Friday, April 03, 2009

SCOOP Event #4 underway!

Event #4 (L) $16.50 "2X Chance" started with 14,496 players and after an early miscue I had to use my one rebuy.

In event #4 (M) which started with 2,887 players I'm about where I started with just over 5,000 chips.

They haven't put up the prizes yet. I'll post an update if I go broke or triple up.

5-Card Dud

Man does 5 card draw suck! Every now and then I think to myself "Maybe I'll play a little draw!" Then I do and I am reminded why draw is dead. It is so boring! And on top of that it requires to much thought and focus for me to play well.

I gave it all I had in the $109, but I ran into THREE full houses! The first time I had a straight, the second time I had trips, and the third time I was short stacked and had two pair.

In the $11 I had to bail. It was making me crazy. It had been two hours and there were a few hours to the money which was only $12 at the edge. So I got super aggressive in an effort to either build a huge stack or go broke quickly. Not surprisingly it was the latter.

SCOOP Event #3 Underway!

SCOOP event #3 is PL five card draw with the low stakes being $11 (which started with 4,300 players) and the medium stakes being $109. There's good news and bad news and more good news. The good news is they guaranteed $100,000 in the prize pool of the $109 tournament and there are only 756 entrants. This means pokerstars had to add $17,600 to the prize pool. The bad news is I don't know much about playing 5 card draw! The good news is almost no one else does either!

The biggest weekly 5 card draw tournaments are in the $20 range (They normally have something like 50 players), there are never more than a handful of cash games going, and those are all for small stakes. That means no one really has much experience with this game.

Hopefully I can get some good cards and use my tournament experience and skills from other games to wade my way through.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

Brick City!

I came up short is all 4 of my SCOOP tournaments today. The only one in which I sniffed the money was the $5 with rebuys and I went down the tubes with KK vs 99 so there wasn't much I could do.

The Omaha tournaments were a total bust. I was out in less than 90 minutes in both. I know how to play pot limit Omaha and limit Omaha Hi-Lo, but I have to admit that I don't feel really comfortable with pot limit Omaha Hi-Lo. It's just a wierd game. Frankly I don't know why anyone plays it.

The good news is I won a $32 satellite to a $320 SCOOP event. So when you factor in the -$109 for the earier satellite, the -$105 for the $55 with rebuys and the -109 for the Omaha (M), my MHS bankroll (Medium/High/Satellite - basically my backer bankroll) only took a $35 hit. My low bankroll took a $26.50 hit.

Today was pretty insignificant as far as the sereis goes. It was really almost like a prologue. In fact the first 5 events are pretty much warm up.

Tomorrow I have $11 and $109 Pot Limit 5-card draw in the morning (that's going to be an adventure!) and $16.50 and $162 NL hold'em 2x chance in the afternoon.

The 2X chance format is interesting. Basically the way it works is if you go broke during the first hour you can buy another starting stack for the same amount as the initial buy in, but otherwise there are no rebuys and it plays just like a regular tournament.

Looking at the schedule Sunday is really going to be key. That day I have $1,050 HORSE, $320 NLH and $3,150 NLH. One way or another that day is probably going to be really good or really bad.

SCOOP Underway!

So far today I've only played one satellite and I came up short losing $109.

SCOOP Event #1 (L) $5 with rebuys started with an insane 27,134 players. I'm in for the minimum of $15 and up to 30,000 chips. Not bad since the initial buy in and one rebuy only gets you 5,000. The edge of the money is 5,400th place and pays $17, while first place in a whopping $41,000.

Event #1 (M) $55 with rebuys started with a more reasonable 4,057 players. I didn't instantly rebuy because I spaced out, and then I won the first hand so I had too many chips to rebuy. So the good news is I'm only in for $105. The bad news is I didn't make much progress and I only have about the number of chips you get for one buy in one rebuy and the add on (8,900). The edge of the money is 600th place and pays $243, while first place pays $98,000.

SCOOP STARTS TODAY!

The SCOOP will kick off today (April 2nd) with NL hold 'em with rebuys and Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. The low stakes NLH will be $5.50 with rebuys. There are already an astounding 16,000 people registered for this tournament and there will surely be thousands more signing up. Given the structure this means it could a looong time to play. There are 15 minute limits and pokerstars has 72 levels listed in the tournament lobby with the last being blinds of 25 million and 50 million! That means the big blind will be 20,000 times the size of the initial chip stack! I guess they are counting on a TON of rebuys!

The medium stakes will be $55 with rebuys and has a more modest 1,400 people signed up so far. I plan to skip the high stakes which is $530 with rebuys. All of these events start at 11:30 pacific.

At 1:30 the PLO8 low stakes will be $11 and the medium stakes will be $109.

I feel like the low stakes events might be insanely boring, but I feel like there is some prestige even given the tiny buy ins. I'd also like to take a shot at cashing in more SCOOP events than anyone period.

I discovered today that like the WCOOP the SCOOP will feature "second chance" tournaments that are played two hours after the start of the main SCOOP events and involve the same game and the same (or sometimes lower) buy in. I've included them in my backer package. I don't know what the fields or exact buys in will be for these tournaments, but I assume I'll be playing quite a few of the medium and high stakes second chance events.

I'll keep you posted on all my results.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Final Table Recap!

When I last left off I was giving the details of a $109 mulittable tournament I played with 756 entrants. I told you that I made the final table, but didn't let on how deep I went. Of course most of you who read this blog already know how I did since it was a week ago, but I'll leave the rest of you in suspense as I go.

Final table play started on hand #405 (for me - since other players were at different tables they played differnet numbers of hands). I had 224K chips, the chip leader had 475K and the short stack hand 160K. With the blinds only at 3.5K7K with a 700 chip ante and the chip stacks so even we were looking at a long final table.

On the very first hand the short stack raised to 21K from the small blind, and then called all in with J9 suited when the player I mentioned in my last post (Johne147) moved all in from the big blind with AK. The AK held up and the short stack took home a little more than $1,000 for 9th place.

I took over the position of the short stack two hands later. I was in the small blind with A9s, the button made it 18,875 to go, I reraised to 56,000 and he moved all in for 161,400. I might have had the best hand here, but with the blind still small compared to my stack, I decided to be paitient and fold.

On hand #425 we lost another one. Johne147 took out another player with a massive bad beat. He raised to 20K with 99 and got called by a player in the field. The blinds folded, the flop came down T 5 4 and both players checked. I'm guessing Johne figured the other player was trying to trap with AA or KK (which is just what I thought too) since he checked the turn (which was a 2) also. His opponent bet out 24K and johne just called. The river was a 9 Johne check raised all in, his opponent called with AA and was out in 8th place! It was a pretty dramatic hand. 8th place paid a little over $1,700 so don't feel too bad for the fellow with the aces!

On hand #446 a player moved all in for 173K with 66, ran into AA, and took home $2,400 for 7th place.

By hand #450 I'd wiggled my way up over 275K without ever going past the flop or winning any kind of big pot. I simply raised and reraised when I thought my opponents would fold or if I had a good hand. Sure enough they were all in the mode of trying to move up one more spot and I was able to exploit them.

Hand #454 was one of my favorite hands. The blinds were up to 5K/10K I got dealt AJ on the button and the short stack who only had 109K was in the big blind. I made it 30K to go and I said to my wife "I hope the big blind moves all in with something like AT." He moved all in, I called and he turned over AT! HA! To my shock and horror the flop was Q T 2! I immediatly said "Put a King on the turn." Guess what? There was a king on the turn! HA! Amazing! The river was a blank, I was up to 400K and my opponent got $3,200 for 6th.

Johne147 did some more work for the table on hand #466. He made it 24K to go, a player moved all in for 207K he called with AT and won vs A7. The fifth place player got $3,900 for his efforts.

When I started the final table of course I wanted to win, but I knew I'd be completely satisfied if I could make it to at least 5th.

I worked my way up to 580,000 through blind steals and then lost 175K on hand #485 when Johne147 had KK vs my QJ and I hit a J.

But I got my vengence a few hands later! I had 99 in the small blind and Johne made it 29K to go from the button. I reraised to 84K, he went all in and I called. I figured with a bigger pair he would have just called my reraise or made a smaller raise. Sure enoug he had AQ, but the board was all small cards and I was up to 840K!

Now it was on! I knew I was the best player and now I hand the most chips too. This is what you play for! I knew if I stayed patient and didn't take a major bad beat I had a chance to win this thing.

My nemisis Johne147 took a chunk of his chips back on hand #500. We both flopped a pair, I turned two pair and he rivered trips. Luckily we both checked the flop and the board had straight and flush possibilities so I only lost 250K.

But I got those chips right back on hand #508 when I turned a pair of aces vs the pair of kings he'd made on the flop.

Nothing happened for the next 10 hands, then I layed the smack down! The blinds were 8K/16K and the button made a massive overbet by going all in for 350K. A little earlier I saw him limp in on the button with KK so I knew he was inclined to play slow with big hands. This looked like a small pair or a weak ace to me. I had 770K chips at this point and I got dealt AJ. I might not have called for my entire stack, but for half I decided to go for it. He turned over 44, the flop was 3, K T, the turn was a 2 and I started calling for a queen. Instead I got an ace and took down a sweet pot. Now I was up to 1.14 million chips and third my opponent was out the door in 4th place with $5,600.

By hand #536 I was up to 1.4M and got AJ again. This time I raised to 60K, got reraised all in to 430K by KJ, and when all the cards were out I took down a major pot. My opponent took home $7,500 and we were down to two.

It was just me and Johne147! Of course it wasn't exaclty a fair fight. I had 1.9M and he only had 386K. He started moving all in on all of his small blinds and it was just a matter of waiting for a real hand to call him.

On hand #543 he moved all in with 56s, I had KJ, made the call, flopped a K, and that was it! BOOM! Take that Johne!

Second place paid my nemisis a little over $10,000, and for first place I took down $14,175! YAY!

This was one of the best tournaments I've ever played. I hardly made any mistakes and when I did it still worked out. This was a great boost going into the SCOOP. Hopefully I can play as well and have similar results.

My WSOP 2023 Plans and Missions

After four and a half years working for StubHub I wrapped up my time there in March. I've been at the poker tables 3-4 days a week since...