WCOOP Event #18 ($320 8-game mixed) Recap

For those of you following my twitter updates you already know the results, but let me fill in the details. As a reminder we were playing a mix of 8 different games with the game changing every 10 minutes and 6 players at a table.

We started with 5,000 chips and 999 players. Like I mentioned in my last post I almost went down the tubes early. At one point I made a bet on the turn in limit Omaha with a shaky hand and my opponent could have put me all in with a raise. Instead he folded and I had about 2,000 chips.

I slowly built those chips up to 18,000 and then I had a hand that changed the course of the tournament for me. We were playing NL hold'em with blinds of 150/300 and I got dealt QQ on the button. A player raised to 900 in front of me and I thought about reraising. Instead I opted to call and try to trap my opponent. Normally I'm not in favor of smooth calling with QQ like this. In fact I'd argue it's a bad play in most circumstances, but for some reason I just called.

Everyone else folded and the flop came down ten high. As I expected my opponent bet out something like 1,500 and I raised him to 4,500. Without hesitation he moved all in and he had me covered.

Yikes! I'd spent all this time grinding out a nice stack in these limit games and all of a sudden I was facing a decision for all of my chips (I had about 12,000 left behind). You can't make it in poker if you play like a pussy, so I called and my opponent turned over AK. It was actually a strong play on his part, but in this case he fell into my trap and I was up over 35K.

The average stack around this time was around 20K so I was in very good shape.

A few hands later I was faced with some tough decisions in the pot limit Omaha. I got dealt AA97 and came in for a raise. In PLO if you have AA in your hand you're ahead of any hand that doesn't have AA in it (with a few very specific exceptions).

One player behind me called my raise and the flop came down J 8 2. Normally I'd bet the pot here, but for some reason I checked. I was in such good shape, we were down to about 250 players (144 spots paid), my opponent had me covered and I just didn't want to play a big pot out of position. It turns out if I'd bet right there I would have won the pot. Instead my opponent checked and the turn came down a ten.

Now I had the second nut straight. Only a hand with Q9 could beat me. I bet the pot and my opponent just called. The river paired the 2 which meant in addition to Q9 there were a ton of full houses that could beat me too. I checked any my opponent fired out a pot sized bet of 10,000 or so. This was either a bluff or a full house and I thought a bluff was more likely. I decided to call and he showed me AQTT for a full house. Oops! After that hand I was in 93rd of 249.

But I made a comeback in the next round which was triple draw. The goal in triple draw is to make the lowest hand possible, aces are high, and straights and flushes count against you - the best possible hand is 2 3 4 5 7. The blinds were 400/800, a player in early position raised to 1,600, got called, and I called in the big blind with 2 3 8 K K planning to throw away my two kings.

On the first draw I got a 6 and an ace. To my delight the initial raiser drew 3 cards! It is nothing short of a terrible play to come in raising from early position and draw 3 cards. The other player took 2 and feeling like I might be in OK shape I bet out. The 3 card draw raised and the other player called.

On the next draw I chucked my ace and caught a 5. Now I had a strong made hand. Both other players took one card and then the action was back on me. I bet and the 3 card draw raised me again and again got called by the other player. I wasn't going anywhere, but I couldn't reraise.

I stood pat and to my delight they both drew again. This time when I bet they both folded, but by that time the pot was over 20,000 so I was happy to have it!

When we made the money I was in 39th place of 144.

I was really up and down, up and down after that. I was up to 50K then down to 25K. Then, way way up all the way to over 130K. I got there by winning 3 pots in a row and 5 of 10 overall in the limit hold'em. I got good cards connected and made he max on all of them. That put me in 3rd place of 82.

I was steady for a while as other players dropped. With 47 players left I was in 7th place and at some point I was in 2nd overall.

Then I started the slow drain. I was down to 100K and then 70K and then down to 45K with a third of average. I slipped all the way down to 10K and was in last place with 30 players left.

We were playing razz and I doubled up once. Then I doubled up again. We were playing 8,000/16,000 so the 45K in my stack wasn't exactly enough to work with, but it was almost 5 times what I had 3 minutes before so it looked OK to me!

The I got dealt A 5 2 and was up against A 6 2. He caught a K, 4, 6 and an 8 making him an 8 low and I caught an 7, A 4, and an 8 making me a 7 low. I just bet, bet, bet until all the money was in on 6th street and was happy I made the best hand.

Now I had 100K and was in business. I cruised through the first 10 hands or so of the 7-card stud maintaining my stack. Then I went on an insane rush.

In the biggest pot of the whole tournament for me I started with JJ in the hole and a king up. I raised the bring in to 8,000 and the player to my left (who I know from the cash games is a very good 8-game mixed player) raised me to 16,000 with a queen showing. I just called.

In 4th street he caught and ace and as I called out loud for a jack, that is exactly what I got! Little did I know that my opponent had started with A K Q and just made a pair of aces! I just called his bet on 4th street waiting to pop him on 5th street.

Which is just what I did when he bet out again. He bet 16K I made it 32K, he went to 48K and I went all in for 56K. All he had was that pair of aces and even though he made two pair on the end, I took down the 172K pot!

They were all small, but I won the NEXT FOUR pots! Now I was up to 240K and in 8th of 22! Not bad given I'd just been at 10K not long before.

What followed was nothing short of a major collapse. I didn't do anything wrong per se, but I went down the tubes. You don't want to hear about that do you?

I finished 18th which paid $2,520. Obviously my best result of this years WCOOP and while not a final table or an insane payday, still very satisfying.

I was thinking this would get me about even for the WCOOP, but I was wrong! I'm actually still losing $1,193 for the series - $328 in the main events, $215 in second chance tournaments, and $650 in satellites. Not quite even, but better than I was doing before!

No tournaments today. Tomorrow a pair of NL hold'em tournaments - $215 with rebuys, and $320 semi turbo!

Back from the Dead in the 8-game

I was down to 1,500 chips and at one point had all but my last few hundred chips in the pot.

The turnung point that led to these difficulties happened in the limit hold'em. I came in for a raise with QJ and got 3 bet. I called and the flop came down jack high. I check called with the plan of check raising the turn. Which is exactly what I did after a brick came. My opponent 3 bet me which I thought meant I was in big trouble. I almost folded. The river was an ace which was clearly a terrible card for me. But the pot was so big that I check called. My opponent turned up AT! ACK! He three bet me with nothing but ace high on the turn, was a 14 to 1 underdog and hit! If I'd won that pot I would have had an average stack of a little over 6,000. Instead I had 3,000.

But after going to the basement I am now back in the penthouse. When I started this post I had 12,000 chips at least half of which came from scooping 3 pots in the stud-8. Then I picked up 3,000+ when someone moved all in on my AK suited with QJ. And I just picked up another 3,000 after getting a free look in the big blind and snapping off a bluff with 3rd pair.

That means I have 18,000 and I'm in 29th of 582. A long way to go, but things are going well.

8-game update

I got hot right after my last post. I made a queen high straight flush in the stud, picked up a few other nice pots, and find myself with 7,000 chips.

Late registration is over and we got 999 players. 1st place is $50,250 and the edge of the money is 144th which pays $480.

WCOOP Event #18 ($320 8-game mixed) Underway!

I've really been looking forward to this tournament! I feel like I have a huge edge in these HORSE and 8-game tournaments. It looked like we're going to have about 1,000 players. I've gotten off to a poor start losing 800 of my 5,000 starting chips, but it's still early.

Also on the schedule today is the second chance 8-game mixed tournament which starts at 4:30 and features a $215 buy in.

Hyper-Turbo Report

It was pretty interesting playing these 8-game hyper-turbo satellite tournaments. They lasted about 15 minutes our just long enough to play each of the 8 games in the mix for one 2 minute level.

The fact that the first two games were triple draw lowball and limit hold'em worked to my advantage because I'm great at 6 handed limit hold'em, and most of the other players were bad at triple draw.

My friend Matt Lessinger plays A TON of hyperturbo satellite torunaments (they run this style of tournament often) and he is very good at stalling at the right times and playing fast at others to insure that he doesn't get screwed by the blinds. For example in these tournaments the third game in the mix is Omaha-8 and the fourth game is razz. So during the switch between those games you go from a game with blinds to a game with antes. It is very disadvantageous to take the big blind right before you switch to a game where everyone antes the same amount every hand.

I wish I could say I did a great job of "managing the clock," but I didn't.

I played 15 $40.80 tournaments, 20 $51, tournaments, 6 $81.60 tournament, and 1 $116 tournament.

6 times I won the $320 seat (since you can't play the tournament more than once, after the first one you get $W which are dollars you can use for any other WCOOP related tournament), and three times I won a cash prize ($260, $280, and $80).

I should have won two more $320 prizes. On the first I played a hand and lost where I think I probably just could have waited it out. In the second I lost in the NL hold'em with KK vs 34 in a situation where we were playing 3 handed, two spots paid and I had the other guy all in.

In the end I showed a net profit of $176. Not earth shattering, but not nothing.

WCOOP Update

The badugi tournament was fun and if you read my twitter updates you know I was doing well for a while and then collapsed.

I ran my starting stack of 5,000 up to 13,000. I know it seems like I do that every tournament, but that is generating equity. Those 13,000 chips were worth $780.

It's hard for me to say what went wrong, but mostly I think it was running into a few huge hands. I know I lost two big pots with 4 card 8 lows and one where I had 7542 and lost to A235 which is the second best possible hand. I think this is the equivalent of making a bunch of straights and flushes and losing.

This morning I was supposed to play the $530 triple shootout, but it sold out before I was able to register (it has a 1,000 player max). So instead my plan is to play a bunch of hyper turbo satellites to the $320 8-game mixed event that goes off at 1:30.

Hyper turbos are kind of ridiculous. You get 500 chips and there are 2 minute levels, but there is almost no juice (80 cents for a $40 tournament). I'm going to play about 20 of them and see how it goes.

WCOOP Event #15 $320 Badugi!

"Badugi? What the hell is Badugi?" Those were the words I was thinking after I asked a floorman at the Bicycle Club in LA what games they played in the $60/$120 mixed games. Actually I was thinking "This guy is the worst floorman ever!"

I said "what games are they playing the the $60/$120 mixed games?" He looked at me like I'd asked him if he'd be willing to drop his pants so I could smack him on his bare ass. It was a simple question. Then I pointed to the table and said "what games are they playing in the mixed games?" After another moment of staring at me blankly he said "uuuuhhhhhhhhhh. Hold'em. Triple draw. Badugi. And sometimes Omaha."

It was the sometimes Omaha that really wowed me. Sometimes Omaha? What they hell does that mean? Tell me what games those ass holes in the corner are playing right now!

Also I'd been a professional poker player for some time and I had never even heard of badugi. Not a whisper from any other players, no websites spread it, and Cardplayer had never mentioned it in the years that I'd been reading it. It sounded like he just made up a word. Saying that Candy Land was one of the games would have made more sense to me.

Later I found out what it was and now I'm going to tell you! Every player gets 4 cards and you get three draws where you can throw away cards from your hand and replace them with new ones. Your goal is to make the lowest hand possible. Aces are low and straights don't count against you. But here is the thing that makes it interesting. If you have two cards of the same suit you can only use one of them!

So the best hand is A 2 3 4 with four different suits. But if 3 and 4 are both the same suit you have a 3 card hand and ANY hand with 4 different suits (and no pairs) will beat you. If you have three cards of the same suit, anyone who has three suits represented will beat you.

It's a really goofy game and it hasn't really caught on. To my knowledge this $320 tournament will have the biggest prize pool of any badugi tournament ever played (unless some rich goofs got together any played one privately for absurd stakes).

I wasn't going to play it, but I won my $320 seat via a $41 satellite. I don't know how much I like my chances, but they can't be that bad. Just based on some of the plays I saw in the satellite and in the first 10 minutes of the main tournament it's clear that a few players have no clue. Regardless it should be fun!

Mixed hold'em not going great so far. Down to 3,000 from 5,000.

Thanks!

Thanks to those of you who have left comments! I hear verbally from people all the time that they've been following my blog. I know my backers are reading it and my website will often get 100 hits from unique users in a day, but it's still nice to get comments even if they are simple.

I'm probably get more comments if I could do something in of these tournaments! The exciting thing is you never know when the day that everything comes together is going to be. Today could be that day.

WCOOP Stud Recap and Today's Plan

Event #13 $320 7-card stud was pretty disappointing. I got off to a slow start, but in the middle stretches of the tournament I made some major progress running my 5,000 chip starting stack up to 25,000. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I was in 16th of 300 or so players (96 spots paid) at that point.

I maintained that stack for a while and then as the stakes increased I got a ton of marginal, but playable hands on 3rd street that never improved. Stud isn't about what you start with it's about what you have at the end. Unless your first three cards are three of a kind (which happens once in every 457 hands), you're never going to be way ahead of your opponents no matter what they have the way you are in hold'em if you have a big pair and they have a smaller one.

For example I would have a hand like T 8 T and someone with a 9 would come in raising. I would catch 4 total bricks and they'd call all the way and hit a second pair on the river. Sometimes I was the one with the smaller pair calling along, but at least 5 or 6 times all I needed to do was make two pair to win and I missed every time. It made me crazy!

The last hand I played was typical of the hands that led to my demise. The bring in was directly to my left and everyone folded to the player on my right who raised. He had an ace showing and I was confident that he would raise here with an ace up no matter what he hand in the hole. I had a A J 9 which I thought was a slightly better than average set of cards to go with my ace. I was in bad shape anyway and I needed to do something before the antes ground me down.

So I raised. I hand enough for that raise, a bet on 4th street, and almost a full bet on 5th street. To go along with my A J 9 I caught a 6, T, 6, 2 making me a lowly pair of 6's. My opponent started with A Q 3 and caught 7, 5, 4 (at this point I was way ahead) and lastly a 6, making him a straight.

I finished 144th which was a very annoying result.

On the bright side, labor day (or the weekday of any 3 day weekend) is a great day to play poker. People who play once a month or less find themselves sitting around with nothing to do and decide to play a little poker. Those are the perfect opponents to face.

To make a long story short I won $2,300 playing a mix if $10/$20 and $15/$30. That makes losing a $320 tournament a lot easier to handle!

Today I have $320 6 handed mixed hold'em. In this format every 10 minutes you switch between limit and no limit hold'em. I should have a slight advantage over my opponents in the no limit portion and a huge advantage in the limit.

On my schedule is the $1,050 NLH tournament that starts at 5 pm. But after some more thought I don't think it's the best decision to play a tournament that's going to take 6 or 7 hours to make the money and 15 hours to go all the way through after already playing for 5 hours. If it was a HORSE tournament or a limit hold'em tournament I would play, but there's really nothing special about this one, so I'm just going to skip it.

WCOOP Event #13 Underway

Event #13, $320 7-card stud, went off with 668 entrants. Four and a half hours into the action we've lost almost exactly half the field and I find myself in 30th of 330 player remaining. Actually while typing I just lost a big pot so now I'm in 51st. Ok now I just won another one and I'm in 16th! HA! That was an action packed 2 minutes!

Anyway at this instant I have 22,000 chips and average is just over 10,000. The edge of the money is 96th which pays $481. I need to make it to 24th to net $1,000+ and first place is $37,575. There is a long way to go, but right now I like my chances to make the money.

In other good news I crushed the labor day crowd and won $2,300 playing cash games no higher than $15/$30.