A Fitting End

PokerStars Game #12369299196: Tournament #70000023, $2500+$100 Hold'em No Limit - Level XIII (1250/2500) - 2007/09/30 - 23:55:09 (ET)
Table '70000023 108' 9-max Seat #6 is the button
Seat 1: timber (140223 in chips)
Seat 2: 4thgenlude (129229 in chips)
Seat 3: StudlyJud (38928 in chips)
Seat 4: Imustcall (207116 in chips)
Seat 5: ktrieu (87344 in chips)
Seat 6: PiMaster (39217 in chips)
Seat 7: Dogger9 (137785 in chips)
Seat 8: Shakey71 (48683 in chips)
Seat 9: takechip (213406 in chips)
timber: posts the ante 250
4thgenlude: posts the ante 250
StudlyJud: posts the ante 250
Imustcall: posts the ante 250
ktrieu: posts the ante 250
PiMaster: posts the ante 250
Dogger9: posts the ante 250
Shakey71: posts the ante 250
takechip: posts the ante 250
Dogger9: posts small blind 1250
Shakey71: posts big blind 2500
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to PiMaster [Ts As]
takechip: folds
timber: folds
4thgenlude: folds
StudlyJud: folds
Imustcall: folds
ktrieu: folds
PiMaster: raises 4500 to 7000
Dogger9: raises 33000 to 40000
Shakey71: folds
PiMaster: calls 31967 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [4d Qd Th]
*** TURN *** [4d Qd Th] [Qh]
*** RIVER *** [4d Qd Th Qh] [Ad]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Dogger9: shows [Jd Kh] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
PiMaster: shows [Ts As] (two pair, Aces and Queens)
Dogger9 collected 82684 from pot

A bit of satisfaction

Last night, I cashed in the Stud 8 WCOOP event. This was somewhat significant for a couple reasons:

1) It was my fifth cash in the WCOOP (this was my goal for the series). However, with no final tables, I am actually down a little on the series if you don't count my 5% of MasterJ's 2nd place cash.

2) With the cash, I have now cashed in the following games during the last two WCOOP's and FTOPS: No Limit Holdem, No Limit Holdem 6-Handed, Pot Limit Holdem, Pot Limit Omaha 6-Handed, Omaha 8, Stud 8, Stud, and 2 to 7 Triple Draw. I am fairly proud of these finishes because it shows I am a complete poker player.

A lot of modern players are one trick ponies (and occasionally 2). No Limit Holdem is all many players know. It is all they care to know. I think you are missing out on opportunities by not being able to play multiple games. The +EV in these tourneys, if you are good, is ridiculous. So many players give it a shot without any knowledge of the proper way to play (for perspective think back to the beginning of the NLH explosion online and how juicy the games were). Furthermore, the same game day after day can get very dull. As a result, your game can start to suffer. Playing new games adds variety. I wish there were more big tourneys during the year with the variety the WCOOP, FTOPS, and WSOP has. Usually it is NLH all day every day with an occasional token non NLH event thrown in.

Something Daniel Negreanu proposed ealier this year would interest me a ton if done online. He wanted a tourney decathalon of some sort where players would play 10 different forms of poker. Each game would be a tournament in unto itself with payouts. A portion of each players entry fee into each event would go to an overall prize pool for the series. You would earn points based on your finish in each event. I think he had the top 25% or so earning points.

My list of events would probably be these:

1) NLH
2) LH
3) PLO
4) Omaha 8
5) Stud
6) Stud 8
7) Razz
8) 2 to 7 Triple Draw
9) PLH
10) either PLO8 or NLH 6-Handed

I think it would stir up a ton of interest and would be a blast. If it was done on a yearly basis, it could crown a World Online Poker Champion.

Swimming with the Penguins

I may be enduring the coldest stretch of tournament poker in my life. There have been a ton of coolers. My 80/20s seem like 2 to 1 favorites. When I have a guy dominated, they seem like coin flips, and when I have a coin flip, it feels like I am dominated. When I am behind - fahgedaboudit. I only have one or two suckouts when allin in the past few days. I feel like I am playing extremely well however. I keep building up large stacks without risking large portions of my stack. My bluffs are rarely getting called even the dangerous ones, and my value bets are getting paid off. The big pre allins mid-to-late in tourneys are just killing me. Unfortunately they are unavoidable as tourneys get deeper and stacks get shorter. Don't get me wrong, I have definitely made some errors. Yet, I have only regretted a few of my decisions in the last 10 days.

It's a weird feeling when you are extremely confident in your game, and nothing is going your way. I don't think this stretch has affected my decision making. My brother has watched a few of my tourneys, and he thinks I am playing well. In his words, he "would have thrown his computer through a wall" seeing the beats I have been repeatedly taking.

Despite this I cannot help but think a big score is just around the corner. In the immortal words of David Farragut: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"

A week and a half of tourneys in a nutshell

This happens in two out of three hands in the WCOOP PLO8 tourney today to knock me out after I had a very large stack:

Seat 1: Peakster (7312 in chips)
Seat 2: Speedbump77 (3111 in chips)
Seat 4: augustw (14551 in chips)
Seat 5: BBB-111 (18993 in chips)
Seat 6: PiMaster (7898 in chips)
Seat 7: emptyseat88 (4546 in chips)
Seat 8: chhova1 (22590 in chips)
Seat 9: belar74 (7697 in chips)
chhova1: posts small blind 200
belar74: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to PiMaster [9s 2h As Kd]
Peakster: folds
Speedbump77: calls 400
augustw: folds
BBB-111: folds
PiMaster: raises 1200 to 1600
emptyseat88: folds
chhova1: folds
belar74: folds
Speedbump77: calls 1200
*** FLOP *** [5s Jh 8h]
Speedbump77: bets 1511 and is all-in
PiMaster: calls 1511
*** TURN *** [5s Jh 8h] [9d]
*** RIVER *** [5s Jh 8h 9d] [Kh]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
Speedbump77: shows [Ah 3h 4h 7s] (HI: a flush, Ace high)
PiMaster: shows [9s 2h As Kd] (HI: two pair, Kings and Nines)
Speedbump77 collected 6822 from pot
No low hand qualified

He basically needed a high heart for it all.

Seat 1: Peakster (6912 in chips)
Seat 2: Speedbump77 (6822 in chips)
Seat 4: augustw (14551 in chips)
Seat 5: BBB-111 (18993 in chips)
Seat 6: PiMaster (4787 in chips)
Seat 7: emptyseat88 (4546 in chips)
Seat 8: chhova1 (15093 in chips)
Seat 9: belar74 (14994 in chips)
Peakster: posts small blind 200
Speedbump77: posts big blind 400
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to PiMaster [2h Ac Ad Qh]
augustw: folds
BBB-111: calls 400
PiMaster: raises 1200 to 1600
emptyseat88: folds
chhova1: folds
belar74: folds
Peakster: folds
Speedbump77: folds
BBB-111: calls 1200
*** FLOP *** [4s 4d Kh]
Jayrule is connected
BBB-111: checks
PiMaster: bets 3187 and is all-in
BBB-111: calls 3187
*** TURN *** [4s 4d Kh] [7s]
*** RIVER *** [4s 4d Kh 7s] [Jd]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
BBB-111: shows [7d As Kd Ks] (HI: a full house, Kings full of Fours)
PiMaster: shows [2h Ac Ad Qh] (HI: two pair, Aces and Fours)
BBB-111 collected 10174 from pot
No low hand qualified

The Stretch Run

I am taking most of today off after some brutal tourneys early this afternoon. I plan on putting my best effort forward over the next six days. I'm not going to lie; with a family and other responsibilities, the last week or so has been difficult. The WCOOP runs at a very bad time for me (through dinner and bedtime for the kids).

I haven't had a significant cash over the past 10 days, despite being 4 for 15 in the WCOOP. As a result, I have dropped into the mid 40's on the pocket five rankings for the month. That's not bad for the amount of tourneys I have played compared to most of the guys up there, but it is still well short of my target.

This Saturday is the huge 5K Horse event in the WCOOP. I was hoping to put up about half of that myself unless I have a huge score before then. If anyone wants to buy a piece of my action (you'd have 100% of the amount you buy of me), just let me know.

Catch 22

I probably picked a bad month to try for the top ten of Pocket Fives for this sole reason: the WCOOP. I actually thought coming in that the WCOOP would be a good thing for the goal. It is my favorite series of the year online by far, and as a result, my focus is almost solely on it. The events all start at 2 or 3:30 my time. This is the dead time of the day for the other tournaments I was using to try to accumulate points. The peak time begins at 6 and ends at about 10. However, when it gets to that time of day, I am either fairly deep in a WCOOP event (in which case I do not want other tourneys to distract me), or I have been knocked out of the event (in which case I am not in the mood to really play something else). This has meant I have played far fewer events than needed for the past week to have a chance of achieving my goal. I am not upset by this. I would rather do well in the tourneys I do play. However, my goal seems very much of a long shot at this point. Before the WCOOP started, I had risen to around 22nd in the standings, but I have dropped down a lot since then. On a good note, I have cashed in 3 of the 11 WCOOPs so far. My goal was at least 5 for the series (out of a planned 20 or so events).

So that's where I stand. Maybe something will change in the upcoming week, but it won't be my focus on the WCOOP, and that's fine by me.

Congrats MasterJ!

Yesterday MasterJ took down 2nd Place in the WCOOP #7 $215 Limit Holdem. He played fabulous throughout. If it weren't for the big heater in the final 15 minutes by his opponent, I think he would have won.

I have taken it very easy the last couple days (only 4 tourneys). None went my way, but I feel refreshed after a long weekend. The WCOOP O8 is today.