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!

Oops, I'm a terrible Blogger =(

Wow, it's almost been a whole month since my last entry. Now I know I'm not the best when it comes to regularly posting but I didn't think I'd ever let it get to the stage where entire months go past between updates. So faithful readers, here's my promise to you. I will never again let a whole month go past without at least swinging by and letting y'all know what's up.

So let me fill you in on the month's happenings. Almost exactly one month ago, I left for a family holiday in North Carolina in the States. I could ramble on about what I did or who I saw, but this is a poker blog, and in this poker blog, we talk about poker! Besides, no one cares......

Soon after I returned, I realise that due to constant withdrawals from my Stars account in order to pay for my summer, I had decimated my bankroll, and was no longer able to continue with the stakes that I am comfortable with. I had mentioned this to a friend of mine, who is also a previous staker, who very generously offered to back me for whatever low stakes MTTs and Sngs I wished to play, whether it be PLO8, NLHE etc.  I snapped up the opportunity, and proceeded to cash out everything I had in my Stars account, which allowed me to live out the rest of the summer somewhat comfortably.

Almost straight away I proved my friends faith in me by final tabling my old friend, the $16 2x Chance turbo PLO8, taking a beat in 4th for around $400. The same day, I made it heads up in one of the two daily $33 PLO8s for another $450. The $850 combined cashes meant that the stake was off to a great start, but it didn't end there. The very next day I added the $5 2R1A NLHE into my schedule now that I was able to afford it and went on an insanely deep run, eventually losing a coinflip to bust in 4th for a shade over $2k, my biggest cash to date. I felt that I was playing good and running good too and although I wasn't able to take it down despite having the chip lead for much of the final table, I'm still very happy with the result. Hopefully in time my NLHE MTT game will continue to improve and more deep runs will follow.

That's pretty much been it for the month. Apologies for the vague update but the life of this PLO8 grinder isn't exactly the most exciting lol. With a bit of luck we can go on some more deep runs this month and have some more exciting blog posts to read. I have also a (very) short trip report from the £40 PLO8 at the Fox Club to come. But for now, thanks for reading and I hope to see you all at the tables soon!