2008 WCOOP Event #24 Preview

Event #24 has not been on my schedule, and I figured it looked like a good one to skip. Event #24 is $530 No Limit 2-7 Single Draw Lowball. This is a game I have never played before. In fact it's only been on pokerstars for the past two weeks and even now the biggest stakes they offer it at are $1/$2 blinds no limit (and there's only 1 game going right now).

So why in the would would I play a tournament for $530 in a game that I've never played before? Well pokerstars has guaranteed a prize pool of $200,000 and right now there are only 54 people signed up. They need 377 players to meet the guarantee and even that would make it a juice free event.

Also while I've never played this game before, NO ONE has played this game for any amount of time because it's brand new! OK maybe some of the old timers played some NL lowball back in the day when people played lowball, but we're talking 20+ years ago. I played a pretty good amount of A-5 single draw lowball at the Oaks club (one of maybe a dozen places in the country that offer standard lowball in person), but it was limit. While this makes is pretty drastically different I'll know a hell of a lot more about what's going on than the hold'em, stud and Omaha players who try to make the jump. Even the triple draw lowball players might get a little screwed up.

Anyway if it looks like there are going to be less than 300 players at game time I just can't pass up the value. If there are 200 players, for example, it would be like getting into a $1,050 tournament for $530. Hard to pass up no matter what they're playing.

2008 WCOOP Event #23 Preview

Event #23 is $530 NL Hold'em with 1 rebuy and 1 add on. This tournament is going to provide an insane amount of play. We started the $1.050 NL with 15,000 chips (which is a ton), 30 minute limits, and 25/50 blinds. In this one the buy in gets you 4,000, the rebuy gets you another 4,000 and the add on gets you another 8,000. The limits are still 30 minutes, but the blinds start at 10/20! These are some deep stacks if I've ever seen them!

A normal online tournament will start you with blinds of 10/20 and generally the same blind increases, but only 1,500 chips and 15 minute limits. That means after two hours you've gone up 8 levels and the big blind is 20% of what you started with. Clearly if you haven't gotten any hands you're done by this point. To contrast, after two hours in tomorrow's tournament you've only gone up 4 levels and the big blind is still less than 1% of what you started with. After 4 hours in the normal tournament the big blind is 200% of the stack you began with, while in tomorrow's event it's less than 2% of your starting stack! By 6 hours in the first scenario even if you've finished first you've had enough time to chill the champagne and call your friends while in the second, you're still an hour short of the money.

This is why the WCOOP is so great and why I've been able to do so well. It's all about having the time.

Since this is the most money I've put on the line in any WCOOP event so far this year I'm certainly happy that it's going to take a long time. More time means more decisions and more chances for me to out play my opponents. Also with so many chips, unless two mega hands clash it's tough to lose all of your chips on one hand early.

Another thing is since the buy in is so big and it's on a weekday I think we can expect somewhere between 500 and 700 entrants. That means I should have a better chance to make the final table than in any of my previous tournaments and no matter how many players there are, when you play online, all the real money is at the final table!

Also tomorrow's second chance tournament isn't going to be small potatoes either. Even a performance just into the money could make it a big day and two duds could make it a pretty crappy day.

WCOOP So Far and What's Left

So far I've played 15 events in the 2008 WCOOP. With 3 cashes and 1 final table (as well as 4 second chance cashes!) I'd give myself somewhere between a B+ and an A-. At times I've played as good as I ever have in my career and at times I've made decisions that were nothing short of foolish. Counting all the satellites and second chance tournaments it's been well over 10,000 hands which means tens of thousands of decisions. Given that fact it's not surprising that I've made some mistakes.


I've been thinking about the late stage collapses that I had, first in the $215 limit and second in the $215 with rebuys and the more I think about it the fewer regrets I have. I'm not sure if he was the first one to say it, but I always think of a time I heard Amir Vahedi (a player who made a lot of noise at the WSOP in 2003 and 2004) say "In order to live, you have to be willing to die!" Meaning you have to be willing to go for it! The worst thing you can do is play too carefully. It takes balls to be a successful poker player and the only way I was able to make it as far as I did was aggressive play.


When I first started playing poker and even at the early stages of my professional career I was too timid and afraid. I'd frequently come across situations where I'd think "If I was a better player I'd make a move here," but then I'd take the less risky avenue. I was still able to win with iron discipline and precise basic strategy, but I didn't have what it took to really dominate. Now I feel like people should be afraid to play against me in the last stages of a tournament! I'll put those suckers to the test and see if they have the stones to put it all on the line when they're not sure! Usually they back down and I take the pots down. It's this attitude that has lead to many of my greatest victories but it's what did me in in those two tournaments.

My starting bankroll of $10,000 currently stands at $20,415. What I have left might eat up almost all of those profits if I get totally blanked. Here's what I have remaining:

$530 with 1 rebuy and 1 add on (Basically $1,530) NL hold'em
$320 NL 6-Max
$530 Triple Shootout
$530 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo
$530 NL Hold'em 6 max with rebuys (At least $1,530)
$1,050 Limit Hold'em 6-Max

That's $5,490 in tournaments. But it's also going to cost (by my best guess since they haven't announced the buy ins yet) $2,600 to get into the six second chance tournaments that go along with these. And I'm going to take a few hundred bucks to try to win my way into the $1,050 pot limit Omaha, and maybe a thousand to try to win my way into the $10,300 HORSE event.

So if it all goes to shit we may be looking at $1,000 in profit instead of $10,000. With that in mind I'm going to give my backers a one time chance to do a bit of a hit and run and lock up part of all of their profits. If any of you would like to reduce your percentage for the rest of the WCOOP or say "Hey, I've just doubled my money and that's good enough for me" I won't blame you a bit. Just send me an e-mail and I'll mail you a check ASAP. It's only going to get riskier from here on out and you have until 11:30 PT on Tuesday morning to decide.

2008 WCOOP Event #20 Recap

I went broke not too long after my last post finishing about 900th out of 3,400. I hope there weren't too many people out there eagerly awaiting an update. If there were, sorry!

I made a move in kind of a marginal situation on my final hand. I was down to about 17,000 chips and there were 2,700 chips in blinds and antes in the pot so I took a shot with A9 from middle position. Like I said this was a marginal spot to make a move, but my table was SUPER tight and I knew that no one was going to jump the fence with 66. I think the players behind me would have folded hands as good as AJ and 88. As it turns out I ran into KK, missed, and that was it.

The thing that really did me in was just hours of garbage. The only thing that kept me in it was the fact that my table was so tight that I was able to steal the blinds enough to keep my head above water. If I'd been able to build up any kind of stack I would have decimated those players.

Also since I've been getting rocked the past few days I decided to skip the $530 Second Chance. It seemed like time for a break!

WCOOP Update

We're about 4.5 hours into Event #20. We started with 15,000 chips and for the first 2.5 hours or so I was hovering between 8,000 and 10,000. Then I picked up TT with the blinds at 300/600. The cutoff made it 1,800 and I reraised to 5,400. The flop came T55! BINGO! I thought it might be too suspicious to check so instead I bet out small firing 1,800 into the pot. My opponent just called and the turn came a blank.

I thought if I checked here it would look like I'd reraised with a hand like AK and had decided to give up on it. My opponent thought for a moment and then went all in with AJ. My plan worked perfectly, I instantly called and doubled up.

I won another nice pot when I called a min raise out of the small blind with K7 suited and made a flush. That one put me up to about 33,000, but since then I've faded down to 22,000. We're down to 1,100 players which means that half of the remaining field makes the money, but I have about half of average and am in 903rd place.

On the other hand the blinds are only 500/1000 so I have plenty of chips to continue for a while. I think I need 2 big hands to make the money with a comfortable stack and maybe just one to sneak in.

Event #20 Underway!

We started today's $1,050 NL Hold'em tournament with 3,467 players. When you consider that we all started with 15,000 chips and blinds of 25/50 it's not surprsing that they've made this one a two day event. The edge of the money is 540th place which pays $1,733. The top six spots all pay over $100,000 and first place is $468,045. At worst I'd give myself a 1 in 2,500 chance of outright victory despite the fact that I've lost a third of my stack already (I lost a top pair to a straight, top set to a straight, and had to bail on QQ on the turn on one hand).

In other news I've totally been getting my ass kicked the past three days. I've lost about $3,000 playing $10/$20 in only a few thousand hands and another $1,000 playing non WCOOP tournaments. As I'm sure you know, I've also gotten blanked in the WCOOP during that same stretch. It's been really miserable and I'm very much looking forward to a day off tomorrow.

Of course a nice finish is either the main WCOOP or the second chance (which is $530 NL Hold'em) could wipe all that away.

I'll keep you posted.

WCOOP Event #20 Preview

Event #20 is the big daddy of my schedule. $1,050 No Limit hold'em on a Sunday. They've guaranteed a $3,000,000 prize pool, but I wouldn't be surprised if more than 5,000 players enter. This one should have a half million dollar first prize! The other tournament running on Sunday is $25,500 heads up matches so that's why I'm only playing one tournament!

The thing I love about playing tournaments like this is the possibility that I could get the best run of cards I've ever had and win an insane amount of money no matter how I play. Of course I always expect to outplay the vast majority of my opponents and that's really why I'm playing. But what if I just got AA every half hour for the whole tournament? What if I just nailed every flop I saw? Even if I was only playing my B or C game I could still win outright with some great luck. While I'm hoping to play my A+ game and go deep no matter what cards I get, maybe a miracle run of cards will shove a fortune into my lap!

2008 WCOOP Event #18 ($215 HORSE) Recap

I finished 379 of 2091 in the $215 HORSE. I really got hosed in this one. I had my starting stack of 3,000 up to almost 30,000 at one point. This put me in 13th place with less that 600 players. Somehow I managed to catch a bunch of great starting hand that then turned into garbage. 304 places paid and it seemed a sure money finish when I had all of those chips. But somehow it didn't work out.

I also came up short in the $320 PL second chance which means I've come up short in my last 6 WCOOP or Second Chance tournaments. I'm still in the $162 HORSE second chance, but it's not looking good.

2008 WCOOP Event #17 Recap

I finished 372nd out of 960 in today's $530 6 handed PL tournament. It really all came down to one hand about 3 hours into it. With blinds of 100/200 I raised to 600 from the button with 99. The big blind made it 1,900 and I went all in for about 5,500. He had AT of diamonds. The flop came down J22, the turn was a blank and the river was a ten. Sometimes that's just how it goes down.

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.