WCOOP-51: $320 PL Omaha H/L

As a PLO8 MTT player, the most exciting tournament of the year has to be the WCOOP. It's by far the biggest event of the calender in terms of prize pool and in terms of value. Although it attracts all the hardcore MTT grinders looking for their shot at a bracelet and POY points, very rarely do the young NLHE pro's understand the theory and strategy behind our beloved game. Perfect for players like me as, more often than not, these players are simply donating $320 to the prize pool by employing a strategy of go big or go home early. Combine this with the great number of satellite qualifiers and we have ourselves a very juicy tournament.

So I sold a nice chunk of my action so I was guaranteed a place in the tournament, i.e. I did not have to rely on satelliting in, got a good few hours kip so I was fresh and had picked up a cool 6 pack of lucozade in preparation for a long night in, as not only was I playing the main event starting at 7, but also the 2nd chance event beginning two hours later. I even managed to get my girlfriend, who's flat and internet connection I was borrowing, excited about it. She became a very handy tea lady.

The first hour was highly uneventful. I increased my stack to t5162 by the first break by simply playing tight, solid poker. I called with promising hands in position and my post-flop aggression was dictated by whether I had connected with it or not. No need for crazy bluffs while 250BBs deep.

The second hour I dipped down in chips by not hitting flops but managed to win a medium sized pot as the break was coming up to end with t5810.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6213897

The BB was definitely the table fish. He had played a lot of hands out of position while being rather passive post-flop. I make what I think is a standard open on the button and decide to call the 3bet with position and deep stacks. It's a somewhat loose call but I think considering the opponent, it's a correct one. I believe he cbets a large portion of his range on this board and with a relatively decent low draw and the 2nd nut FD, I think it's a standard call. When he donks the turn, I think that a raise will receive a fold but now I've picked up additional outs to a strong made hand and decide to call and raise the river no matter what falls because I know he'll be donking again. I make my 2 way hand on the river and decide to make the raise larger because I think it looks more like a bluff that way. In hindsight I don't believe the villain is capable of that kind of thinking so maybe a small value raise was the way to go.

The 2nd chance then began and after some early chipping up from discernibly weak players, I received a huge double up from a bigstack.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6213921

I think the hand plays itself to be honest. I raise the flop to fold out players behind me and take the pot heads up. When he 3bets, I'm more than happy to get it in as I'm usually a large favourite and I'm still in good shape against a nightmare hand of A2xxhh.

In the main I couldn't really remember playing a pot for the entire hour, and after consulting HEM, it seems I didn't. I'd blinded down to t4756 but was truly card dead.

Unfortunately, in terms of writing a blog, everything got a bit boring from hear on in. In the main I lost quite a few chips simply by not winning small pots making somewhat incorrect call downs, and in the second chance I doubled up a tight short stack with top 2 pair against what I believed was clear Aces, which ended up being KKxx which had top set.

My bust out hand of the main was pretty boring too. Unfortunately the HH file has corrupted so I can't post it but all you need to know is that after getting very short (3BBs) I shoved the BTN with AJJ3s and the BB made the (correct) call with any 4 cards (9332s) which rivered the flush. Not how I wanted my first WCOOP of the year to end, but sometimes it's just not your day.

The 2nd chance bust out hand was more interesting though.

http://www.pokerhand.org/?6213923

The villain was a reg I'd played with a lot before and although he's quite strong (he eventually final tabled the event) I know I can outplay him post-flop. When he leads for just over half pot on the flop, I know he can do this with both made hands and strong draws. What swung me towards putting him on a made hand was his early position raise. From our history I know he could be leading with top set, top two and even Aces with a LD in order to induce a raise. Against this range, I believe I had decent equity with my low wrap, FD, and LD. Not only this, but I think my stack size gives me decent fold equity against other hands which have me beat currently. Unfortunately, on this occasion he had the draw, not only that, but every draw to the nuts and had me drawing incredibly slim, around 21%. It was the nightmare hand to be up against and maybe if I had to play the hand again I'd take another line but at the time I believed I was making the correct move.

So there's my first WCOOP journey of the year. I'll be back on Sunday to report on the $215 NLO8 and it's 2nd chance, and with a bit of luck, we'll have a happier story to tell.

See ya!