The Damage and What's Left in the WCOOP

So far I've played 18 WCOOP events with 2 cashes and a net loss of $2,433. Pretty terrible!

I've also played 14 satellites and 2 second chance tournaments with a total net loss of $1,188. Not great.

If I'd been able to convert that 50,000 FPP satellite into the $10,300 prize that was all but in my grasp I'd obviously be in fine shape over all. That was the real disappointment of the 2009 WCOOP so far.

So what's left? Tomorrow at 11:30 I have $215 no limit hold'em with big antes. In that one they start the antes from level 1 and they are 20% of the big blind. It changes the dynamic a little bit to have so much dead money in the pot.

Friday at 1:30 I have the $1,050 6 handed limit tournament. This is my specialty. I play 6 handed limit more than any other game by a wide margin. I can't say why I haven't had more success in the handful of 6 max limit tournaments I've played in the past, but I have high hopes.

Saturday at 1:30 I have $2,100 8-game mixed. My best result by far in this years WCOOP was playing 8-game mixed. I thrive in the mixed games format. I've made the money in 3 of the 6 either HORSE or 8-game mixed tournaments I've played with buy ins over $1,000, never finished out of the top 30%, and had a 2nd out of 32 and a 4th out of 444.

Sunday at 10:00 am $215 NL hold'em.

The last tournament is the $5,200 main event. I got an entry to this tournament for making it to Supernova Elite in 2008, but would have played it anyway even if I didn't have a ticket. They are guaranteeing a $10,000,000 prize pool which will be the biggest in online history and that means a $2,000,000+ first place prize. There is no reason why I can't win this tournament. Sure it would take some strong play and a lot of luck, but it could happen.

Also as a late addition there are a few more FPP buy in satellites with added value in which I'm going to include my backers in the action (if I play other value added FPP satellites not listed below I have all of my own action). There is a pretty simple way to figure out what FPPs are worth. You can buy a $215 tournament entry for 13,500 FPPs so that means 62.8 FPPs are worth $1.

The tournaments I'm going to play are 50,000 FPP satellite to the $10,300 HORSE (Saturday 11:40) where pokerstars is adding one $10,300 seat to the prize pool, and 25,000 FPP buy in to the $5,200 main event (Saturday 1:40) with five $5,200 seats added. The thing about these tournaments that makes them so valuable is they don't attract that many players. There are only so many people that have 75,000 FPPs to use on these. The players that have a lot of FPPs are cash game players who tend not to play tournaments and the tournament players don't have very many FPPs. We'll see but I expect about 25 players or less in the HORSE and maybe 100 in the NLH.

Let's hope I've saved all my luck for the big ones!

What a Terrible WCOOP!

I'm out of the other tournament as well. I was up to 12K or so and got it in on the flop with top pair and a flush draw vs bare aces in the PLO and missed.

Bad so far, but a cash in the main event or even a semi deep finish in the other two $1,000+ events could turn things around.

WCOOP Events #29 and #30 Underway!

Down to 3,500 from 5K in event #29 ($320 half pot limit hold'em hald PLO) and while writing this post I lost a 13K pot and went broke in the other one ($320 NLH) with a set (got it all in vs a flush draw on the turn and he hit). ACK!

No WCOOP Today

I had two tournaments on my schedule today and both were no limit hold'em. The first started at 10 am and I slept through it and the second one has a $1,050 buy in.

The problem is I haven't been feeling well these last two days and it's totally screwed up my sleep schedule. I woke up yesterday about 6 am (4 hours earlier than normal) and for some reason couldn't get back to sleep. I was awake for almost 24 hours before falling asleep around 5 am this morning. And I just woke up at 2 in the afternoon.

So I don't feel very sharp and I'm not really in the mood for a $1,000 NLH tournament where it's going to take 6 or 7 hours to just make the money and 20+ hours to go all the way through. Playing a big tournament in person it's not so tough to handle playing all day. You're getting about 35 hands an hour and there are 20 minute breaks every 2 hours with a 60 or 90 minute dinner break. Online it's 100+ hands an hour, a break of 5 minutes every hour and 15 minute dinner break. Plus I can't just sit here any play one game because it would make me totally insane.

So that's the story. Tomorrow $320 half hold'em, half PLO, and $320 NL hold'em 2X chance (all that means is if you go totally broke in the first hour you can rebuy one time).

Things don't get really serious until next weekend. Friday is $1,050 6 handed limit hold'em, Saturday is $2,100 8-game mixed, and Sunday is the $5,200 main event. There's no backing out of any of these because first of all I wouldn't want to and second of all I have tickets for the second two that aren't good for anything else but these tournaments.

Back to Plan A

I woke up early today, spent a few hours playing with my son and then a few more reading in bed. I feel 90% recovered from yesterday and I really can't pass up a $320 HORSE tournament with 800+ players on a Saturday.

I'm also going to play the $215 HORSE second chance as well as the $215 heads up matches second chance.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Update

Today was one of the ten worst days of my poker career. I got totally decimated in the cash games, bricked in the $215 with rebuys and am pretty much dead in the Omaha. Not in the mood for a full update right now. In fact I might take tomorrow off to get myself back in the right mindset.

WCOOP Event #21 underway!

After doing the rebuy and add on, you get 17,500 chips to start in this tournament an hour and a half in the blinds are 50/100. I'll be collecting social security before we make the money in this one. 2,780 players shooting for the $220,000 first place prize!

Friday WCOOP

This is going to be my biggest day yet in the 2009 WCOOP in terms of buy ins. I'm going to play the $215 with rebuys (which should mean $615 investment) event #21 and the $109 with rebuys (which should be $309, $409 or $509 investment) second chance.

Even though it wasn't on my schedule I'm going to play event #21 $530 limit Omaha hi-lo. The more WCOOP events I play the more I realize people are getting out of their comfort zone. Other people are going to play this event who have very little experience with Omaha. This is maybe my 5th or 6th best game when it comes to tournaments, but I'm all but positive I'll still have an edge, I'm coming off a decent win, and I didn't put together a $20,000 bankroll so I could pussy out on a $500 tournament!

Lastly I'll be playing the $320 NL hold'em with 10 minute levels (typical $320 buy in WCOOP events have 30 minute levels). This one isn't going to last until the break of dawn, but they are still starting us with 5,000 chips and 10/20 blinds so it's not going to be too fast.

Let's hope I take one of these to the house!

Go Matt!

My friend Matt is playing WCOOP event #20, $320 2-7 triple draw today. His name is skillet if you want to look him up and root for someone if you're a WCOOPaholic. I have 20% of his action so I'm hoping he goes deep. 4 hours in he has 7K, avg is 8K and they are down to 280 of 470.

Good luck Matt! If you blow this I'm going to kick you in the nuts!

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!