SCOOP $3,150 Mixed Hold'em Recap

At the point of my last specific update we were down to 52. From there we dropped to 40 players over the course of the next hour. And then the tournament came to a grinding hault.

People were still playing hands of course, but not one was being eliminated. We were stuck on 40 for maybe as long as a half an hour! I had no fewer than 10,000 and no more than 16,000 chips during that time and was boucing between 30th place and 35th place.

In a situation like this you have to balance trying to just make the money and playing your normal game which might get you eliminated, but should also lead to more chips in your stack. Normally it's an easy decision for me. I play my normal game because I want to WIN the tournament or at least finish in the top few spots. Of course just making the money is usually a few hundred not over six thousand!

Another thing that made this spot unique was the player I was up against. One was Dan_druff who is a WSOP braceltt winner (he has at least one other WSOP final table) and a high stakes online player. Another was THE_D_RY who might be THE toughest SNG player on all of pokerstars. He plays the biggest SNGs (up to $2,000 buy in!) and all of the biggest tournaments. Then there were three other players who were all very strong players. In fact I might have been the worst player at my table! I'm not sure I can ever remember a time when that was the case in any game. Even at the highest stakes I've played there's always been at least one person (usually many more) who I could point to and say "At least I know I'm better than that guy!"

Eventually ever so slowly people started to drop. I'd be surviving just by stealing blinds or winning very small pots, but then I started to get some good cards. I took my stack all the way up to 27,000 chips and was in 23rd place with 35 players to go. At that point I thought I had it locked up for sure.

Then I had a big hand that was full of tough decisions - exactly what I didn't want! We were playing limit and the blinds were 500/1,000. I got dealt A8 with the A of clubs in the small blind. The button came in raising and I three bet make it 3,000 to go. He capped it at 4,000. Uh Oh!

The flop came down J 9 4 with two clubs. I checked and he bet 1,000 into the 9,000 chip pot. I didn't have anything, but this guy was super aggressive. I thought there was a chance I could have the best hand and the pot was just so big that I couldn't fold. The turn was the queen of clubs which gave me a flush draw and a gut shot straight draw. Now I had to call, which I did when he bet.

The river was a total brick and after my opponents bet I was looking at a 17,000 chip pot. A pot that was worth $10,200 in real world dollars if you do the math on the equity. If I folded it would just be gone. So I called, and my opponent showed AT for a slightly better ace high! AHHHHHHHH!

That was 9,000 chips out the window and then I slipped some more! With only 32 players left I was down to 10,000 chips and in 29th place when the following hand came up. I was in the big blind and the very aggressive button who was the big stack at the table came in raising (we were still playing limit at the same stakes). I was in the big blind with A7 and I knew my opponent could raise literally any two cards given the situation.

I was pretty sure I had the best hand, but I wanted to play the hand as cheaply as possible since survival was more important than picking up chips. So I just called.

The flop came down A K 4 which looked like a great flop to me so I check raised. And my opponent three bet! Uh Oh! I called which mean 5,000 of my 10,000 chips were in the pot and calling a turn and river bet would cost me 4,000 more. If I lost here I was done. But no way could I fold.

The turn brought another ace which was a fantastic card, and I check called. The river was a blank and I thought about betting, but I figured my opponent would fire again no matter what he had. Sadly he gave up, checked and turned over 86 which was no pair no draw!

I would have been super pissed to finish in 32nd! But I didn't, and went on to make the money which paid $6,400! This is the most I've ever been paid and the highest net profit I've had for just making the money.

I went broke almost right away after we made the money losing first with AJ to KK and then with 2nd pair to top pair. But 30th place was just fine with me!

Recap of $3,150 Mixed Coming Soon!

Let me just say that the field in the $3,150 Mixed Hold'em was the toughest I've ever faced online and with the exception of the $5,000 NLH event at the 2006 WSOP the toughest field I've ever faced. I'll recap the action before noon PT Wedneday.

Wednesday I have $22 and $215 Razz in the morning and $55 and $530 NL hold'em 6 max in the afternoon.

SCOOP Update

After running my starting stack of 5,000 up to 15,000 in the Stud H/L I finished in 319th of about 700.

But I'm still in it in the $3,150 mixed hold'em. This tournament is going to give me a heart attack. Here is a hand history for a big hand I played. Note that Chad Brown is a sponsored pokerstars pro.

PokerStars Game #26840026570: Tournament #200904113, $3000+$150 Hold'em Mixed (Hold'em No Limit) - Level XIV (50/100) - 2009/04/07 15:23:28 PT [2009/04/07 18:23:28 ET]
Table '200904113 33' 6-max Seat #2 is the button
Seat 1: LockDown120 (11966 in chips)
Seat 2: FatalError (12490 in chips)
Seat 3: ACESEDAI (10916 in chips)
Seat 4: ChadBrownPRO (4290 in chips)
Seat 5: villepn (4121 in chips)
Seat 6: RonaldKosh (17208 in chips)
ACESEDAI: posts the ante 15
ChadBrownPRO: posts the ante 15
villepn: posts the ante 15
RonaldKosh: posts the ante 15
LockDown120: posts the ante 15
FatalError: posts the ante 15
ACESEDAI: posts small blind 50
ChadBrownPRO: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to ACESEDAI [9s 9c]
villepn: folds
RonaldKosh: folds
LockDown120: folds
FatalError: folds
ACESEDAI: raises 300 to 400
ChadBrownPRO: calls 300
*** FLOP *** [3d 6d Qd]
ACESEDAI: bets 600
ChadBrownPRO: raises 600 to 1200
ACESEDAI: raises 2800 to 4000
ChadBrownPRO: calls 2675 and is all-in
Uncalled bet (125) returned to ACESEDAI
*** TURN *** [3d 6d Qd] [Qs]
*** RIVER *** [3d 6d Qd Qs] [4h]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
ACESEDAI: shows [9s 9c] (two pair, Queens and Nines)
ChadBrownPRO: shows [Kd 6s] (two pair, Queens and Sixes)
ACESEDAI collected 8640 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 8640 | Rake 0
Board [3d 6d Qd Qs 4h]
Seat 1: LockDown120 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: FatalError (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 3: ACESEDAI (small blind) showed [9s 9c] and won (8640) with two pair, Queens and Nines
Seat 4: ChadBrownPRO (big blind) showed [Kd 6s] and lost with two pair, Queens and Sixes
Seat 5: villepn folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: RonaldKosh folded before Flop (didn't bet)


He had two shots to hit a K, 6 or diamond and missed it all.

In another hand that was tense to say the least I got all of my chips in with A4 of clubs vs K8 on a board of 6 7 9 with two clubs. I made the last raise and when I got called I was sure I needed to hit to win. Instead all I had to do was fade a K, 8, T or 5. The turn and river were nothing and I survived.

Another time I flopped a flush and got it all in vs top pair and a bigger flush draw. I dodged that one too.

You might think I'm in great shape given all these wins, but I'm not. I keep losing small and medium sized pots and then winning when I'm forced to go all in.

We're down to 52 of 247 with 30 spots paying and I'm in 42nd place. Not out of it, but in need of help if I'm going to make the money.

SCOOP Event #11 Underway!

I'm already out of the medium and low stakes, but I'm doing well in the $3,150 high stake tournament. We started with 247, we're down to 159 and I'm in 46th place with 9,500 chips (we started with 5,000). 30th is the edge of the money and pays $6,400. 1st is $184,000. Also at the last minute I jumped into the $215 Stud H/L which pretty much just started for me.

The Total, Today's Action, and What's Left

Just short of halfway through the SCOOP I'm down $279 in the low stakes tournaments with only one cash in ten tournaments. I feel like such a loser. I don't know how I'm ever going to get that money back! Oh wait I'm ahead $32,462 at everything else!

Today at 11:30 PT I have 6 handed mixed hold'em which is half limit (my specialty) and half no limit. The low stakes is $33, the medium is $320 and the high is $3,150. I'm going to play them all. Originally the high was not on my schedule, but it should have been.

The 1:30 PT event today is Stud hi-lo split. This is one of my worst games, so I'll probably skip it to focus on the $3,150 tournament. If I go broke in that one in the first two hours then I'll take a shot at the $215 Stud H/L.

After Sunday's result it sort of feels like the SCOOP has bared it's fruit and is just about over, but there is a lot more left! The big stuff is the $4,175 8 game mix, $5,200 6-max limit hold'em, and the $1,050, $3,000,000 guaranteed medium stakes main event. But after today there are also 7 other medium stakes tournaments (most in the $500 range) and 10 low stakes tournaments. There is also a $10,300 NLH main event. I'll probably take about $1,000 and try to qualify for that and if I have another $30,000+ result I might just play it regardless.

The good news is even if I totally blank in everything from here on out (which is pretty unlikely), the worst case scenario is a profit of $15,000 meaning all of my backers will at least double their initial investment. I won't get into the best case scenario, but it's pretty good.

Recap of Monday's SCOOP action

After Sunday's sweetness, Monday was pretty boring. I started the day off winning a $22 with rebuys satellite to a $425 tournament. That was a net profit of $323. Not bad.

Originally I'd planned to skip the $215 Triple Draw Lowball, but after my big win I have plans to play a $4,000+ tournament later in the series that is a mix of 8 games (The HORSE games, plus pot limit Omaha, no limit hold 'em, and limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball). Triple Draw is the first game in the mix and I needed the practice.

The way Triple Draw works for those of you who don't know about it is there are six players who each get dealt 5 cards. The goal is to make the worst hand possible. Aces are the highest card not the lowest, and unlike other games where a low hand comes into play in this version straights and flushes count against you. So the best possible hand is 2 3 4 5 7 with at least two suits represented which is why the game is called "Deuce to Seven" lowball (in contrast to "Ace to Five").

There are blinds just like in hold'em and after a round of betting whoever is left gets to throw away bad cards from their hand and get them replaced with new ones. Unlike in 5 card draw where you only do this once, in Triple Draw you get a chance to draw new cards three times with a round of betting after each draw.

I used to play regular lowball at the Oaks clubs years ago (in that variant there is only one draw, aces are low, and straights and flushes are irrelevant so A 2 3 4 5 is the best hand), and there are some similarities. I've also played the 8 games mix at my normal stakes so I have some experience there, but it was good to work out some of the holes in my game yesterday.

I made it through about 3/4 of the field in both the low stakes and medium stakes events before coming up short of the money (-$22 in the low and -$215 in the medium). In total that was 7 or 8 hours of play and I'm feeling my better about lowball skills.

The other set of tournaments was heads up matches. In the low I won three matches which was good enough to make the money (+$14). In fact it took me a TOTAL of three hands to win the first two matches! The third match took about 10 hands, and the fourth took about 50, but I came up short. In the medium stakes, in massive contrast, my first match took over 150 hands, I got it in with a strong draw and lost to top pair (-$162).

A Big Surprise (for some of you)!

I did a little something in the HORSE tournament yesterday. I was on a break and I started to write a post. This is what I wrote:

They say you never have so many chips that your victory in certain or so few that you're out of it. After being all in several times with very marginal hands and miraculously surviving, I went on a run. It's hard for me to recall hands from non hold'em games, so I can't say exactly how it happened, but I made the money! Not only that, but I'm in good shape.

I was looking to add a few specifics when the tournament resumed and I forgot all about my post. In fact I felt like I'd put it up on the blog and everyone knew I was still in it and in the money! Instead when the tournament concluded I saw my post sitting there waiting and realized nothing had gone up on the blog!

So what happened exactly? Well I went on a tear and went from fumes to an average stack with 100 players or so left. As we crossed the edge of the money which was 64th place I lagged a little and had about 22,000 chips when the average stack was 35,000.

And then I went on a major rush in the razz. The way the tournament was set up was the limits increased every 20 minutes, but the game switched every 10. So it was 10 minutes of Hold'em, 10 minutes of Omaha, then a limit increase, 10 minutes of Razz, 10 minutes of Stud, then a limit increase and so on. For the whole tournament it seemed like I didn't have any luck in the other 4 games, but when it got back to razz, I killed it!

I went from 22,000 for 50,000+ in a matter of minutes. The amount of money I was guaranteed jumped every 8 places to start. 64th to 57th paid $1,775, 56th to 49th paid $1,875, 48th to 41st paid $2,125, 40th to 33rd paid $2,625.

When we got down to 36 players I was in 9th place. I was all but positive that I'd make the next pay jump which was at 32 players, but I had my eye on the 24th to 17th place range. That paid $4,375 which was about what I needed to get even for the day.

I blasted right through it and by the time there were 17 of us left I was in 3rd place. In a no limit tournament you can go from the top few spots to out with one bad beat. The great thing about being ahead in a limit tournament is it takes more than one or two disastrous hands to get you in trouble.

It was looking good for me to make the final table. And that's just what I did! 8th place was $10,000 so I was guaranteed at least that much and since I was in 4th place (I think) it was likely that I'd do even better. There were two short stacks, one of them took that $10,000 prize and the other took $12,500 for 7th.

Meanwhile I was starting to pick up momentum. I wasn't nervous at all and I kept playing my normal aggressive game. On the other hand my opponents were playing timidly. The chips started piling up and the other players started to fade. Someone finished 6th and got $17,500. Before I knew it I was in first!

Playing 5 handed It looked like I was in good shape for at least 3rd place. I had something like 750,000 chips, another player had about the same, the player in third chip position had 500,000 or so and the other two guys had around 100,000.

Then I started to slip. I made a mistake here and there. I had a couple of big draws miss. I had a few big made hands get beat by bigger made hands. Two hands have stuck with me through the night. The first was in Razz where I started with A 2 3 4 as my first four cards (the best possible four card start) and ended up catching 3 bricks in a row and losing to someone who made a fairly weak hand. The second was in Omaha where I flopped top set which was the nuts on the flop and turn. Another player had a flush draw and a low draw and a card that made his low and his flush came on the river. These were both huge pots and losing them took a big chunk out of my stack.

Of course as the chips were flowing out of my stack, they were flowing into the stacks of my opponents. The short stacks went from almost dead to healthy again in what felt like no time.

I managed out outlast one more player who got $25,000 for 5th. I took down 4th place which paid $37,500! YAY!

This was an awesome result especially since I was in such bad shape in the middle of the tournament. Man do I love HORSE!

Totally Bamboozled!

I had this post all locked and loaded when I was down to about 1/4 of average in the $1,050 HORSE, but I've since stormed back to an average stack with 138 players left. 64 spots pay. Anyway here's what I wrote. I'll post again if I make the money, but otherwise you can assume I came up short.

I bricked in everything today! ACK! I was doing well in both HORSE tournaments for a while taking one to 3X my starting stack and the other to 2.5X. But then it was down, down, down the tubes. Not much to say other than that. Today just wasn't my day.

Tomorrow I have triple draw lowball (which I might skip) and heads up matchs all for pretty minor stakes.

SCOOP $3,150 NLH Recap

Doing a Recap shortly after the tournament starts is never a good sign! A few hands into the tournament I got dealt AQ of spades. The blinds were 25/50 everyone had pretty much the starting stack of 10,000 and I made a standard raise to 150. The small blind made it 450 to go and I just called. The flop came down low with two spades and my opponent bet out 80% of the pot. I considered raising, but opted to just call.

The turn was another small non spade and again my opponent made a near pot sized bet of 2,000. I certainly could have folded here, but I was getting 2 to 1 on my money, I knew a spade was good, an A or Q or both could be good and there was some non zero chance I had the best hand would win unimproved. So I called. The river was a total blank and my opponent moved all in. I said bye bye to 3,000 chips and folded.

About a half an hour later I had 6,000 chips left and open raised to 180 with 55. Three players called and the big blind raised to 660. I called as did everyone else. The flop came down 6 4 2 with two diamonds and the big blind bet out about 1,000.

I thought there was a fair chance he'd have big cards and that I could get rid of everyone else if I moved all in for a little more than 5K, and even if I did get called I'd have 2 shots at 6 outs. To my surprise the small blind moved all in for 20K and the big blind called him!

When the cards got turned over the small blind hand A7 of diamonds and the big blind had QQ. The turn was a 4 and the river was a 6 and the QQ took down a huge pot. It wouldn't have been crazy for him to fold QQ in this spot after my all in and the other all in from the small blind. If he'd folded I would have won.

In other news I'm on fumes in the $320 NLH, but I'm still in the $109 and $1,050 HORSE and doing OK.

SCOOP Event #7 Underway!

I've been looking forward to event #7 ever since the SCOOP schedule came out. It's HORSE day baby! The low stakes tournament is $109 and started with 2,674 entrants. This is in stark contrast to the daily $109 HORSE tournament that I've won 3 or 4 times which usually has about 50 entrants. Clearly almost everyone in this tournament should be out of their comfort zone. The edge of the money is 520th place and pays $118. First place is $43,452.

The medium stakes tournament is $1,050 and started with 444 entrants which was short of the number pokerstars needed to meet the $500K guarantee. There turned out to be a $33,800 overlay which is $76 a person. Nothing to scream about but it's $126 better than if they'd filled this one up. The edge of the money is 64th place and pays $1,775. First place is $95,000.

I found myself facing a bit of a quandry earlier today. With 30 minutes to go before the start of the $10,300 high stakes HORSE event there were only 29 people signed up. Pokerstars guaranteed a $750,000 prize pool and I found myself thinking "What the hell am I going to do if this thing goes off with 35 players and there is a $10,000+ per person overlay?" It would be like getting into a $20,000 tournament for $10,000, but I'd be playing against the world's best. Luckily enough players signed up at the last minute so I didn't have to think about it.