$1,050 Limit and $215 No Limit Omaha-8 Recaps

I have a new hero. This fellow "unassigned" who won BOTH the $530 and $5,200 SCOOP 6 max limit events simultaneously in the spring also won the $1,050 yesterday. That guy can play!

I got off to a great start in Event #39. We started with 10,000 chips playing 60/120 and I ran off a string of hands in the first half hour that netted me 5,000 chips and put me in the top ten of the 437 players who entered the tournament.

For the next four hours or so I bounced around between 10,000 and 20,000, never fining myself in real trouble, but unable to put a run together. As the field got smaller and smaller and the stakes got bigger and bigger all of a sudden 15,000 wasn't really very much.

I was lucky that my opponents weren't better because they could have done a much better job of applying pressure. Instead, even though I wasn't getting strong cards I was able to steal the blinds a bunch of times to keep my head above water.

The tournament paid 66 spots and when we were down to 100 or so I was in the bottom 5 or 6. It looked like it was going to be a good showing without a pay day.

Then I went on a huge rush. The player to my right had been raising every hand where it was folded to him on the button. When I got dealt A8 of hearts in the small blind it was an easy reraise. I missed the flop but bet anyway and got called. On the turn I picked up a flush draw and bet again. On the river I hit and ace and put all but a a thousand or so of my chips in the pot. I got called, but my ace was good and now I had some chips.

The next hand didn't get to showdown, but I think I won with a bet on the river and it was still a major pot. The very next hand I got dealt AA and thought "this is nuts!" Nobody called my preflop raise with the AA, but I was up to 50,000 chips which was about average and put me in the top 40.

Almost right away I slipped back down to 35,000 and I had to sweat it a little, but I still had enough chips that they only way I wasn't going to make the money was if I got a few strong hands and lost.

We crossed into the money about 6 hours after the start of the tournament. I'd played over 600 hands in that time which if you were going to play in person would take about 17 hours. So even though this was a one day tournament it had more play than a 3 day WSOP event.

I lost a fair sized pot or two right away and found myself back at 15,000 chips or so which was now a very small stack. Then I got QQ in the small blind and raised. My opponent 3 bet and I capped it. The flop came down K J 2 and the turn was an ace. By that time all my money was in and I thought I was done. Then my opponent turned over Q9! I thought "Ah ha! I'm back in it! Wait a second, the river is a ten and we split the pot. AHHHHHHHHH! How the hell do I split with QQ vs Q9! AHHHHHH!"

A few hands later I was out in 58th which paid $1,700+. All in all a good finish, but not a great one.

Now on to Event #40. I decided to play the no limit Omaha hi lo split on a whim. I'd had a good day in the cash games and figured what the hell. We started with 1,285 players and by the time we were down to 900 I was in 1st place!

I'd never played NL Omaha-8 before, but I'd played a fair amount of limit Omaha-8 and pot limit Omaha hi and I felt like I could put the two together. I am shocked (SHOCKED!) at how many players in these Omaha tournaments just have no clue how to evaluate a starting hand. I see people all the time getting their whole stack in with hands that are the hold'em equivalent of Q9 or K7. They just don't get it at all.

Of course I caught some nice breaks to build up my stack. I kept getting moster hands like AAK2 or A23J double suited. People were giving me action and when I had the best hand going in it held up.

I found myself with almost 30,000 chips when average was less than 7,000. I pretty much stayed in that range until we were close to the money. I took it up to 40,000, then lost 17,000 in one pot when I got it all in with A24J vs AA39 (or something like that). On that hand the blinds were 400/800 and I raised to 2,400. My opponent instantly moved all in for 17,000 which was a massive overbet and told me that he had AA in his hand for sure.

This is where my inexperience came into play. I wasn't sure if I should call. I was risking about 15,000 to pick up 21,000 or so. I knew he had AAxx, but wasn't really sure how my hand stood up to a hand like that. At the time I decided it was worth a call since I had such a powerful low hand. After doing some research looking at how my hand stacks up to AA with a few other combinations it looks like I'm in terrible shape if my opponent can make a low (even if it's not a good low) and a little behind if he has a hand like AA9T that can't make a low. Putting it all together it was a bad call.

I'm sure I made more mistakes along the way, but many of my opponents were truly clueless. Some poker players who are in the OK to good range in terms of their poker skill level go on and on about how their opponents stink. Not me. I tend to give my opponents more credit than they probably deserve. I assume that everyone knows how to play until I get concrete evidence to the contrary. With that said, some of these guys really sucked!

In the end I finished 143rd which paid $379. Not a huge deal, but good for momentum! It also means I have 4 WCOOP cashes this year so now I don't feel like such a loser!

Today's WCOOP Tournaments

At 11:40 today I have the 50,000 FPP (about $800) HORSE satellite and then at 1:30 I have the $2,100 8-game mixed. The $530 8-game mixed 2nd chance is at 4:30 and I'd say there is a 60% chance that I'll play it. The 2nd chance limit yesterday was loaded with tough players and I'm going to have a look at the field before I commit.

Yesterday's recap will be up shortly.

Event #39 Recap

I finished 58th in the $1,050 6 max limit which paid $1,748. A full recap is coming tomorrow. Still in the Omaha. We're down to 306 players and I'm in 60th with 28,000 chips. 180 spots pay and 1st place is $42,323.

NL Omaha

I guess I'm OK at NL Omaha. I'm in 1st of 909 players! We started with 1,285 players and 5K chips and I have 28K chips after 80 hands. Long way to go still, but the best possible start.

Hanging on in the big one. 94 players left. Average is 47K and i have 21K which puts me in 78th.

Down to 1,000 in the 2nd chance.

Lots of WCOOP action!

Right now I'm in 4 WCOOP tournaments.

First, I'm in a $55 with rebuys turbo satellite to tomorrows $2,100 8-game mixed. They guaranteed 5 seats and there's no way they are going to get $10,500 into this prize pool with the 45 players who are playing.

Second, I'm in the $530 6 max limit second chance. Tough field in that one. Only 38 players with 6 spots paying. 1st $7,030 and 6th $1,045.

Third, I decided to play Event #40 $215 no limit Omaha hi lo. It's kid of goofy playing a split pot game no limit, but I thought I'd give it a shot. It is Friday night and I'm sure a lot of less qualified players are also going for it in this one. Unfortunately I'm down to 3K from 5K after getting quartered in a big pot.

Lastly, of course I'm still in the $1,050 limit. Holding steady with 18K and in 114th of 194.

The Edge of Possibility

I've had two runs in the past two days that have been on the edge of what is possible at the stakes I'm playing.

Yesterday I lost $3,000 in 1,000 hands playing no higher than $10/$20. Things have been going well lately so I'm all but sure I didn't tilt. I just couldn't connect with a flop! And when I did I'd hit it so hard no one could call (If the flop is A 7 3 and you have AA, there aren't to many hands that are going to give you action). Of course I took some bad beats too, but mostly is was just missing flop after flop, and my opponents calling me down with worse and worse hands (not easy to bluff when you keep showing bluffs!). I don't think 1,500,000 hands of limit hold'em I've ever lost 150 big bets in 1,000 hands.

I would bet that I could see 100% of flops regardless of action and not lose $3,000 in 1,000 hands.

Today the dead opposite! $2,300 to the good in 300 hands! I won 29 of 35 hands at showdown (compared to about 35% yesterday). 115 big bets in 45 minutes is unprecedented in my poker career. I just couldn't miss.

I might not see a run like either of these anytime in the next few years and they happened on back to back days!

Still right around 17K in the limit. I might play the $215 No limit Omaha-8 at 5:00.

Update

2 hours in we're down to 410 players. I was up to 15K then down to 8K and now Back up to 16k and in 57th. Some of these guys are hyper aggressive, but it's nothing I haven't seen 100 times before and certainly not going to give me problems.

1st place pays $83,000 and the edge of the money is 66th which pays $1,530.

$10,000 Make it or Break it Weekend!

I have roughly $10,000 in WCOOP tournaments in the next 3 days. Kind of scary when I think about it.

Today I have $1,050 6 handed limit hold'em which is underway. Looks like we'll have 400-450 entrants when late registration is over. The good news is I don't recognize anyone at my table. We started this one with 10,000 chips and stakes of 60/120.

Later today I have the $530 second chance 6 max limit tournament. Not sure how many entrants to expect in that one. Maybe 50?

I'll do my best to at least post some updates on twitter.

I am ready for some good luck!

A New Project

Brick city in the WCOOP today and nothing on the schedule for tomorrow.

I have been steadily kicking ass in the $10/$20 cash games though. On Friday I lost about $2,000 in $15/$30 and then my opponent in a $30/$60 heads up match was better than I thought and got an insane run of cards. In total I lost something like $5,000. But I got it all back plus and extra few hundred (plus FPPS) over the next 3 days. Then today I put another $1,200 win on the books.

I have a new poker project. My wife and I are going on a cruise next month and between the cost of the cruise, airfare to the L.A. area (we're going to leave our son with my wife's parents for a few nights) and whatever money we spend on the boat we're going to need $1,500-$2,000. My wife is very frugal by nature, and while I'm not a total spendthrift I can sometimes lose track of the value of a dollar (I'm actually much better than most pro poker players).

We were debating the various cost and benefits of certain options for our vacation and I wanted to go the more expensive route and she wanted to make things as difficult as possible logistically (you know like flying at 3 in the morning with a 48 hour layover and levaing on the cruise 147 days afer we get to LA) in order to save a few bucks. Eventually I got fed up and said "honey, don't worry about it. I'll put in some special hours on the lap top in front of the TV and get win enough to cover the cost of all this shit." So I got my way, but now I have to put my money where my mouth is!

I deposited $1,000 into absolute poker and my challenge is to turn it into $3,000 by October 20th. I'm going to treat this playing like a normal person might. Play a little here and there after work and play whatever seems fun at the time. I have a deal where I'm getting 31% of my rake back and they have some sort of other rewards programs on top of that. I've been wanting to explore the benefits as well as the level of play in their games so this seems like a perfect opportunity to do so. Today I played about 100 hands of $5/$10 and won $121. So far so good on the Absolute Poker Challenge.

The Future of This Blog

More and more I've been getting comments from people I've never met who say they enjoy reading my blog. I also keep finding out that old friends and acquaintances have been reading. These people aren't all extremely poker savvy or aren't so much interested in the pluses and minuses of my daily results, but rather the experiences an emotions of playing poker for a living. So I'm going to make an effort to be a little less results based and a little more colorful in my posts. Not sure if I'll stick to it, but that's my intention.

Now completely contrary to the spirit if this post let me say WCOOP event #34 ($215 NLH with big antes) is underway! 3,650 players to start and an hour in we're down to 3,000 or so. I'm up from 5K all the way to 5,200! Look out! 1st place $114,610.

Now in the spirit of this post let me say I got drunk as a skunk last night and don't really feel like playing today! We had a dinner party for about 10 people and I over did it. One of the biggest benefits of this job is being able to do stuff like stay up until 2 in the morning boozing it up and then be able to sleep in the next day. After 6 years of that kind of freedom I'm not sure I could ever handle a 9 to 5 job.

Anyway, I'm a little foggy this afternoon, but the show must go on! Results (hopefully good ones!) later.