A turbulent few rounds

After my last post I immediately ran my stack up to 75,000 was in 5th place. Then I had an equally quick melt down. I started making a bunch of second best hands. If it was no limit I would have gone broke three times at least in the past two hours. One hand in particular that was interesting was with the limits at 1,200/2,400 I open raised with QQ and got three bet. I capped the betting at 4,800 and the flop came down KJT all spades. I had the queen of spades so we capped it again on the flop. The turn was a jack which given the fact that I thought my opponent had either AA, KK, JJ or TT meant I was probably in bad shape. The river brought no help and my opponent dragged the pot with KK.

A few hands later I lost another big pot with AK vs QQ. I flopped a flush draw and bet it hard. But I missed it and lost another big one.

Just after that I had KQ vs AJ. There was heavy raising preflop, one bet on the flop and when I turned a king I figured I had the best hand. But the river game my opponent a flush.

I lost a few more pots and all of a sudden I was down to about 15,000 wondering what the hell happened.

But then I had a big turn around. I raised under the gun with 88 ended up flopping a set and got so much action from top pair that I was actually all in. Happily I won and had myself back up to 30,000.

I chopped out a few small ones and got back to 40,000. Then I made another set and got up to 50,000. Two marginal hands that I raised hit top pair and after getting some action on both I now find myself with 75,000 chips. Right was I was before.

We're down to 124 and I'm in 21st.

Also I made the money in the $162 second chance and then quickly went broke. My finish in 26th of 144 paid $216 which is only a profit of $54. Not too exciting, but cashes are always good for morale!

In the Money in Event #3!

We dropped under 324 players a little more than 6 hours into play in today's limit hold'em event. I am still doing really well. Right now average is just over 20,000. I was up to 40,000 and then fell back to about 17,000. But after snapping off a major bluff, and hitting more than one very favorable turn card I turboed all the way up to 50,000 chips which has me in 19th place.

I'm also doing well in the $162 WCOOP second chance tournament. We started that one with 144 players (WAY fewer than I would have expected - I would have guessed we'd get about 500) and are down to 34. I'm in 14th and it pays 27 spots. In that one I need to make it to 5th to net $1,000 and 1st is $4,644.

I'll put up another post in a few hours or if I go broke in either tournament.

If you want to watch the action live you can go to www.pokerstars.com and download the software. Once you do that you can click on "Requests" at the top center of the software, and then select "Find a player" and then type in acesedai. It will give you a list of the tables I'm on and if you double click on them it will take you to the table or the tournament lobby. If it takes you to the tournament lobby you can look for acesedai in the list of players on the right and double click on my name and it will tell you my table number. If you want to watch more than one table at once I think you need to create and account and log in (a fairly easy task). PLEASE let me know if you want to watch, but are having trouble getting set up. I'm happy to help.

Event #3 further update

We're about 3 hours and 40 minutes into Event #3. We've played about 225 hands and I'm still doing very well. We're down to 840 players and the average stack is just about 8,000 chips. I have 20,300 and right now I'm in 12th place.

I've been playing well, but I have to say that I've been getting great cards. I've had AA three times and KK twice. More importantly I've been making all of my draws. I've made at least three straights and two flushes and have gotten paid off to the river on all of them.

I've taken 3 or 4 hits along the way where I had a very strong hand and lost. But it seems like as soon as I drop some chips I make a big hand right afterwards and get them all back.

Also forgot to mention that earlier I won a $55 satellite to today's $215 event. I did drop $22.50, and $25 on two other satellites, but between the three I put a little $112.50 dent in the WCOOP losses so far.

If I don't make the money in this limit tournament with all the chips I have I'm going to be super pissed! I'll put up a post when I make the money.

Event #3 Underway!

We started today's $215 Limit Hold'em event with 2,258 entrants. The tournament pays 324 spots with 324th paying $361 gross. To net $500 I need to make it to 72nd, 18th pays $1,806, 9th is 5,012 and 1st place is $73,385.

After an hour of play I've been dealt 63 hands and I've won 11 pots. I've got my starting stack of 3,000 up to 5,150 and I'm feeling good about my chances. I'll put up a brief update after the third break 2 hours from now.

2008 WCOOP Event #3 Preview

Event #3 at this years WCOOP is $215 limit hold'em. Last year this was event #7, had 2,059 entries and a first place prize of $67,933.

Limit hold'em tournaments can feel like they are taking forever since the pots in the first few levels are very small compared to the players chips stacks, but I like them.

You heard it here first - If I get down to 6 players I'm going to win!

Event #1 ($215 NL 6-Max) Recap

I was doing pretty well for a while in this one, but came up short. I had my stack up to over 8,000 when average was 6,000. The biggest problem was I had a very active table and never really got any cards. I had AA early and got some action which was how I got a good chunk of the chips I had, but other than that it felt like 200 hands of garbage.

While I spent most of my time folding when I did get in there I was flopping draws and missing them which is very costly. In the end that last hand I played was ATs. I was down to about 2,500 chips and after the first player to act raised to 400 I moved all in. He had AK, I missed and that was it. I finished in 1,910th place.

I'm amazed how close I got to the money in this one given that I was so card dead. If I'd gotten any breaks at all I would have made it.

Unfortunately I also dropped another $128 in satellites, meaning the total damage so far is -$803.

WCOOP Event# 1 update

We started todays $215 NL 6 handed tournament with a whopping 7,217 players! That is a major increase from last years opening event. The tournament pays 1080 spots with 1,080th paying $303 (gross). To show a $1,000 profit I have to make it to 168th or better, to show $3,000 in profit I have to make it to 36th, 9th pays $9,021, 6th pays $23,686 and 1st is $212,179.

As of now we've played for 2 hours and I have my starting stack of 3,000 chips up to 5,500. We're down to 3,344 right now so plenty of peole have dropped, but when we come back from break the blinds will be 75/150 and with 30 minute limts there's still a long way to go.

WCOOP Event #1 Preview

I played 9 small WCOOP satellite tournaments today with extremely poor results. For those of you who don't know a satellite tournament is a tournament where instead of cash prizes the top finishers get an entry (or a seat as we often call it) into a tournament with a larger buy it. This allows players who normally couldn't afford the larger buy in a chance to win their way into big tournaments.

For example if you had 150 players enter a normal $55 tournament, the $7,500 in the prize pool would get split amongst the top 18 finishers with 1st place paying something like $2,500 and 18th paying something like $75 with everyone in between getting varying payouts. Instead let's say they same group played a $55 satellite to a $500 tournament. Now instead of 18 players getting various amounts of money everyone who finishes in the top 15 gets an entry into that $500 tournament. Once you're down to 15 the tournament is over. It doesn't matter if you have 1 chip or 100,000 chips, you all get the same prize.

I got close in one such tournament today where the top two spots won a $530 seat. Instead I finished 4th and got back $18. That was the highlight of the 9 tournaments. BLAH! The total damage was -$460.

WCOOP Event #1 starts at 11:30 PT tomorrow. It's a $215 NL Hold'em 6 handed tournament. Some of you may recall that my one cash at the 2008 WSOP was in 6 handed NL hold'em and since most of what I do is play six handed these days, I'm looking forward to this tournament.

Last year there were 4,610 entrants and a first place prize of $155,561. I expect there will be at least that many this year. Hopefully I can get off to a strong start. Of course I'll post details when I'm done or along the way if things are going really well.

WCOOP 2008 Preview!

Here is the full schedule of events for this years WCOOP:

EVENT No	DATE	DAY	TIME	BUY-IN	EVENT	GUARANTEE
1	5-Sep	Fri	14:30	$215	NL Hold'em [6-max]	$1,000,000
2	5-Sep	Fri	16:30	$215	PL 5-Card Draw	$100,000
3	6-Sep	Sat	14:30	$215	Limit Hold'em	$300,000
4	6-Sep	Sat	16:30	$215	2-7 Triple Draw	$100,000
5	7-Sep	Sun	14:30	$10,300	High-Roller NL Hold'em	$2,000,000
6	7-Sep	Sun	16:30	$530	NL Hold'em*	$3,000,000
7	8-Sep	Mon	14:30	$215	PL Omaha [6-max]	$300,000
8	8-Sep	Mon	16:30	$320	8-game Mixed Event	$200,000
9	9-Sep	Tue	14:30	$215	NL Hold'em [4-max]	$400,000
10	9-Sep	Tue	16:30	$215	Razz	$100,000
11	10-Sep	Wed	14:30	$320	PL Omaha Hi/Lo	$300,000
12	10-Sep	Wed	16:30	$320	Mixed Hold'em [6-max]	$300,000
13	11-Sep	Thu	14:30	$215	NL Hold'em w/Rebuys	$1,000,000
14	11-Sep	Thu	16:30	$320	7-Card Stud	$100,000
15	12-Sep	Fri	14:30	$320	NL Hold'em [Heads-Up]	$500,000
16	12-Sep	Fri	16:30	$215	PL Omaha [1R1A]	$300,000
17	13-Sep	Sat	14:30	$530	PL Hold'em [6-max]	$400,000
18	13-Sep	Sat	16:30	$215	HORSE	$300,000
19	14-Sep	Sun	14:30	$25,500	High-Roller HU NL Hold'em	$1,600,000
20	14-Sep	Sun	16:30	$1,050	NL Hold'em*	$3,000,000
21	15-Sep	Mon	14:30	$530	7-Card Stud Hi/Lo	$200,000
22	15-Sep	Mon	16:30	$530	Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo [6-max]	$200,000
23	16-Sep	Tue	14:30	$530	NL Hold'em [1R1A]	$500,000
24	16-Sep	Tue	16:30	$530	NL 2-7 Single Draw	$200,000
25	17-Sep	Wed	14:30	$320	PL Omaha w/rebuys	$500,000
26	17-Sep	Wed	16:30	$320	NL Hold'em [6-max]	$500,000
27	18-Sep	Thu	14:30	$530	NL Hold'em Triple Shootout	$300,000
28	18-Sep	Thu	16:30	$530	Limit Omaha Hi/Lo	$400,000
29	19-Sep	Fri	14:30	$530	NLHE w/Rebuys [6-max]	$400,000
30	19-Sep	Fri	16:30	$1,050	PL Omaha	$500,000
31	20-Sep	Sat	14:30	$1,050	Limit Hold'em [6-max]	$500,000
32	20-Sep	Sat	16:30	$10,300	HORSE	$500,000
33	21-Sep	Sun	16:30	$5,200	NL Hold'em Main Event*	$10,000,00

Note that the guarantees are for the total prize pool not first place.

Here are the tournaments that I plan to play in:

9/5 $215 NL Hold'em 6 handed

9/6 $215 Limit Hold 'em

9/8 $215 Pot Limit Omaha 6 handed

9/8 $320 8-game mixed games

9/9 $215 Nl Hold 'em 4 handed

9/9 $215 Razz

9/10 $320 Mixed Hold em (half NL and half limit)

9/11 $215 NL Hold 'em with rebuys

9/11 $320 7-Card Stud

9/12 $320 Heads up NL Hold 'em matches

9/13 $530 Pot Limit Hold 'em 6 handed

9/13 $215 HORSE

9/14 $1,050 NL Hold 'em

9/16 $530 NL Hold'em with 1 rebuy and 1 add on

9/17 $320 NL Hold 'em 6 handed

9/18 $530 NL Hold 'em triple shootout

9/18 $530 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo

9/20 $1,050 Limit Hold 'em 6 handed

That's $8,725 in tournaments (assuming 1 rebuy and 1 add on for the rebuy tournaments). If they do it like last year every day they'll be offering a $215 second chance tournaments in the same games as the days events a few hours after the WCOOP tournaments go off so everyone who went broke early can take another shot. I play to play in some of those as well and while they won't have six figure pay days at the top there will still be some serious money up for grabs. I expect that I'll also be playing quite a few satellites.

I've given myself a starting bankroll of an even $10,000 for the 2008 WCOOP and I've sold a little bit of my action to a group of about 10 investors.

My goals are to have at least 4 cashes in the main WCOOP events and make it to one final table. If I can make it to any final table (with the exception of one or two like the $215 Razz) it should be enough to make the whole venture a financial success.

While I'm confident in all of the events (if I didn't think they were all smart bets, I wouldn't be risking my money on them!) I think my best chance should come in the very last tournament which is $1050 6 handed limit hold'em. So no matter what happens early there will be that last chance to win big looming at the end.

I'm starting Satellite play tonight and the first event kicks off tomorrow morning!

A Little Note from Pokerstars

I got this e-mail from pokerstars today:

Hello PokerStars largest players,

If you are getting this email you are one of our top 100 players, Congratulations! The Blog Team has asked me to email you with a question. We want to cover some people playing the WCOOP over the next 3 weeks. If you make it deep may we say you're a Supernova Elite or one of our largest Supernova VIPs?

Thank you for playing on PokerStars!

I think it's interesting to note that pokerstars had 9 million members and I'm in the top 100 in terms of point generation. What I'd really like to know is how many players out there are making more money than me. Hopefully I'll do something noteworth enough for them to mention me on the Pokerstars blog or even better, cardplayer magazine.

For those of you who are wondering about my points quest I'm currently at 612,000 points for the year. This is about 60,000 behind pace, but I have a plan! Specifically I'm going to go bananas in September and October and get myself either on or ahead of pace. I still have dreams of finishing this thing off a few weeks early and doing nothing for a while.

Why do I think I can make up so much ground? Well I made 5,700 points today in one day and it wasn't too bad. If I do that 21 days a month for two months all of a sudden I'm 20,000 points ahead of pace.

The past few days I've been playing a combo of two $109 SNG's and four $10/$20 games. This set up generates points at an insane rate. In fact I can make about $45 an hour in FPPs alone for breaking even with that set up of games! Of course if things go really bad I could lose $2,000 in an hour which is why there aren't tons of people out there making $45 an hour in FPPs.

I'm planning to put up a WCOOP event #1 preview and a brief WCOOP general preview with my goals and expectations for this years WCOOP sometime soon.