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WCOOP Updates
Monday, September 25, 2006 Here are updates from my last four WCOOP events. Event #7, $200 Limit Hold 'Em: I ran up a pretty good stack in this one, but then I had a situation. I was at my parents' house, and I had to pick up my brother from the train station (three minutes away). His train got in only a few minutes after a break had ended, so I didn't want to make him sit around for an hour waiting for me. Then he had the idea to go into the pizza place next to the train station and see if he could get a wireless signal on his laptop. Sure enough, he got one. After I played my button, I had my brother take over from the pizza place for three minutes, while I drove to get him. I got to the pizza place and resumed control for a few minutes while we waited for our order to get finished (oh yes, we definitely bought pizza too). Then I raced home after posting the blinds. When I got back to my parents' house, I'd been moved to a new table BEHIND the blinds. I didn't lose a single chip while driving home! God bless wireless internet. As for the results, Nick (my brother) got our chips in in good spots for his three minutes, and broke even during his time. Unfortunately, when I got to the pizza place I got a whole bunch of chips in with QQ and got rivered for a huge pot. And after I got home I never won another hand, and finished just out of the money. Event #8, $200 HORSE: I don't really play the stud games, but I know them well enough that I figure I have an edge in those games against a field of 1800 players, many of whom likely won their way into the tournament via satellite. And I know I have a big edge in Omaha, and a huge edge in Hold 'Em against a field such as this. I lost a big pot with AA during the second Hold 'Em level (aka, level 6), and of course I bricked out of all the razz hands a few levels earlier. But after that my stack went on a nice, steady climb, and I found myself on the leaderboard as we got deep into the money. But then, playing 7500-15000 Razz at a time when 150,000 constituted a big stack (to be fair, it was also 2:30 in the morning on the good old east coast), I bricked out of two hands and got very short. On one of them I made a questionable fold. I opened with 2-3/7 and only one other low card was up on third. To my surprised, the bring-in defended with a queen. He caught an ace on fourth, and I caught a queen. He led out and I called. On fifth, he caught a seven and I caught a jack, and he led out again. I had 40k left, and it would've cost me 15k to call. If he hadn't paired up, I was a 4-1 dog. If he had paired up, I was a small favorite, something like 58-42. Since I held a deuce and a three, however, and since no aces had been exposed on third, I thought there was a better-than-usual chance that the ace had paired him. Maybe I was supposed to call there. I don't know razz nearly well enough to say. But I decided to give him credit for catching better cards than me on fourth and fifth, and gave up the hand. I busted shortly after in the stud round when I tried to run 7-3/7 through K-9/Q. I finished 25th out of 1798 players, for not nearly enough profit. Event #9, $500 Pot Limit Hold 'Em: I don't remember much of this one, so it couldn't have gone very well. Let's check the records... Oh yeah, check out this hand where I got some chips. PokerStars Game #6393453897: Tournament #40000009, $500+$30 Hold'em Pot Limit - Level III (25/50) - 2006/09/23 - 17:55:07 (ET) Table '40000009 1' 9-max Seat #7 is the button Seat 1: danube (6205 in chips) Seat 2: tmoneydog78 (3460 in chips) Seat 3: Arrjay (3300 in chips) Seat 4: elior444 (1825 in chips) is sitting out Seat 5: jacksup (3370 in chips) Seat 6: DMETALFEEN (2025 in chips) Seat 7: Caleros (2015 in chips) Seat 8: michael1123 (2650 in chips) Seat 9: blackeleven (1945 in chips) michael1123: posts small blind 25 blackeleven: posts big blind 50 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to jacksup [Js As] danube: folds tmoneydog78: folds Arrjay: folds elior444: folds jacksup: raises 75 to 125 DMETALFEEN: calls 125 Caleros: folds michael1123: folds blackeleven: folds *** FLOP *** [3s 8s 5s] jacksup: checks DMETALFEEN: checks *** TURN *** [3s 8s 5s] [Th] jacksup: bets 225 DMETALFEEN: raises 325 to 550 jacksup: raises 1425 to 1975 DMETALFEEN: calls 1350 and is all-in *** RIVER *** [3s 8s 5s Th] [Qc] *** SHOW DOWN *** jacksup: shows [Js As] (a flush, Ace high) DMETALFEEN: shows [Ah 3h] (a pair of Threes) Now that's funny. Unfortunately I went broke a few levels later running 99 into QQ at a time when 99 was a pretty big hand for me. Event #10, $1,000 No Limit Hold 'Em: I won a big pot fairly early in this one, that turned out to be pretty funny. My opponent was this guy Kid Blaast, whose name I've seen around online poker for a long time. I check-raised him on an ATx flop with KJ, and he called. The turn brought a third club--the five of clubs, actually. I had the jack of clubs and he had just a little more than the pot in his stack, so I semi-bluffed all-in. He thought for a few seconds and called with A5. I hit my twelve-outer on the river. (Note for the sarcasm-impaired: I'm going to be sarcastic for a little bit here.) It was then I had the audacity to do this... jacksup said, "gg" Naturally, my opponent didn't take this very well, although he waited a while before responding. Kid Blaast [observer] said, "ok u suck out on me then come out with that smug gg remark" Clearly the two letters I typed in, the same two letters I type in almost anytime I bust anyone from any tournament, were dripping in smugness. Here's the rest of the chat. jacksup said, "I was just wishing you a good game, sir" jacksup said, "I'll be sure not to in the future" Kid Blaast [observer] said, "dont know how to take that bl would have been better any way gl to u" jacksup said, "dude, if you can't take someone saying gg after you bust" jacksup said, "you have a real problem" He didn't say anything after that. Unfortunately, I couldn't get many more chips after this, and I eventually chose to resteal all-in against neverwin with KQo. It turned out he was stealing with AA and I busted. Congratulations are in order to the winner of this tournament--Jason Strasser. I'm pretty sure there isn't anyone better than Jason playing No Limit Hold 'Em online right now. Last night, he was at the top of the leaderboard with 90 players left, and he stayed at or near the top the rest of the night. It was truly remarkable. "But Matt," you may say, "isn't he just really aggressive?" No, he also makes good/tough laydowns. "Ok, well then he must be like Hellmuth, willing to raise all the time, but never willing to call." Wrong again, he called a huge all-in at the final table with 88, getting very little price at all. "Well then, what does he do?" Everything. Steal, resteal, back off, bet for value, tighten up or loosen up for the situation, whatever. "How does he do all that?" Must be because he's a Mets fan. Watching Jason play last night, I've become convinced that if his AA had held up against AK with a few hundred players left in the WSOP main event, he would've made the final table almost for certain. I'm skipping stud today, but I'll be back tomorrow for PLO8. Before my WPT final table, my biggest tournament score was a whopping $5,000 in the 2003 WCOOP PLO8 event. Hah! WCOOP Event #6 Thursday, September 21, 2006 This one was ugly. I had an average stack of about 14k when I dusted off more than half of them by making three questionable decisions on one hand. Gross. I called a small reraise preflop with 97o, called a pot-sized bet on the 733 flop, and moved my opponent in for 75% of the pot after he checked on the turn (which was a king). I had reasons for all of my decisions at the time, but in hindsight I'm not crazy about any of them, and I'm especially not crazy about the second one (calling on the flop). My opponent's play screamed of an overpair, so I should've just given him credit and moved on (he had TT, and called after thinking for a few seconds on the turn). I then went broke when I had 30 blinds, got dealt AA, and got all my chips in on the T985 board. My opponent had three nines. Limit Hold 'Em tomorrow. WCOOP Event #4 Wednesday, September 20, 2006 In each of my first three years playing the WCOOP heads-up tournament, I busted in the first round. Well, I got to .500 today by winning four straight, before going down in the round of 128 (2,048 started). In my first match, I caught a bunch of cards against a fairly decent player. In my second match, my opponent told me in the chat he was making a very tight fold against me--so of course a few hands later I moved in, he made a marginal call, and I had him beat. In my third match, my opponent showed me a bluff-reraise on the turn, which had all of his friends on the rail laughing hysterically. I then proceeded to pick off his next ten bluffs and busted him in about five minutes. My fourth opponent loved the all-in. He constantly moved in for 60 times the blind, 11 times the pot, whatever. I got it in against him with AJ, he showed me AK and doubled through. I then got it in with AK and he showed me JJ. I doubled through. Then I got it in with A9 and he finally had a hand more representative of his range--A4. I doubled through. The very next hand he shoved in for 20 blinds and I called instantly with 44. He showed J6s and I won the flip. My fifth opponent seemed to be a pretty strong player (he ended up busting in the round of 32). I really wish they would start us deeper in the later rounds of this thing, like Greg Raymer does in his annual heads-up tournament at FARGO. 75 blinds is really nothing for a heads-up match, especially if your opponent knows what he's doing. I got myself into a 5-1 hole, then got my small stack in as a 2-1 favorite, but couldn't make the hand hold up, and I busted. It was fun, but I wish I'd had some more chips to work with as the money got deeper. Not sure if I'll play Omaha tomorrow, but I'm definitely in for the NLHE w/rebuys on Thursday. WCOOP Event #3 Monday, September 18, 2006 Pot Limit Omaha with deep stacks is really a fantastic game. Unfortunately I didn't get to play too much of it, as I busted early from this one. I arguably made a bad call to go broke. I had limped behind a limper with QT98 (one suit), and we took the flop six ways. The flop came JTT with two hearts (I didn't have hearts) and the big blind led out for 200 into the 600 pot. I made it 1000, and everyone folded except the big blind. The turn brought the nine of hearts and the big blind led out for 600 into the 2600 pot. He seemed to be a fairly straightforward player, and I probably should've just called here. Instead, I decided I didn't want to give him a free draw if he had something like TQKA, so I made it 3200 (half my stack). He moved me in, and I decided to go ahead and make the bad call. In my own defense, there was probably at least some chance he had a flush, or a straight, or even the same hand I had. The fact that he was the big blind and could have started with any four random cards made me like my hand more. Unfortunately he had JJxx and I busted. Against this particular player, I hate the way I played my hand. Oh well, if I want to be a good PLO player, I really have to play a lot more of it. Tomorrow, heads-up NLHE. Maybe I'll make it out of the first round this year. WCOOP Event #2 Monday, September 18, 2006 I made a run in this one, but I couldn't pick up the chips when I really needed them. I ended up finishing 251st. My bustout hand was actually mildly interesting. PokerStars Game #6325884291: Tournament #40000002, $500+$30 Hold'em No Limit - Level XII (750/1500) - 2006/09/17 - 23:01:01 (ET) Table '40000002 569' 9-max Seat #1 is the button Seat 1: Jtomi72 (41944 in chips) feel fre Seat 2: isuck123 (47182 in chips) Seat 4: RiverBoom (59831 in chips) Seat 5: el_klonkador (34256 in chips) Seat 6: stevestar (34179 in chips) Seat 7: Belabacsi (56503 in chips) Seat 8: jacksup (28000 in chips) Seat 9: Rambo5 (37470 in chips) Everyone antes 150 isuck123: posts small blind 750 RiverBoom: posts big blind 1500 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to jacksup [8h 8d] el_klonkador: folds stevestar: calls 1500 Belabacsi: folds I strongly considered a raise here, but my stack size was really awkward for it. I could've made it 6000 planning to fold to an all-in, but I don't generally like putting in that much of my stack and then folding, and I especially don't like it when I have a hand that doesn't mind seeing a cheap flop, so I elect to limp behind. jacksup: calls 1500 Rambo5: folds Jtomi72: calls 1500 isuck123: calls 750 KipDuran is connected RiverBoom: checks *** FLOP *** [3d 6d Qc] isuck123: checks RiverBoom: checks stevestar: bets 3000 He leads 3k into an 8700 pot. The weak lead is often a weak hand, so I decided to see how much he really liked his hand. jacksup: raises 7000 to 10000 Jtomi72: folds isuck123: folds RiverBoom: folds stevestar: calls 7000 *** TURN *** [3d 6d Qc] [2c] stevestar: checks He didn't reraise on the flop, he didn't bet the turn, so I'm thinking there's a really strong chance he doesn't like his hand enough to call off 16k of his remaining 22k in this spot. jacksup: bets 16350 and is all-in stevestar: calls 16350 *** RIVER *** [3d 6d Qc 2c] [Td] *** SHOW DOWN *** stevestar: shows [Qd Kd] (a flush, King high) jacksup: shows [8h 8d] (a pair of Eights) jacksup said, "nh" I was wrong. Turns out he has pretty much the only good hand it makes sense for him to play the way he did--a pair and a flush draw. I really thought he had a bad queen or maybe a middle pair or even just a flush draw and he'd fold on the turn. Oh well. A reader who was watching this tournament asked me to post about a bunch of hands I played on the bubble. So I'll oblige. All of the following hands happened when we were very close to the money. First, a player to my right raised, and I moved in with JJ. He folded. The very next hand he raised, and I moved in with AQs. He folded. The NEXT hand the same player limped. I decided to limp behind with KQs, thinking that almost certainly the guy I'd been beating up on was planning the old limp-reraise this go-around. Here's how the hand played out. PokerStars Game #6324539125: Tournament #40000002, $500+$30 Hold'em No Limit - Level IX (200/400) - 2006/09/17 - 21:23:28 (ET) Table '40000002 368' 9-max Seat #7 is the button Seat 1: WizardOfAhhs (26451 in chips) Seat 2: hinzy27 (7810 in chips) Seat 3: lousyrookie (11953 in chips) Seat 4: jacksup (15633 in chips) Seat 5: rickj (9250 in chips) Seat 6: Eratik (8290 in chips) Seat 7: thorn50 (13255 in chips) Seat 8: melonhead (5810 in chips) Seat 9: KASBAH (20820 in chips) is sitting out Everyone antes 50. melonhead: posts small blind 200 KASBAH: posts big blind 400 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to jacksup [Qd Kd] WizardOfAhhs: folds hinzy27: calls 400 lousyrookie: folds jacksup: calls 400 rickj: folds Eratik: folds thorn50: raises 1600 to 2000 melonhead: folds KASBAH: folds hinzy27: folds Hmm, guess he wasn't limp-reraising. Or maybe he would've limp-reraised ME. Who knows. In any event, I think I have enough of a hand to call this raise and take a flop. jacksup: calls 1600 *** FLOP *** [Tc 2s Ad] jacksup: checks thorn50: bets 2000 I normally don't make plays with undercard gutshot draws, but I thought I had a lot of factors working in my favor here. 1) I have my opponent covered and we're near the bubble. 2) He's made a very small bet, quite possibly to leave himself enough wiggle room to fold. 3) I have a backdoor flush draw to go with my gutshot. 4) It's basically impossible for my opponent to call without an ace, so I have to have some fold equity. Let's try it. jacksup: raises 11583 to 13583 and is all-in At this point he goes into the tank for a little while. thorn50: calls 9205 and is all-in *** TURN *** [Tc 2s Ad] [2d] *** RIVER *** [Tc 2s Ad 2d] [Qc] *** SHOW DOWN *** jacksup: shows [Qd Kd] (two pair, Queens and Deuces) thorn50: shows [Ac 8c] (two pair, Aces and Deuces) jacksup said, "nh" Oh well. I still like the play. Now down to 2400, I move in with A8 and get no callers. Then my buddy on my right raises in late position and I move in with AT. He's pot stuck and calls with K8s and my hand holds up. I'm up to 6400 chips, which is only ten big blinds as we've gone to 300-600/75 (by the way, kudos to PokerStars on the new ante structure--it's perfect). I move in with QTo, no callers. Here's the very next hand. We're now just a couple of players away from the money. PokerStars Game #6324733552: Tournament #40000002, $500+$30 Hold'em No Limit - Level X (300/600) - 2006/09/17 - 21:38:01 (ET) Table '40000002 368' 9-max Seat #7 is the button Seat 1: WizardOfAhhs (20469 in chips) Seat 2: hinzy27 (13064 in chips) Seat 3: lousyrookie (12653 in chips) Seat 4: jacksup (7856 in chips) Seat 5: rickj (7700 in chips) Seat 6: Eratik (5540 in chips) Seat 7: RunninBear (8480 in chips) Seat 8: melonhead (3310 in chips) Seat 9: KASBAH (22845 in chips) Everyone antes 75. melonhead: posts small blind 300 KASBAH: posts big blind 600 *** HOLE CARDS *** Dealt to jacksup [7s 7h] WizardOfAhhs: folds hinzy27: folds lousyrookie: folds jacksup: raises 1100 to 1700 rickj: folds Eratik: folds RunninBear: folds melonhead: folds KASBAH: raises 21070 to 22770 and is all-in This player made the reraise instantly when the action got back to him. I don't give him credit for a monster. I'm getting 1.7-1 on my money, and at any other point in the tournament I have an extremely easy call. It's the bubble though, and there is actual value in locking up that $900 in last-place money, much as I hate to admit it. But sometimes I play to win to a fault. Maybe I did that here. jacksup: calls 6081 and is all-in *** FLOP *** [2h As Qc] *** TURN *** [2h As Qc] [5c] *** RIVER *** [2h As Qc 5c] [7d] *** SHOW DOWN *** KASBAH: shows [3h Ah] (a pair of Aces) jacksup: shows [7s 7h] (three of a kind, Sevens) jacksup collected 16537 from pot The only bad beat turned out to be that I slammed my left hand pretty hard against my chair when the ace hit, only to have that pain prove unnecessary. At least I didn't use my pitching hand--I learned that one from Bull Durham. I'm interested to hear EV analysis of my 77 call. You can get the pay structure from PokerStars, I'm sure. If anyone wants to come up with numbers, feel free to email them to jacksup@mattmatros.com. I gave the guy a pretty wide range, let's say his top 40% of his hands or so. But go ahead and adjust the numbers if you don't buy that. Tomorrow, PLO with rebuys. Should be fun. Update: Borgata Poker Open, WCOOP Event #1 Sunday, September 17, 2006 I would apologize for not posting in a while, but Carl says he hates it when people do that, so I won't. My only excuse is that I played a lot of long days in Atlantic City with nothing to show for them, and I really didn't feel like reliving any of those days when I finally returned bleary-eyed to my hotel room. I played three events at the Borgata--the $2,500 and $5,000 No Limit Hold 'Em events, and the $10,000 main event. I whiffed all three. I had chips in the first two, never had much more than my starting stack in the main. I proved especially skillful at post-dinner break showdowns. I had six of them in the three tournaments, all for pretty good-sized pots, and won one. They were (my hand listed first; money was in preflop on all except the last one): AQ v A9 (lost) AK v QQ (lost) 66 v JT (lost) AA v 99 (won) AA v 98 (lost) JT v 99 on flop of 982 (lost) I'm supposed to win 3.6 of those. I won one. Very hard to win anything that way. At least let me win two of them, poker gods. Oh well, my friend Russell Rosenblem is still kicking ass in the main event. I hope he follows in ActionBob's footsteps from last year and makes his way to the final table. Today was the first WCOOP Event, $200 Razz. To no one's surprise, I caught bricks and pairs in virtually every hand I got involved in, and didn't last very long. The most emblematic hand was when a guy reraised me on fifth with AJ3 showing. I was showing Q65 and I had 34 in the hole. I slowed down and just called, assuming he was near-perfect underneath. Turns out he had 92 underneath, and I was almost a 2-1 favorite. But of course I hit a six and a king and he won the hand with a jack. All that's behind us now. WCOOP Event #2 tomorrow, and it's gonna be a doozy of a $500 No Limit Hold 'Em tournament. I'll try to update the blog after every WCOOP event.  September 2004 | October 2004 | December 2004 | January 2005 | February 2005 | March 2005 | April 2005 | May 2005 | June 2005 | July 2005 | August 2005 | September 2005 | October 2005 | November 2005 | December 2005 | January 2006 | February 2006 | March 2006 | April 2006 | May 2006 | June 2006 | July 2006 | August 2006 | September 2006 | October 2006 | December 2006 | January 2007 | April 2007 | May 2007 | June 2007 | July 2007 | October 2007 | January 2008 | |
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