Event #17 Underway!

We started today's $530 PL hold'em 6 handed tournament with 960 players. An hour into it we're down to 724 and I've run my starting stack of 5,000 up to 9,200 which puts me in 148th place. It's been a volatile first hour and at one point I did have all my chips at risk in the pot, but I'm doing pretty well now.

The edge of the money is 144th and that pays $768. 9th is $8,400, 6th is $14,400 and 1st is $80,400. It doesn't possibly seem like I can go deep (and blow it!) again, but you never know.

2008 WCOOP Events #17 & #18

Event #17 is $530 Pot Limit Hold'em 6 handed. Initially I was thinking since this one is going off on a Saturday we could be looking at a huge field. But right now there are only 115 people signed up! I can't imagine any hold'em tournament in the WCOOP (except for the MEGA buy in ones) having less than 2,000 players, but I guess some people don't like pot limit and others don't like 6 handed. Of my 3 WSOP cashes two are in pot limit hold'em and the other was in six handed NL so you can guess how I feel about it. By game time we'll probably have at least 1,000, but that's still less that I might have thought.

Event #18 is $215 HORSE. Do we even have to play this thing or do they just want to give me the title ahead of time? Other than the 6 handed limit hold'em this is probably the tournament that I've had my eye on as a most likely cash. More than any HORSE tournament of the year, this one is likely to be populated with people who don't know how to play all the games.

If any of you backers out there want a small advance on your profits transferred to your pokerstars account let me know and I'll make it so. That way you can play a little yourself whilst enjoying the WCOOP drama or perhaps even win your way into a WCOOP tournament via satellite yourself!

2008 WCOOP Event #16 ($215 PLO with Rebuys) Recap

Once again there's good news and bad news. The bad news is I went broke in the Omaha finishing 887th of 1,232. The good news is I busted before I got a chance to do the add on so I was only in for $415.

I got off to a great start running my starting stack of 4,000 (after I did the one rebuy) up to about 8,000. But then I dropped off slowly but steadily. I kept getting a ton of marginal but playable hands and catching a piece, but not all of it.

In the final hand I got all of my chips in with a flush draw vs two players neither of whom had a set or any cards of the suit I needed. On the turn I even picked up an open ended straight, but the river was a brick and that was it.

I did win my first match in the $215 Second Chance HU Matches (which started with 252 players). It took a little luck on the end and 88 hands to dispatch my opponent. On the final hand I put all my chips in with second pair and ran into top pair. But I made trips on the end and am now awaiting my next opponent. Two more wins is worth $504.

2008 WCOOP Event #15 ($320 HU Matches) Recap

Well, I lost my first match. Crap! It lasted 46 minutes and 136 hands which is pretty long for one of these. I got paired against another supernova. I know he was a supernova because a few days ago they made it so you can display your VIP status right on your icon! Those of you who have been watching me may have wondered about the 5 stars under my picture. If I had 4 stars it would mean I was platinum, 3 for gold, 2 for sliver and 1 for bronze.

Despite being supernova this guy totally sucked! He was one of the most predictable opponents I've every played. When he bet big he had it and when he bet small it was a bluff. The only problem I had was trusting my read (and the fact that I made very few real hands). The people I normally play against are very crafty and it threw me off to play against someone so straightforward. I just couldn't believe that he would keep acting that way! Actually towards the end he did shift gears a little, but I still think I could have beaten him 8 times out of 10.

Maybe I'll have better luck in the $215 Heads Up Matches second chance!

A Big Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who stayed up late to watch last night. Also thanks to E.B. for driving out here at about 1 a.m. to root me on in person and give me someone to high five after Jen went to sleep!

2008 WCOOP Events #15 & #16 Preview

Event #15 is $320 Heads Up Matches. The way it works is you play against one player and whoever wins moves on. If you win you have to wait until all of the other matches are done before being paired with a new opponent. If you win 3 matches you're in the money.

Event #16 is $215 Pot Limit Omaha with 1 rebuy and 1 add on. This is a tournament that wasn't on my original schedule, but since I'm now flush with cash and I did so well in the other PLO that I played I figured why not.

Also I want to give myself as many chances to cash as possible. There are only about 75 players who have 3 or more cashes, 25 who have 4 or more, 6 who have 5, one who has 6, and one with 7. While it would be tough for me to contend for most cashes, I might be able to get into the top ten by the time it's all over. I do have 4 cashes in the second chance tournaments in 6 tries, but that doesn't count for anything except the money won of course (and a little satisfaction!).

This Omaha tournament will be 9 handed and unlike yesterdays rebuy tournament where you could rebuy as many times as you wanted during the first hour (assuming you had under 2,000 chips), in this one you can only rebuy once. At the end of the first hour you can add more chips with the add on. Basically the max commitment in this one is $615.

2008 WCOOP Event #13 ($215 with rebuys) Recap

At this point much of yesterday's tournament has blended together so the details aren't going to be as sharp as most of my posts. And while I'm trying to get myself to just feel good about it I can't help but have mixed feelings.

When I last left off I had about 90,000 chips with 88 players left. Soon after a very aggressive player moved all in from the cutoff and I called with 77. He turned over J9s, but I flopped a 7 and moved up to over 200,000.

The great thing about this tournament is I was stuck at between a third and half of average for hours and hours, but I still had plenty of chips in relation to the blinds. This allowed me to stay patient and wait for good hands which I got plenty of.

Specifically I kept getting AQ! I must have had it 10 times after we got down to less than 100 players. And I won with it every time! Usually it was by blowing all in against an initial raiser who every time but one folded. I got called one time by 88, but managed to hit an ace and double up.

With less than 25 players left I had by far my favorite hand of the tournament (although that one with K9 suited is second). I wish I could remember all the precise details, but I think it went something like this. With blinds of 6,000/12,000 a player raised on the button to 30,000 and I made it 110,000 to go with 99 (I had something like 600,000 when the hand started). My opponent called and the flop came down QJ9 with two hearts giving me a set! I bet out about 150,000, my opponent who had about the same number of chips I did, made it 320,000 and I moved all in. I was hoping to see hand like AA or AQ, but instead my opponent showed KJ of hearts giving him a straight and a flush draw. In other words he was 39% to win while with AA he would have only ben 11% and with AQ it would have been 5%!

But then the turn came down...and it was a 9! QUADS BABY! 1,000,000 chips baby!

This was the first time I was in really good shape chip wise and it looked like I had a great chance to make the final table. For a long time I was telling myself that if I could just make it to 18th or better I'd be happy. All of the pay jumps were around $150 every time we'd lose another 9 players, but while 19th-27th paid $2,685 16th-18th paid $5,114. This was enough that I would feel like this tournament was a real success. We crossed that pay line and then quickly made the next pay jump. 13th to 15th paid $7,671. Before I knew it we were down to 12 which paid $10,228.

We played with 10 players for a good while and it seemed like we'd never make it down to the final table. Then I got a total gift. The blinds were 15,000/30,000 and the shortest stack had about 440,000. He was in the small blind and made a bold move with J8 moving all in. I woke up with QQ in the big blind and took him out!

Then I totally blew it! At one point at the final table I had over 2,000,000 chips, but with about 1,600,000 left I flushed my whole stack on one hand. With blinds of 20,000/40,000 I raised to 120,000 with KJ and got called by the big blind. The flop came down J T 7 and after my opponent checked I bet out 240,000. He just called and the turn came an 8. This was truly a terrible card since now any 9 made a straight. Again my opponent checked which is exactly what I should have done. Instead thought "There's no reason he should have a 9 is there?" And then I moved all in. I got snap called by T9 and that was it.

9th place paid $14,192. I won't remind you what the other places paid, because it sucks to think about what if. So officially I'm going to stop moping and try this again!

9th PLACE PAID $14,192! WCOOP FINAL TABLE BABY! This was a real marathon. I played for over 15 hours which is the longest I've ever played in any poker tournament.

The best part is now the WCOOP is guaranteed to show a profit! That right all of you backers, you'll all be getting a check from me when this is all done. For how much remains to be seen.

Right now my starting bankroll of $10,000 had ballooned to $23,723!

Still in it!

I think everyone who has big interest in this tournament is either watching live or asleep. I'm still in it late enough that London Dave is probably on his lunch break by now. Since it's so late and this is looking like a pretty nice finish I'm going to wait until morning for the full write up of results and stories.

WCOOP Update

When we last left out hero, I was at about 31,000. With about 35,000 I picked up KK and was facing an all in of about 18,000 in front of me. Yay! Kings should be good right? Wrong! He had AA and I was down under 20,000.

A few hands later I moved all in from 1st position with KQ. I got called by AJ, but I flopped 2 kings and was up to 30,000.

A few hands later I picked up 66. The player to my right who happened to be the same guy who had the AA and the AJ moved all in for 10,000. I decided to gamble and moved all in over the top. When the next player to act moved all in too I knew I was in trouble. The first guy had A9 and the second guy had KK, but I nailed a 6 on the flop and was up over 70,000!

Since then I've been in maintain mode and have about 90,000. We're down to 88 which pays $1,918 gross and I'm in 62nd.

I also finished 5th in the $215 Stud second chance which paid $512.

Heavy Action!

After my last post I went up to 50,000 chips by winning three pots. On the first I raised with QJ, and got one caller in the big blind. The flop came Q high and my opponent check called a good sized bet. The turn was a brick and I decided if this was it then oh well. After he checked the turn I moved all in and he folded.

A few hands later with blinds at 600/1,200 a player who'd been raising very often made his standard 3,000 bet and I just called with KJ on the button. The small blind came along too and the flop came down A Q T all spades. The original raiser made it 7,200 I instantly moved all in and took down the pot.

Then I went back down to about 30,000. And then all the way back up to 70,000 when the following hand came up. I raised from the button with Q9s and got reraised by the big blind. I called and the flop came down JT9. He made a good sized bet and I moved all in. After some thought he folded and I was up to over 90,000.

Then I got totally jobbed. With blinds of 800/1,600 a player made it 3,935 to go from middle position (Really!). I decided to see a flop with 78 from the big blind. The flop came down 5 6 J and I was going to check raise semibluff, but my opponent checked behind me. The turn was a 9 which was a total bingo card making me the nut straight. I check raised him all in and he showed 69 for two pair. To my shock on horror the river was a 9 making him a full house and costing me 85,000 chips. SHIT!

I'm back to 31,000 now in 164th of 199, but still in it.