Two Tough Spots Lead to My Demise

I'm out in 1397th. Not sure if I did the right thing or not on the two hands that did me in. I like the way I played them, but there was certainly more than one way to go.

On the first with blinds of 150/300 I raised to 900 with 88 from early middle position. I got one caller and then the button made it 3,600 to go. This looked like a squeeze play to me. I didn't think calling was as option here. It was either reraise or fold. Since I had the button covered by about 14,000 I thought I was time to make a strong move.

I made it 9,000 to go thinking I'd clear out the caller and my other opponent would fold any hand that wasn't AA, KK, QQ or AK. I even thought there was some non zero chance AK or QQ might go in the muck given the size of this tournament. Instead my opponent moved all in for 15K or so. At this point I was getting the right odds to call no matter what she had putting in 6K to win 24K. I was hoping to see AK, but it was QQ and I was all of a sudden in bad shape.

By the time the next hand came along the blinds were 200/400 and a player 3 off the button made it 1,000 to go. I had AQ and reraised to 3,200. He thought for a minute and went all in. I guess I could have folded the hand and left myself with 9,000 chips, but I was getting almost 2 to 1 on my money so I called. Turns out he had 99, I missed and that was it. You have to win some of those races to do well in a tournament and I came up short the first time I got all my chips in the pot.

Of course I'm unhappy with the result, but I'd always rather go out guns blazing making strong moves, trying to win rather than just trying to survive.

I got my entry to this tournament for hitting supernova elite last year and I sold about half my action so even though this tournament was a big deal and I took it very seriously, it doesn't hurt as much as if I'd shelled out $5K from my pocket. Also I won $1,500 in the cash games today so it's not the end of the world.

I'll wrap up the 2009 WCOOP (including a recap on the 8-game tournament) tomorrow and give all the final numbers. Sorry there wasn't more good news this year. :(

At My Table

At my table right now there are players from New York, L.A., Rio, St. Petersburg Russia, Budapst, and Portugal (two other players from unknow cities and myself). Every now and then I like to take a step back and think about how amazing it is that we're all connected and playing a game in real time from locations all over the world.

M.E. Update

I've been very careful in this tournament so far. First I folded AK before the flop which I almost never do. Under the gun make it 180, got one caller and I made it 780 from the button. UTG quickly made it 2,000 and it just looked like a big pair. In a smaller tournament I would have called, but it was too early in this marathon to get involved with a player who I know has a very big hand.

Second I flopped an ace with AJ and when I bet the flop and got called I checked the turn and the river. I thought it was possible my opponent smooth called my preflop raise with AK or AQ and was waiting to pop me on the turn. After he checked the turn I figured he had a hand that either couldn't call a bet on the river (so why bet?) like a missed draw or had a monster. Also if he had nothing I thought he might bet as a bluff which I could then snap off.

Third, I just called a raise with AJs preflop and when the flop came AQ2 I called my opponent's flop bet and folded to his pot sized turn bet when a K showed up.

I got a little less careful with AQs. I was on the button and the cutoff made it 270 with blinds of 50/100 and a 10 chip ante. I popped him to 800 and he made it 2,070. I could have folded here, but I thought it was a good time to take a flop in position. The flop came down A 8 4 and after a hesitation my opponent bet out 2,680 into the 4,400 pot. This all screamed a hand like KK or JJ, so I made it 6,500 with plans of folding to an all in which would have left me with 9,000. Instead my opponent folded and I took down a nice pot. That one took me from 18K or so to about 23K.

Just gave back a few grand so now I'm at 20,600 after 180 hands and 2.5 hours.

$5,200 WCOOP Main Event Underway!

I skipped out on the $215 tournament that started at ten this morning. I had the realization that I didn't want to play a $200 tournament for four hours before starting a $5,000 tournament that's going to go for 12 hours today!

I'm feeling much better today. I had a great steak last night, drank a nice bottle of Shiraz and slept for 12 hours. I'm going to recap yesterday's action tomorrow.

2,144 players plunked down the five grand to play the main event. We all started with 20,000 chips, blinds of 25/50 and 30 minute levels. And the blinds aren't exactly doubling every 30 minutes either - they go from 25/50 to 30/60 to 40/80 to 50/100 etc. Not sure if I've ever played a tournament where they start you with 400 big blinds (normally it's 50 or 60 and even in other WCOOP tournaments they start you with 200 or so)! This tournament is going to be looooong!

In the first hour we only lost 30 players which is totally unprecedented in my experience for a no limit tournament with 2,000 players.

The prizes are pretty astounding. The edge of the money is 306th which pays $8,040. 126th pays about $15,000. 45th is $25,000 or so. To make $50,000 I need to get to 15th which pays $58,000. Any spot at the final table is worth $100,000. 3rd is where you get to about a million dollar prize and first place pays $1,715,200!!!

After 100 hands or so I have 19,000 chips. I'll try to post frequent updates.

An Interesting Blog Post from a Great Player

Matt Hawrilenko is considered by some people to be the best short handed limit player in the world. I wouldn't argue. If I had to put my money on anyone in a heads up match it would be him. His only problem is no one will play him anymore!

He goes by the name Hoss_TBF at pokerstars and I've often seen him sitting waiting at the $500/$100 table. He won a bracelet in the $5,000 6 max NLH event at this years WSOP and I played with him for a while after we were in the money in the $3,000 HORSE event.

I hadn't heard of him before this year, but in a previous event someone sitting next to me said "there goes the best limit player in the world." When I heard his screen name it made sense.

He seems like a very quiet and shockingly modest guy. When we were coming back from break in the HORSE I introduced myself, shook his hand and said "I heard you are the best limit player in the world." He smiled like I'd said something outrageous and said "I wouldn't go that far, but I've done alright."

Anyway he has a blog. It doesn't look like he posts much, but there is one post that is a transcript of the chat between him, Phil Helmuth, and another player. It's pretty interesting and includes some massive burns.

It's clear from the text that Phil doesn't know shit about playing 3 handed limit hold'em which I found surprising. The stakes aren't mentioned, but I'm almost positive that it was $500/$1000.

Here is the blog http://hoss-tbf.livejournal.com/

If you scroll down to the march 11th post about 40% of the way down you'll see what I'm talking about. Also I heard about this post in cardplayer and can tell you for sure that it's legit.

Out of the 8-game.

The final hand of the 8-game mixed sums up the way my day went. We were playing Razz and I was almost out of chips after getting screwed on what felt like 97 hands in a row. I had about 500 left and the up cards were all 9 or higher except one player who had a 2 up. He completed the bring in to 160. Shaundeeb (who is going to get totally blasted when I write my full recap - he is supposed to be one of the best tournament players online and playing like a total fool - A TOTAL FOOL!) calls with a ten up (this is like calling a raise with 85 in hold'em - maybe worse) and I raise to 320 with 2 5 9. My other opponent makes it 480 and I go all in for my last few chips.

I catch a 9 and then and J. And then a 9 and then a J. We're trying to make the lowest hand possible and I make a God damn full house! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I'm sure I'll feel better tomorrow, but I am livid right now.

If I can make the money in the main event all of today's ridiculousness will be forgotten. Let's hope that happens.

Time for a drink.

The Universe is Torturing Me!

I finished 3rd in the 50,000 FPP HORSE. How the hell do you bubble two tournaments in two weeks where you either get $10,000 or nothing?

We were all about even on the first hand of 3 handed play. We were playing stud hi-lo and my opponent with a ten up brought it in for 800 with QQ in the hole. This guy was a total clown.

I had TT in the hole and a J up and I made it 1,600. He just called! Amazing! I hit a ten on 4th street! The perfect card. He catches a J.

I bet and he calls. On 5th street I don't improve and he caches an 8. Again, bet call. On 6th street he catches a 9 making him the straight. I check call 6th street and the river. After that pot I was down to 13K and he was up to 30K. If I pair or he just misses I'm solidly in first.

A few hands later we go to limit hold'em and I miss everything. I see 4 or 5 flops and don't make a pair. On the final hand I get it all in with AJ vs KQ. KQJ on the flop, ten on the turn (just to make it as painful as possible), king on the river.

This tournament was just so, so sick.

Also I'm in no state of mind to play poker, but I'm in this very important 8 game tournament which is going to take from now until the end of time to complete so I've got to find some way to pull it together.

50,000 FPP HORSE!

It's underway with 24 players. Pokerstars added a $10,300 seat to the prize pool so we're looking at an overlay of $429 per person! That means if you were the average player in this tournament (the 12th best) and you played this tournament 1,000 times you'd expect to be ahead $429,000. An overlay like this almost never comes along.

In other good news if we'd have gotten one more player, the tournament would have paid 3 $10,300 entries with everyone else getting nothing. Instead it pays 2 entries and 3rd through 13th get their 50,000 FPPs back (14th gets 25,000 FPPs). This kind of payout structure is greatly preferable when you're playing a little outside of what your bankroll can support long term.

An hour in we've lost one player and I'm up from 3,000 chips to 4,400 which puts me in 5th. This tournament has 10 minute limits so it's not going to take too long.

In other FPP satellite news I don't have enough FPPs to play the 25,000 FPP satellite to the main event later today. I had enough time to earn them when I saw that tournament on the schedule, but got a little lazy. It starts at 1:40 so there is some chance that I'll finish in the top 14 in this one between now and then and then I'll play.

$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.