hold 'em. Pokerstars is guaranteeing a 2 million dollar prize pool so I suspect it will be more like 3 million with 1st place being around half a million. I give my self no worse than a 1 in 1750 shot of taking down 1st place and the way I've been playing lately, who knows what might happen.

Two More Events Underway

Right now WCOOP event #12 $215 HORSE is underway. We started with 1639 entrants, first place of $72,116 and 176th place of $262. 3 hours in I'm struggling but still alive.

WCOOP event #13 $530 pot limit hold'em is also underway. That tournament started with 1,090 players 1st place of $117,175 and 153rd place of $872. I caught an early double up and have 5,300 chips while the average is just over 4,000.

What the Hell is HORSE Anyway?

Here is what I wrote last year about HORSE for those of you who don't know what it is:

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 (you can read about Razz at www.fulltiltpoker.net/razz.php), 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 (2006) 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.


So that's a little about HORSE!

A Horse Satellite

I've made today a pretty half assed day and barely played at all. But I did decide to sit down and play 10 SNG's (mostly because I was bored) While I was doing that I decided to play in a turbo (5 minute limits) $77 satellite to tomorrow's $215 HORSE event. The thing I liked about this satellite is 1/3 of entrants won seats. Of course you have to risk a little more up front, but patience goes a long way when 1/3 of the field makes it to the money.

While I was certainly paying attention to what I was doing, I wasn't really looking at the tournament lobby. About 35 minutes in (when the blinds increased for the 7th time) I looked at the lobby and saw that I was in first place and we'd lost 40% of the field! From there I just cruised and was never in doubt of winning the seat. Add another $142 to the WCOOP coffers!

WCOOP Event#9 Recap

WCOOP Event#9 $215 with rebuys was an interesting tournament. We started with 3,000 chips with the option to immediately buy 3,000 more for $200 (and the option to do the same anytime we fell below 3,000 chips). Being able to effectively reenter the tournament if you run out of chips makes some players play wildly aggressive during the rebuy period (the first hour only). If you play enough hands, eventually you'll run into a streak where you win a few in a row and you'll end up with more chips than you would have otherwise. Having a big stack later in the tournament means not only can you survive several hands where you have some bad luck, but it also allows you to put pressure on other players with fewer chips. The biggest problem with the wild strategy is sometimes you do 10-15 rebuys (or more) and don't end up with more chips than the people who did one or two.

My plan was to go the other way. Keep my investment low and play more conservatively. My chances of making the money or going deep would be reduced, but so would the amount of money I had at risk.

I pretty much folded every hand for the 1st half an hour and then I picked up QQ in the big blind. The blinds were 10/20 (very small compared to the number of chips in play) A player in early position raised to 100, another player called and I reraised to 300. Both other players called and the flop came down J 5 3. I bet 800 expecting to take the pot, but to my surprise BOTH players called. The turn was a 6 and I moved all in for my remaining 1,800 or so chips. Again BOTH players called. Yikes! The river was an 8 which was a great card. I was all in but the other players still had chips. They both checked which was a good sign for me and when the cards got turned over one of them had T3 (really!) and the other had KJ. I was up to about 8,800 chips and off to a great start.

I cruised at about this level until the end of the rebuy period where I elected to pay $200 to do the add on and get another 5,000 chips. At this point I had 14,465 chips. The tournament prize pool of over 1.3 millions dollars had come from 2,188 entries, 2,852 rebuys and 1574 add ons. I did the math to determine my equity and calculated that my chip stack was now worth $939.60. This was pretty good since i won my initial buy in via satellite and was only in for $248.

I saw that first place was $259,533, but I was more interested in the fact that 270th (the edge of the money) paid $1,323! Usually just making it to the money is only good enough to get your initial investment back, but in this case it would be more than 5 times what I'd put into the event and almost $1,100 in profit.

After the rebuys were done the blinds were still only 25/50. With almost 15,000 chips and 30 minute limits I knew I had a long, long, long time before I was going to be facing any blind pressure. I took this opportunity to play a lot of hands if I could get in for the minimum. Losing 50 chips was nothing and if I could really connect with a flop I might be able to win a few thousand.

Of course the downside of the strategy is sometimes you hit the flop hard and still have the second best hand. This happened to me a few times and I found myself with about 10,000 chips at the end of the second hour. I recall that I moved from 10,000 to 20,000 in a pretty short time by winning two pots where I netted about 5,000 each, but I've forgotten the details.

With blinds of 100/200 I picked up QQ in the big blind again hoping to get some action. One player in middle position raised to 600 and I reraised to 1,600. The flop came down 7 3 2 which looked like a great flop. I bet 2,400 into the 3,300 chip pot and my opponent (who had about 20,000 chips also) just called. Mentally I called for another deuce and that's just what came on the turn. I was almost positive that I had the best hand and I figured if I was up against a smaller pair or a hand like AK or AQ. I guessed that my opponent might fold if I bet big again and if I had him beat that's not what I wanted.

On the other hand if I checked I might induce a bluff from AK or AQ or convince him that a mid sized pair was the best hand. If was behind I was going to lose all of my chips anyway so I checked. My opponent bet about 5,000 and I moved all in. He thought for a few seconds which made me even more confident that I was in good shape. Eventually he called and showed 88. The river was a K and I was up to 40,000 chips.

I stayed around 40,000 for a long, long time. In fact that's where I was two and a half hours later when the blinds had gone all the way up to 400/800 with an 80 chip ante. I hadn't been getting much in the way of cards, but my table was crazy tight and I'd been able to make up for getting no cards and a few minor mistakes by stealing the blinds once every 4 or 5 hands for hours.

Then I had a major misstep. I was on the button with 87 and raised to 2,400. The players in the blinds had folded at least 5 or 6 times straight to my raises so my cards were certainly not the reason I was raising. The player in the big blind made it 4,000 which I thought might mean AA or KK, but since I only had to put in another 1,600 to see the flop it was an easy call.

The flop came down Q 5 2 and my opponent checked. This convinced me even more that he had a huge hand and was trying to get me to bet it for him (since you'd never normally reraise and then check). I checked also and the turn came an A which put three clubs on the board. He checked again. I didn't really know what was going on, but I had to bet something here. I couldn't think of anything that he could have that somehow didn't connect, but two checks from your opponent means automatic bet in my school of thinking.

My best guess was he had KK, checked the flop as a slowplay and was now worried that I had an A (a very likely card for me to have since I came in raising). I bet about 5,000 into the 9,000+ chip pot. My opponent only had 10,000 left and he was such a weak player that I thought he might fold a hand like KK or JJ.

But he called. The river was a J and he checked again. I didn't really have any good options. My only hope now was that he had the K of clubs and would fold in order to save his remaining 5,000 chips. With 87 I couldn't beat anything and there was almost 20,000 in the pot. If I thought he'd fold more than 1 time in 5 it made sense to put him all in. I bet and he called with AJ. It was a weird hand and I was left thinking I should have folded before the flop and avoided the whole mess.

A few hands later when the blinds had gone up to 500/1000 with a 100 chip ante. I made another mistake. The player to my right who had about 15,000 and was also a weak player raised to 3000 in the cutoff. I was on the button with AT and I reraised to 8,000 hoping he would fold. Instead he moved all in. ACK! I knew I was in bad shape, but I had to put in another 7,000 to win the 24,000 that was already in the pot. My opponent showed QQ putting me at about 30% to win. The flop came T 4 4, the turn was a blank, but the river was another 10! Happily this was a mistake that worked out in my favor and I was back up to 40,000 (which was just about an average sized stack).

Then things got slow again and unfortunately a few of my opponents started playing back at me. I don't know if they started picking up hands, just got aggressive, or realized I wasn't going to commit a big chunk of my chips to one hand, but when I would raise more times than not I was getting reraised. My chip stack started to slip, the blinds kept getting bigger and I could feel my chances fading.

With blinds at 750/1500, over an hour after my hand with the QQ, I'd fallen to about 20,000 chips. and was in something like 290th out of 330 or so remaining players. I was getting fed up with folding hand after hand. I figured I needed to win one more pot to have enough to make it to the money so when I found myself in the big blind with 9T of clubs, I decided it might be a good time to take a chance.

Someone raised to a weird amount like 3,650 and I called. The flop came down T 6 4 all spades. I had no idea if my hand was good or not, and even if it was half the deck would be cards I didn't want to see on the turn. I was about 95% sure that if I checked my opponent would bet and I decided to just cross my fingers and hope I had the best hand. I checked, my opponent bet about the size of the pot and I moved all in for my few remaining chips (I actually had him just covered). I knew he'd be forced to call with anything, but I was shocked and pleased to see him turn over J8 with no spades! I won the pot and was close to 40,000 again.

It was time to put on the stall. My plan was to just fold just about every hand until I made the money, but with 275 players left I was faced with a tough decision. I was down to 26,000 chips after being eaten up by the blinds for a few rounds and with blinds of 1000/2000 and a 200 chip ante I picked up QQ. I was planning on moving all in when a player in front of me raised to 6,000. In a lesser tournament I would have moved all in for sure which means I probably should have here too. But my opponent had over 100,000 chips and he'd only have to risk 20,000 to win 37,000. I didn't want to risk my whole tournament which I'd been playing for 8 hours on this one hand. If I'd had KK or AA I would have gone for it for sure and I would have felt fine about folding JJ or AK. In the end after about 60 seconds of thought, I folded. I'm still not sure what I should have done.

The good news is, those last 5 players dropped and I made the money! In fact as soon as we made it I picked up AK and someone raised in front of me. I moved all in and they called me with A9. I flopped a K and was up to 48,000. The average stack was in the 80,000 range and I was in pretty good shape.

The blinds went up again and that's when I met my demise. With blinds of 1250/2500 the player to my right made it 6,000 to go in late position. I had AJ suited and about 50,000 in chips. Looking to win the 12,000+ chips in the pot and increase my stack by almost a quarter without a fight, I moved all in. Unfortunately my opponent instantly called me with AA and I was out in 209th place.

The good news is I moved up one more pay level and got paid $1,455 which was a profit of $1,207! This was a very pleasing result since I got in so cheap and I initially hadn't even had this event on my schedule. It also means I have a lot more leeway in what I want to do for the rest of the WCOOP. I dropped another $78 playing two satellites while writing this post (I'm still in one, but it doesn't look good), but right now my starting WCOOP bankroll of $2,000 has gone up to $2,640.80

Today was the $320 heads up matches which was my best result in the 2005 WCOOP when I finished 32 out of 1048, but I haven't felt good about my heads up play lately and I slept in too long to play any satellites. There was also $215 Razz (7 card stud for low) and I kind of wanted to play, but it's not really my game, so I figured if I could get in cheap I'd play.

Tomorrow is both the $215 HORSE and the $530 Pot limit hold'em. My best result in the 2006 WCOOP was in the HORSE event and both of my WSOP cashes are in pot limit hold'em so I have high hopes. Sunday is the $1,050 no limit hold 'em which I'm about 80% sure that I'll be playing. If I make the money in either tournament on Saturday I'll play on Sunday for sure or if I can have some satellite success that will also make it a certainty. I'll keep you posted.

You'll have to wait

I played a long, long tournament today and I'm too tired to write all the details, but it was an interesting event. I don't want to ruin the drama so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out what happened. I promise to have a post up by 5 pm at the latest, and will try to do it in the late morning or early afternoon.